Will add the rest of the art later.
Joachim Armster (of Lament of Innocence fame) is a fairly interesting guy. A vampire, after he was "made" by Walter (the villain of the piece) Jo tried to rebel against his master, and lost. Oddly, because the Jo-mode fight with Walter is rather easy so long as you stay clear of Walter himself, which is easy to do with psychic projectiles. So Jo was imprisoned for ever in the "Dark Palace of the Waterfalls", aka the sewage system of Walter's castle. Over which he now presides as high king, one presumes in a i-dare-you-to-tell-me-i'm-in-a-sewer way.
There are several theories as to why exactly it is he can't get out of the area... one is that, being a vampire, Joachim can't cross the water, and the way out of the waterfalls area goes through a narrow bridge over a gushing river. Another is that all this time he hadn't realised the door opened the other way.
Either way, Joachim is stuck there eternally. So naturally instead of getting a hand from the first person that ventures down to his prison (ie. excuse me... just how did you get through that door? You don't say.. ...mind if I follow holding your hand?), he can't wait to fight you as soon as look at you. That's what you call pent-up rage.
Joachim also has psychic powers and floats... and has five swords that float more or less of their own accord due I presume to his overall psychicness. Their names are Betsy, Charles, Fafrit, Knowles and Macdoogal. The jury is out on whether they have individual personalities, but, it's not unlikely considering how long Joachim was imprisoned with just them for company and how boring that can be.
Jo is a very emotional guy, in a very teenage way. When things particularly upset him and he is overwhelmed by powerful feelings of angst, he tends to tear his pants off dramatically (it's ok, he's got a skirt) and go to hug a head in some dank corner somewhere. Or possibly suck his thumb.
This may seem a bit illogical to the average teenager, but it is rather dramatic when you see it, and Jo really isn't one for being logical. Years underground with nothing but mould and blockages to fight can do that to a person, living or otherwise. You may also wonder where we get our information.
There is very scarce official information out on Joachim Armster, but what we know so far has been gathered from pretty much every source available, with a good healthy dose of hypothesizing and inferring by rational professionals. One particular official artwork of Jo, from the Lament of Innocence soundtrack, went a long way to explaining a lot about him. If you haven't seen it, here's an artistic interpretation: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4972/1637/1600/98783.0.jpg
Considering all information we have on him, it is fairly safe to assume Joachim is not all right in the head. This is true for pretty much all vampires, who'd probably be a lot more formidable if they weren't so rabid and lacking in common sense. In fact Joachim really likes beheaded heads (from what we can gather from his art). Some say he uses them as soft toys for company when he sleeps... others... don't like to talk about it. Maybe he keeps them for the company... or for a light snack. We may never know.
Just WHERE he gets these heads is a mystery. Some suggest he can send his swords out and stretch his psychic power quite a distance and behead the men of some tiny fishing village down on the coast. One theory goes that Joachim spends the best part of a day, when in a particularly foul mood, throwing pebbles (psychically) at the peasantry and watching them look around for the culprit and crying out in glee, "IT WAS ME!!! HAHahahahaa~!!"
If true, one truly feels for this character and sympathises in his wanting of revenge against Walter. Maybe one day when his wish comes true and he wins, he'll sit on the throne and have peasants marched into his throne room... and throw pebbles at them in person, and laugh just as much. No good abusing your power if nobody knows it was you.
He is also terrified of candles... something you will also testify to when you play in Jo mode and face a row of candles. Watch as he locks on and circles facing each one with deep suspicion, before seeing the next and doing the same. Some suggest that, back in the day when Jo wasn't into the whole subservient vampire thing, he marched up to Walter's office and was just about to hand in his resignation when, from behind a candle, Walter jumped out and surprised poor Jo with a fist straight to his chin. As the law of nature dictates, all beings and things with immense psychic power are doomed to be physically pansies. Forensic evidence shows Walter may well have danced in evil glee over Joachim's unconscious self before quite possibly flushing him down the toilet.
If the fishermen theory is false then, quite likely Walter disposes of the bodies of his victims in this way too, once he has tired of laughing at their corpses. After all, Jo needs heads and heads don't grow on trees. And... y'know... they go off after a while.
So, insofar as we can decipher it, that is the life of Joachim Armster. Once again the game is not very giving... the few hints of what could have been an interesting plot embellishment (even ONE line wouldn't have hurt somewhere) are in the enemy description. D: Or the manual.
