As started last month, I've completed all of the old game pages' transformation over to the new design. To make it more than cosmetic, I've added more imagery for "Japanese/European Differences" and filled out the pages' weapon/item lists with unique images/animations in place of the previous condensed listings (which had, say, a single-color money bag representing all of their kind rather than actual point-totals). Check Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, and all the rest to see for yourself.

I have to cite one unpleasant experience: While collecting the necessary screenshots for Castlevania: Bloodlines, I had the sudden urge to give full play to its European version, with which I previously had limited interaction. I was horrified at how butchered the game truly is (and I don't know how you guys in Europe put up with it) compared to the information I had on display, which was poorly presented and sadly incomplete. I'm happy (sad?) to have remedied the situation, which you can assess by checking out its "General Info."

If you haven't yet familiarized yourself with the new game-page design, remember that the three arrows seen atop each page aren't mere decoration and serve a clear purpose--the left and right arrows allowing you to navigate the games section in order of chronological release, and the down arrow opening up more space in the right frame.

Other pages with updated looks include the multimedia section's index, whose icons are now larger and more colorful, and the CV Library, which now includes word links for those Firefox users whose browsers won't display alt-tags.

As for the rest:
- Unsatisfied with merely replacing "select" character images (mainly the heroes and enemies) from Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, as mentioned last update, I've done the full job and included the respective supporting casts; that is, I could no longer stand what were terrible captures. You can check them out here and here.
- Artist RonNYCity, not pleased with the big fat nothing Konami has offered for the series' 25th anniversary, has created a special "Castlevania 25th Anniversary" logo that you can view on, of course, at the 25th Anniversary special. It can also be viewed on the user's art page.

Starting around Friday, I'll be taking a short break until the new year (which would be a better time to contribute material, since I won't be home until then). I'll then resume the redesigning of certain pages, the mission ever-continuing, as we await news about and activity for our favorite series.

I don't have any gifts to dole or holiday speeches to give, so instead have a look at this "Mechanical Walkthrough" for Simon's Quest I never finished. Orphan files get lonely when they go unlinked for ten years.

11/15/11- I've been recently making a lot of changes to the site, little by little trying to improve the look and navigability of it. Here's what's been going on:

- I'm trying out a new design for the Game pages--this to better organize the material combined with a design aesthetic I've been looking to squeeze in somewhere (mainly Dracula viewed in the background, his cape blowing in the wind). The change has already been made for Castlevania and Vampire Killer. The other 20-plus games will of course follow, but not all at once, since it takes a lot of work to redo these pages; one or two a week is more likely, depending upon how boring a given Sunday is. If there are any broken links or unexplained glitches, contact me with whatever feedback you have.
- I've reworked the Boss section as to give each boss its own page. The main listing has atop each page a large "boss selector" (which may be a little large, since I didn't realize there were that many bosses), which will do for now but may be changed later to a "framed" presentation. As of a result of this change, the "Next Generation" subsection is gone, since there's no longer any reason to keep them separated.
- Likewise, I've removed the "Next Generation" subsection from the Lesser Enemies section, instead placing all such baddies on the normal listing. I had the 2D and 3D enemies separate due to my dislike of how sprites and ugly 3D cutouts looked when placed together, but another site happening made the recombination more natural. That is...
- Thanks to a little friend called PCSX2, I was able to go back in to the PS2 games and recapture select character images--the images now cleaner and much more representative. Pages where this is apparent: Lament of Innocence heroes (right-click and "View Image" to see the full form), bosses, and lesser enemies; and Curse of Darkness heroes (Hector and Trevor), Dracula forms, bosses, and lesser enemies. Additionally, all of the PNG-character files now have transparent backgrounds, meaning they no longer have to be stuffed into tables to hide their nature.
- Bravenet decided that I no longer needed a guestbook, since, I guess, I hadn't logged into their site in many months; as such, all of the old messages are gone. So I created a new guestbook, from where you can post your thoughts on the site. Note: I hadn't checked the old guestbook since the end of August, so I'm unaware of any messages that were posted since then; if you had used that space to ask me a question and never got a reply, please post it again, in the new guestbook, and I'll be sure to respond. Otherwise, the poll page is gone, and I never got to tally the results of the last poll ("How should Konami go about continuing the storyline?"), nor do I remember the answers I provided. I'll probably drop this feature, since it doesn't draw much interest.

