Cabernet

Eats. This is THE vampire Victorian gothic story-based game, as far as I'm concerned. The writing is very well done, and the atmosphere and tone are excellent. Specifically, this game balances "cozy" and "gothic" on a knife's edge, and it works so well. In this game, unless you're following a guide very closely, there is no possible way to get everything "correct" on your first playthrough. There is NO character who has plot armor to emerge unscathed. That is exciting - it raises the stakes knowing that your actions will have consequences you can't avoid or undo - and also, it can be challenging and frustrating. If, like me, you indulge in save scumming, know that it is really hard to do in this game. The autosave at the end of each in-game day rewrites the old autosave, and there is only one physical location in game where you can manually save. Crucial story events are on a timer, and you might not realize that until it's too late. But, this is part of the point. We make mistakes, and we have to live with them, and life goes on. Not everything goes as we wish it would go, and the more we see, the harder it is not to become jaded. We must hold on to our humanity anyway. In that questioning search for meaning and humanity in the face of inevitable decay and corruption, this game is so highly Eastern European. One small gripe I had was that characters all from the same village and country had wildly varying accents. If it was not possible to find a voice actor cast that could do Eastern European accents, I think they should have stuck to either UK or US accents. One of the most important things a voice tells us about a character is their cultural background, and it was a shame to miss that in this special setting. I prefer media where vampires are not inherently horrible monsters, without also being softboy-ified. Cabernet nails it. Vampires have a range of responses to their conditions. And true evil comes from humans in this game as well. Cabernet is very thoughtful about the meaning of vampires, from the alcoholism metaphor to the capitalism metaphor. And it's also just so fun! The drama propels you forward and has depth, but you also get to fly around, decorate your house, pick out dresses, forage for mushrooms, date, go to the bookstore and curate your library, and yes, drink people's blood. For being both deep and enjoyable, and maintaining such a lovely, tricky cozy-gothic tone, I happily place it among the best vampire media out there.

It's a nice game with some dark conclusions... Only thing I'm very upset about is that vampires are creatures of night and still need lanterns that was often inconvienient to toggle...