#castlevania bestiary

[ask-hector-and-isaac]

How do you feel about necromancy? Don't you consider this a mockery of the real undead?

Isaac: Of course it is! How can one compare a commanding creature such as a vampire with a shambling, mindless, rotting corpse?!

Hector: Some of the humans that Lord Dracula welcomed in his castle have taken to the art of necromancy. They stitch up dead bodies to create abominations. I can't say they're a pleasant sight. I would rather let the dead rest, instead of turning them into weapons.

Isaac: It's an inferior art compared to ours. We create life from nothing! And our creations are far more efficient and elegant.

[beevean]

Castlevania fans: Dawn of Sorrow sucks because it's too grindy

Also Castlevania fans: Gee whiz Circle of the Moon is so much better than all the other Metroidvanias because it actually poses a challenge! Sure you need to grind for special abilities, grind for equipment and grind for healing items because the game doesn't have a shop nor a bestiary to keep track of which enemies drop what, but it's a great game we swear!

It's interesting to me how CoTM is a fan favorite in the subreddit, while it's barely if ever talked about on Tumblr. I think I saw, like, one person even getting invested in the characters, and sometimes people bopped to the music, but that's it.

I wonder if it's because the subreddit has a higher concentration of Classic fans, to which CoTM wants to cater a bit with its physics, the whip and the bullshit difficulty. If someone loves CoTM already, for whatever reason, the DSS becomes something you tolerate.

DoS gives to me the feeling of a game that was doomed from the start. A sequel to fan favorite AoS, that was meant to be the finale of the story? With a shitty anime style that is a huge downgrade to Kojima's beloved painting style? Not bringing any radical changes, but being slightly worse than AoS, with worse drop rate and a tedious crafting system? The Magic Seal shit? yeah no I can see why DoS was, while not despised, more scrutinized than CoTM, which also had the luck of being one of the GBA launchers and therefore a lot of fans' first exposure to the series.

So the grinding in CoTM becomes part of its praised difficulty, and the grinding in DoS becomes a reason why it's bad :P

[markrosewater]

If we're doing UB wishlists today:

Starcraft - Blizzard's Sci-Fi RTS series conveniently has three extremely evocative and distinct factions and one Universe-ending antagonist

Megaman - It's a series built off of fighting a chain of unique characters, plus it has its own deck-building spinoff series (Battle Network)

Castlevania - A series with a long history and massive bestiary of monsters, characters, and toolss (and hit currently-running Netflix show)

Fire Emblem - Tons of unique characters and stories

Star Trek - It's Star Trek

Thanks for the suggestions.

[buriedyou]

𝐄𝐃𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍.

previously found at: masocholyism, brandofhercin, etc.

I have been writing Edward for a long time. I have a very specific interpretation of him and I often draw on many other media when it comes to his characterization. I often compare him to both Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, as well as the Horatio Alger myth, among other stories and legends. Additionally, I draw on a variety of sources when it comes to vampire lore, including Stoker’s Dracula, the Blade comics, Anne Rice’s vampire compendium, the Castlevania animated series and video game, and others. This portrayal does not see Edward as a misogynistic ass, nor is he a virgin or entirely inexperienced when it comes to relationships. In fact, he dated several celebrities prior to Bella, who he will not namedrop, and had a boyfriend for a brief time in the 90s. Also, he doesn’t fucking sparkle.

FULL NAME: Edward Anthony Masen Cullen NICKNAME: None that he approves of GENDER: Cis-male SPECIES: Vampire HEIGHT: 6’4” AGE: Old BIRTHDAY: June 2, 1901 SPOKEN LANGUAGES: Many, including several dialects of sign language

HAIR: Light auburn, almost bronze in appearance. Styled well EYES: Dependent on hunger and diet. Gold when satiated. Black when ravenous. Red when dining on human blood. SKIN TONE: Pale, nearly ghastly white in some instances. No signs of flush. Any visible veins appear grey. BODY TYPE: Tall and long-limbed. Not at all brawny, but there is strength to his stature in subtle ways. Broad shoulders. Large hands. ACCENT: Chicago (x and x, singing voice x) VOICE: Soft and lilting. In some ways seductive. Enticing. You want to hear more of it. You’re drawn in. Vulnerable. DOMINANT HAND: Ambidextrous SCARS: All healed after his transformation NOTABLE FEATURE(S): His striking eyes. The Hair™. His height.

