Hammer

For the weapon type, see Cudgel.

For other uses, see Hammer (disambiguation).

Hammer
Japanese name(s)	ハマー Hamā
Role(s)	Merchant Soldier Informant
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Date of birth	2001
Age	34 in 2035 (AoS) 35 in 2036 (DoS) 36 in 2037 (Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku)
Status	Alive
Weapon(s)	RPG (not used)
Firstappearance	Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Appearances	2035: Aria of Sorrow 2036: Dawn of Sorrow 2037: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku
Partnerships	Soma Cruz (friend) Yoko Belnades (love interest)
Dialogue	Dialogue page
Japanese voice(s)	Tetsu Inada
Music theme	Hammer Company (AoS) Equipment Discussion (DoS)

"Oh! What's a child like yerself doing in a place like this?"

— Hammer to Soma Cruz in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Hammer (ハマー, Hamā^?) serves as the vendor to Soma's journeys and is generally a less serious character in the Sorrow sub-series.

History

Hammer is initially a soldier in the military and he is sent to the Hakuba Shrine in 2035 to investigate the events there. He is magically transported into Castlevania alongside all the other characters and he must be rescued by Soma Cruz from one of the castle's boss monsters. Hammer reveals that he has been thinking about quitting the army and opening up his own shop, and he decides to set up a stall at the castle's front gate to sell Soma powerful items and potions he had found previously for gold that Soma racks up during his quest in the castle. He makes deals with Soma throughout the 2035 event and he is eventually transported out of Castlevania alongside everyone else once Soma is victorious.

In 2036, Hammer has left the military and is acting as an independent merchant. He locates the giant Castlevania replica constructed by the cult that is after Soma, and Soma soon makes him give that information so that Soma can find the castle and take the fight to them. Hammer follows and decides to set up a shop at the base of the castle, much like he did the year earlier, and Soma regularly comes to him to buy the potions and equipment Hammer acquired previously. Hammer displays a not-so-subtle crush and affection for Yoko Belnades, who has a shop facing his nearby, and Soma must contend with their concerns for each other the entire game.

According to a text dump of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Hammer was likely to be included as a playable character in the hidden Julius Mode. Julius Mode in this game is very much like Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse: Trevor/Julius Belmont, Sypha/Yoko Belnades, and Alucard. Thus, Hammer would have been Grant Danasty's counterpart, as stated by programmer Shūtarō Īda, who said he was planning to put components of Grant to base the gameplay which was not finalized by the final project date. In addition, Soma's cut opening line to Hammer before the battle implied that Soma, or rather, Dracula, didn't bother to address Hammer by name just saying "Come on, human!".

Appearances

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Soma meets Hammer after defeating the Great Armor in the Study. He introduces himself and then heads for his shop near the entrance. From this point on, Soma can talk with Hammer whenever he is at the entrance. Hammer sells a variety of maps, use items, weapons and equipment. More powerful items become available as Soma defeats certain bosses or meets certain conditions. The most expensive item at Hammer's shop is the Soul Eater Ring, which at 300,000 gold, is 20 times more expensive than any other item at the shop. Soma can sell almost any item he has in his inventory for half of its purchasing price (does not include souls).

Hammer's shop features a rather bizarre glitch where, if the player has exactly two items in their inventory, it is possible to press R and then move the cursor outside the menu area onto Hammer's portrait to sell Soma's vertical and horizontal coordinates as if they were items. This will jump Soma across the room when he exits the store and has the more useful side-effect of giving him 255 Potions. It should be noted these are two specific "items" and selling some of the other "items" in this menu will crash the game when Soma exits the room, as they are data like the memory address for the current room.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Hammer sets up shop again in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. His shop is located in The Lost Village right across from Yoko's shop and is available right after the first boss battle against the Flying Armor. He sells much the same kind of stuff he did in Aria of Sorrow.

One new feature is he became interested in a crypto-zoological newspaper, which can give hints on how to find rare monsters. Other issues can be found elsewhere in the castle.

Most basic weapon types in their class are available in Hammer's shop, which can be fused into greater weapons at Yoko's shop. Some more advanced weapons can also be found. Of note is several kinds of throwing weapons and guns that cannot be fused are now available at the shop.

The Soul Eater Ring is still the most expensive item at his shop.

Shop

Main article: Hammer/Shop

Quotes

Note: If quotes are separated, then someone else talks between them (save for shop).

Aria of Sorrow

• (Subsequent times) Welcome back.

Shop menu

• (BUY) Wanna buy somethin'?
• I'll give ya a good deal.
• (SELL) If ya have somethin' of value,
• I'll buy it of ya for a fair price.
• (EXIT) Ya leavin' already?

Trivia

• Hammer seems to be quite jealous of Genya Arikado (if the player talks to Hammer after encountering Arikado in the Demon Guest House, he will refer to Arikado as a "pretty boy", since Yoko Belnades is "always" following him).
• Chronologically, Hammer is the final merchant to appear in the Castlevania series; Rinaldo Gandolfi from Lament of Innocence is the first.
• In the game data of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, there are some unused texts, indicating that Hammer was originally planned to be playable in Julius Mode, but was scrapped. There are even voice clips (specifically the #72(US)/#101(JP) one) where Dark King Soma seems to be speaking to a common human.
  • Later, in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, the audio voice files and unused character cards imply that Hammer was originally planned to be a playable character in downloadable content alongside Julius Belmont and Yoko Belnades. However, in the release of these downloadable contents, he was not available, and then, Konami announced on February 3, 2011 that "The Legend of Fuma" (Chapter 11) and Getsu Fuma would be the last DLC pack for the game.
  • The same would later go to Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, as he was slated to appear as an Assist Summon alongside Mina Hakuba. However, Konami announced on September 9, 2020 that service for the game would be temporarily discontinued until August 13, 2021 for its re-release in September 17, 2021, and since subsequent updates, no new characters had been revealed.
  • In the "Staff credits" feature of Castlevania Dominus Collection, after demonstrating the three protagonist teams fighting enemies, they are defeated by three different Deaths, and then Hammer first rescues the protagonists with Super Potions, then eliminates the Deaths with a missile barrage mixed with Claimh Solais, Gungner and Golden Axe. He then gets applauded by the protagonist and a kiss from Yoko. It turns out that the above story is his daydream in the shop while Yoko is unhappy.
• His name is probably a reference to Hammer Film Productions, a British film production company best known for a series of Gothic horror films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s, many of these involving classic horror characters such as Count Dracula, Baron Frankenstein and the Mummy.
• Hammer resembles Umibozu from the City Hunter series; besides being bald men dressed in military fatigues, both are shy with women.

External links

• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow FAQ/Walkthrough by Devin Morgan at GameFAQs