Inverted Dungeon Updates: 2022

December 2, 2022

It has been a little while since I updated. I recognize that. A bunch of stuff has been going on that's pulled me away from all my projects, and in the end I had to focus on other matters before I could come back here with any regularity. You can read about it over on Asteroid G to get the skinny, but that's the long and the short of it.

Still, I don't ever want to let this site sit fallow for too long, so here's a little but of an update to tide readers over. We start with a look at the 1942 flick Cat People in Horror Cinema. This film does expand the kids of lycanthropes we get to discuss on the site, which is nice, and I liked the ideas the film tried to hint at. Overall, though, it's an outdate cinematic experience that, sadly, doesn't hold up.

We also check out Ginger Snaps, a very of-its-era werewolf film. Made in 2000, this film feel s atad dated at this point, with its fashion and riot girl energy, but it still has a pretty solid story of sisters and female empowerment within.

And we have Train to Busan, a great zombie action flick from a few years ago. This one is very Korean, speaking directly to their culture and their storytelling, but that doesn't make it bad. I actually like the fact that zombies are being used to tell a non-Western story, giving the monsters even more resonance.

We also check out Silver Night Crusaders over in the Fanworks section. This is a solid game built on the assets of the original Castlevania series, putting it all together to create a very vivacious looking fan game. It's not perfect, and maybe a little hard in places, but considering this is the work of fans its little flaws are forgivable.

And we bounce over into the Literature section for American Vampire: Volume 5. The last volume was a bit of table setting for me, but this fifth volume really delivers on the the storylines we needed. It's a good capper to what was the first cycle of the series and promises much more to come in the best ways.

Finally, I want to let you all know about the upcoming FFR Rando Marathon: Winter 2022. I mentioned a while back the first ever Rando Marathon put on by that community and, now, we have the Winter edition to go along with:

FFR Rando Marathon: Winter 2022

As before, we invite everyone to come check out the marathon on the FFR Twitch Channel. The Rando Marathon will run on December 9th, 10th, and 11th. A full schedule of the event (and donation prizes) is also available Online. The marathon this time is in support of the MUSC Children's Health and SC Firefighters' Burned Children's Fund. And, yes, there will be plenty of Castlevania (and other Metroidvania) runs in the event.

September 28, 2022

The updates this week begin with Romancia, part of our continuing coverage of the Dragon Slayer series in Related Games. Romancia is an interesting game that changes up many of the mechanics and ideas of predecessor Xanadu to make a platforming-exploration game. It's one of the first true Metroidvania titles we've covered, a neat historical footnote. But as far as playing the game now, it's a bit short and shallow to really keep attention past one run or so through the title.

We also add in Wanderers from Ys, the third game from the Ys series and the one title most Western fans probably had access to play in that series. It had wide release across multiple platforms, on both sides of the pond, meaning if someone wanted to try out an Ys game this was the one they could get. Sadly, it wasn't that great.

We then move over into Horror Cinema, first for a look at Underworld: Awakening. This is the first of the Underworld films I hadn't seen before, avoiding it because the previous trilogy was utter trash, but I have to admit this was a watchable film. Not great at all, but I'd give it "passably good."

Along with that we also look at Warm Bodies, a fun little YA zombie comedy that I think a lot of people have already forgotten even existed. It isn't the best movie but it is really funny, carrying the viewer along in its YA world by grace of some really great zombie narration. It's the kind of film I like to put on when I just want to chill and laugh for a while, and I've done that a few times in the past.

Hmmm, next time I really should put in more Castlevania-focused content. We'll see what I can cook up.

September 21, 2022

We start over in the Flicks section with What We Do In the Shadows, the brilliant 2014 comedy. Based on a short film by the same name, this is one of the best vampire comedies around, finding humor in the mundanities of vampire life. It's great.

Then we move over to Related Games for a look at Xanadu: Scenario II. I hesitated whether to cover this expansion pack or not since it doesn't really feel all that connected directly to the history of Castlevania, not like the original Xanadu. And yet, this was one of the first video games to feature post-release expanded content and that seems like a milestone we have to discuss when document any history of video games.

We then venture into Konami Krazy Racers, both with that review and an overview of the game. It's a solid little kart racer showing that Konami saw what Nintendo was doing with Mario Kart and used it as a template. Frankly, though, it doesn't do enough to really step outside that mold and be truly "krazy".

