A Vampire Knight retrospective in honour of its Nintendo DS English patch release

As noted in our Hump Day Husbandos piece on Zero Kiryu, it was both a surprise and a delight to see an English patch for Vampire Knight’s Nintendo DS before the year closed out. And since this year’s final commercial release in the otome sector, Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani, left a little to be desired, seeking satisfaction from this new translation of Vampire Knight seems like an eminently sensible idea.

Why is that? Well, for starters, the series is one that has always been close to my heart since developing a short-lived obsession with it as a teenager, and revisiting it on the DS is a wonderful opportunity now as an adult.

Secondly, I say the more the merrier when it comes to otome games being available to English speakers. But most importantly in regards to that, we send our heartfelt and never-ending thanks to Anime Games Translation Team who made this available for English speakers — as an otome on a defunct platform this sure as heck wasn’t getting an official localisation any time soon!

So it’s time to explore what this video game spin-off to the series has to offer — and determine if it’s worth looking into any further on your end. Spoilers: it is!

The appeal of Vampire Knight

First things first, let’s do a quick recap and summing up of the evidently everlasting appeal of Vampire Knight — because no matter how much of a guilty pleasure it is for our aging selves, it’s been a full 12 years since the DS game originally released. Despite this, the fact that western otome fans are still vocally excited and appreciative for it speaks volumes as to its enduring appeal — and how young at heart plenty of us still are for our vampiric love interests.

Vampire Knight released during the heyday of the vampire craze in fiction; you only have to think back to when Twilight was the object of every female teenager’s obsession to get an idea for the context of when this came out.

Back then, in the late 2000s, the craze was apparent, and whilst its mangaka, Matsuri Hino, was already publishing the manga years before the worldwide obsession started, Vampire Knight’s anime is where the IP truly took off and expanded its cohort of dedicated fangirls by the masses.

Vampire Knight

With stunning visual works, voice acting credits to make anyone’s heart flutter, and a Gothic-styled OST featuring musician Kanon Wakeshima’s debut, the show’s aesthetic really captures the appeal of a dramatic high-school vampire story from Japan.

It had all the attention grabbing tropes right from the get-go for teens to go wild for: a love triangle of “will they, won’t they?”; humans and vampires coexisting; a traumatised main character; bizarre familial trees running rampant across its characters and history; and our lead ultimately birthing children to both main guys. It all made for a pretty wild ride, if you ask me!

It’s filled to the brim with mind-boggling drama and edginess for the sake of appealing to its shoujo demographic. But at the same time, the sheer amount of unsettling detail throughout makes its sense of “forbidden romance” feel a lot darker than the usual shoujo fare.

Its sense of tragedy alongside more action-oriented elements really sets Vampire Knight apart from its competitors — and alongside this is a rather splendid and creative take on the “origin” rules its vampire character follow.

In other words, you won’t be bumping into the common clichés of the genre here; both humans and vampires inhabit this world, and there are plenty of devious characters with heavy pasts and emotional burdens to learn about. There’s brilliant storytelling, too, that manages to balance the most important element of the central romance: the aforementioned love triangle.

More so than almost any other example of the medium, Vampire Knight manages to make its two main love interests Zero and Kaname jointly likeable and intertwined with our heroine Yuki — so much so that neither of them are really the standout answer as to who is Yuki’s “best” candidate for romance. On top of that, there’s a touch of fujoshi-bait, too, with a brief teasing of a ship between Kaname and Zero.

All in all, Vampire Knight’s anime proved to be an atmospheric and edgy experience for the shoujo audience, and remains as a good time capsule for classic shoujo anime.

But enough about the show, it’s time to talk the otome game — where almost everything I’ve discussed can be thrown out the window. It was fun to reminisce at least!

The good and the bad of a game that is a product of its time

Let’s finally get to the product in question: Vampire Knight DS. Released all the way back in 2009, the title saw an unofficial English patch release this month; one that even came with a stylish English trailer.

As an otome, you can expect character routes that go well beyond what the anime and manga offered — and here we have a full seven potential love interests that fans can finally feel closer to. It’s a dream come true for my younger self — simply because some of the manga and anime’s best characters were sidelined as supporting cast members. Even if I only really have feelings for Shiki in this respect, fans everywhere will appreciate this once in a lifetime opportunity to get closer to their favourite boys.

In too many cases, video game adaptations struggle to juggle pleasing two kinds of consumers — those who are encountering the IP for the first time, and those who already know and love it. Thankfully, Vampire Knight DS is a fantastic gateway into the series, even if you’ve never encountered it in other forms of media.

Vampire Knight

Revisiting the series as a video game provides a lovely nostalgia trip for those who loved it well over a decade ago, and a great way to explore the overall premise, regardless of your own experience with the property as a whole.

The game’s main scenario was written by Takagi Seiko, best known in the West within the otome fandom for the Starry Sky series scenarios. The entire premise of Vampire Knight DS does follow the original source material — but only to a certain extent.

The dark revelations and shocking twists of the characters’ origin stories are nowhere to be found in the game. Instead, it focuses on the main setting of a high school that just happens to put humans and vampires together.

Each character is well-represented here, even where the choices and dialogue sequences are completely original ideas for the game. There are some surprisingly humorous moments between the characters, and plenty of fanservice — just the thing for the thirsty otome fan!