HOBBIES: Music: listening to it, writing it, playing it, performing it. Flying, planes, and jets. Cars and bikes. His family. Education. Baseball. MENTAL ILLNESSES: Depression. PHYSICAL ILLNESSES: None (vampirism) ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good VULNERABILITIES: His hatred for himself. Direct sunlight.

CURRENTLY.

Professor at Dartmouth. PRESENT DAY. Edward begins research on vampire history and folklore. He pursues this information via personal and academic routes, as well as via Carlisle and various other covens and vampires he meets over the years. Edward is compiling a bestiary of sorts and traveling to obtain information with which to fill it.

QUICK FACTS

he still loves bella 

he is not presently living with his family members 

carlisle and esme remain in washington, but have relocated to seattle 

he is in regular contact with everyone except bella, who he has agreed to let dictate their communication (which is at least monthly, though sometimes less) 

i write chronologically, so my edward is set present day as in this year. currently, he is a history professor at dartmouth. however, i am not opposed to writing previous years; i only require some plotting beforehand. 

no sparkles. your muse CAN’T know he’s a vampire unless they themselves are of supernatural origins or ability, or if edward has told them (which he most likely would not have prior to plotting or interactions). your muse CAN be suspicious of any characteristics or actions of him though.

MISC HCS:

Edward is very much so an empathetic man. This is most certainly due to his telepathy, but he is also incredibly emotionally driven. Though he mercifully remembers very little of his human life prior to being turned, his biological father had fostered toxic masculinity and aggression in the Masen household. However, what was driven into him as a boy growing up human very quickly was replaced by the gentle and sensitive nature that Carlisle exuded and passed onto Edward as he grew as both a vampire and man. So much of who Edward is, is thanks to Carlisle and, later, Esme.

He is a certified pilot. He has his private pilot license, which he obtained in the 90s. He owns a Cessna 172 in a privately owned hangar. He doesn’t talk about this too much, but if one were to find out and ask about it, he could talk about flying for hours.

EDWARD CULLEN’S NET WORTH ( WHICH INCLUDES : 2 homes, 5 cars, various personal investments, business interest, investment accounts, and personal property, BUT DOES NOT INCLUDE : his inheritance ): $12,212,209,782on top of this: Edward Cullen inherits the Masen family fortune every 10 years, which is approximately 620,000 USD. He donates more than half of it anonymously to various charities and whichever hospital Carlisle is working at the year he receives the money.

ALT VERSES TBD...

[demonfox38]

👍No problem. Other than the times this game crashed on me. And Tumblr eating my first post. Urgh.

My previous Post Game Evaluation for “Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin” is here. Additional notes for the Dominus Collection variant:

I was playing across versions 1.0 and 1.0.1. As previously mentioned, the game was crash happy on me. I think it crashed more on the 1.0.1 version, but I can’t clearly remember. Long story short, use the L-button save option liberally. I lost a lot of items and spells to whatever the heck was going on… (I honestly can’t tell you what was causing it, either. Could be related to a GPU processing error. Possibly, some overflow with luck and item drops as well.)

I did have two major augmentations from my previous playthrough. Charlotte’s Heal spell and the Vampire Killer both got way more play. The VK in particular is more powerful than its stats say. Considering a good chunk of the monsters have a weakness to holy elemental items, you’ll find it particularly effective against most of the game’s bestiary.

Also—always make sure to cast Heal by switching to Charlotte, then letting both bars charge up. Make that MP consumption worth it!

The rewind function can be useful for resetting puzzles, but I wouldn’t rely on it too much for augmenting your health or luck in battle. I had a particularly strange encounter with an Amduscias that dropped a Record 4 seven times in a row, despite my rewinding and pausing to attempt to manipulate my luck.

Man, could I have used a fast forward function for when I was waiting for my MP to come back…

I had to exercise a great deal of patience with the enemy scripting for this game. While “Castlevania” games are known for being rigid with patterns and finding openings to attack, this game felt particularly punishing for not playing its way. I joke that this is a “Fuck you; take 60 damage” game, but honestly? Sometimes, it’s “Fuck you; take 200 damage” game, too.

The economy in this game is brutal, too. Couldn’t even gold grind properly until I had Brauner in the bag…

 It feels weird that the English voice cast didn’t have credits in the end credits. Like…I realize that takes up some space and can throw off pacing, but that still seems dickish.