He also has a theme, musically, that repeats often on the LoI OST. One gathers Ms. Yamane was rather fond of it. There's even a poolside-elevator-music edition. One theory goes that the fast-paced, minor-keyed fighting melody heard when you fight him is symbolic of real life.... and the elevator-music edition is symbolic of real life as viewed from the inside of Jo's head.
More when we think of it.
There are several theories as to why exactly it is he can't get out of the area... one is that, being a vampire, Joachim can't cross the water, and the way out of the waterfalls area goes through a narrow bridge over a gushing river. Another is that all this time he hadn't realised the door opened the other way.
Either way, Joachim is stuck there eternally. So naturally instead of getting a hand from the first person that ventures down to his prison (ie. excuse me... just how did you get through that door? You don't say.. ...mind if I follow holding your hand?), he can't wait to fight you as soon as look at you. That's what you call pent-up rage.
Joachim also has psychic powers and floats... and has five swords that float more or less of their own accord due I presume to his overall psychicness. Their names are Betsy, Charles, Fafrit, Knowles and Macdoogal. The jury is out on whether they have individual personalities, but, it's not unlikely considering how long Joachim was imprisoned with just them for company and how boring that can be.
Jo is a very emotional guy, in a very teenage way. When things particularly upset him and he is overwhelmed by powerful feelings of angst, he tends to tear his pants off dramatically (it's ok, he's got a skirt) and go to hug a head in some dank corner somewhere. Or possibly suck his thumb.
This may seem a bit illogical to the average teenager, but it is rather dramatic when you see it, and Jo really isn't one for being logical. Years underground with nothing but mould and blockages to fight can do that to a person, living or otherwise. You may also wonder where we get our information.
There is very scarce official information out on Joachim Armster, but what we know so far has been gathered from pretty much every source available, with a good healthy dose of hypothesizing and inferring by rational professionals. One particular official artwork of Jo, from the Lament of Innocence soundtrack, went a long way to explaining a lot about him. If you haven't seen it, here's an artistic interpretation: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4972/1637/1600/98783.0.jpg
Considering all information we have on him, it is fairly safe to assume Joachim is not all right in the head. This is true for pretty much all vampires, who'd probably be a lot more formidable if they weren't so rabid and lacking in common sense. In fact Joachim really likes beheaded heads (from what we can gather from his art). Some say he uses them as soft toys for company when he sleeps... others... don't like to talk about it. Maybe he keeps them for the company... or for a light snack. We may never know.
Just WHERE he gets these heads is a mystery. Some suggest he can send his swords out and stretch his psychic power quite a distance and behead the men of some tiny fishing village down on the coast. One theory goes that Joachim spends the best part of a day, when in a particularly foul mood, throwing pebbles (psychically) at the peasantry and watching them look around for the culprit and crying out in glee, "IT WAS ME!!! HAHahahahaa~!!"
If true, one truly feels for this character and sympathises in his wanting of revenge against Walter. Maybe one day when his wish comes true and he wins, he'll sit on the throne and have peasants marched into his throne room... and throw pebbles at them in person, and laugh just as much. No good abusing your power if nobody knows it was you.
He is also terrified of candles... something you will also testify to when you play in Jo mode and face a row of candles. Watch as he locks on and circles facing each one with deep suspicion, before seeing the next and doing the same. Some suggest that, back in the day when Jo wasn't into the whole subservient vampire thing, he marched up to Walter's office and was just about to hand in his resignation when, from behind a candle, Walter jumped out and surprised poor Jo with a fist straight to his chin. As the law of nature dictates, all beings and things with immense psychic power are doomed to be physically pansies. Forensic evidence shows Walter may well have danced in evil glee over Joachim's unconscious self before quite possibly flushing him down the toilet.
If the fishermen theory is false then, quite likely Walter disposes of the bodies of his victims in this way too, once he has tired of laughing at their corpses. After all, Jo needs heads and heads don't grow on trees. And... y'know... they go off after a while.
So, insofar as we can decipher it, that is the life of Joachim Armster. Once again the game is not very giving... the few hints of what could have been an interesting plot embellishment (even ONE line wouldn't have hurt somewhere) are in the enemy description. D: Or the manual.
He also has a theme, musically, that repeats often on the LoI OST. One gathers Ms. Yamane was rather fond of it. There's even a poolside-elevator-music edition. One theory goes that the fast-paced, minor-keyed fighting melody heard when you fight him is symbolic of real life.... and the elevator-music edition is symbolic of real life as viewed from the inside of Jo's head.
More when we think of it.