Some amazing news for Castlevania fans has emerged as a pre-release version of Castlevania: Bloodlines, namely beta 0.5, has been shared online and fans now have a chance to see the game as it could have been, including the content which didn’t make it into the final product, such as the famous airship level that had been shown in some previews.
From the Castlevania Wiki:
The second was Beta Version 0.5, which has been known about for longer than the previous beta and which was leaked in 2014 to the Castlevania Dungeon forums. This was a version evidently provided as a preview to game magazines prior to the game’s release and offers several more finished stages than the 0.3 beta. However, these stages still differ from those in the final release in that they have several areas that did not make it into the final game, such as a zeppelin and molten steel areas in Stage 4. Several enemy and boss sprites are also different than those from the final release. Some of the original sprites from the 0.3 beta have carried over into this updated version, only to be scraped or otherwise changed in the final release.
This beta was obtained by user TARA200 and put up for auction on eBay, resulting in some images of the demo with their name plastered upon it for the auction page.
There is a download link on segasaturno.com but players will need to use an emulator or a flash cartridge to play it, and it is very rough and unfinished as it is a beta even for a beta.