#scv4

[chibishortdeath]

Ok, I’m sick of seeing only Netflix posts lately so I’m ranting about Simon lol

Unfortunately I had some nice paragraphs written for this but tumblr crashed while I was writing so this is my second time making this post (TwT)

TL;DR with the rant under a cut for easy scrolling, I am deranged and have studied all of Simon’s outfits, here’s some fun tidbits and I guess kinda a guide about his fashion sense :3

Oh boy, where to start XD. Castlevania has a lot of intricately detailed usually gothic and/or visual kei inspired fashion designs, usually with some amount of historical accuracy, thanks to Ayami Kojima, that the series is known for. But before this, the character design style was very different. From the very 90s shonen anime inspired Richter, to Christopher being deadass shirtless in a skirt at one point, to John Morris being in basically casual clothes, there’s a lot of variety in it.

Well, being the silly Simon super fan I am, I’ve studied all his outfits a ton over the years I’ve been a fan of the series and oh boy they are INTERESTING :3. I’ve noticed a lot of elements are consistently reoccurring, specific to him, and some are very much not specific to him lol. Anyway, just trust me on this one, overanalyzing the closet of an NES barbarian to be able to make new outfits for him is FUN >:3c.

So, I’ve seen him not wearing pants thrown around as a joke before, but it’s actually the truth! Besides the Haunted Castle wedding suit (an outlier that should not be counted lol), I actually have never run into a design where Simon is wearing full length, proper pants. The closest he ever gets is black tights in Simon’s Quest and occasionally shorts, but on that topic, shorts aren’t even his most common choice! Let’s look at some of his oldest designs:

This one is really hard to tell, but based on the angle of the lines, the shadows, and context clues from other art for CV1, I don’t know if that’s actually supposed to be shorts 💀💀💀!

In both his cute little manual doodles and his almost more adorable teeny 8-bit sprite, his outfit is a belted tunic of some sort! So like, the equivalent of a really tiny dress or a long shirt XD. And really, his cover art design is kinda just a more detailed version of these. They both have a distinction between a top and bottom part of the upper half, they both have big belts, they both have the tall boots and arm guards, they both have teeny skirt part, and Fun Fact! They both have red in the hair! I color picked a nice high res scan of the CV1 cover art, and yes, there’s red in his hair!!! It’s like a nice mix of dark reddish blond, it’s a very fun hair color :3.

However, that’s not where CV1 ends in tunic vs shorts debate:

THAT’S A SKORT— DO YOU SEE THAT DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE HALVES, ONE IS DEFINITELY A PANTLEG LMAO. So yeah, skort Simon is also a thing thanks to this particular magazine scan lol, thus leaving us with the possibility that it is both a skirt and shorts on the CV1 cover that he’s wearing X,,,,D. Never change, Simon, never change.

Besides the tunic, there’s some other interesting details to his CV1 era designs! :D In a lot of depictions he has this neat cape, something that returns in some Simon’s Quest art and Smash Bros lol, but he’s never shown wearing it in game. What’s interesting is that Trevor actually gets a cape in his game’s opening as well as Christopher in Belmont’s Revenge if I’m remembering correctly. It’s very neat seeing Simon character design details rubbing off into other characters :3. I like to think lore wise that it’s the same cape that’s been passed down to Simon from those two.

He also has the headband! Iconic! But have you noticed the little ball shapes at the ends of the tails? They’re either knots or, infinitely cooler option, beads :D!!!!!!! And I wouldn’t be surprised if they were because that leads me to another design: X68000–

Now this one is one of my favorites :3. It’s kinda like a forward facing version of his original design but with some new details! And his headband gets this cool lookin, intricate distinctly metallic design on it, something I’ve seen a lot of artists simplify to a general crescent moon shape. But it is kinda similar to the shape on his belt buckle, something that I still have no idea what it’s even supposed to be. Also, his arm guards and the thing at the end of his necklace (which may or may not have vampire teeth on it, they could just be metal spikes though) are similar; it makes me wonder if it was an attempt at a tortoiseshell pattern? Filigree? Whatever it is, they’re all matchy matchy about it.

