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Description
The scene depicts the final battle between Julius Belmont and Count Dracula in 1999, where Dracula finally perished once and for all. This event is spoken about through hints in enemy descriptions and is described in detail in Dawn of Sorrow's library. Konami, however, never developed the game for this event, leaving it up for fans' imaginations.
About the image itself, this is the first time I mix digital art and pixel art.
Julius, Dracula, the red zombies, the impaled people, the sea, the HUD and the castle are all pixel art made through the old fashioned way. The moon, the clouds and the mountains are digital art, treated with color reduction and palette management to feel just like Konami-made Castlevania backgrounds feel.
This is just the coolest god damned thing. That form of Dracula is absolutely impeccable. I used to think the ultimate form of Dracula would be an actual dragon, given the name, but also if you slap bat wings on a wolf you're already half there. But this? This takes a similar idea but makes it more like a Goetic demon or a Ghidorah or something. And if it was just the monster sprite it'd already be perfect, but this whole mockup with the level design and Julius and the blood zombie things... just... just amazing. You took the forest of the impaled - which is already a perfect setting for a final confrontation with Dracula - and turned it into this Legion/Godzilla creepypasta thing where like the innumerable souls make up the landscape. I mean... it looks like to me he's in this blood sea, and I guess the blood leaks from the impaled bodies of him innumerable victims, and then like, the blood sustains his form, but like because it's all haunted supernatural blood or whatever it's got this life force in it, and the souls that make it up are rising to attack you, or something, but also it's like all under Dracula's control. I mean like I'm just interpreting what I see but the fact that this single frame indicates so much of the scenario and even mechanics of this fantasy boss fight is really powerful.
Soary if I'm gushing too much this is just honestly so damn cool.