BLOODY VAMPIRE
Bloody Vampire is a game by Agetec (Also known as A1 Games) best known for their RPG Maker series and affordable Playstation 1 party style games such as Battle Hunter. It can be purchased on the Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo 3DS for an inexpensive cost of about $6.Bloody Vampire is a sidescroll platformer RPG similar to traditional Castlevania games where you play as a cute half-vampire who enters a castle with her vampire friend, Cereza, to ask the vampire who lives there why they are in the human realm. I can't go into the story much more than that as the game is short but the story is constantly explained as you progress.
I had been fighting temptation to purchase the game for a while as I knew nothing more than what was shown in the MORE INFO section of the market, but as of the latest eShop update a video trailer was added that pushed me to buy it. I was going to go to bed but ended up staying up playing the game until I beat it as I got so immersed into the world and exploration.
At the heart of the game lies a Castlevania style adventure, but it seems to take concepts from games such as the original Y's and Mario as besides casting spells to attack, you can bump into the enemies or jump on them in order to damage them.
Defeating enemies causes them to drop coins which can be used to buy keys to open doors, potions to refill HP and MP, or permanent stat upgrades for your maximum health, magic, attack, or defense, as well as a cloak to bypass certain traps or you can pay to instantly restore your HP and MP to full in the shop. The shop also serves as a save point with the touch of the start button and holds 3 possible save files you can use for you and your friends or family. The shops are plentiful and if you can't get to one in a hurry or wish to heal and are near death, simply hit the start button, scroll over to the conversation tab, and with the touch of a button you are transported to the last shop that you entered. You'll have to backtrack to where you were when you poofed there, but it is a nice way of avoiding death as well as being able to save on the fly.
As you explore the castle you will constantly find new upgrades, spells, and enemies as well as get various cut scenes which keep the storyline moving.
The graphics are pleasantly fitting with a nice pop-up book artsy look in the 3D background and sprite-based level design. However, some times it is hard to tell what is an object you can pass through and what is an obstruction. I also was annoyed by the middle of the screen being extra 3D just ever so slightly from top to bottom for what, if I had to guess, was a 8 pixel wide space. It made my eyes feel weird and annoyed me. It was obviously a graphical glitch and one that needs a patch. Other than that, the chibi anime characters seem quite fitting and the simple animations on lips and eyes while characters are talking were very nice.
The text is horrible and blurry when characters speak, however, and sometimes there are not only typos and words without spaces between them, but the name of the character speaking will be wrong and I have to stop and ask myself why that character just said something that seemed more fitting for the other one to have said before I realize what happened.
The sounds and music are oddly much better than I had thought and although the music scores are few, for the shortness and price of the game, they are well placed as each area has its own catchy rhythm. When you are in a dungeon you get a deeply dark-toned track. Out in the forest it is more pleasant and peaceful. It fits very well.
Let's talk about the flaws of the game now. Though not severe or many, little tiny things annoyed me. I already spoke of the text-based problems and graphical problem which really annoyed me more than anything else, but let me talk about two tiny, arguably insignificant, flaws. The first of which is the controls. They aren't bad but you never use the B or Y buttons and I'd have preferred those for jump and attack and it would have been nice to see them allow custom changes for controls or in the very least do what most games do and double the controls so B and A did the same thing as well as X and Y. Also, entering a shop, which is done by holding UP on the D-pad or circle pad did not seem responsive the first few times I tried and the game did not tell me HOW to enter the shop so at first I was button mashing and finally I tried HOLDING the buttons for several seconds until I popped into the shop. Secondly, a map would have been nice. I know I missed some things along the way and a grid-based map similar to Metroid or Castlevania would have been really helpful for back tracking.
The bottom line; for an affordable Castlevania-like RPG game with an intriguing story that keeps you guessing well after the game ends you can't really go wrong with BLOODY VAMPIRE by Agetec! I strongly suggest it to fans of the NON-Lords of Shadow Castlevania games out there.
SCORE - 8 out of 10
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