History VideoGame / VampireTheMasqueradeSwansong

* AcidTripDimension: The Tremere chantry in Hartford has one of these where they keep prisoners in a horrible {{Mordor}} like dimension for experimentation and exsanguination.

* NothingIsScarier: Much of the first act of the game alludes to ''something'' having happened at a party but no one being to talk about it. [[spoiler: The party was hit by the Second Inquisition and most of the vampires in Boston killed. By the time you actually get to see the aftermath of the destruction, even its NightmareFuel scene is less than probably the image you built in your head.]]

* NothingIsScarier: Much of the first act of the game alludes to ''something'' having happened at a party but no one being to talk about it. [[spoiler: The party was hit by the Second Inquisition and most of the vampires in Boston killed.]]

* HunterOfMonsters: The Second Inquisition is an alliance of government agents with the Vatican to hunt down and destroy vampires worldwide.
* InterfaceSpoiler: [[spoiler: Halsey being not only real but Leysha's sire is pretty easy to intuite if you read the codex because it reveals she was sired in the same year as Leysha and is one generation lower.]]

* MiscarriageOfJustice: Hilda was branded by Quentin King for the actions of Emem after the latter killed her assailent.

* NothingIsScarier: Much of the first Act of the game alludes to ''something'' having happened at a party but no one being to talk about it. [[spoiler: The party was hit by the Second Inquisition and most of the vampires in Boston killed.]]

* ScarsAreForever: Midway through the game, [[spoiler:Galeb is captured by the Society of Leopold and is brutally tortured by Monsignor Stanford. He eventually breaks out when the Beast takes over, but not before his entire right arm, the right side of his face is scorched almost to the bone and he's rendered blind in one eye. [[SubvertedTrope However]] ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' lore means he will heal eventually; he just needs time and blood. Galeb himself hints at this when he can downplay his injuries to Feng, stating that vampire bodies are different.]]

* TheUntwist: [[spoiler:Halsey ''isn't'' a hallucination after exceptional hints are dropped that she's a figment of Leysha's imagination like the fact that she's so childish and sweet for a Kindred as well as deeply adoring to her mother.]]

%%* TheUntwist: [[spoiler:Halsey ''isn't'' a hallucination.]]%%Is an untwist how?

* AllThereInTheManual: There's a lot in ''Swansong'' that only makes sense, or at least makes more sense, if you're familiar with not only ''Vampire'', but the various changes made in the game's 5th Edition. It's not a great introduction to the universe. If you're very careful about reading the in-game Codex, you can spot a few interesting pieces of information that effectively spoil/foreshadow some of ''Swansong's'' big twists. For example, [[spoiler:Halsey is a lower generation than Leysha]].

%%* BadassInANiceSuit: Both Galeb and Leysha qualify for this one.

* ScarsAreForever: Midway through the game, [[spoiler:Galeb is captured by the Society of Leopold and is brutally tortured by Monsignor Stanford. He eventually breaks out when the Beast takes over, but not before his entire right arm, the right side of his face is scorched almost to the bone and he's rendered blind in one eye. However ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' lore means he will heal eventually; he just needs time and blood. Galeb himself hints at this when he can downplay his injuries to Feng, stating that vampire bodies are different.]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: While fairly palpable with Emem and Leysha, it gets egregious with Galeb, a 300-year old Ventrue who, like the other two protagonists, starts with no ingrained skills whatsoever. It is a plot point, however, that none of the three are precisely suited to the sorts of jobs they're being asked to perform; Leysha in particular has only been deployed because Boston's ''actual'' vampire intelligence agent is MIA from the start of the game.
* HeroAntagonist: The Second Inquisition is an alliance of military, federal agents, and Catholic priests trying to break the hold of an undead conspiracy on Boston, taking on monsters with terrifying powers armed only with faith, meticulous planning, and massive firepower. The player characters are some of those undead conspirators.

* SignificantAnagram: Leysha is an anagram of her daughter's name, Halsey. [[spoiler:Turns out they’re both fake names they were given as part of their Richard’s efforts to cover up the true circumstances of their Embrace.]]

* VillainProtagonist: All three main characters are inhuman blood-sucking abominations that victimize normal humans on a nightly basis.

* AllThereInTheManual: There's a lot in ''Swansong'' that only makes sense, or at least makes more sense, if you're familiar with not only ''Vampire'', but the various changes made in the game's 5th Edition. It's not a great introduction to the universe.
** If you're very careful about reading the in-game Codex, you can spot a few interesting pieces of information that effectively spoil/foreshadow some of ''Swansong's'' big twists. For example, [[spoiler:Halsey is a lower generation than Leysha]].

