lament of innocence

Despite massive fanboy hate and the cries of instant death for 3D Castlevania, Lament is MY favorite game in the series, so there's going to be a lot of love for it. And Joachim, because everyone loves insane pretty boy vampires.

In all seriousness, I think Lament was meant to be a turning point in the series, something of a second Symphony of the Night. The sheer quantity of original illustrations for this game (comparable to the amount created for SotN) suggests that a TON of time, thought, effort, and cash were poured into this particular title. After all, they even got some popular pop singer to dress up as femme Leon and promote the oddly named "Whip of Love" campaign.

And the game was a flop. At least critically/commercially; as noted, this is MY favorite Castlevania. ♥
At least we got all the awesome illustrations, though.

lament of innocence artbook

Here's scans of the slipcover and mini artbook (more like booklet, if you ask me) that came with the special edition of Lament of Innocence. There's a limited edition too; scroll down to see the calendar that came with that bad boy.

lament of innocence calendar

This is the CD case sized calendar that came with the limited edition of Lament of Innocence. Yes, the limited and special editions are different. Why? So you're forced to buy both, naturally.

Santa Lilio Sangre - Scarlet Lily

These illustrations are from Kojima Ayami's massive artbook, Santa Lilio Sangre. As far as I know, this is the only book with clean versions of the waist-up illustrations of Walter and Joachim, plus the four-character cross motif that was used on this phonecard. Oh, AND the separate Mathias/Elisabetha and Succubus images that were combined on this phonecard.

I generally do not watermark images, but since I literally destroyed an expensive book to get these scans, they are marked.

lament of innocence : perfect guide

The Perfect Guide is undeniably the best Lament guidebook available. Most Japanese guidebooks avoid spoilers; this one dives right in and hacks up all of the important information (the other two don't even mention that Joachim is a playable character, bah!).

The best part of this book, though, is the character information section in the back. I believe this is the only book to feature the illustration of Mathias in his vampire outfit, and the character descriptions are quite detailed. (See the Lament translations for those. ^_^)

lament of innocence : complete guide

This book is pretty cool! I love the negative image on the cover and the foldout poster that lists all the games and the major events of the timeline. And the character information with AGES! Walter's supposed to be 42? Damn sexy for his age, I'd say... <3

lament of innocence : official guide

Same old, same old, but I scanned it anyway. ^_^

lament of innocence : bradygames guide

Excuse the poor scans, but this is one of those cruddy domestic guidebooks which is no better quality than a regular magazine. *huff* But it DOES have several illustrations I've been trying to hunt down for ages! A steal at $6, shipping included. *grin*

PS - Second image, OMG, Leon's luscious manthighs may rival Hector's! Wow. *stare*

gamenow :: june & december 2003

Single page articles about Dawn of Sorrow, which was apparently the game of the month in June, and Lament of Innocence, which was apparently... not. Ah well. Still my favorite, so nyah.

electronic gaming monthly :: july 2003

A long article on the then-upcoming Lament of Innocence. Dewd, where's all the pictures of Joachim? Huh, what do you mean Leon's the main character? LIES!

This magazine was donated to us by a kind soul who wishes to remain anonymous. You know who you are! Thank you!

promotional items

Cool rare stuff; a sticker of Leon and Walter and a handkerchief of Leon. I have no idea where the sticker is from (probably some Japanese promo event or offer), but I remember seeing the handkerchief advertised as an E3 promo item on eBay.

phonecards

These are scans of authentic telephone cards from Japan. They're made of thin plastic with the image on the frontside and information on using the card on the back. Almost all of the Castlevania phonecards I've seen are promotional items, usually obtained by preordering a game from a specific store or something like that. You'll notice that most of these have a little box that says NOT FOR SALE; these are the promo cards.

cd booklets

Both scans are from the official Lament soundtrack. There's more in the booklet, but there's nothing else NEW, plus it's all faded out and covered with text.

I'm pretty sure the one of Joachim was new for the CD - the way it's colored reminds me of these CoD designs - and it is gorgeous! The one of Walter can be seen more clearly here; wish I knew where I could find a better version of the second Joachim illustration, though... (update! Just scroll up to the Santa Lilio Sangre section for high quality versions of both images!)

portrait of ruin artbook

Mini artbook! It's nice and fat but kinda small, like the size of a DVD case. These scans are horrible, and I apologize... they were done with my old scanner, which had some condensation inside that's clearly visible on dark areas of the scans. I'll replace these as soon as I can. Which means as soon as I find my artbook. Sigh.