Also, it feels like this game should have had an achievement for clearing the Nest of Evil. Maybe (possibly) the Sisters mode as well. The former in particular feels weird to not be rewarded (although, I suppose you do get proxy achievements by playing through "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.")

They did fix that typo with the Richter mode!

[sepublic]

I love the Castlevania show, but I can't help but be miffed by how much of the source material and colorful bestiary the show tends to ignore in favor of more vampires. I love characters such as Striga and Morana, but then you've got fairly generic ones like Dragan or Nikolai, who are just there to be obstacles and don't have any real personality themselves.

It's just a little confusing, because why do the writers keep trying to come up with OCs when they have plenty to pull from the actual games? In the games, vampires themselves are actually very rare; They're usually only represented by endgame bosses like Dracula, Bartley, Brauner, etc. Otherwise, the vast majority of enemies are night creatures, ghosts, haunted suits of armor, and the like.

But instead of embracing the weirder monsters like the Minotaur or Werewolves, the Castlevania show keeps defaulting to regular old vampires who are basically just humans with pointy ears and teeth. The show keeps defaulting to Vampire melodrama, like it's trying to emulate other pieces of Vampire media, instead of embracing what sets Castlevania apart from those stories. It has a concerning lack of weird castle exploration for a show called Castlevania.

Skeletons only appear in one scene, and I'm sorry but a common staple of a series should not be reduced to a mere fanservice cameo. It's like the Resident Evil live-action films making everything about zombies and reluctantly including a Licker as the ultimate monster. It's like if the Super Mario Bros. Movie barely had Goombas, they made the show too normal from the source material.

That isn't to say the source material is a perfect narrative, far from it; It can get pretty damn repetitive at times, especially with certain character roles and dynamics. I'll die on the hill that Annette's reimagining was justified, and Ortega and Hugh Baldwin are admittedly less interesting versions of Maxim Kischine.

The repetition makes sense! Castlevania's priority is gameplay, and each installment is meant to be its own thing. But when you're doing it as a TV show, a story, and having each story arc play a part in a larger narrative, you have to mix things up in terms of story and characterization, because you can't rely on different gameplay mechanics and levels to differentiate entries in an animated show.

But all that said, it's tiring how much the show will ignore aspects that wouldn't conflict with the writing at all in favor of more generic vampires. I don't want to see vampire politics and melodrama, but it's infinitely more interesting if its melodrama and politics between slimes and minotaurs!

I dunno, it feels like the show is limiting itself on an aesthetical level. What difference does it make in terms of writing if there's a flying Medusa head, or an Axe Armor? I think the writers are afraid of coming across as 'corny' as if Castlevania itself isn't crazy and anime as hell, but this just makes them come across as lacking sincerity. It's like how people complained about a bunch of 2000's movie adaptations of superheroes watering down everything to be more 'serious' and 'realistic' and 'believable', but it just made it grey and boring and cut away what made it unique.

The writers could've easily replaced characters like Dragan with, say, Sir Grakul from Super Castlevania IV, or had freakish looking night creatures be the ones to monologue (instead of treating Flyseyes as the one exception). There's acceptable departures from the source material, and then there's just straight up ignoring it, and then going out of its way to make up new things when stuff is already there to use. It's not as if the animators struggle with animating non-humanoid beings, considering how many unique night creatures they've come up with. So can we please stop being lowkey embarrassed of the source material???

It'd honestly make the show so much more memorable if we got to see Richter fighting a Skull Knight or Mummy. It's just so much wasted potential, especially when they ignore game Richter's compelling narrative of a Fallen Hero, in favor of making up something completely different. I can understand revising protagonists who barely have anything to them, like John Morris from Bloodlines, but Richter HAD a meaningful storyline to expand on, and one that deconstructs his role as a vampire hunter!

Given the show's attempts to be a grittier deconstruction and its suggestion that killing vampires isn't 100% good, I don't know why they didn't go with the idea of Knight Templar Richter whose desire to be needed in battle leaves him vulnerable to Shaft's brainwashing. The deeper, character-driven writing does not have to be mutually exclusive from fantastical and weird elements.

[beardedmrbean]

Castlevania Advance Collection has an encyclopedia for all the items and enemies in the game, for Aria of Sorrow it's based on the one included in-game

Though it includes all entries right from the beginning unlike the in-game one which requires defeating the enemy for it to be added. It also includes the unused one for the true final boss, Chaos.