The entire gameplay aspect of Vampire Knight DS is filled with otome clichés which may make or break your experience based on your own preferences. For example, it’s chock full of various mini-games that need to be played through to rack up points in Yuki’s parameters — with each guy being most interested in a particular combination, of course. There are seven chapters in all, with three endings for each guy (romantic, platonic and bad) — and raising the affection highly for multiple candidates may result in a stand-off between the guys.

These sprinkles of gameplay are quite typical of the otome formula, and see us taking part in activities such as shopping for clothes and dressing Yuki up to fit to a guy’s preference during preparation for a party, and a sorting mini-game which represents “studying”. In other parts it feels a little more fitting to the design of the original source, such as having to arrange the presents students will queue up for to send to the guys — or, more questionably, Yuki spying on the guys. We’ll come back to this.

The patch only works if you retain the main character’s default name, Yuki Cross, and despite it being a default name, her name is not voiced by the other characters, which feels like an odd omission. To further reinforce the all too common staple “heroine” attributes of the genre, the main character is also unvoiced, and has the often poorly received depiction of her eyes always being covered by her fringe, a decision choice that runs rampant in lower budget, mobile otomes. (She can join the Eroge Protagonist Club! – Ed.)

It seems a little strange, considering Yuki was the original protagonist of the source material, and the romances in Vampire Knight DS are depicted as unfolding from Yuki’s point of view — though according to the original source, her only legitimate love interests would be Kaname and Zero. Alongside this, certain moments are completely outside of the realm of “reality” as defined by the original material — such as the truly bizarre minigame of spying on the guys through their windows with binoculars, and taking part in a rhythm-based waltz dance.

These are just for fun, yes, but they do break the built-in image and expectation of the game’s main character being the IP’s main protagonist — a choice I wish the game had actually abandoned, since it does not follow the original canon. Previously conceived notions should not be an issue for new fans — but regardless, the result is still a thoroughly enjoyable and highly interactive experience of a Vampire Knight “alternative universe” — if you can ignore its main character technically being but not actually committing to acting as Yuki Cross.

Vampire Knight

When the mini-games do make sense in the context of Vampire Knight’s universe, it’s a lot easier for the player to bear with them and simply enjoy them for what they bring to the table. They can be looked upon as a means of fully embracing and making great use of Vampire Knight’s world and lore — especially when these moments are as frequent as they are here. Organising presents, catching Day students outside the Night premises after curfew, and fighting Level E vampires are all examples of mini-games that feel at home and in context.

The parameter bars are the all-important mechanics players should pay attention to when aiming for a certain guy. There are six in total — physical, intellect, charm, knowledge, work and experience — and each correlates to a specific love interest. Raising these increases the guys’ affection towards you, and it’s especially important to maintain a strong enough lead for the guy you’re gunning for. This is especially important when taking aim for the unlockable, secret route after your first playthrough.

Additionally, there is a map movement system where you may occasionally run into the guys, although there are guides readily available to avoid fumbling around to locate the one guy you’re aiming for. Some CGs in routes can also be touched to indicate where the love interest drinks the main character’s blood from, and the game is played throughout by using the DS on its sideways. This alone brings back fond memories of other great games on the DS such as Hotel Dusk, Love Plus and Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side.

It also happens to be an extremely endearing way to capture the essence of the IP, since it provides a similar feel to reading the original manga.

Options provide, text speed, data clearing, and volume configuration, with the volumes of BGM and voices independently adjustable. There is also a gallery with 70 images to collect, voice clips that are unlocked by clearing the appropriate guy’s route, and mini-game sections which provide trials for the ones you will run into in the main game.

An IP that has remained and will stay as a guilty pleasure, even in otome form

All the characters retain their original voice actors from the anime, other than Yuki, since she’s a mute main character.

Many notable names that are now well-established in the otome sphere can be heard here. Aidou Hanabusa is voiced by Jun Fukuyama, who also voiced Mozu from BUSTAFELLOWS, Tokiwa Etsuya from Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani, and Kairi from Re:Birthday Song. Akatsuki Kain is voiced by the Godly VA Junichi Suwabe, who I hope we all already know from the likes of Rindou Kaoru from Café Enchanté, Van Helsing from Code: Realize, Higa from Bad Apple Wars and Urabe Kimimaro from Sweet Fuse: At Your Side. (Urabe is husbando – Ed.)

Then there are, of course, the main two love interests of the IP: Mamoru Miyano as Zero Kiryu, previously heard as Ichinose Tokiya from Uta no Prince-Sama, Iba Hachirou from Hakuoki, and Souya Tatsuhara from Storm Lover, and Daisuke Kishio as Kaname Kuran, who can also be heard as Dietrich in Palais de Reine, Azusa Mukami in Diabolik Lovers, and Yasuhisa Kukuri from 7’scarlet.

The resurgence of Vampire Knight’s appeal has been a joyful sight to behold despite how long it has been since the property has been “relevant”, and it has most definitely provided me with a good time as one of the final otomes I experienced this year.

Once again, many thanks for the hard work and dedication Anime Games Translation Team have gone through and provided for our entertainment. It’s been a highly appreciated endeavour!

Join The Discussion

Rice Digital Discord
Rice Digital Twitter
Rice Digital Facebook

Or write us a letter for the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page by clicking here!

Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!

Lilia Hellal
Spread the love!

Related post

This will close in 0 seconds