5/22  Yeah, it's been awhile, but I've got a small backlog of stuff to put up. More important, pics of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the DS and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the PS2/Xbox.
Curse of Darkness wasn't quite as awesome. The game plays a lot differently from Lament of Innocence, especially with the user controlled camera and lock-on mechanics. There's more variety in the level design, but it still feels boxy and the textures are pretty dull. Still, the game plays well, and controlling the Innocent Devils is a breeze. More stuff later - it's the last day of my vacation and I need rest desperately.
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Cover Story: Three years have passed since Trevor Beomont and his companions vanquished Dracula. But the magic power of the curse Dracula unleashed upon his death began infecting all of Europe. Pestilence, mob violence and heresy became rampant, and people continued to fall deeper into darkness... Amidst all of this, Hector - a Devil Forgemaster who had once refined his skills under Dracula - has fled in pursuit of a peaceful life as a human. He never imagined that his old friend Isaac, the other Devil Forgemaster, would suddenly appear and implicate his wife in a deadly conspiracy. As vengeance for his beloved wife, Hector pursues Isaac back to his former home, now completely morphed by Dracula's magic... Random Kojima quotes: "Oh yes, 2D is my favorite gaming style too! I want to keep working on 2D games. However, my current goal is to make a better 3D action game, so that's taking a big part in me right now." "This time, the game is themed with 'revenge'. It may sound unusual for Castlevania; in that sense, it may be darker. Belmont? Yes there will be. But how? Please look forward to how the Belmonts interact with this story." "Alucard rests in magic sleep right after he defeated Dracula in 1476. I'm sure the Hector and Alucard timeline tells that there is some intersection between them, but in this game, there will be no episodes on them." "Last time with LoI, it was set under the concept of "castle in the night" - this one is new. So with this game, we are planning on oustide stages. This time, stages are set not only in the castle, but the environment that surrounds the castle." Notes about Innocent Devils: Innocent Devils...those are your familiars and growing them is a main mechanic of the game - they assist in battles and movement. The "Devil forgery is to generate devils by using magic power, just like an alchemist. With gigantic power to create devils - this is how we came up with naming devil forgery. Innocent Devils made from devil forgery are exactly the same as you fought against for all these centuries, just from its image, but in this game it might be better to think that they're something else. Thus, enemies you'll be confronting in this game will NOT be Innocent Devils. Innocent Devils exist as something else in the game. And these Innocent Devils grow (or get fed) by the player as you defeat monsters in the game, and each Devil will evolve according to you8r gameplay. Evolution will branch according to how you collect them." There are five Devil types; each type branches out to a couple of variations. Not all of them exist or appear in the game; the player has to sue devil forgery at some certain point in the map to generate a new type. In the game, the player can [actively] use one Innocent Devil, but he can keep a couple types all the time and switch to the suitable Innocent Devil according to the situation. That's all for now - hopefully this issue will start showing up on magazine racks soon!
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 Thanks to Tobias Lind for the scans, Garnet Zero for the comparison pics of Symphony and Aria to the new game (shots on the right) and EGM for the article.
10/5 Other than that, little has been happening on the Castlevania front. Ben Isaac has released his Castlevania: Prelude to War movie, which is well worth checking (write-up forthcoming.) Akumajou Dracula has been released for the Famicom Mini GBA series in Japan and will be released here (along with Metroid for some cryptic reason, even though it's included FOR FREE with Metroid: Zero Mission), and Konami has announced they are making a Castlevania DS. Other than that, the only real thing left to add are various MP3s. I recommend checking out VGMix for catching up on some good stuff. Other than that, don't expect many updates until the next Castlevania game comes out. I've been spending the past six months working on Hardcore Gaming 101, which includes full blown articles on Parodius, Twinbee, Ys, Prince of Persia, Darius, Final Fight and lots of other classic games. Also, check for a small resurrection to the Contra HQ, as Neo Contra is due at the end of the month. And also check out Armchaire Empire, as it's a good indepedent gaming site that I write for.
5/27 And again, remember to check out Hardcore Gaming 101!
5/5 Also, several new Fan MP3s: By Geoffrey Gunn:
Prayer of Mercy By Zero Slug FM:
Psycho Warrior By Dark Angel 33: On a finale note, the Castlevania Dungeon will be going on hiatus for quite awhile. Why, you ask? Well, the obvious bit is that there's not a whole lot left to report on Castlevania on the moment. There's still some holes here and there, but they're nothing major. Secondly, the Dungeon is undergoing a redesign, which takes a long time, given the size of this site. And finally, I've spent the past few months working on an entirely new video game related site. It's still under construction (and not officially open), but check out Hardcore Gaming 101 for looks at some of the video game series that define our culture.
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12/20
Title One new Fan MP3: Haunted Corridor (Dracula X) - By Silverlord And not only scans of the elusive Aria of Sorrow artbook provided by Simon Belmont, but pictures from the Japanese Lament of Innocence limited edition, presented by Setzer the Gambler.
A really quick update: first, several new Fan Mp3s, as well as songs from the Japanese Castlevania Limited Edition CD (which is not a full soundtrack but does include several arranged tracks - thanks to #gamemp3s on MIRCx for this one) and one Haunted Castle track from some obscure Japanese magazine promo.
Wicked Child By Nino
Christmas Carol - From Cathedral of Resonance Haunted Castle - Opening - Cross Your Heart Also added several magazine scans thanks to Pfloydguy:
EGM Sept 91 - Belmont's Revenge Review Finally, minor updates have been made to the Storyline section, mostly updates to accomodate Lament of Innocence. There's also a spoiler-filled version up now, if you want the games explainted in depth. More of that will come whenever I feel like editing the Lament character artwork.
11/17
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Bloody Tears By Quasar Also, apparently years ago, Gamefan released a few videos of the actual intro to Castlevania Resurrection. Unfortunately, with the site gone, they appear to be lost. If anyone has these videos, please let me know. Thanks!
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10/11 And in order to give this update something other than a news blurb, awesome Japanese Castlevania fan Hatakeyama has graciously translated the liner notes for the Circle of the Moon/Concerto of the Midnight Sun soundtrack. On that note, I'm looking for someone fluent in Japanese who can translate the notes from Akumajou Dracula Best 1 and 2, Castlevania Chronicles, Symphony of the Night and Castlevania 64 - high quality scans can be provided. If you'd be willing to do this, please let me know.
3/5 Fan Fiction:
Vampyre ~Legends of a Dark Lord Chapter 1 Fan Art:
Juste Homemade Figure Sets:
Sonia Belmont Music Files Juste's Theme MIDI file Additionally, the folks at the forum were digging through the Symphony of the Night sound files and uncovered some unused music files, posted below. Only two of them (the bells and the librarian) appear to be used. They'll sound weird coming out of a regular sound card, but the actual sound samples are posted below, if anyone can put the two together and make them sound like they should. Thanks to Ploktastic for the MIDI files, and Moonchilde for the sample extractions.
Unknown (Stage Theme?) Akumajou Dracula Disk Manual Scans Thanks for Protogem! And, randomly, a crazy picture found by board member Ed Oscuro:
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