September 13, 2022

While it isn't an official new game in the franchise, a trailer was released for the new Castlevania crossover into Brawlhala. Dubbed "Brawlhalla-vania", this expansion for the chibi fighting game (which looks very Smash Bros.-esque) is set to be released October 9, 2022. It at least gives fans some content to tide them over until something else trickles out from Konami.

Additionally. Marvel released their trailer for the MCU Halloween Special, Werewolf by Night. Although I'll end up covering that film on Asteroid G, I did want to mention it here because the Disney+ special looks like a fun send up of the classic monster films on the 1940s and 1950s. That's right up the alley of anyone who watches all the movies we cover on this site.

As for actual updates to the site, we start with a look at Xanadu over in Related Games. This is probably the single more formative title in the Metroidvania genre, the first game to start marrying exploration to platforming, with RPG elements thrown in. This is the game that laid the groundwork for every other Metroidvania game to come (as the genre was refined and formed into what we know today).

While I was in the Related section I also gave it a bit of a reorganization. It was starting to get unwieldy and hard to browse so hopefully this little renovation helps on that front some.

Then we go for some deep-cut Castlevania content with an overview of Sexy Parodius, along with a review of that title. It's not a bad game if all you want is more Parodius but the few new things aren't enough to change up or expand the game enough to feel like a truly new and exciting entry.

Finally, we take an overdue look at the compilation portion of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. We've reviewed the various games included in this package separately, but as we've been going through and looking at other compilations on the site we felt it was time we handled this one as well.

August 31, 2022

A quick second update this week (before we head into September) starts with a dive into obscurities over in the Related Games section with The Battle of Olympus. This isn't a great game but it's a fun little NES Metroidvania title that showed a lot of promise. Not that anyone really remembers the game anymore.

We also have a look at the earliest game in Nihon's Dragon Slayer series, the eponymous Dragon Slayer. This is a pretty rudimentary game by today's standards, having been released back in 1984, but it does show how elements of action. adventure, and role playing could all work together to create something different from what came before. You want to find the roots of Metroidvania titles, you have to start looking in games like Dragon Slayer first.

And, well, since we're looking at the early beginnings of what would eventually become the Metroidvania genre, it's hard to go much earlier, or more formative, than 1980's Adventure. I won't lie, I played the crap out of this game when I was a wee one as there was something special about the game. It wasn't like anything else at the time on the Atari, having this special mix of elements that clearly were pointing the way to the future.

Now, for the main Castlevania meat: as I noted before Grimoire of Souls is now done and finished so I'm working on integrating all its content into the site. As such we have basic updates on the Cast Bios for Albus, Alucard, Charlotte Aulin, Johnathan Morris, Lucy Westenra, Maria Renard, Richter Belmont, Shanoa, Simon Belmont, and Trevor Belmont.

I also rewrote the bio for Hermina Lecarde, updated Death "The Grim Reaper", Dracula, and Soma Cruz, and then put in boss battle info (and limited story details) on Annette Renard, Balore, Carmilla, Gergoth, and Slogra and Gaibon. Sadly this also means that, due to the fact Seward is Death, I've deleted Seward's page (as his content is now on Death's page instead).

Then we turn to the Chronology section as I also updated the 2037 AD with the updates to the Grimoire of Souls story. That pretty much covers all the basic updates I needed to do for the game, at least until I can finally play it and do a proper review.

August 29, 2022

We open with Netflix's new vampire film, Day Shift. This is a movie with a lot of good ideas that get squandered on a bad family-drama / buddy-comedy movie that wastes the talent of the stars and the time of the audience. But hey, at least the action was good.

Then we turn to a film I kept intending to watch and review but... I just also kept getting distracted time and again: Dracula III: Legacy. I hated the original Dracula 2000 but I rather enjoyed the first direct-to-video sequel. Sadly, this third film hardly manages to live up to even the meager bar set by that second film.

Speaking of bad series continuations, we have the Underworld prequel Rise of the Lycans. None of these movies have been great, but this film suffers from the fact that all the information we really needed to know was covered in the previous movies. This film is decently made but totally irrelevant and it fails to come up with any reason for its own existence.

And while we finish up our look in the Flicks section we complete our coverage of True Blood with overviews of the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons.

Heading over to the Metroid section, we take a look at MFOR - Metroid Fusion Open Randomizer. This is a pretty kick ass randomizer tat really opens up the game play of this great GBA game. It's pretty wild how open the game can get through a randomizer, and this hack really pushes the original game as far as it can go.

