I might need to play a few more CVs again more recently to properly rate it (As I sure changed my rating of MMZ and ZX seeing how seldom MMX was good) but Castlevania Bloodlines felt perfectly average. Now average for CV is excellent by any standard but I can see how despite technically being a more refined game than CV4 it doesn't have the it factor that makes CV4 so memorable. Stage 5 is trash and almost every boss looks stupid, almost all of them bad demos of the Genesis sprite manipulation capabilities but whats the point of making a monster with 16 different coordinated sprites that all rotate and dance and do all this Dynamite Headdy shit if he ends up looking like a retarded shapeless blob? The fact that the hardest platforming in the game was a boring fireball room that was also upside down felt simultaneously banal and spiteful.

Still all that aside the game is still quite good and worth a play. Bonus for a soundtrack by someone who was new to Castlevania. Some girl named Michiru Yamane or something, I heard she was nervous being tasked for that game as she wasn't sure if she was up to the demands of CV music. Wonder how that turned out...