Review: Draculius

(Because VNDB's description is pure bullshit, I guess I'll have to make one this time... mendokusai)

Ogishima Jun is a beautiful (as beautiful as any woman) young high school student, going to school every day with his childhood friends, a politician's son with a sunny smile and a black personality, and a cross-dressing boy with a tanuki's face. While he doesn't particularly enjoy living alone, Jun is more or less used to it, so when a blonde loli with red-tinted violet eyes in maid's clothing comes knocking on his door, telling him that his long-lost father was a vampire prince and that he too will eventually awaken as one... and that she is to be his maid, he is understandably disturbed. This experience eventually leads to his headlong dive into the world of vampires, where darkness rules and vampires seem to be around every corner...


For the first time, I'm going to go ahead and introduce the characters, simply because this game left such a strong impression on me that I went back and played it through again after having completed it once, back in July.




This is Belche (Welshalant D Annoyance), this story's resident loli, and perhaps the second most unique character I've ever encountered in a vn. To Jun, she serves in a lot of different roles, though her basic role is as his mother/mentor in the vampire world, advisor, and the trump card that, if he pulls it out, will be able to solve any problem or resolve any catastrophe. Absolutely devoted to family and utterly ruthless with anyone who threatens it, she is the ultimate maid, as well as Jun's first kenzoku (servant vampire). Her unique Moon Ties ability is 'Dead Copy' which allows her to make an imperfect copy of any matter whose molecular structure she has memorized from any matter available. (turning a microwave into pasta, transforming sports drinks into replacement skin for a wound... and more)



This is Rika Pembleton, the trigger-happy vampire hunter who is sent to observe Jun for signs he might be dangerous to humans. To be blunt, she's a straight out tsundere, with an emphasis on both the 'tsun' and the 'dere'. Nonetheless, once you've seen Jun tease her into a rage a few times, you'll find yourself liking her, despite her archetypical personality.




This is Rian, who is sent as a potential fiance for Jun by one of the branch families of Jun's own vampiric bloodline. A bit of an airhead, with an arrogance and callousness towards humans that is a bit startling in comparison with her bright and sunny exterior. Despite lacking common sense and being a bit of a fool at times, she really is intelligent, which saves her from being just another annoying airhead with pale hair. Her Moon Ties power allows her to control the minds of others, as well as erasing their memories and other such convenient mental fiddling, and she has no qualms whatsoever about using it.



This is Zeno Jailburn, Rian's kenzoku and a member of the Jailburn clan of Lycans. Absolute loyalty is her strongest characteristic, thus being the first thing that comes to mind when I think of her. However, the way she fiddles with Rian, tricking her into acting like a tsundere and making fun of her while at the same time seeming perfectly servile is absolutely hilarious, and makes almost as much of an impact as the pic above. Her unique Moon Ties ability allows her to liquefy and take on the forms of other people at will.

Some notes...

This VN, unlike most, does not have unique paths for the various heroines, but rather a true path (that also happens to be a sort of harem path) and a sort of joke path centering around Rian and Zeno, where nothing really gets resolved when it comes to revealing mysteries and getting to know the characters.

Now, to the review...

Plot 9/10: This game's plot really is superbly written. The characters each leave a strong impression, with their wacky antics contrasting strongly with their reactions during times of crisis (with the exception of Misao, who is always a hyperactive idiot). Jun's personal journey, as his experiences send him deeper into the darkness of the vampire's world, is powerful, giving you a strong attachment to both him and the characters that accompany him along the way. In addition, the pacing is virtually perfect, never rushing you but never allowing you to grow bored with pointless lulls in the action either. There are few scenes that might be considered wasted if you head straight down the true path. The only reason I didn't give it a ten out of ten is because of the joke Zeno/Rian path they tacked on in such a halfhearted manner.

Visuals 8/10: As you can see above, the CG's in this game leave a strong impression, in particular the bloody ones... I am in particularly fond of all the CG's involving Belche or Zeno, as I inevitably end up staring at them for some time, pausing my progress through the story. As an example of what I really love about the character designs, I would mention the way they did Belche and Xeno's eyes... that faintly inhuman appearance to them (even aside from the color) that inevitably reminds you that they are 'alien' on some level, even during the most everyday of scenes, is striking.