Finally, for just a little bit of Castlevania, I did want to note that the mobile title Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls has finally received its proper ending. I still have yet to see that ending, ind you, because the game is tied to Apple Arcade and I don't have an iDevice to play it on. One day, though, I will finish up coverage on that title properly. One day...

August 11, 2022

This week we wander over into the Reviews to continue our look at the various compilations of Konami games over the years. This time we review the last of the Konami GB Collections with the Game Boy Color Vol. 4. Honestly, I haven't been super impressed by these collections and this last edition continues that trend. It's fine, but the color graphics don't really add much to the experience, at least for the games people would actual care about.

I also finally managed to get coverage together for Jikkyo Power Pro Wrestling '96: Max Voltage with both a review and an overview of the title. This one was hard to get into as it's a wrestling game and I don't play those, but I did my best to treat the title fairly.

Speaking of things that are hard to care about: Underworld: Evolution. We add this sequel to the Horror Cinema area, but mostly I'm glad I don't have to watch it again after this. It was fine, maybe even a slight improvement over the previous film, but that's hardly saying much. It was still a tedious and messy affair.

Finally we also get updates to our continuing coverage of True Blood with overviews of seasons three and four. These are middling seasons that don't really play to the show's strengths, but then any long running series eventually runs into that problem at some point.

August 4, 2022

We start this update off over in the Related Games section where we take a long overdue look at the third main entry in the Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. This is a pretty fun title (by the metrics of the hard-as-nails franchise) with just enough accessibility settings to actually make the entry fun to play. A really solid SNES game.

Also added to that section is Faxanadu, the Famicom / NES-exclusive addition to the Dragon Slayer series. Just adding in Faxanadu actually opens a big can of worms as now we will have to, at some point, cover the other games in the Dragon Slayer series. I'm going to stick just to the titles that tread into the Metroidvania genre, so some of the more out there titles, like the full-fledges JRPGs and tactical sims won't get coverage on this site (at least not any time soon).

Over in the Metroid section I've added coverage of randomizers and we start that off with a look at MZM Randomizer, a Zero Mission randomizer (and currently the only one I can find). It's not perfect, and sometimes generates unbeatable seeds, but there's no denying that when you get a good run the game plays really well.

In Horror Cinema we continue working our way through True Blood with a second season addition to that review. We then turn to Van Helsing, a movie that manages to make True Blood seem fantastic by comparison.

Oh, and while we're on the topic of vampire cinema, I forgot to mention last time that I reviewed Morbius over on Asteroid G. I forgot because it's an utterly forgettable movie (and more a lame superhero film than horror cinema), but just in case you wanted my thoughts on the film, that's where it's at.

And in news that should surprise absolutely no one, Netflix has already canceled First Kill. I don't expect anyone will be too shocked by the news considering Netflix's track record of killing just about every show they launch.

That's enough for today. I might do a more normal update next week, but I did enjoy just following my bliss this time around.

July 27, 2022

I'm working on getting my schedule ironed out so I can try and get back on a true weekly schedule for updates to the site. Trying to motivate myself on weekends to write isn't working so I have to find a way to get into "focus mode". Maybe doing these updates during the week will work better. We'll see.

We continue to populate the main sections of the site, filling in Bios with a look at Satan's third and final acolyte, Guido Szandor. We then load up Cream Pies into the Arsenal. And we take a trip to the Aqueduct and Sunken City over in Locations (which finishes the "Outer Grounds" section of that part of the site).

Then we get to Wolf, our new review added into the Horror Cinema section. This is a film I'd forgotten even existed, a horror film that left my mind as soon as I was done watching it back in the day. Going back and seeing it again, I can understand how that happened: this is a thoroughly tired and muddled werewolf movie that would have been much better if the wolf wasn't in the film at all. Still, the cast is great and that does count for something.

Speaking of terrible werewolf movies: Underworld. It's been a long time since I'd watched any of these films and, frankly, I didn't miss them. Even this first film is just a stupid and tedious affair. Wow.

We then head back to the 1980s for The Hunger, a vampire film starring David Bowie (and some other people who aren't Bowie). It's very arty, and very 1980s, and not a bad flick to watch once, but I doubt I'll go back to see it again. Not like Only Lovers Left Alive, a fantastic vampire film featuring Tilda Swinton (who is just as weird and fabulous as Bowie).

