Kinda curious about the artists now. Watching some making of videos, and for Castlevania SotN, it was said that it was the last spritework done by dedicated spriters at Konami at the time (implying whatever was done for GBA/DS and beyond was made by others), and in general got the feel that a sprite artist was a dedicated job enough that it wasn't very feasible to just learn another trade.

Morrigan in particular catches my attention because I've seen Darkstalkers art being done with digital pens (more like a huge ass mouse with a bullseye you moved around paper to trace it), while SF2 was drawn entirely on a keyboard and artists claimed "it was actually kind of easy".

Certified salt? Damn right, I'm salty about Darkstalkers being given no love.