Sound 9/10: I absolutely adore the music in this VN... The choral/guitar bgm they use for the sad scenes I ended up downloading and listening to while I write, and the humorous bgm they use at the title screen makes me laugh every time I hear it come up. As for the characters' voices... They all really are excellent, the performances and intonations for the characters suiting their personalities perfectly. In particular, I found Zeno's voice and speech patterns remaining in my memory, because of all the hilarious scenes associated with it. In addition, the contrast between Rika's 'tsun' and 'dere' speech patterns is so striking I actually break down and laugh just thinking about it sometimes.

Overall 9/10: Overall, this is one of the best VNs I've ever played and one of the few that I regularly get an urge to replay. Just about every aspect of this game is near-perfect, with only the pointless Rian/Zeno path serving to stain the experience. I really recommend this to guys who are interested in vampires and tired of the cheesy crap that ends up in American TV and books... I can also recommend this to fans of dark vns and vns with heavy philosophical undertones, as well as ones where the characters change significantly as part of the story's progression.

Review: Bloody Rondo

This is the first game by 3rdEye. Shinkurou leads a double life. During the day, he leads a normal school life with other students, but when the sun sets, he heads out to the town to hunt the vampires that have slipped in among humans. One night, he comes upon a girl surrounded by vampires. He takes care of the vampires and takes the fainted girl to his home. However, he soon finds out that she isn’t human. How will a vampire hunter like Shinkurou deal with Luna, the last vampire princess who doesn’t know much about humans at all? An action-based game featuring vampires (including man-made ones), lycanthropes and vampire hunters.

~Description taken from VNDB



Plot 7/10- As vampire stories go, this was far less cheesy than the crap we tend to see coming out here. The protagonist, Shinkurou is a bit of a stick in the mud, but his calm manner is a nice change from the hot-blooded protagonists that tend to rule the action vn genre. As for the plot... I find myself complimenting the plot for not going in the exact direction I expected in most cases. This game never fell into the trap so many eroges do of the plot becoming an excuse for the love story, or the trap a lot of action vns do of the story becoming an excuse for the action scenes. That said, this story has its share of flaws. In particular, Alice's path was a bit of a stretch, with some serious inconsistencies in the ending in particular. However, despite the slip-ups, the writing for this story is quite good and I find myself looking forward to future efforts by this company. This story's weakness would have to be the fact that three out of the five heroines are idiots. Well, with Lynne, it suits her character, but with Rinko and Luna you have to wonder how they survived long enough to meet the protagonist... In addition, the attempt to make at least part of the game a 'gakuen drama' was rather poorly thought out in comparison with the darker portions of the story. Shinkurou being a freelance vampire hunter, a private detective, and going to school at the same time is not a believable setting, no matter how you look at it. For similar reasons, some aspects of the story might grate on some people, even though the overall effect of the plot is pleasing. I will say that in comparison to Luna's path, the other paths are a lot shorter, but that doesn't actually seem to cause any problems with enjoying them.

Visuals 9/10- As is seen in the pic above, the cgs in this game are quite excellent, and I found the character designs to be well-suited to the personalities of the characters involved. Francisca in particular... leaves a strong impression due to the gap between her outward appearance and her expressions/personality.

Sound 8/10- I took some points off of this section because the music itself is really generic as vn music goes, but since it is used appropriately, I definitely give this eroge's sound a passing grade. The character voices are very high quality, and some performances will leave a definite lasting impression for some people (Lynne's and Sayaka's in particular come to mind).

Overall 7.5/10- For vampire lovers, I can honestly recommend this eroge without reservations. For lovers of action eroges... a decent enough choice. For those seeking comedy/slice of life I can't really recommend this though. Overall, this is a decent eroge that I found to be worth playing, and the plot is good enough overall that it will remain in my memories for a while at least. I'm pretty sure people that go in expecting something extreme will be disappointed, as that was my biggest disappointment with it at first, but once you get past that disappointment, this game is quite enjoyable.