• Price: $14.99 USD (currently on sale for $11.99 until March 15th)
• Developers: First Step Cinematics & Ratalaika Games
• Publisher: eastasiasoft
• Release Date: February 22, 2023

A review code was kindly provided by eastasiasoft on behalf of First Step Cinematics and Ratalaika Games. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Content warnings: The usual concerns with vampires (lots of blood – shown, violence, consent issues with feeding, mistreatment of blood donors, etc.)

Vampires have image issues not just with mirrors; they’re often depicted as bloodthirsty monsters, angsty heartthrobs, or the occasional comedic caricature (“I vant to suck your blood”). But they can be…“fang-tastic” characters when done well, so I was interested in seeing how they are represented in Twice Reborn: A Vampire Visual Novel.

In this voice-acted visual novel, main character Mark Delaware is a teaching assistant for a history professor at a Catholic university in Colorado. He likes learning about history, and also enjoys learning new languages so that he can read historical documents in their original languages. Mark is about to graduate, and his boss/mentor, Professor Michelson, wants him to work as a translator for a group called the Society of the Arts.

The professor’s office is located in a dark basement, which wouldn’t necessarily mean anything to Mark. But to someone playing a vampire game, that’s a major hint that Professor Michelson is probably a vampire. And sure enough, he is! The Society of the Arts is actually a society dedicated to “[maintaining] and [encouraging] the best arts of the era,” but its members are all vampires. I suppose that that makes sense, as their longer lifespans allow them to witness the greats and the way that the arts change over time.

Unfortunately for Mark, he isn’t given advance warning about the whole vampire thing; Professor Michelson had planned to ease him into the idea of being turned, but a rogue vampire attacks Mark and moves the schedule way up. Due to the society’s strict code, Mark must agree to be turned or else he will be killed. He’s not too happy that his choice has been taken away from him, and your choices over the course of the story can either reflect his acceptance or his regrets.

Professor Michelson is considered Mark’s “progenitor,” and he also serves as the society’s Enforcer of the Vampire Code, which involves keeping the existence of vampires a secret and making sure that any violent rogues don’t put all of their lives at…stake. 😉 The professor explains some of the history behind their lineage, including details about his progenitor and how he ended up becoming a vampire. I found his background really interesting, and the art shown as he told his story was very well done. In the tradition of their lineage, Michelson plans to train Mark as an Enforcer. After Mark’s introduction to vampire society, they train together over a period of ten years.

Mark’s reputation as an Enforcer must remain strong because of the conflict among the different vampire societies. His default loyalty is to the Society of the Arts, whose members may seem somewhat cold due to their willingness to do what needs to be done to keep their secrets. But they at least seem much more humane in their treatment of humans – the House of Skulls treats their loyal blood donors quite poorly, and a few of them see humans as prey. And then there’s another group whose members are nicknamed the “hippie vampires.” Your choices result in Mark remaining loyal to Professor Michelson and the Society of Arts, the House of Skulls, or the “hippies.” Members of each group may attempt to persuade you to join them instead…

The story can end prematurely if you mismanage Mark’s relationships or his bloodlust. (You can view how your alliances and bloodlust are doing by pressing B to check your status.) There are multiple “Dead Ends” to Mark’s story, which occur when you are attacked and killed for some reason. Refusing to become a vampire after their world was exposed to you or killing humans because Mark forgot to feed are some of the many decisions that will result in someone killing you. There seem to be more Dead Ends or Bad Ends than Good or Normal endings. The first Good End I saw was rather short and not fleshed out enough for my tastes.

There are around 30 endings for you to experience, many of which felt a bit abrupt. They had a lot of fascinating ideas for how vampires work in their story though. These vampires seem much more fragile and lacking in super-strength than what I’m used to – in multiple endings, Mark (or another vampire) was easily incapacitated by a human. In one major event, multiple vampires are unable to break through a material that I would have assumed they’d be able to break. There’s even a scene where Mark vomits after being turned, and takes medication when he’s feeling sick. Apparently they don’t consume human food or beverages, so I don’t know how medicine would work for them. I’m not used to vampires getting sick in the stories I’ve heard, so that was a new idea for me.

They also talk about how the Society of the Arts chooses to hibernate for 40 years every once in a while in order to avoid suspicions about their inability to age. You know, instead of moving around and attending high school over and over again like certain sparkly vampires who shall remain nameless? Honestly, you’d think they’d use their considerable funds to buy an island or something and just hang out there for that time period. But the society chooses to sleep for many days to keep the humans away, and they choose to hibernate together in the same house. Sadly, this means that many members of the society are killed when the house burns down during their hibernation. This tragedy may be too much for Mark to bear. Will he wish that he’d never become a vampire so he wouldn’t have known such loss? Or will the incident steel his resolve to help the society rebuild? That’s up to you!

Overall, I like the ideas here, and I had a nice time with the game. I will say that there were some minor grammar mistakes here and there, and the mechanic that highlights the dialogue choice was confusing because I assumed the green highlight was for the option I was choosing. I also experienced crashes here and there, which always occurred in the same place. You can force your way through those scenes by changing the Skip Mode to “unseen text.” Then you can still read any text you had to skip to avoid crashing by checking the history log. I did like being able to use the touchscreen, and I also appreciated the character and background art. I really just wanted the storylines to be a little longer – the way a vampire’s lifespan would be! 😉