Melancholy Joachim

Joachim Armster from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.


Drawn for the Castlevania tribute project at
Most of you probably don't know the guy, he was a boss and a hidden playable character in Lament of Innocence, one of the PS2 Castlevania games and one of the more obscure titles. It was usually flamed for being 3D and having a more hack'n'slash approach, though it still had a great exploration factor, like Symphony of The Night.
And even after all these years, the design level of this game is still astonishing, as each and every location, even if made to just have one item which you will take and never visit again, had a really breathtaking design, and the music, damn, this game had one of the best Castlevania soundtracks ever. And to top it off, this game is the prequel to all other games in the series, it actually tells you the whole story behind Dracula, the Belmonts, and their long lasting struggle. So if you ever get the chance, to give it a try, it'll really be worth your time >3

OK, enough ranting about the game, now lets talk about the character itself. Joachim was one of the very few neutral characters in the series, while most are either good or evil, he was more or less a bystander. He was a human nobleman, turned into a vampire by Walter Bernhard, the first master of Castlevania castle (before Dracula became it's master), yet he possessed strong telekinetic powers, thanks to which, he could maintain his free will, so he was cast in a dungeon, to prevent him from rebelling.
Yet like I said, he's actually a hidden playable character in that game, set out to get his revenge and claim Walter's throne for himself.
Also worth mentioning is that he doesn't fight normally, he uses his telekinetic powers to fight using 5 levitating swords (he also doesn't walk, but floats in the air, but I really wanted to draw him doing a swag |D), and as a fun fact, it's this character that inspired Capcom to give Vergil similar levitiating swords in DMC3 Special Edition >3


Joachim Armster (c) Konami