This design also gives him the staple left shoulder pauldron, of which has these huge stitches holding it on and an added belt that connects to his other belt armor. Get used to belts, he has a lot of those X,,,D. What’s really neat about this one’s belt is that he has both a hilt for the family sword but also one for the whip on the other side, and they’re on the wrong sides for drawing the weapon properly 💀💀💀💀. Which is also funny considering his CV1 cover art has the sword on the other side, which is kinda wrong too? Who knows, maybe he’s ambidextrous and just doesn’t care what sides they’re on lol.

The biggest thing I can say about this design though is that a lot of these accessories and armor pieces look homemade, like as if he just took teeth as a trophy himself and strung them on a cord or made a shoulder piece and put it on an already existing belt he had. Adding onto this, there’s also the possible beads on his headband and the cords around his boots (which could be an attempt at a certain actual historical type of shoe that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me rn, in which case would make these not boots and actually corded shoes with very nice big fluffy socks hehe, I am forcing you to imagine him with big fluffy socks—) and yeah! I can see him making his stuff on his own :3. Which is so cool! I love this idea so much, it makes for a lot of things to imagine him doing hehe. Also gives him a hobby??? Yeah :)

No indication of if he’s got shorts or not in this one, maybe I’ll count how many have skirts or shorts and put that at the end of this lol.

But shorts get another point again cause we’re looking at Chronicles:

Oh Chronicles. Well, the first thing I wanna mention is that, this is Ayami Kojima’s design for him, so here we are seeing a very interesting mix of the visual kei style and 80s barbariancore in a way that honestly slays (figuratively and literally). And, surprisingly, there is something historically accurate about this design, and it’s not what you’d probably expect. Based on the width, material, cross rivets, and the buckle on the front, Simon is wearing an actual dog collar. Like, for dogs. Like it’s dog armor used primarily for hunting dogs I just— Again, never change Simon, never change 💀💀💀.

We also see Simon preferring to put his armor on his left side again with the torn in half coat. It’s also somewhat similar to 1600s coats, not really of any specific country in fashion that I can tell, however the sleeve being that short is not accurate, leading me to believe that he probably tore that off too lol. Very Chrom Fire Emblem of you, Simon, and another example of him D.I.Y.—ing things. The basic elements still stay similar to past designs. Shorts, distinct upper and lower half of shirt, belts, armor on said belt, sword and whip hilts, arm armor and tall boots (shout out to the heels on this one), and armor on the left, unfortunately no headband though. But that distinct bottom half to the shirt part of his outfit in this one is defined with… a corset? Yeah!!! That’s a corset!!! Though the proper name for the time period might be a stay or a girdle, but Simon is straight up wearing a belt over a corset. And said corset over a coat. Half of one. Don’t question him—

But the main entries to his 80s bara-barian half of the wardrobe, let’s get to some knightly aesthetic outfits, of which he does have a good amount, starting with SCV4:

Simon’s knightly outfits are usually a similar silhouette as his original tunic look, just in metal this time and in various colors. SCV4 has his armor as gold on the cover, blue on the Japanese cover and manual art, and green in game! And they’re all pretty much the same with mild variations. On the cover art, his shoes are corded sandals with nothing under them, but in game and in most other artwork they are these metallic boots with the classic X shape of the cords baked into them. Some art gives his middle belt armor section this cross with snakes on it, which is an odd thing to be referencing here. It’s either a staff of Mercury, usually associated now with medicine but was an alchemical symbol before that, or something else I can’t find any info on. There’s also a big ab window because these are all proper half shirts lol. Straight up a metal breastplate with nothing under it, a pretty bad idea tbh 💀.

All in all, these are generally really simple, but there’s one more thing before I stop talking about SCV4:

I LOVE this design. It’s this really nice blend of the older CV1 era style and the metal armor of the later ones, very cool. Shout out to the eye creases and the dead stare shadow over his eyes too, they really conveyed the effects of witnessing the horrors well lmaoooo.

Again, tunic, belt, arm guards, headband, the usual, but, speaking of symbols, there’s something about this one that’s been driving me nuts forever: I cannot find out what that symbol on his paldrons and belt buckle is!!! It’s this upside down triangle with a bent rectangle missing the bottom line over it and it LOOKS distinctly intentional, but I can’t find it or what it means anywhere!!! I tried searching through lists of alchemical symbols, religious symbols, nothing so far has been close (TwT ). Regardless, great design, definitely in my top 5.

