Hi, Gemini. Thanks for the compliments, all.
Update: A lot of progress has been made this week. An entirely new area has been designed and I must say I believe it looks better than my previous stage artwork. We've incorporated the help of another sprite artist, to help me with character/enemy animations. So far he has produced very positive results.
This saves me a lot of headache, since now I can devote most of my energy to tiling and stage development and not worry about spriting so much.
The hero has undergone some drastic changes. No more is he an obvious edit of official art, but uses entirely original animation frames. Standing, walking, attacking, and running, jumping, crouching, etc., etc.
The whip has been officially removed as the primary weapon. The hero uses an assortment of different weapons. While the game looks similar to Castlevania, we want to deviate as far away from Konami trademarks as much as possible, for obvious legal reasons.
I don't think I will post anymore screens publicly, as not to spoil anything, but for those of you who would like to see new art (spoilers), just send me a PM and request it. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.