And then, because I was bored and needed something to have on while I worked on other stuff, we have a look at True Blood. I cover the series as a whole (which I watched once, a while ago) as a full review and then go into detail on the first season of the series (which I just watched through recently). We'll have more seasons added to this article as I managed to get through (read: suffer through) the show.

That seems like enough for today. Let's see if I can get back on a schedule sometimes soon.

July 5, 2022

After a much enjoyed couple of weeks off, we're back with more content for the site. Before we get to page updates, though, I wanted to share some great vods from the FFR Rando Marathon now that they're up on the FFR YouTube Channel. The marathon had a ton of good runs (all available on the full playlist of the event). However, if you're looking for good Castlevania (and related games) vods, allow me to direct you to runs of:

Again, all the runs were totally worth watching, but if you just want content more in line with this site, there's your recommended watching.

Now, onto actual updates for ICVD. We begin with our usual assortment of site content additions. A new Bio for Satan's second acolyte, Nergal Meslamstea, adding Crossbows into the Arsenal, and then the Locations section gains the Cemetery.

Finally we have the last book in Christopher Moore's vampire trilogy, Bite Me: A Love Story. Honestly, I really didn't like this book. It has some good ideas but it's all marred by a rushed and over-stuffed story that frankly didn't need to happen. A sad way to end this series of novels.

June 12, 2022

Okay, okay. I know I said I wasn't going to do much this week on the site but then Netflix announced Castlevania: Nocturne, their follow-up to the very well liked Castlevania anime adaptation. I had to report on that and, thus, I created proper series pages for both shows (something I'd been meaning to do anyway, so this was a win-win, really).

But since I was in here anyway, let's get a little extra site maintenance in with a new Bio for Zephyr, along with Bombs (and Other Explosives) in the Arsenal section. And then we have a new addition to the Horror Cinema section with First Kill, a decent-ish little vampire/vampire slayer romance that quick runs aground in its back-half of episodes.

And now we should expect me to be quiet for a little bit...

June 5, 2022

I took last week off to work on other projects, but we're back this week with another update. We have the usual additions to our sections -- a new Bio, this one for Raisa Volkova; added the Bibles to the Arsenal; and then with the Locations section we add he Courtyard.

Along with that we visit the second book in Christopher Moore's vampire trilogy, You Suck: A Love Story. I actually think in generally this is an improved adventure for the series, showing a willingness to reinvent the setting and explore new angles. There are parts of it that don't work (especially two characters in particular), but this is overall a very enjoyable book.

Meanwhile, I would expect that next week I will be rather busy and won't get another update going. Might be a couple of weeks, in fact. I'm working with the Final Fantasy Randomizer community on their first ever charity marathon:

Rando Marathon 2022

We invite everyone to come check out the marathon on the FFR Twitch Channel on June 17th, 18th, and 19th. A full schedule of the event (and donation prizes) is also available Online.

So, yeah, I'll be back with more updates once I'm not quite so incredibly busy.

May 22, 2022

So despite my intention to try and get weekly updates doing, life got in the way. I have a whole post about it over on my other site, Asteroid G, but the short explanation is that my wife and I are foster parents and we have a newborn we took care of for two months. That, followed by catching COVID (a mild case, thankfully), and then trying to get caught up on stuff and get the writing groove back, but a real block on my time. I am back now, though, and we'll see just what we can do for updates now.

To start, let's get through the basic content additions I want to try and do every update. We have a Bios page for Abaddon, the Lord of the Abyss. In the Arsenal we take a look at Axes of the throwing variety. And then over in Locations we have a long and lengthy look at the various chapels in the series.

Finally, as we expand the various sections of the site, we have Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story for the Literature section. This is a fun and silly little book, a vampire novel that doesn't take the genre too seriously. It may not be everyone's cup of tea (too silly to be horror, not broad enough to be true comedy) but it is a fun little book that easily passes the time.

March 20, 2022

While I'm getting back into the flow of updates I did want to still get some good meaty coverage going. To that end, we first have a look at the Konami GB Collection, Vol. 1 for the Game Boy Color. We already covered the Game Boy version of this collection, but I gotta tell ya that version was better. The GBC edition is just a muddy mess without any of the bonus features that really made the collection shine. So sad.

