2/16/10- Yeah--I'm a bit late to the party. So what? Things happen. Terrible things: People go hungry, wars ensue, deadly diseases spread, IGN writes editorials--this is stuff no one should be made to endure. What you should endure, though, is another helping of hot Castlevania action, by which I mean the usual abbreviated update and the accompanying fluff.

Since my personally created material is lacking, amounting to roughly none, I can only resort to grouping together all contributions and citing each within the Giant List of Death: (1) Kev returns with an update to the "Castlevania Arsenal" CV Library feature, which now includes more items from Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. (2) Zappsoft provides the inaugural entry in its "endings videos," the series beginning with Circle of the Moon. (3) Sr. Lan Belmont serenades us with more remixes and arrangements. (4) The long-running fan fiction Darkness Never Dies continues. (5) New information for Castlevania 64's "Unused Items" is available. (6) Aya79 and Prof. Bean pad their respective collection lists, the former taking his place atop the Fierce Collector heap. (7) Berit Jurda supplies more artwork, one of which is a timely Valentine's Day piece. And (8) The Request List has been updated with a few new items, marked as such.

Since I have some time available, I'll be able to spend a few more hours with Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth and in the process begin filling its game page. So look for that soon. I would have had more material for Castlevania Judgment, but, uh, the cat ate it.

Remaining viewer check.

12/4/09- OK--so it's been deemed that we're not quite ready to experience the old-school flavor of Castle the Adventure Rebirth. While Halloween seemed like a safe bet, things didn't work out as such. So, then, they've got to be holding it back to position it as a surprise release for, say, Christmas, right? Right? Sure--let's go with that.

This month's biggest additions are the soundtrack for Pachi-Slot: Castlevania and Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth (I'll get to properly naming its tracks after I've played it), which can of course be found in the MP3 section. Of lesser importance is Order of Ecclesia's consideration for "Mr. P Castlevania Awards." While, not surprisingly, it didn't garner any awards or even earn a single nomination (since, like its direct predecessor, it doesn't offer much in the way of new content), it did manage to earn Top-15 placement in the Top Games listing. I hope to soon work in Order of Shadows, which I've yet to review.

Ready to bring the content are JPCVFAN and friends, who return with the following contributions: (1) Official art for Castlevania, Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse, Adventure, Super Castlevania 4, Belmont's Revenge, Rondo of Blood, Akumajo Dracula X68000, Bloodlines, Castlevania: Dracula X, Symphony of the Night, Castlevania 64, Circle of the Moon, Lament of Innocence, Dawn of Sorrow, Curse of Darkness and Order of Ecclesia (newest entries, as always, placed toward the bottom of each table cell). (2) Scans for Famitsu's Castlevania Adventure guide. (3) Scans for a Bloodlines strategy book. (4) Scans for the official Dawn of Sorrow guide. And (5) scans for the official Order of Ecclesia guide.

And this month's multimedia entries: (1) Berit Jurda has more sketchwork for us. (2) Sr. Lan Belmont supplies more in the way of art and music. (3) Aya79 continues to build a nice collection. (4) Belmont Yang joins the cast of collectors with another impressive assortment of items. And (5) RonNYCity starts a new art page whose first entry is Lords of Shadow custom box-art.

10/26/09- So it's Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth week, the game set to launch in Japan in a few short hours (though, we still have no release dates for other regions), which means that it's about time I set up a for-now-meager game page and provide a short preview. If you've been keeping up, there have also been a few news blurbs relating mostly to media but not without a dash of speculation as to potential Koji Igarashi involvement. I have no clue when the game will see release in the U.S., but the situation--being close to Halloween and all--certainly creates an expectation of a Nov. 2nd release. This is of course speculation on my part.

As promised in the last update, the Heroes, Supporting Cast and Dracula Allies pages have seen a slight redesign--a frame-based presentation that indexes what are now individual character biographies; this will allow me to separate the original-timeline characters from the "Gaiden" assortment in place of forcing them all together on a giant list. Special thanks to Belmontvlad, whose custom-made banner (part of it, at least) serves as background to the top frame.