After finishing the redesign for all of the game pages, I'll probably be looking to create a new front-page design, as the current one is a mess. As for the rest of the updates:

- Squalid Pumpkin's Metroidvanias in Review piece has been updated.
- Zappsoft has provided the series-related music tracks for Wai Wai World and Wai Wai World 2, and a completed soundtrack for Harmony of Despair.
- The fan fiction Darkness Never Dies has yet again grown chapters richer; its author, The Crossman, has also prepared a new short story titled Castlevania Sorrow: End Game.
- Berit Jurda's art page is home to a whole host of new sketches.
- The enemies Werewolf and Harpy now have respective recurrence pages/blocks, due to my combining of the 2D and 3D character lists.
- Though without accompanying images, I've set up boss and Dracula form pages for the cast of Castlevania: The Arcade. Its bosses have also been added to the expected form pages: Death, Bone Dragon King, Dullahan, Minotaur, Water Dragon, Werewolf and Harpy.
- tduyduc's has upped his musical portfolio with some now mixes.
- Nick "Bonkers" Perry was kind enough to let my site play host to Vampire Variations--a 19-track album created to pay tribute to the Castlevania series and its 25th anniversary. Check the link to find out more information on the project.

For now, I'm beat. Catch you next month (I hope)!

10/9/11- Before listing the contents of this long-overdue update, I'd like to mention that the Ocean City Trinity--a video-game marathon team--will be running a 48-hour-plus Castlevania-themed marathon on October 14th. The group will be playing 12 specially chosen games (and more if time demands) in the name of collecting donations for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can find out more about the show at the Ocean City Trinity website. If you'd like to watch the stream from this site, for whatever reason (if, say, you consider left-clicking a mouse button more than two times to be too much work), you can visit this page on the day of the event.

And now for the updates, which I'll list in order of submission:

- Sr. Lan Belmont has kept busy with the creation of new MP3 arrangements/remixes and artwork.
- Optomon's selection of homebrew-related MP3s has been reorganized and updated with rips from another of his games.
- D-Boy's art page has more in the way of digi-art.
- Zappsoft has re-remastered the soundtracks for Castlevania: The Adventure, Belmont's Revenge, Legends, and Castlevania: Dracula X.
- Model-creator Mark has some new specimen, the Wall Widow, to share. Too, Mark makes his CV Library debut with the fan fiction Just Another Day at Hammer's Shop. And his animated sprites page is infested by two new baddies.
- Squalid Pumpkin's three Metroidvania pieces (essays Metroidvania List and Metroidvanias We'd Like to See plus the reader-review centric Metroidvanias in Review) have each received several revisions.
- Both parts of The Crossman's fan fiction Darkness Never Dies are several chapters richer.
- New fierce collector Frank Belmont shows off his wares.
- RadarRaider supplies rare artwork and phonecards for Simon's Quest, Aria of Sorrow and Curse of Darkness.
- Super Castlevania IV's "Japanese Differences" has been updated with information for the games' title-screen differences. Also, Dracula's Curse's "Japanese Differences" have been neatly arranged and list an additional difference in terms casket-related bosses.
- The "Castlevania Comes to GameTap" press page has been updated, quite belatedly, with information pertaining to the games' permanent removal from the service.
- There's a bit of new information on the Supervision release of Castlevania, thanks to Sallong Sword.
- Thanks to the same contributor, I've begun adding sprites and screenshots to the Dracula X Chronicles game page plus its listings.
- Berit Jurda digs into the archives to bring us more of his variously styled artwork.
- Guinness record-holder Ricardo Granda has some fun with Order of Ecclesia.
- tduyduc joins the fan-remix party with some DJ-style arrangements and Stereo Mixes.
- The Crossman presents a new short story in the form of fan fiction Fate of the Dracul.
- The "Castlevania 20th Anniversary" page becomes the "Castlevania 25th Anniversary" page, where we can continue to celebrate the series with the odd tribute piece. Newly present is the Death Got PHAT show's Simon Belmont tribute.

While I admit that there's not much in terms of personal site updates, I'm hoping that the series' 25th anniversary will bring about news that might breathe new life into this site--be it the announcement of a game or word of any planned celebration (assuming Konami still cares about the pre-Lords of Shadow era of games). May the next update be a matter of weeks rather than months.