We then bounce over to the Bios section where we add in Dragan, the last of the named, voiced characters in the Netflix Anime. This does, in fact, complete out main coverage of characters from that show, marking another milestone for the site. I do still have one or two more things I want to write for that series before we call it done (at least until the next spin-off season starts up), but we have the Netflix show in a very good place now.

Finally, we take a look at American Vampire: Volume 4 over in the Literature section. Although the last two volumes hadn't been as good, this fourth book adds a lot of solid, new material to the series and makes for a really good collection of stories.

March 11, 2022

So I had to take a couple of weeks off from most of my sites for personal reasons. Things came up that I had to deal with and then, once that was done, I just didn't have the brain power for much else. Now, however, I'm more like a human being again so let's get our weekly updates back on track.

It's a smaller update group this time as I get back in the groove, but we can at least kick things off with a review of the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Randomizer over in Fanworks. This is a good randomizer, limited only (presumably) by how the original game was created, but well worth checking out even if it doesn't seem as "full featured" as other randomizers for the series.

Then we head over to the Arsenal section for a look at Maria's special animal friends, the Sacred Beasts.

And then we take a trip into the Literature section for a review of American Vampire: Volume 3. This is easily the weakest volume of the set so far, a series of stories with cool ideas but a lack of direction to guide us forward. American Vampire has to do better to maintain our attention.

Finally, we review The Return of the Living Dead over in the Horror Cinema section. This is a film I remember enjoying back in the day, but going back to it now (with the zombie comedy genre having many more entries in the interim), the comedy of this film just feels flat and silly now.

February 21. 2022

This week we start off in the Fanworks section with a look at the recently released Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Randomizer. It's a solid randomizer that adds new life to the second GBA game in the series, and better it actually makes that game fun to play. Who knew it could happen?

We then venture over to Locations to take on the Docks and Haunted Ship. This zone isn't featured as frequently in the series but it does have an evocative vibe that's made it a memorable zone for many players. Along side this we also visit the Arsenal section for a look at the rare lightning-type sub-weapon, Agunea.

Traveling over to Bios we then add in Gergoth, our first (and so far only) dinosaur in the series.

February 14, 2022

A little late with this update. I hit a bit of a wall trying to get myself motivated to work on bios for the Netflix series. For some reason I just don't want to write these things but, eventually, I got it together and did what had to be done: bio updates for Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard, along with a new bio for Zamfir. I'm sure there are probably a couple of other characters from the anime I need to cover, but this is most of the coverage for that series finally tackled. Hurray!

Horror Cinema sees an update this week with a look at Vampires: Los Muertos. This sequel to John Carpenter's 1998 film probably didn't need to exist, and certainly no one was craving a second visit to this world, but hey, it's actually not that bad a movie all things considered.

Delving into Castlevania content, our visit to the Arsenal gives us Staffs and Clubs, the last primary attack page that needed to be added to the game, a big accomplishment indeed. We also take a trip into the Gardens via the Locations section, fleshing out that area even further.

The Related Games section saw the addition of a classic title: Knightmare: Demon Castle Legend. This is a fun little game, a top-down shooter that somehow manages to feel like the inspiration for so much of Konami's work to come. Plus, it's a lot of fun.

February 4, 2022

We start with a look at a Related Game, 2018's Timespinner. This is a title I really should have played sooner, a fantastic Metroidvania that, for whatever reason, I just never picked up even though I should have. Well, I finally did, and it's fantastic.

We also review Night of the Living Dead 3D over in the Horror Cinema section. It's a passable movie, and not the worst zombie film I've ever watched, but it's not good by any stretch of the imagination.

Moving over to the Arsenal, we have a look at the Tomes of Magic, Charlotte's main attack. This is a fairly new addition to the Castlevania series, but one appropriate for the young sorceress. Then in Locations we visit the oft featured Forest to spy it's many incarnations, alongside its serene beauty among the trees.

And finally we have a little something special for the Bios area: a look at the bonus character modes for the series. It occurred to me that while we've touched upon the characters, and reviewed the main games, we'd never really analyzed each bonus character and reviewed their modes. Now we have, in a comprehensive list.

January 28, 2022

Today we start with a visit to the Marsh over in the Locations section. This is the all-encompassing look at the swamps, marshes, and bogs of the series, packed with plant life and mud men all out to kill you.

We then gear up over in the Arsenal, picking up our Katanas. These swords are mainstays of the series even if they aren't as prolific as other types of swords in the various games.

