I consider games in which the whip starts out as a chain whip (HoD, RoB, Dracula X, SoTN, PoR, AoS, DoS) to do so because either the whip did not revert back to its standard leather whip form since the last game, or the hero powered it up to its chain whip form before the game even begun. The whip might have "permanently" maintained its chain whip form after the events of Simon's Quest. The only games after Simon's Quest featuring a leather whip are Bloodlines (maybe because he's a Morris, it starts out as a Leather Whip again, though it's still a useless chain whip for Jonathan at first later on), Castlevania 64 (which might not be canon), and Circle of the Moon (might not be the Vampire Killer and might not be canon). All earlier games feature a leather whip, at least to start out with.