And now for our always-special "Contributions from JPCVFAN" category: (1) Scans for the operation manual of the Japanese version of Haunted Castle. (2) Updated scans for the Haunted Castle inserts. (3) Scans for Brady Games' official Lament of Innocence guide. (4) Information on THE-BishiBashi, a new entry in the cameos section. (6) Information on Oz / Sword of Etheria, a new entry into the cameo section's "Borrowed Elements" page. (7) An update to the Ganbare Goemon 2 entry, which actually has a second cameo. (8) Updated information on the Rondo of Blood "Unknown Items." And (9) the correct and/or full names of collectibles have been supplied.

Normal site updates: (1) I've put up my first Castlevania Judgment profile (Simon Belmont) in addition to a "How to Play" write-up. This will hopefully motivate me to finish properly covering the game (or to at least finish incrementally at about, say, a character profile per month). (2) "Lake Bridge" is the name of the newest entry to the "Other Similarities" page in Castleography. And (3) Scarlet Symphony joins the list of homebrew projects.

And then our usual multimedia contributions: (1) Sr. Lan Belmont is back with more MP3 remixes/rearrangements. (2) Mark's model collection is plus one by way of the Mudman's debut. (3) Squalid Pumpkin has written a fifth article titled Metroidvanias We'd Like to See; too, his Metroidvania piece, which lists games from this genre, has been updated with links and other information. (4) The Pumpkin also joins the field of artists. And (5) Berit Jurda's art collection grows by two--one piece appropriately Halloween-themed.

9/16/09- What do you do when you're at the helm of Konami's enduring Castlevania series and you inadvertently create one of the most despised sequels ever made? Why, you look for redemption. Rather, your predecessors pick you up with Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth, a new downloadable title coming to Nintendo's WiiWare service this year. While details are scarce--all sources listing only basic information and no definitive proof that this is actually a Castlevania Adventure remake--we should have more to sink our fangs into following the upcoming Tokyo Game Show. Too, we'll find out if the project's staff includes the thought-dismissed Koji Igarashi, whose name appeared in the credits of Contra Rebirth, a similarly aimed title. I'll have more on this when solid information becomes available.

Not even word of a new title can halt the momentum of Music-Mania, which dominates another month's worth of updates. New to the MP3 section is the aforementioned "Special Soundtracks" page, which is already home to Dracula Perfect Selection, Dracula Battle Perfect Selection Vol. 1 and Dracula Battle Perfect Selection Vol. 2. Also new to the MP3 section is the "Related-Game Soundtracks" page, which currently covers Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-Kun (Kid Dracula) and the canceled Castlevania: Resurrection.

Several original soundtracks have been updated; these include Castlevania (OST-exclusive tracks), Vampire Killer (OST-exclusive tracks), Simon's Quest (OST-exclusive tracks), Dracula's Curse (OST-exclusive tracks), Castlevania Adventure (OST-exclusive tracks), Super Castlevania 4 (OST-exclusive tracks), Rondo of Blood (OST-exclusive tracks), Akumajo Dracula X68000 (OST-exclusive tracks), Symphony of the Night (OST-exclusive tracks), Nocturne in the Moonlight (additional original tunes), and Circle of the Moon (an unused track).

There's nothing worth mentioning in terms of normal site updates except that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is coming to cell phones (in Europe only). More nformation (mainly Youtube videos) on this can be found on the newswire.

And then there's the usual round of Contributors' Corner: Aya79's collection has seen another boost. Newcomer Prof. Bean debuts high up on the collector's list. Berit Jurda provides more artwork. Squalid Pumpkin's Metroidvania article will be of interest to those looking to further explore the genre; his new art page is also ripe for viewing. Sr. Lan Belmont returns with more MP3s, artwork and two high scores (Portrait of Ruin and Ecclesia).