We also finally get around to reviewing Dracula 3000 over in the Horror Cinema section. This film is, frankly, very, very bad and not even in a fun way. I've sat through this film twice (both times for this site over the years) and now, having done that, I don't want to do it again.

And then we head into the Fanworks section for a look at Castlevania: Call of Chaos. This is a Dracula character mod for Aria of Sorrow, and it's not bad. I just didn't feel like it went far enough with the character, not in the substantial ways that hacker caminopreacher's other great game, the Persephone Hack, managed.

Lastly we have our Bio updates, this time covering Death's story from season four, along with new addition Ratko.

January 21, 2022

We start off in Arsenal this week, fleshing out our collection of edged weapons with a look at Great Swords and Battle Axes. There are a lot of edged weapons and we aren't even done yet (still have Katanas to go), but we're getting there.

In the Locations section we add in a visit to the Mountains, the high peaks of the Borgo Pass. We also have a solid set of Bio updates as I continue to pump out all the characters from the Netflix series. This week brings up season four updates for Dracula, Greta, Lisa, and Saint Germain.

Then we head into Horror Cinema for a look at the recent Night of the Animated Dead. This remake of the classic Night of the Living Dead is just such an utter waste of time in every respect. Whatever you do, don't watch this film.

Finally we finish out with a Review of the Konami GB Collection, Vol. 3. This set, like the one we looked at before, includes on Castlevania title in it: Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. That's the highlight of the set, honestly, and that game alone doesn't make it worth grabbing this cart off the used collector's market.

January 14, 2022

This week I suppose I have to start us off by acknowledging that Konami has announced their plans for celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Castlevania franchise and it is Nets. I'm not going to link over to Konami's announcement or say anything else about it past this post, I just wanted to take a moment to state that NFTs are scams and it's pretty sad that Konami (like so many other game companies) has gotten involved with them. Oh well.

Meanwhile, if you want a good way to celebrate this year, Limited Run Games is publishing a physical copy of Castlevania: Requiem. It is PS4 exclusive (presumably because of some license deal between Konami and Sony) but anyone that absolutely needs to have a physical edition of every Castlevania release (I'm one of those people) should be happy to have this. Now, Konami, put out Adventure ReBirth in some physical form!

Onto real content for the site, we start off in the Arsenal section with a discussion of swords. This is one of the lengthier pages and it also inspired me to go back to the polearms page and adjust that as well with more information. We also go into the Locations section, first for an update to The Village to add the bosses for each stage to the information provided, and then to put up a new page for the River.

We then cover a couple more Bios from the Netflix show, doing updates for Hector and Isaac. While this doesn't finish out the bios for that series, we do have complete coverage for the Council of Sisters side of the series, which I am quite please about.

Then, in Literature, we continue our run through American Vampire with a look at Volume 2. This volume still shows many of the strengths of the series, but this particular book has a lack of focus that, hopefully, the series is able to recover from.

And finally we head into Horror Cinema for a review of 2010's The Dead. This is a film that really understands slow zombies and uses the monsters effectively. However, the character drama and deeper story just isn't there. It's a solid zombie trip but not a film I think everyone will enjoy.

January 7, 2022

We're going to try and do weekly updates once again, make sure this site gets nice and fleshed out. I'd love to see the Cast Bios, Arsenal, and Locations sections all get completed out by the end of the year, so part of the goal is to make sure each of those pages gets at least one update each week. Steady progress!

To that end, let's begin with an update for the Arsenal section, where we provide a length discussion on the Alucard Spear before touching upon various other polearms as well. We also have an update for the Locations section discussing the Village on the outskirt's of Dracula's realm. It's really two villages, Warakya and the burning Aljiba, and we touch upon both.

This is then followed by updates for the Bios section as I finally get back to doing the necessary work of covering the Netflix Anime. We have bio updates for Carmilla, Morana, and Striga to bring them all up through their stories in fourth season (although admittedly Morana's and Striga's updates are the same as they had he same storyline in the fourth season).

We then move to Reviews for a look at the Konami GB Collection, Vol. 1, the Game Boy version. This set is pretty bare-bones, but not bad for what it is. There is also a Game Boy Color version, but we're going to review that separately (since there's enough differences between the two to warrant two reviews).

Meanwhile, over in Literature we have a new series added in: American Vampire, a great comic with an interesting idea. We start that series off with American Vampire: Volume 1 and I'm already deep into reading the series so expect more updates to come.