And what else is in my top five? Oh yeah babey, it’s Simon’s Quest time:

Ah, Simon’s Quest with his fuck ass bob and the stolen Ravenloft image— but unironically, that armor fucks fr. Again, similar silhouette! If there’s any take aways from this post, it’s definitely that Simon is a little shirt, little pants kind of guy. A severe lack of long sleeves and long pants legs until now, and even then, these are skin tight. Heck even his boots(????) are vacuum sealed, just look at those fabric creases by his ankle!

Now, it’s honestly really hard to tell if his “gloves” and “boots” are supposed to be in some parts metal due to the shading on them and the base armor being very similar. I personally like to depict the forearm and calf parts as metal and the hand and ankle parts as not, but eh. Like most things regarding Simon, I suppose this too is up to interpretation XD. There’s some variation in color in some scans having the underclothes be white, dark blue, or black, and the armor be any range of red to purple to brown too. But towards red and black is probably the most accurate due to his sprite being those colors.

But this is a shockingly rare case of Simon being fully covered in one of his outfits, and I’m inclined to think that there’s probably a reason for that. Not only does he have a rotting curse right now and drawing straight up gore on the cover of an NES game was just not an option lol, but he’s not letting his guard down anymore after being hit. Which would also explain the sudden change to all metal armor as that can’t be cut through as easily as leather.

Speaking of all metal armor, oh I looooove the detailing on his. The gold accents to his byzantine (a nice in between color of red and purple, a color that is also reused in Smash Bros again in the middle corset section of his outfit) are what I would call stylized floral patterns, kinda in the way that fleur de les don’t really look exactly like flowers but still are supposed to represent one. Not sure what kind exactly, but possibly some sort type of angel’s trumpet? Very neat regardless. The gems inlaid in it are all green on top and around the belt, but the center belt buckle is bright red. It’s a very jewel tones color scheme!!!

Well anyway, if tumblr will let me have more images, I’d like to show off a few other random examples of outfit elements he’s had before I close this off with something :3

This was a pretty recently found scan of Simon wearing get this: a pleated miniskirt. Probably Roman armor inspired, as some of his other magazine scans have depicted him as such. One ad for SCV4 and another (live action even) for Simon’s Quest has him even wearing like a Roman helmet and everything, it’s odd. Add helmets to the list of things Simon might wear. Hmm maybe I should make a tier list of things based on how often he’s worn them…

Moving on!

This one goes for the bold choice of giving Simon not only an expected tiny belted tunic, but side slits on the legs! And uh um a little too much detail but uh— It’s also this kinda white, kinda bluish, kinda silverish color? Add this to Simon’s color palette I guess lol.

Which reminds me that I didn’t mention colors very much until now whoops. Throughout all of hie designs he primarily seems to wear neutrals like various browns, greys, and metal tones. But he also has a lot of color. Like as in there’s enough different colored designs to make a whole rainbow of Simon outfits. Common combinations like dark green, gold, and wine reds; blue and silver; brown, gold, orange, and kinda purplish greys; etc etc. And his HAIR. Oh boy, would this guy love modern hair dye X,,,,,D. He’s had it various blonds, reds, browns, even black at one point, blue, green, unnatural red, pink, and in one concept design white! Personally, I like depicting it as a nice in between of red, blond, and brown, it encompasses the most I think.

The final thing I wanna mention is the Smash Bros design, which I unfortunately can’t show because I’m on mobile and have met the 10 images limit whoopsie— (_ _ ;). This design is really a good culmination of a lot of elements. Not really definitive or anything, but very good :3. And it has something I didn’t mention earlier that I’ve noticed in some Simon designs: random belts or metal around his upper arms and thighs lol. The Smash Bros design in particular has the arm band things on both sides, Chronicles has it on the not half coat one, but this is another thing I’ve seen other characters (Christopher in particular, but his are just gold rings) have. The leg thing is less common, but yeah, that exists lol. Thank you Simon for uh bending two pieces of metal around your leg…? It’s cool XD. The corset also makes a return, as well as, once more, the same basic silhouette with the armor only on the left side, the belt armor pieces, etc etc. He’s very particular about that—

Well, anyway, Simon definitely has a vibe going on, but here’s a brief summary of things he seems to like:

Skirts, tunics, long shirts, and shorts (and skorts I guess), but nothing past about half his thigh, generally over the knees.