5/15/11- It's been a bit busy around here lately, so I warn that this update is a giant cluster of mostly unrelated happenings. So once again, here's a giant listing of submissions and general site events:

- I've begun the major updates for Lords of Shadow, which includes basic information, character lists, and its story (filed under "Tales of Gaiden"). I'll be focusing on adding character profiles in the early going.
- I've written up a review for Castlevania: Order of Shadows.
- Kev has updated his "Castlevania Enemy Origins" project to include Lords of Shadow's cast.
- An anonymous sender has provided scans for Santa Lilio Sangre ~Akai Yuri~ Ayami Kojima Art Works--a production from the former series artist whose newest art book features some related artwork. JPCVFAN also contributes to this effort.
- There are new promotional phonecard scans for Chronicles, Harmony of Dissonance, and Curse of Darkness (check under "Scenes, Packaging Scans...")
- Solar Boy returns with translations for Castlevania: The Arcade and Castlevania: The Medal.
- D-Boy's art collection is a few pieces richer.
- The Crossman's fan fiction Darkness Never Dies continues.
- JPCVFAN checks in with some high-quality scans: A Pachi-Slot II store pamphlet, Harmony of Despair's soundtrack, Pachi-Slot II's soundtrack, Pachi-Slot II official artwork, the soundtracks Akumajou Dracula Tribute Vol. 1 and Akumajou Dracula Tribute Vol. 2, Castlevania: The Arcade official art plus a bonus item, and Harmony of Despair official art and official comic strips.
- JPCVFAN also helps in providing information for a series cameo in the Japanese version of Scribblenauts.
- Greg MorningStar shares some scans for the Official Nintendo Player's Guide and the NES Game Atlas, both of which cover the NES Castlevania games.
- Christopher M. contributes some "Unused Elements" (Castlevania, Simon's Quest, Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania: Dracula X, Symphony of the Night, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow) and a glitch for Castlevania. There's information on debug menus and such for those interested.
- Castlevania Fighter, based off the popular M.U.G.E.N. engine, has joined the ranks of homebrew games.
- The prolific collector Aya79 continues to pad his lead with more games and items.
- Frank Belmont joins in the fun with his collection of goodies.

If you've noticed, I've made two changes to the whole of the website: First, I've edited all game names to match their proper titles (Super Castlevania "IV," for example), where I'd previously been using numbers in place of Roman numerals or some type of shorthand (like "Castlevania Adventure" for Castlevania the Adventure. Too, I've changed all instances of "Akumajo Dracula" to the more accepted "Akumajou Dracula." These are just things that have been bugging me for years. Though, for purpose of alleviating confusion, I'll be keeping tags like "64" and "X68000," which help differentiate similarly titled games.

I remind everyone that upcoming is E3 (scheduled for June 7th), which usually implicates Castlevania in some form. Will Koji return with a traditional series title for Nintendo's new 3DS? Will Kojima and pals return for a sequel to Lords of Shadow? What other new game systems or prolific platforms are worthy of our fine series? We'll find out in a mere three weeks.

3/1/11- Welcome to year number 12 in the existence of my ever-bloated Castlevania Realm (time hasn't been kind to this boy). It's true that things remain slow as we continue to tread forward in a period where my access to the series is limited, but the contributions of the wild bunch never cease. Here's what's been appearing, in order of submission, since that last update so many eons ago:

