Those of you who know my taste in video games probably know that I’m a fan of the Castlevania franchise, including, from what I’ve played, the alternate continuity that launched with Lords of Shadow in 2010. Yet, for some reason, I never actually got around to playing Castlevania: Lament of Innocence on the PlayStation 2. I actually own the game, and I’ve played 2005’s Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (a direct sequel to Dracula’s Curse, set in 1479), but this game has eluded me ever since its initial release.

Released in 2003, Lament of Innocence is an origin story for the main continuity, taking place in the year 1094 and introducing us to Leon Belmont and his friend Mathias Cronqvist. The game tells the origin of the Vampire Killer whip, where Dracula came from, and the tale of the Belmonts’ centuries-long feud with the prince of darkness.

As the game begins, Leon and Mathias’s military company return from campaigns in the Middle East only to find monsters run amok in their domains. The Church, busy fighting “heathens,” chooses not to direct resources to a monster problem in the European continent. Mathias, grieving from his wife’s sudden passing, seems unable to help, but one day seeks out Leon to tell him that Leon’s betrothed, Elizabetha, has been kidnapped and taken to the Forest of Eternal Night — the domain of a powerful Vampire Lord named Walter Bernhard. Our journey begins as Leon arrives at a cabin within the woods, meets with a man who’s been charged by the domain’s master with equipping those who venture into the realm with what they would need to stand a chance, and tells him that all of this is a game to the vampire. Leon receives a whip infused with the power of alchemy and sets out into the castle.

It seems that our goal is to find five magical orbs to unlock the path deep into the main castle, and in this video, we get through the training area and take on a good portion of the House of Sacred Remains.

The game is being sampled at 3072×2668 and was encoded by YouTube at 4K Ultra-HD. The video is crisp and clear, with the only limiting factor here being that the bit rate was capped at Twitch’s standard cap, so it isn’t as perfect as it could be.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and stay tuned for more fun like this!