Since the game ends right after defeating Chaos there's no way to view its entry, which has a glitched sprite instead of its actual appearance.

I can't be the only one that thinks it's silly to include that last one that you're not really supposed to be able to see anyhow.

That or they should make it available for viewing in a new game after beating the game, but that's a complaint I've had since the NES days.

Cinematics and bestiaries and all that good stuff should be a option that appears in the main menu after beating the game, blank spots for the stuff you missed and all that good stuff.

[monochromatictoad]

❤️,🖤,💀 for the unpopular opinions ask game

choose any fandom you'd like :)

- @aro-simp

Imma do this for Castlevania >:3c

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I could name a number of different characters, but I'll stick to the characters I know.

Gabriel Belmont. I noticed his character is hard for people to grasp, because he contradicts himself so many times. I've seen interpretations that simply state that he has no depth, there's no character there, and I challenge these notions. I could go on a whole spiel about Gabriel's character, and I have on many occasions, but it genuinely feels like people don't bother to read in game text on him, where in LoS1, the bestiary states that Gabriel named himself Belmont, because of his love for mountains. That should state everything you need to know about Gabriel. He's sturdy, ever changing, yet always a sanctuary for those who seek it.

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

LoS Trevor 'Alucard' Belmont. This man influenced a million man army, just to draw Dracul out of his castle, and state that he had a plan for giving Dracul what he wanted, as well as denying fate itself.

💀: If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

Edit: I read this wrong, please forgive me.

Honestly, I can't think of one, because so many major characters die in LoS. But I hope, somewhere in the future of LoS, Dracul and Trevorcard are both able to die and be at peace. Finally able to rest from everything that was thrown at them, and reunite with their family in the afterlife.

[nocturnerpg]

𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍 & 𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆! 𝒇𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅!

Monsters come in all ghastly shapes and terrifying forms, but the deadliest ones are those cursed with eternal beauty, tantalizing smiles, and an insatiable thirst for blood. Three years after daysdeath, a mysterious phenomenon that plunged the whole world into perpetual darkness, vampires and all manners of creatures of the night have risen after hiding in the shadows for several centuries. Under the rule of the Undying Empire, the entire populace has no choice but to bend to the whims of their new monarch.

𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄 is a 20+, mewe-based, literate, horror-themed, OC KRP inspired by Castlevania and other vampire lore. Come hither and immerse yourself in a story-driven world of endless night, where the Undying Empire seeks to devour humankind and the latter fights for its survival. Will you be a hero? Or will you succumb to the temptations of blood and immortality? Nocturne awaits your arrival.

NAVIGATION: ABOUT / SETTING / BLOODLINES / BESTIARY / LOCALITY / GUIDELINES / MASTERLIST / FAQS / APPLY HERE

[chomesuke]

in the castlevania game I'm playing, the bestiary describes toads as "the result of a demonic ritual gone wrong"

[bersergner-blog]

Escape from Tombstone - Art Book Structure

Now that pretty much all of the art was finished it was time to start assembling the art-book to collect all of my hard work. I'm actually quite an avid collector of Art Books so this was a great opportunity for me to leaf through them again. The following books are the ones I focused on (I started with structure so the notes will be pertaining to this):

Resident Evil 6 - Artworks Content Key Visuals Humans/Gadgets Creatures Environments

The Art of Doom (2016) Intro Content Demons Environments Characters Weapons Props and Graphics

The Art of Doom Eternal Of Earth (Characters/Humans) From Hell (Demons/Enemies) Cursed Worlds (Environments) Hurt ‘Em Plenty (Weapons) Demon vs. Slayer (Multiplayer/Props)

The Art of the Last of Us Introduction Joel and Ellie (Main Characters) The Journey (Environments/Side-Characters) The Infected (Enemies) The World (Weapons & Props) Marketing (Splash Art) American Dreams (Tie-in Comic concept art)

The Art of The Last of Us Part II (Follows the structure of the plot, revealing concepts as they are appropriate to the story) Foreword Prologue Jackson, Wyoming Seattle, Washington The Farm Santa Barbara, California Epilogue Graphic Design

The Art of Borderlands 3 Introduction Characters Environments Creatures and Enemies Weapons Vehicles Credits

