Joachim Armster

Joachim Armster is a vampire appearing in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, and is a former lieutenant of Walter Bernhard, lured to the promise of immortality vampirism offered. Later, after becoming a Vampire, Joachim attempted to usurp his superior, but Walter's mastery of the Ebony Stone meant that he was all but unbeatable for Joachim, and Walter defeated him with relative ease.

Amused by the fact that Joachim tried to defeat him, Walter elected to indulge his own personal form of establishing his supremecy - rather than destroy him, he imprisoned Joachim in the Dark Palace of Waterfalls, sealing one of the keys to Walter's inner sanctum in with him. As Joachim's current location is blocked off by streams of water - the touch of which is like acid to a Vampire, and legions of Walter's monsters - Joachim can never leave. Maddened by hunger, Joachim is constantly reminded of the indignity forced upon him by Walter - nothing but a roadblock for hunters Walter lures in for games of Cat and Mouse to face. Suffice to say, when encountered by Leon Belmont as the boss of the Dark Palace of Waterfalls, Joachim has ample frustration to vent, hoping to slay Leon, drain his blood and (hopefully) gain the strength necessary to break free of his prison and exact retribution on Walter.

This description is given on the official Japanese Konami website:

"A human who was made into a vampire by Walter. He harbors the ambition to defeat Walter and become the master of the castle. He freely wields five swords through great psychic power."

After finishing the game as Leon, Joachim can be used as a playable character by entering @JOACHIM on the name entry screen. There are several major changes to the gameplay, as Joachim cannot carry healing items and is physically weaker than Leon, which increases the difficulty. These disadvantages are balanced by increased speed and powerful magic attacks. There are no cutscenes to drive the plot, save for a very brief scene after defeating the final boss (in which Joachim becomes the Lord of the Castle), though the images shown during the credits differ from Leon's ending.

Other information
It might be worth noting that Joachim is the only playable villain in the Castlevania series (aside from the Lords of Shadow saga), though his antagonistic nature is softened by his somewhat sympathetic portrayal in his cutscenes, as well as his unfortunate circumstances.

There are four songs related to this character:


 * Melancholy Joachim (哀愁のヨアヒム) - played while fighting against Joachim. It can also be heard in the ending credits of Order of Ecclesia.


 * Castlevania Reincarnation - played while fighting bosses as Joachim (including the Joachim doppelganger boss). It is a remix that merges Dracula's Castle and Black Banquet, songs from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.


 * Young Nobleman of the Water Prison (水牢の貴公子) - not used in the game; available only on the sampler CD that came with the Japanese special edition of the game. A softer remix of Melancholy Joachim featuring piano and oboe.


 * Joachim of the Clear Blue Lake (透碧湖畔のヨアヒム) - not used in the game; appeared only on the Lament of Innocence soundtrack.

The hilts of his symbiotic swords are, incidentally, shaped the same as that of the Puppet Swords' central sword in Symphony of the Night.

The name Joachim is of Hebrew origin and means "God will establish." This is probably a reference to the Crusades that took place during the year 1094 in which Lament of Innocence is set, seeing as how the main goal of the campaign was to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims.

Battle Quotes

 * Die!
 * Cover me!