Joachim Armster



Joachim Armster is a vampire appearing in the Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. He serves as one of the boss characters in the game; when Leon Belmont encounters him in the Dark Palace of Waterfalls (or Labyrinth) area, he hints that he fought with Walter Bernhard, the master of the castle, and has been imprisoned as punishment.

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, 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 (thus far), though his evil nature is softened by his somewhat sympathetic portrayal in his cutscenes.

There are four songs related to this character:
 * Melancholy Joachim (&#21696;&#24833;&#12398;&#12520;&#12450;&#12498;&#12512;) - played while fighting against Joachim
 * Castlevania Reincarnation - played while fighting bosses as Joachim (including the Joachim doppleganger 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 (&#27700;&#29282;&#12398;&#36020;&#20844;&#23376;) - 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.

Joachim's Japanese voice actor is Kamiya Hiroshi (神谷浩史). His English voice actor is Liam O'Brien.