Vampires Dawn 3 - The Crimson Realm

I think this is the first time i actually GENUINELY regret riding it out and playing through a game all the way, despite me not really liking it. Normally i like to beat games just to feel the accomplishment for experiencing the full thing, and being able to cross it off my backlog, but in this case i just want my 50 hours back lol Pretty much from beginning to end it has been a chore to play, from the incredibly awkward dialogue to the overall atrocious story full of plot holes, not to mention the incredibly slow and uninteresting combat. The cherry on top was the fact that the ending is predetermined by an entirely random dialogue selection at the beginning of the game, that you will NOT know the outcome of until you reach the end (like 30+ hours later) So if you're unlucky and chose to pick the wrong dialogue you will end up in the final dungeon with 2 characters only (+1 summon that will die in 2 hits) that makes the final battle against 3 opponents virtually impossible because every enemy will spam aoe spells that inflict negative statuses. Not even being max level in defense stance really mattered. Quite frankly insultingly bad design all around that would be acceptable …

First of all: The creator, who did the amazing game "Vampire's Dawn 2" (which is free, and everyone should play this instead, because it is much, much better), thinks he is Stephen King. But the writing is so cringe. Ok, you can skip the writing and play the game. But then onto the mini games: Outdated, not good, no QoL and so on. Exploration: Iirc when doing quests in VD2, you had a portrait of the quest giver. It's gone here. They tell you the city. Then when you talk to people a ring menu shows up. Does it give you a name? No. So you talk to him, get the same lengthy dialogue again, but at least you end up having found out that it is the entirely wrong person. Fantastic. EXP is out there. Has been ever since. You have to do quests to really yield exp. Fighting gives next to no exp. Equipment in chests is bound to your level, not to the region's level, which could allow for cheesing if you really care. But I quit when I faced Sir Baltur. That is not game balance. That is pure madness. This feels like a 1900 game that forces you to grind more than it is fun. Writing is terrible, noone should buy this for the story. Only if you're a masochists and like mindless grinding and terr…

I tried to give it a shot but it is just not a good game. The writing is something you'd expect from a teenager writing fanfic. It's cringe, it pulls you out every time and it just will not stop. Even during combat you often have to suffer through it. Speaking of combat, it is so uninteresting and mediocre. How anyone can take an RPG engine and create the most dull combat is beyond me. The skills are lackluster, all enemies have way too much hp so fights drag out needlessly and animations are just too slow During my 4 hours of gameplay, I have now played as 3 different characters. I could not tell if any of them is the main protag but you just jump from one character to one of their enemies for no apparent reason. Also, from what I have played, I would object to this even being called an RPG. There has been zero character building, no stats to allocate, loot is fixed and I have yet to encounter a shop. In other words, no meaningful decisions have been left to me. It has been entirely on rails. a JRPG this is not, at least judging from the few hours I have played. It is possible this changes down the road but honestly it should not take this long

Nostalgia can be a trap. I grew up with VD1 and VD2 and loved them. But either the characters have always been so horrible, one dimensonal and sometimes random (maybe to appear "deeper") and I have grown up to the point that I can no longer relate to or find entertainment in them, or this game is just way worse compared to it's predecessors. There are some enjoyable gameplay mechanics here, but nothing to even remotely counterbalance the horrible writing. Either way, I regret having spent too long in this game to be able to refund, in search of some redeeming qualities. I was just hoping for the game to maybe get better later on. It didn't. It was just more and more immature power fantasies, sexism, cruelty. And while those things can be handled in interesting ways from a storytellers perspective.. it was just boring, repetitive and uninspired. Like ramblings of an antisocial, nihilistic incel who maybe thinks he's some kind of genius. This is my first negative review on Steam.

Wenn man VD eins und zwei mochte ist der dritte Teil ein Muss!

wish i could refund, it literally became stuck in dialogue after the first tutorial combat once i defeated the monster, i could click nothing to remove the window. (get out of combat) basically.