The Art of Castlevania Lords of Shadows Contents Introduction Gabriel Belmont Dracula The Belmont Family Allies & Antagonists Whips & Chains Supernatural Bestiary Locations & Environments The Modern Age Acknowledgments

The Art of Darksiders Illustrations Characters Creatures Bosses Environments Weapons Artifacts Icons CG Gallery Key Visuals

The Art of Darksiders II Key Visuals (Illustrations) Characters & Enemies Weapons Locations CG Models Storyboards The Art of Death & Darksiders 2 Key Visuals (CG)

The Art of Darksiders III Prelude Key Art Characters Bosses World Weapons Icons Storyboards CG Models

The Art of Darksiders Genesis Characters Bosses Enemies Environment Gameplay Objects Cinematics Icons Key Art

Devil May Cry Graphic Arts Introduction Devil May Cry 3 (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Devil May Cry (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Devil May Cry 4 (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Devil May Cry 2 (Playback, Art, Graphics, Drafts) Extra

The Art of Diablo Foreword Introduction Embrace the Darkness Characters Loot Creatures Environments A Return to Darkness Acknowledgments

The Art of Overwatch Volume 2 Introduction Heroes Environments Seasonal Events Challenges Skins Animated Shorts Beyond the Game A Glimpse of things to come

My research helped me immensely and I narrowed down my structure to the following:

Structure: Introduction Content Characters Enemies Environments Weapons Props Key Art

[goatondaroad]

Flame Demon v2 by Goatondaroad

[cursezone]

top 5 castlevania sotn enemies who arent technically women, but are definitely women

im not going to be including any enemies with a typically "woman" like figure, I'm also not including the axe armor because that is CANON

5. Black Panther. theres just something so womanly about how much damage this enemy does and how hard it is to deal damage to. i wonder who fills her kibble chalice

4. Grave Keeper. this feller is very protective of certain areas in the castle and i just think he's a woman. a lesbian. butch. okay? being a woman is all about protecting things

3. Sword Lord/Vandal Sword. theres nothing more #girl than your sword breaking in half upon defeat and then coming back to haunt their enemy immediately. the way this enemy sounds during the fight is especially girlish

2. Azaghal. WHAT A BADDIE THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY. I DONT EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHY AZAGHAL IS A WOMAN

Richter Belmont

[lapisamethyst]

Going to start by just eyeballing the list of Smash Bros fighters by series and listing the ones I’m pretty sure count as third party:

Metal Gear Solid

Sonic the Hedgehog

Megaman

Pac-Man

Street Fighter

Final Fantasy 7

Bayonetta

Castlevania

Persona 5

Dragon Quest XI

Banjo-Kazooie

Fatal Fury

Minecraft

Tekken

Kingdom Hearts

With the candidates outlined, we have to consider that we’re making a turn-based RPG here, full of colorful characters and locales, as well as enemies to fight. As such I feel like there’s two major criteria to consider:

Does the series have an iconic location or environment that would be fun to explore? 

Does the series have iconic enemies to draw on for fights in this area?

Under the first criteria, I know I already see people disagreeing with this, but I’d strike Minecraft off the list. Outside of the aesthetic specifically, there’s not a whole lot to work with. I’d also strike Persona 5 not because it doesn’t have iconic locations, but because its iconic locations are very heavily tied in to that game’s world and story in a way that wouldn’t feel authentic if Mario and co just wandered in.

Under criteria number 2, I’m also immediately going to strike a few of these off the list. Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, and Tekken are fighting games where the focus is more on specific, player-character class characters rather than mobs of smaller enemies that would fit for an RPG. Metal Gear Solid falls into similar problems, while Snake ends up fighting a lot of mooks, most of them are just some variety of human soldier outside of the iconic bosses. Pac-Man also doesn’t have too much to offer outside of the ghosts.

With those entries struck from consideration, I’m left with 8 to consider. Why don’t I count them down from here.

8. Bayonetta

Call it personal bias here but I just don’t think the locations and enemies of Bayonetta are as iconic as the other candidates. It has locations to draw on, and it has mobs of enemies with interesting designs, so I didn’t think it would be fair to strike it entirely, but I’m not compelled in this context. If the game was going for some specific aesthetics, the angels and demons of Bayonetta might fit in nicely, but without those details I’m going to leave it here.

