"Darkstalkers at its best"

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INTRODUCTION
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”Let the bloody roses bloom dyed in crimson...!” - Demitri

Darkstalkers was Capcom’s first great franchise in the fighting games arena after the Street Fighter phenomenon. Released in 1994, right after Super Street Fighter II Turbo, it managed to keep the interest in the genre due to its unique characters, incredible animations and a great fighting engine (most of these deeds being achieved thanks to the help of the so-new CPS-2 board, mind you). While it was not perfect, Darkstalkers was more than enough to spawn two updated versions: Night Warriors – Darkstalkers’ Revenge (Vampire Hunter in its original Japanese title) and Vampire Hunter 2 (a slightly enhanced version that never saw the light of the day outside of Japan). A true sequel, however, would only come in 1997, when Vampire Savior – The Lord of Vampire came out.

Vampire Savior is a 2D fighting game true to its roots: it features unrealistic monster-like characters, exaggerated moves, astonishing animation and simple, yet rock-solid, gameplay. Also, it improves upon the best features of the previous games and brings them to a new level of quality, as well as adding some subtleties and new characters to improve the gameplay value. Although Vampire Savior did not achieve a huge success, it is certainly the best game of the Darkstalkers series.

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STORY
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”If your soul exists to perish,
grant it to me...” - Jedah

An ancient Darkstalker, the Dark Messiah Jedah, has been resurrected in the barren outskirts of Makai, the demon world. He foresaw into the future that the world was on the verge of its destruction, with endless wars and catastrophes. Reliant that no one but himself could save the world, he comes up with a manner to save all forms of life.

With nothing but benevolence in mind, Jedah creates a black void container called “the fetus of god” (a lovely baby demon you will have the opportunity to meet if you manage to reach the last level). His plan is to absorb all souls of the the living beings and store them all in the fetus, so that they will not fight each other. Obviously, Jedah will rule over them all (a little reward for being so nice). In Vampire Savior, you can choose the side you will fight: some of the Darkstalkers are supporting Jedah’s plan, while others are against it and seek Jedah’s death. Even Jedah himself, the last boss, is a selectable character from the beginning.

Sounds interesting? Indeed, it does. But this all gets a little bit too confusing, especially because the game suffers from a severe lack of text. All of the aforementioned story is nowhere to be found inside the game, which is a shame, for all the text present in the game, both the victory statements and the specific character’s endings, are very well written.

Story: 7/10

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GAMEPLAY
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”Violence doesn’t solve things,
but it sure feels good!” - Felicia

Vampire Savior – The Lord of Vampire is a 2D fighting game developed by Capcom, thus, I am sure you know what to expect here. There are 15 characters at your disposal, all of them are known monsters or mythical creatures taken from legends around the world, redesigned in a more comic approach. Returning characters are Demitri, Victor, Anakaris, Felicia, Bishamon, Hsien-Ko (Lei Lei), Jon Talbain (Gallon), Rikuo (Aulbath), Lord Raptor (Zabel), Sasquatch and Morrigan. Gone, however, are Donovan, Pyron and Huitzil (Phobos). To fill their absence, there are new Darkstalkers joining this motley crew: Jedah, Queen Bee, Lilith and Baby Bonnie Hood (Bulleta).

Choose your character and you have the opportunity to choose either a normal mode or a turbo mode. Switching to the turbo mode allows you to play the game in a lightning fast speed. During the battles, the special attacks are activated by doing combinations of directional commands and buttons, just as you would expect. The controls are very simple and effective, and the special attacks are easy to pull off. There is also an auxiliary energy meter at the bottom of the screen, labeled “super”, that slowly fills whenever you perform a move. When this bar is full, you can pull off super moves. These are also promptly executable and their command inputs are easy to memorize.

There are a few new features in this game that have not been seen before as well, and they surely help to creature a much more appealing experience. For one, instead of having the traditional three-rounds battles, each fight now takes place in one long continuous round, similar to Killer Instinct. Whenever the life bar of one character is depleted, instead of stopping the fight to proceed to the second round, the life meter of the defeated fighter completely refills, yet the life meter of the winner remains unchanged. In case the winner has his energy depleted, the same thing happens to him. If any warrior gets defeated twice, the fight is over. You see, actually there are three rounds, but they are continuous. It is a way to make the battles faster and to take the advantage that the player got in the first round into the next one.

Another new feature is the temporary damage. Now, some of the attacks, mostly blocked moves and combos, will make your life bar turn white instead of red. These white areas slowly regenerate, allowing your character to get back some of the lost energy, considering, of course, that you can manage to escape from other attacks in the meantime.

Also new is the ability to unleash “Dark Force” maneuvers. These special moves require a part of the special bar and they have a different effect depending on which character has performed it. For instance, by activating Morrigan’s Dark Force, a mirror image of her will appear for a short time, right behind the opponent. As she acts accordingly to the original, you may hit your enemy with Morrigan and her image at the same time, causing heavy damage to the adversary.

Not everything is perfect, though. Vampire Savior is considerably harder than the previous games. Sometimes, it is too hard for its own good. And yet, albeit it may sound a paradox, another drawback is that the game is too short, featuring only seven battles in one-player mode. Easier battles, as well as more of them, would certainly create a more enjoyable experience, especially for casual gamers. One more warning: Vampire Savior looks and plays a lot like X-Men vs Street Fighter, with 20-hit super combos, aerial raves and screen-clearing special moves. Thus, know that this flashy and combo rich gameplay may be a turnoff sometimes.

Gameplay: 8/10; Replay: 9/10; Controls: 10/10

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AUDIO & VIDEO
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”Scream in harmony with the devil’s choir” – Lord Raptor

Vampire Savior pushes the CPS-2 board to its limits. Really. The characters are large and very well drawn. The backgrounds, which are consisted of misty chambers, dense forests, a living phantom train, among others, are colorful and detailed, but it is a shame that the character-specific stages are gone. The music is mostly techno and fits the gameplay very well, always intense and coherent to the relentless action. The voice acting effects, although they do not vary much from the always present grunts and groans, are incredibly well done. Particularly, Jedah’s wicked laugh is something that deserves a special attention.

Nevertheless, concerning the audio and video department, what really shines in Vampire Savior is the high quality of the animation. It is smooth, fast and every single frame of animation is incredibly well done. Granted, every punch, kick or any other move is exaggerated and nothing realistic. Lord Raptor, for instance, is a zombie that can run in mid air, teleport himself, he can take a sword out of his ribs and can change his foreleg into a chainsaw. Within fractions of seconds. Not to mention one of his special moves, in which a little imp that fights alongside him engulfs the enemy, turns the unlucky soul into a basketball and throws it to Lord Raptor, so that he can play with it and dunk it. Weird...but mostly impressive.

Graphics: 9/10; Sound: 9/10

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CONCLUSION
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”So it’s over...
Now Morrigan, I’ll make you mine..” - Demitri

Vampire Savior is the best game the Darkstalkers series has to offer so far. Despite minor flaws, its solid gameplay and great fighting engine shall please both experienced gamers and casual players alike. As Vampire Savior is a mid 1997 release, the arcade machine is not very easy to find anymore. In the territory of the home consoles, there is a Playstation version called “Darkstalkers 3”, which compiles both Vampire Savior and its sequel, VS 2. It is not very good, though, because the Playstation cannot handle this much of 2D intensity and, thus, the animation was very simplified. So, the best option to play VS in all its glory in a home console is the Saturn version (a nearly perfect port, due the Saturn’s 4 mega cartridge help). Anyway, Vampire Savior certainly deserves a check. Fighting games enthusiasts will not get disappointed.

Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/02, Updated 10/01/02