I hope by next update to have better organized the heroes, supporting cast, and Dracula's allies pages--mostly due to Lords of Shadow resetting of events but otherwise to separate the characters from the canon and gaiden titles. It'll be a simple job but a sign of things to come.

8/13/09- It's another month of Music-Mania thanks to the mighty Zappsoft Empire. I have to preface the mention of new entries by noting that I'm now listing OST-exclusive music tracks in a sub-category--a separate table for each game appropriately labeled "OST-Exclusive." Of course, there are sometimes multiple soundtracks dedicated to a given game, so I'll be listing the specific OST in the "From" column.

New entries include: (1) Three Akumajo Dracula X68000 OST tracks. (2) An unused/hidden Dracula X Chronicles track plus four OST-exclusives. (3) Nine Lament of Innocence OST tracks. (4) A Dracula's Curse OST track. (5) Two Curse of Darkness OST tracks. (6) A Haunted Castle OST track. (7) A Harmony of Dissonance OST tracks. (8) Two Castlevania Chronicles OST tracks. (9) Two Nocturne in the Moonlight normal tracks. And (10) an unused Symphony of the Night track.

Additionally, the Akumajo Densetsu and Castlevania: Dracula X soundtracks have been re-recorded for higher quality. Though no time-period has been set, the Dracula Battle: Perfect Selection soundtrack will soon be appearing in the new "Special Soundtracks" subsection (it won't be this week, for sure, since I'll be away until at least August 20th).

Contributor Kev returns with an update to his fan-favorite "Castlevania Enemy Origins" feature, which now covers the unique enemies from Order of Ecclesia; too, his observation has led to the update of the Castleography instance "Pendulum Swing." Simon's Quest "Unused Elements" page has a new addition, courtesy of Amar Youkai. And Sr. Lan Belmont brings us a fun fact about Portrait of Ruin's "Stella and Loretta" mission (in an entry titled "Bloody Tears").

New to the Multimedia section is a memorabilia subsection called "Legacy Items," whose main entry is "Trade Shows," which features images of Konami's trade-show booths and any associated artwork; since it fits well, I threw in a link to the already present Captain N CV Library piece. Other non-collectible items and exhibits will be placed here.

Other multimedia updates include: (1) Squalid Pumpkin's article Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace, which looks at some series connections; his poem collection; and an update to his A Call to Action piece. (2) More MP3s and artwork from Sr. LAN Belmont. (3) The Ouija Table, Mark's newest model. (4) A new custom-made sprite page for JCLBelmondo. (5) The fan fiction Darkness Never Dies continues. And (6) a new art page for Cassio Macedo, the former Zead the Undead.

To address the rather cryptic comments from last month's update: The easiest thing to say is that my console-gaming days will continue to be, as they've been for the last several years, rather limited. I have no desire to own any other (or future) consoles, which is more a change of life-path than an issue of money. Quite simply: I just don't have the time or the will to play through these increasingly complicated games and supply what I feel is the proper coverage; months of work are needed to meet the ridiculous criteria I've set, and I'm so beyond bored of doing it. This of course poses a problem in the case of Lords of Shadow, which is hardly a new "starting point" and a sure sign that this series will quickly grow into something more "hardcore" than it already is and a far cry from the shift to the more simplistic style of gameplay I've been hoping to experience. When in a past update it was said that I would probably miss a few games but eventually catch up, I didn't think the series had a future outside of portables and download services, which aren't bad places to be. Lords of Shadow will fall victim to my complete lack of interest, and this will leave a void I'll be unable to fill.

Since this site has become largely fan-driven, I can only ask for more of your help in supplying at least a modicum of quality coverage for future console games. Should you have the means to create such, I could use casing scans, character snapshots (for the hero and enemy lists, mainly), screenshots, a script file to help me work out the storyline, and other information for which you'll receive full credit. I'll eventually update my "Request List" to reflect these statements.

I'll of course always be here to post your regular contributions and do what I can to increase the coverage of the existing titles--something I enjoy much more than forcing myself to play each new game out of some insane obligation to which I've made myself captive. And, well, you know.

 

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