- Though it turned out to be an aborted effort, there are some enemy sprites for Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth. When the means for producing higher-quality sprites become available, these lists will be completed.
- Sr. Lan Belmont's MP3 selection has grown a tune richer.
- Squalid Pumpkin's Metroidvania List and Metroidvanias in Review pages have grown/changed substantially--as always updated with new titles that are sure to interest fans of the genre.
- There are few new Harmony of Dissonance Fun Facts, including transparency manipulation, a man-eating glitch, and Alucard's (possible) favorite resting place.
- The Zappsoft Empire has provided the soundtrack for Lords of Shadow.
- Download information for Stranger's Requiem, the sequel to the professionally made Scarlet Symphony, has been added to the Homebrew section.
- There are two new Fun Facts for Portrait of Ruin. Those interested in torturing zombies and trashing delis will find enjoyment.
- Zappsoft has remade the soundtracks for Vampire Killer, Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night (whose track listing has been combined with its Saturn cousin's); the songs are generally longer and of higher quality.
- D-Boy's art collection now features some specially made "Digi-Art."
- Zappsoft strikes again to put a finishing touch on Order of Ecclesia's soundtrack, which now features the "CD tunes" that replace the game's area themes with classic NES music.
- Solar Boy contributes a translation file for the Master Librarian "hints" as seen in the Japanese manual for the "The Best" release of Gekka no Yasoukyoku plus translated Japanese-manual stories for Akumajou Dracula X68000, Castlevania: Dracula X, Legends, Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night, Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Lament of Innocence, Dawn of Sorrow, Curse of Darkness, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia, Castlevania Judgment, Adventure Rebirth and Lords of Shadow.
- RadarRaider pops in at the last minute with a "Rare Sticker" for the Japanese version of Castlevania Chronicles.

Maybe if I get on the ball, I'll whip up some painfully long reviews for Order of Shadows and Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth. Tune in next time to discover whether the preceding threat was real or if this filler text was just an illusion.

11/21/10- Did I die? Did I stop caring about the series? Is the Video Game Museum closing down? Why in my dreams are vacation destinations just giant-sized versions of my old houses? These are the topics being discussed on message boards Internet-wide. The truth is that I just simply don't want to force updates where the amount of content is clearly lacking, which would explain the near-three-month absence. Yeah--that's it.

So Lords of Shadow has been out for more than a month now, and people seem to be enjoying it on different levels. Is it what the series needed? Does it present a viable new direction for the stagnating Castlevania brand? That remains to be seen. I couldn't form my own opinion, since I don't plan on playing it anytime soon due to time and budgetary constraints; however, I will in the future be working with site contributors to supply material where I can (which is admittedly difficult in some areas, like "Stages" and "Castleography," since it's hard to establish a context without playing the game). For now, I'll stick to improving/updating the site in other areas.

There's no real theme to this month's updates, as the content is random, so I'll try a slightly different format in place of the usual numbered list:

- Contributor Kev starts the ball rolling with scans for Lords of Shadow's European casing and manual (X-Box 360 version).
- I have two new "Fun Facts" for Aria of Sorrow. One examines its save rooms while the other links it directly to Harmony of Dissonance.
- Sr. Lan Belmont returns with more MP3s and an art piece.
- Bleeding Plague's "Fierce Collection" has been bolstered a bit.
- Quite interesting is the Super Achievement by Rikardo Grando, whose dedication to the Castlevania series has earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
- Crystal Moon has cooked up a new fan remix of Wicked Child.
- I've added a new "Custom Wallpaper" subsection to "Artwork," a category of which is "Smart Phone Wallpaper."
- From Zappsoft comes the "Sound Effects" track for Oretachi Game Center Zoku - Akumajou Dracula, which represents Haunted Castle's soundtrack.
- Berit Jurda has a batch of new artwork for his page.
- Squalid Pumpkin has written up a bunch of mini-reviews for the fan-titled Metroidvania games; too, his Metroidvania List and Metroidvanias We'd Like to See works have received a number of updates.
- Aya79 continues to pile on the goods as he bolsters his world-leading Fierce Collection.
- Newcomer Jamil Jam the Man joins the custom-sprite-creating party.
- Mirror Wave provides an image for Heart Refresh sprite on Symphony's weapon page.
- Top-modeler Mark has a new set of Harmony of Dissonance-related works waiting for us in a new subsection on his "Models" art page.

And now we head toward the holidays and year number 12 of this now-ancient website. What surprises await us in the new year? On what system will the series appear next? Who's going to be making the games? The way things move in Konami Land, the answers we seek are never elusive. Until then, have fun, stay safe, and, above all else, make sure to keep on doing the Puppet Dance.

Past Updates- Missed a day or two, or want to check out when something was added? The text within the link will tell all.

Want to get in on the action? Send rare information, custom sprites, art, music, reader reviews, your own Castleography or CV Library features, or any other crazy facts you might have, and they'll show up on my site with full credit given to you! Remember: The images on this site were made by me (about 90% of them), contributed, credited or traded for. If you want to use any of them, e-mail me and ask me about it.

Email to: MrPerfectn@aol.com