Topic: Castlevania IV box art

[X]

I definitly prefer the redone art over the Simon pic above. His hair was done better and his whip was a morningstar, chain as opposed to the leather one.

-X

[Dremn]

What "redone" art?

[le052383]

I definitly prefer the redone art over the Simon pic above. His hair was done better and his whip was a morningstar, chain as opposed to the leather one.

-X

Same here.  The hair shown in the ad always bugged me when I was younger.

[le052383]

I have a sneaking suspicion that stuff wasn't done by Japanese people.  I think the more awkward stuff like the JP SCV4 box art was, however.  Wasn't the Mega Man 1 U.S. box art done by Americans?  I remember hearing that on a documentary, but I could be wrong.

Other than the ambigious anime designs like Sonic and Mario, japanese boxarts are actually a recent trend that occured in the late 90s.  Before that, videogame companies would use american artist to grab the attention of the gamers.  This was before anime was mainstream, so having anime characters on artboxes back then wouldn't attract people to the title.

Konami is one of the few companies that had good US boxart.  I don't think any of their us designed boxart were bad.  Even their Goemon turned out cool.  Capcom, unforuntately didn't 

They mostly used US art back in the 90s.  Even their post Megaman 3 covers were done by americans.  They just alter bits of megaman's face to make it more western.

However, not every artboxes back then were good.  A lot of the US boxes were terrible since the virtually all characters were drawn in a realistic adult style.  I think a lot of people complained, which promopted the companies to use the japanese covers.

[le052383]

What "redone" art?

He is referring to the final art.

[VampirehunterB]

I also loved the barbarian Belmont ilustrations, but such themes are not adaptable today..it shall stay within it's classical era. I think Kojima creates stunning illustrations which makes CV unique, hope she will continue with the CV illustrations.

[Flame]

To be honest, Barbarian Belmonts were never actually era appropriate...

[Lumas]

To be honest, Barbarian Belmonts were never actually era appropriate...

But way cooler..

[Dremn]

Barbarian Belmonts are always going to be my favorite Belmonts.

[ThePsalmOfNightfall]

barbarian belmont is the way to go!

[crisis]

[X]

Now that's...a Belmont!! 

-X

[KaZudra]

Dude those arms are so big i bet he couldn't scratch his nose...

[Abnormal Freak]

Resurrecting this thread because someone elsewhere was wondering the name of the Turtles in Time artist. Just checking to see if it's confirmed yet to be Stephen Poole or if that's the author's name of the GamePro article where that early Castlevania IV art appears. Stephen Poole is the name of an editor at GameSpot (and later Edge magazine) as I found reviews from the late '90s, so it's possible he wrote for GamePro in the mid '90s.

What would be a delicious bit of weirdness is if the artist really is Stephen Poole and it's the same guy who writes gaming articles and reviews.

Either way, I'm REOPENING THIS CASE :O because there's yet to be any concrete evidence of the artist's name.

[Somacula]

Castlevania needs to go back to that artstyle where everything was action-oriented and the dudes looked like...dudes.

-X

I didn't actually mind the art style from the Lords of Shadow artist(s). There was always this fantastical yet masculine element to them that I just find really appealing.