No long sleeves or pant legs (unless it’s tights when absolutely necessary).

Armor primarily to the left, unless it’s metal, in that case usually a full plate or paldron set.

Belts, hilts, belts on his arms, and neck, and hanging off of things, and legs, yeah belts—

Boots/tall socks, corded or not, and something on his forearms or wrists.

Headband! Seriously out of every Belmont he is the most dedicated to these lol.

Necklaces and beads and other little accessories and adornments are also cool.

Alrighty then, have fun Simon-ing and I encourage you to look through his or other characters’ designs and pick them apart a bit sometimes, even if it’s just through what’s on the wiki :3. If anything, I think it’s a good exercise in character design and consistency! But yeah, I wrote all this late at night and can’t think of anything else rn. If I do I’ll do a sequel I guess hehe. Either that or I might rant about another character hmmmmmmm—

[serialsunset]

Random question: which are your favorite tracks from HoD? :)

Honestly I think a lot of my favourites are other people’s favourites but I can elaborate on why. (Idk anything about music theory or language so this is vibes based)

Successor of fate is actually lower down on my list of great tracks in the game but that’s just because of its place in the game as the first area track, on it’s own I think it’s incredibly strong. I see it almost as a parallel to the theme of Simon from scv4, with its slow building intro giving way to a heroic theme. But at the same time SoF is a much less triumphant and self assured song than Simon’s, which works wonderfully for Juste given how he lives in the shadow of his legacy. Overall really great character establishing song.

Offense and defense is kind of the ‘hype’ track of the game for me. In a way it’s the most upbeat track of the game, but it’s also hard to get a handle it on with all the strange percussion and how it clashes with the instrumentation. It matches the room of illusion really well, it’s just a very quirky track that has a great sense of forward momentum with a perfect sense of unease. To me Offense and Defense fits the role of ‘castle theme’ whereas successor of fate is more of a character theme for Juste

I’ll use this part as a broad example to explain why I like even the more ignored songs on the soundtrack; the percussion is so so good. If you have any song off of the soundtrack that you think is bad or forgettable I urge you to put it on and just listen to the drums, they add so much character. Like, listen to aqueduct of dragons right now and zero in on the drums, they’re so good.

Okay so. Chapel sky. People consider it the best song in the game and I agree completely, it’s absolutely beautiful. It has a strong melody (as much as I enjoy this ost melody isn’t its strong suit) and the urgent tone of the second half is just as good as the soothing atmosphere of the first half, it ebbs and flows beautifully and it’s an absolutely perfect match for the area it’s in. But I think most importantly, it doesn’t feel out of place in the rest of the soundtrack. It still maintains that quiet unease that makes the atmosphere of the game so strong, it’s just a bit subdued here. Perfect song, it’s on several playlists, the arrange version is also beautiful

To the heart of the devils castle is a bop, man. How come nobody ever talks about this one it goes so hard. I don’t have anything deeper to say it’s just a good track. Gets me grooving.

Beloved one is another track I feel like nobody talks about, probably because it’s a character theme that you only hear in one scene (well, kinda). But it’s actually one of the longest tracks in the entire game. I think the first half of it is very strong, and it fits Lydie really well, but the second half drags a bit. However I think it’s worth remarking on because a slightly modified version of this song reappears on the soundtrack for Epilogue 2, which plays during the best ending of the game. And idk, I think it’s very sweet that ‘Beloved one’ gets reused for the ending where Lydie AND Maxim are saved, like that’s wonderful man it makes me happy.

The prologue theme/Maxims theme/the furniture room theme is THE theme of Harmony of Dissonance as far as I’m concerned. It’s such an effective track, it’s full of sorrow, dread, regret, nostalgia, and it’s all conveyed through these dissonant organ notes that are almost grating in the way they sound against each other (I know calling a song grating may seem like an insult but I swear it’s a compliment, especially as this is first and foremost a character theme, so we don’t have to hear it traversing the castle). It represents Maxims character perfectly, and it being baked into so much of the game hammers home the fact that this is all his doing. And it may sound silly but I absolutely love that it’s the theme for the furniture room. A room that’s just for Juste, that remains identical across both castles, that is one of the only safe locations in the entire place, being soundtracked by his best friend’s song of melancholy and regret. It makes me FEEL things. And it’s a perfect representation of the game as a whole.

