Introduction

So, what's all this then?

Vampires Dawn: Reign of Blood (now ain't that a fucking title) is a German RPG made by Alexander "Marlex" Koch and was released in 2001. It was made in RPG Maker 2000, so if you think "SNES Final Fantasy", you've pretty much got the basics nailed down as far as gameplay goes. The Vampires Dawn series is pretty much considered to be the apex of what I call the German RPG Maker renaissance, a period of time where RPG Maker games were being made in fairly great number, communities were flourishing and games magazines that came with CDs sometimes even had special sections just for RPG Maker games. The sequel to this game, Vampires Dawn 2, was so anticipated it even ended up getting top billing in the edition of Bravo Screenfun (a particular games magazine that very heavily featured RPG Maker games on its CDs) it came on the CD on. If you ask a German that remembers RPG Maker games from that time what he particularly remembers, odds are good it'll be Vampires Dawn.

Your constant usage of the word "German" in that paragraph frightens me.

Oh, don't worry, we've got that covered. Normally, this is where somebody would say that's because there is an English translation, but I've looked at that, and it's not to my tastes. If this isn't your first rodeo with me, you already know I'm fluent in both English and German, so I'm going to be doing the translation myself again, just like in other LPs of mine. So don't you worry, I'll be there to guide you through all the scary words, and I'll even explain the special little things that can't really be translated.

Wait, "Vampires Dawn"?

Yes, "Vampires Dawn". Not, as one would assume, "Vampire's Dawn", or "Vampires' Dawn". Not the dawn of a particular vampire, or the dawn of vampires in general, but it is the vampires themselves that do the dawning... somehow. So vampires begin? That doesn't quite make sense, given the events that happened in the past of when the story takes place - it's more like vampires have ended. So I guess it's supposed to be talking about some sort of rebirth? Then again, that should still have some sort of apostrophe in there. I guess Marlex thought apostrophes are just tacky.

Alright then, tell me more about this game.

Well, when I said "think SNES Final Fantasy", that does sum the game up pretty well. The combat is still RPG Maker 2000 style, meaning the Pokemon style "highest speed goes first, then down the line with everybody else" as opposed to the Active Time Battle system brought in in RPG Maker 2003 that the SNES Final Fantasy games use, so there's a difference, but otherwise, things are pretty much standard. So, much like with other games that use the same style, you're probably going to end up being there for the story, unless you're weird and really like grinding in anything. Even then, you should be playing Disgaea instead.

Well, what can you tell us about the writing then?

Alright, this is where things get a bit iffy. You see, I can't remember a lot in particular about this game, and I'm certainly not going to replay it entirely before starting an LP of it, because I have a strategy guide to keep me from missing things, and this game is pretty damn long. As of the original writing of this OP, I've played about an hour in, and I would say I just cleared the prologue, so there's that. From what I've played and what I've read online, the game is very dark (if you've read my Unterwegs in Düsterburg LP, take that and think... maybe a bit lighter than Rabenstein, but constant throughout most of the game) and has a very heavy amount of dark humor strewn about. Apparently dark humor, heavy on the sarcasm and with some hits of satire is Marlex's signature writing style, so that's what you should be in for going into this.

OK, and what about the LP itself?

If you've had the experience of reading my previous translation LPs, this shouldn't be too much of a difference for you. I think I'll make some slight changes to the formatting style I used before, but that shouldn't be a problem for you (bar the few points I marked with "new for Vampires Dawn", so read those). As for those who are new to my business, here's some pointers:

- The translation will be purely in text form, images will remain unchanged for relatively obvious reasons. After an image with text shows up, the next thing usually should be the translation and then just continuing with whatever text follows, or sometimes it'll be commentary from my side that also explains the text on screen (usually when I pick up an item or describe a menu screen), or in some cases, I won't be mentioning the text on screen because it's self explanatory (as is the case when somebody just has an evil laugh or something like that).

- For the German speakers: I'm going for substance over style. What this means is that I won't break my neck trying to find a translation that preserves all the facets of the original text, because sometimes that's more trouble than it's worth, and at the end of the day, I'm not a professional. Not even close.

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Whenever something I say has this guy in front of it, that means it's something related to the translation in particular. Explanations about idioms, puns and certain tics would be prefaced with this.

- New for Vampires Dawn: In Unterwegs in Düsterburg as well as Udoiana Raunes, I could attach a face to pretty much every line of dialogue. In this game, this is no longer the case - only major characters get headshots, minor characters just get a name, and sometimes not even that (so sometimes we'll just be talking to "Man" or "Woman" or "Rich Man" or the like). So this time, there will be a mixture of headshots and text names.

- New for Vampires Dawn: Also, because of this, the first line of every box of dialogue in the game is always the name of the character saying it. So that's going to be different when you're looking at the dialogue boxes in screenshots. Obviously, I'm only going to be putting it at the beginning of the entire text block that character is saying, and only if there is no headshot available for that character.

Anything else I should know before going into this?

Well, if you ask me like that, I would recommend reading my Unterwegs in Düsterburg LP. It's pretty long, and if you think you don't have the time for that, don't read it, but I'm probably going to make allusions to UiD a couple times in the LP, since there's some degree of crossover and Marlex was somewhat of an influence on UiD (as evidenced by there being a somewhat major character named Xelram in there), and I wouldn't want to spring those allusions on people without warning them beforehand, lest they get confused. So, consider yourself warned, I guess.

Now, let's get going on this ride!

The Let's Play Archive

Vampires Dawn

by TheMcD

Introduction

Table of Contents