7. Banjo-Kazooie

Honestly this falls into a lot of the same territory as Bayonetta, it wins out over it mostly due to the aesthetic already being on the cartoony side and thus easier to picture blending in with the Nintendo properties. In my view it has a better set of locations to draw from, but its enemies are pretty forgettable, I could easily see someone with different tastes swapping order here.

6. Megaman

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. I’m not sure I’d call any Megaman location iconic short of Wiley’s Skull Fortress, and outside of a few standouts like the Mets and the Servbots a lot of the enemies are still pretty forgettable, but in both cases there’s a pretty wide swath to draw on for inspiration. Still pretty low on the list but I’d confidently say I’d consider it above the previous.

5. Dragon Quest XI

I feel bad putting Dragon Quest this low considering its multitude of memorable monsters, but once again I have to draw back to location and the fact that I’m just struggling to think of what environment I’d pull from to represent the game, I think the fact that Smash Bros itself went with “uuh, floating platform orbiting the giant tree” speaks to this concern.

4. Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 7 edges out the above with an easy answer for the location: Midgar, or some facsimile thereof. The underbelly of a big, industrial city would be an interesting environment to navigate, and while on the whole I’d say Final Fantasy’s bestiary isn’t quite as iconic as Dragon Quest, it has plenty of standouts such as Cactuars, Tonberries, Chocobos, and Bombs to draw on. It could arguably be higher on the list even.

3. Sonic

Green Hill Zone bay-bee! Hard to get more iconic than the stage the Sonic series has been referencing to death in recent entries, and it’s the kind of environment that would be pretty easy to turn into a big open field area. I fear that Sonic falls into a similar problem as Megaman when it comes to enemies in that no particular mook stands out too much, but I feel like they have a more recognizable aesthetic as a whole, and one that would be fun to represent.

2. Kingdom Hearts

I think it could be a lot of fun to explore a larger rendition of Destiny Islands or Traverse Town in this style of RPG, and the Heartless cover the enemy quota in spades, with shadows and soldiers being particularly iconic and plenty more to draw upon for variety. Checks both of my boxes with ease and doesn’t even seem too hard to fit into the overall aesthetic. This was actually going to be my number one pick initially, but the more I thought about it the more I have to give the spot up.

1. Castlevania

Whether you make the star character Richter or Simon, I think this has to be my choice for representation. The world map area is pretty easy to conceptualize, it’s Castle Dracula and the surrounding area leading up to it, with plenty of swamps, dead trees, maybe a graveyard or two to play up the classic horror aesthetics. While I don’t think the enemies of Castlevania are too much to write home about, and is the reason I initially had this ranked lower, I think the overall vibe of undead and demons and other creatures of the night fill an aesthetic niche that’s otherwise missing from the roster of Nintendo properties, and one that’s an RPG staple for a reason.

So, concept: Super Smash Bros. RPG in the style of Super Mario RPG. It's got the same ring-shaped-world-map-with-conspicuously-themed-regions deal, except each region is based on a different Nintendo property: there's the Mushroom Kingdom (of course), Kong Island, a miniature Hyrule, an orbital colony where Samus Aran hangs out (probably a late-game region, that one!), and so forth.

Now, here's the question: owing to space limitations and the need to stay on brand, the game is naturally going to have a major focus on first-party Nintendo characters and properties, but you get to include exactly one world map region based on a third-party property, the only requirement being that at least one of that property's characters must have appeared as a full-featured fighter (i.e., mirror characters are okay, but Mii Fighter costumes don't qualify – sorry, Sans!) in a Super Smash Bros. title.

For reasons what would obviously take far too long to explain here, you get to make this decision. Who do you pick, and what does their region of the world map look like?

(Note: no chaining multiple third-party franchise crossovers together. i.e., you can pick Sora, but that doesn't also get you Mickey Mouse.)

[castlebestiary]

01 Vampire Bat

This project has been on my "to do" list for ages. I've been a long time fan of the Castlevania games and in particular the enemies you encounter and their sprite design. Drawing every creature found in the Castlevania bestiary always seemed like something I'd like to do, both to keep up my analogue drawing skills, and because I love all the obscure folkloric creatures in there that I would like to learn more about as I draw them. The task always seemed quite intimidating, so I've always delayed starting it. But today as the start of inktober, I'll begin my journey and post my progress on here. Enjoy!

[thecuriousowl]

The raven queen by zhihui Su