VK2K2 is a top tier vampire killer remix and a better clock tower than the one in cotm fight me

[6ad6ro]

uh so i wanna make a little list of amazing snes games (not in any particular order) that i never played as a kid, but found later as an adult? and even so, they had this incredible false-nostalgic hold on me. like my feelings towards them are so strong it almost feels like alternate universe me cherished these as a kid. so like “snes hidden gems”, tho some of these are far from hidden: 1. demon’s crest. i JUST played through this for the first time. amazing. a fun and pleasant way to experience the otherwise insanely overly-hard ghosts n goblins universe. except better. like aesthetic magic. demon fantasy done right.

2. the legend of the mystical ninja. so as a young teen, mystical ninja starring goemon (and gga) was my fav n64 game? but i hadn’t heard of it before then. and oh god what a fun, cute, beautiful, silly little game. this first entry they had on snes really is one of the best games on the system! the music is TOO good. 3. earthbound. maybe cheating a little, bc i played this like ONCE for 10 min at a friends house. but i was v young n didn’t rly get it? tho i had the nintendo power w the scratch n sniff stuff as a kid? so the game had this super compelling, mystical aura to it. actually it felt... cursed. yeah. cursed is def the right word. i finally decided to try playing it when i was like? idk? 19? on my day off from work i just... played it. and didn’t stop. didn’t eat. didn’t sleep. just kept playing until i beat it. and now it’s debatably my fav snes game. it really is cursed tho, but in the best way.

4. yoshi’s island. LOL okay yeah i know i know. it’s FAR from unheard of. but i just never played it as a kid, aside from occasional dept store kiosks? and the fact it was SO late in snes life, and involved tech so advanced, it was almost like... it was kinda like it wasn’t an snes game at all. but rather on some in-between system. it’s like a mystical game that fell out of some portal from another universe and i love it.

5. super bonk. nobody talks about this game. nobody appreciates it. not REALLY. but for me it has this like PERFECT sound design that melds seamlessly with the artstyle and gameplay? idk what it is exactly, but i just adore it. i think about it all the time. 6. goof troop. it was game grumps’ fault. but it’s sooo good lol. idk goofy is the best okay? 7. super castlevania iv. weirdly one of the last cv i ever played. bc back when i was playing roms as a teen, looking for a fix post-sotn? cv iv seemed so... un-castlevania-like. it had this bizarrely dated, rigid feel. most cv are LOUD and FLASHY and scv4 was subtle. so i didn’t appreciate it. then one day i was hangin out w my then gf (the really awful one), and she just? gave her copy to me? she was like “no this is rly good n this is important to me so please treasure this” (even tho she probably stole it from someone). still, i took it home, and beat it in a single playthrough. it’s so GOOD. the memories of that night, playing it in darkness in my room on one of the old tube tv’s that made up my videodrome-like tv tower. still has one of the best openings to any game ever. 8. terranigma. i still haven’t beaten it fully. i’m almost afraid to finish it bc i don’t want it to end. never played this as a kid for obvious reasons. as a teen, i always confused this with secret of mana, chrono trigger, and even tales of phantasia? i played those three a lot (they’re all some of the best on the system), but terra somehow slipped through the cracks. it’s... insane how unique this game is. in a weird way i might like it better than all three of those other games. it’s that amazing. it’s so fucking abstract. i almost feel like it’s done things games even 25 years later can’t even come close to touching on. just this game. WHAT THE FUCK. i need to go back and finish it. i’m prob forgetting a lot but... please check out these wonderful games if you haven’t previously.

[ecovidasolar]

Hoy le tocó al jabón en copos. Desliza y mira más cerca. Es 100% vegetal y certificado. Con él se hacen tantísimas recetas de limpieza que cunde más de lo que cuesta. ❤️ El más fácil, diluido para hacer un multiusos o dejar tu suelo más brillante que una bola de dragón 🟠🐉 ❤️ Para una colada perfecta lo combino con percarbonato y si quieres lo trituras fino para que tenga esa apariencia como el detergente comercial. 💯 ¿Recetas? Un montón. 💯 ¿Descargables? Hoy te tuvo que llegar el del jabón por la newsletter. 💯 ¿Más info? En el blog, también tienes algunas recetas. ¡ Por una vuelta a la limpieza más sana y natural ! Quédate con la copla💃: https://www.ecovidasolar.es/blog/jabon-natural-limpieza-natural-guia-completa-usos/ (en Ecovidasolar) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch7ysG-scv4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[alucards-calm-corner]

it doesn't help that that the first video game i ever remember touching was sotn and having very fond memories of watching my dad play scv4 and the like and playing harmony of despair with him. we still bond over cv to this day and theory craft together. esp. about the war of 1999 since he adores julius over all the other belmonts

fun fact despite alucard being a chosen name for me, my middle name is a mispelling of "Carmilla" and the names of both of my brothers are references to belmonts and i have a cousin whose name is a reference to alucard

i was ahab (assigned hyperfixation at birth)

[tgleric]

The SCV4 by LaserLyte

Trampas Swanson takes the SCV4 by LaserLyte for a spin!

In the world of shooting accessories, there are literally thousands of products on the market to enhance one’s favorite firearm. The drawback to most of these wonderful additions has always been the added bulk they provide to the weapon system. Often this turns shooters “off” from considering what are actually very good tools. Recently, the boss here at The Gear Locker introduced me to the…

[thejourneyofthemagi]

This Scv4 shit is ridiculous. Leave a bit to the imagination guys! Else where's the challenge? ahaa. Who actually sits there and thinks, 'oftttt i'm desperate to see her naked, let me, someone please show me, oh please, i really want to see, does anyone have a picture, please, just a small nipple slip, oh please'... redtube.com lads. Free titties all you want. Free titties everywhere. Free titties slapping against other free titties. USE YOUR NOGGIN'! And who're the assholes who are actually posting these photos up there? what kinda ridiculous shit is that?! I have semi-naked photos of my girlfriend/ex-girlfriend and right now we're going through a pretty horrendous time. But what kind of low life sack of shit must I be to use that against her? That's something she trusted me with. Did you never have respect for your woman at all? Not only that but she has wonderful titties. Titties of glory! They're my titties. I don't want some random ass fools seeing my lady's titties just to get one up on her. No matter how much of a dick she's being. The fuck is wrong with people nowadays. Props goes out to you Scv4 ladies and how well you're handling this bunch of perverted assholes. Stay cool and titty-on!! 

[chibishortdeath]

Random tiny details I like a lot in CV4:

- you can be killed by frogs

- also tables

- and falling off the stairs

- Simon sometimes moonwalks on the stairs

- Simon really has trouble with stairs doesn’t he

- there’s a particular brick pattern in one of the backgrounds that looks like teeth

- 3/4 hanging skeletons can be ducked under without having to kill them

- if you stand in place with the whip held over your head none of Deaths projectiles can hit you

- the cute little bugs on the title screen

- the ghost dancers are named Paula Abgoul and Fred Ascare (hehehe puns)

- that bone horse in the background of the first level

- Simon just kinda flails the whip around with wild abandon when “spinning” it, like it’s barely a spin bro is just panicking

- hehehehe Simon swing!!! It’s so fun

- a lot of enemies are taller than Simon

- the sound when you jump off a treasure chest

- almost all the hand enemies don’t do any damage they just hold you in one spot

- secret room!

- the end use of Simon’s theme of course, still sad there’s no curse of man/second phase tho

There’s more but like man it’s the little things, I love this game I’m replaying it again that’s the whole context for this lol

[little-hell-x]

Now I’m fully aware that I have NOONE I ever need to justify myself or my actions to but considering I’ve just spent 20 minutes in the cold loading it up I want to clarify that the photo on my scene v4 thread of that vagina is 100% not mine at all. Fuck it, yeah all the other photos are, whatever. But that one isn’t. I wouldn’t wear that ugly as fuck nail polish either.

Moral of the story kids, don’t trust your exs friends.