* BadassInANiceSuit: Both Galeb and Leysha qualify for this one.

* ReligionIsMagic: Monsignor Stanford has True Faith, which lets him hurt vampires in ways that normally aren't possible, such as burning them with a cross or [[spoiler: incinerating Galeb with a prayer if he fails the final confrontation.]]
* TheReveal: At the end of the Red Salon mission, if Leysha found certain patient records scattered around the level and wins a confrontation with her own subconscious, she recovers her real memories and learns the truth: [[spoiler:Halsey isn’t a hallucination; she’s Leysha’s real daughter. Their real names are Juliette and Marie, they were Richard’s patients in France before the war, and he took them with him when the Nazis invaded. Richard ended up Embracing Juliette during the voyage to Boston to keep her from dying of typhoid, and she later killed her mother during a hunger frenzy, forcing Richard to sire her with Juliette’s blood, making Marie her own daughter’s Childe. He then altered both their memories and gave them false identities (“Halsey” and “Leysha”) to cover up the messy circumstances of their embrace, then spent years gaslighting Leysha into thinking Halsey was just a figment of her imagination as an extra layer of secrecy.]]

* TheUntwist: [[spoiler:Halsey ''isn't'' a hallucination.]]'

* ScarsAreForever: Midway through the game, [[spoiler:Galeb is captured by the Society of Leopold and is brutally tortured by Monsignor Stanford. He eventually breaks out when the Beast takes over, but not before his entire right arm, the right side of his face is scorched almost to the bone and he's rendered blind in one eye. However ''Vampire The Masquerade'' lore means he will heal eventually; he just needs time and blood. Galeb himself hints at this when he can downplay his injuries to Feng, stating that vampire bodies are different.]]

* ScarsAreForever: Midway through the game, [[spoiler:Galeb is captured by the Society of Leopold and is brutally tortured by Monsignor Stanford. He eventually breaks out when the Beast takes over, but not before his entire right arm, the right side of his face is scorched almost to the bone and he's rendered blind in one eye.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Halsey isn’t a hallucination; she’s Leysha’s real daughter. Their real names are Juliette and Marie, they were Richard’s patients in France before the war, and he took them with him when the Nazis invaded. Richard ended up Embracing Juliette during the voyage to Boston to keep her from dying of typhoid, and she later killed her mother during a hunger frenzy, forcing Richard to sire her with Juliette’s blood, making Marie her own daughter’s Childe. He then altered both their memories and gave them false identities (“Halsey” and “Leysha”) to cover up the messy circumstances of their embrace, then spent years gaslighting Leysha into thinking Halsey was just a figment of her imagination as an extra layer of secrecy.]]

* DeathByDisfigurement: One possible ending for [[spoiler:Galeb post-torture. Should he fail to break Stanford's willpower in their last encounter, he will be smitten by True Faith on the spot.]]

* SignificantAnagram: Leysha is an anagram of her daughter's name, Halsey. [[spoiler:Leysha's psychiatrist later reveals that Halsey is nothing more than a by-product of both her imagination and her Malkavian curse.]]

* If you're very careful about reading the in-game Codex, you can spot a few interesting pieces of information that effectively spoil/foreshadow some of ''Swansong's'' big twists. For example, [[spoiler:Halsey is a lower generation than Leysha]].

* AllThereInTheManual: If you're very careful about reading the in-game Codex, you can spot a few interesting pieces of information that effectively spoil/foreshadow ''Swansong's'' big twists. For example, [[spoiler:Halsey is a lower generation than Leysha]].

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Their respective climactic scenes pit each protagonist against nigh-impossible odds. Leysha has to navigate a maze with an enraged werewolf for company, Galeb has to deal with the leader of Society of Leopold, and Emem has to manually hack S.A.D.'s servers while said S.A.D. soldiers are breathing down her neck. Failing will result in the protagonists' truly gruesome demise.]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: While fairly palpable with Emem and Leysha, it gets egregious with Galeb, a 300-year old Ventrue who, like the other two protagonists, starts with no ingrained skills whatsoever.

''Vampire: The Masquerade — Swansong'' is a single-player, narrative-driven RPG developed by Big Bad Wolf, published by Nacon, and based on the ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasqueradeFifthEdition.'' The game was released on May 19, 2022, for PC, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS, following delays from 2021 due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic slowing down the production.

The events occur in Boston, September 4 - 7, 2019. The player takes control of three multifaceted vampires: Galeb Bazory, a high-class, intimidating Ventrue; Emem Louis, a bold, alluring Toreador; and Leysha, a Malkavian who's being followed around by her daughter, Halsey, who likewise is a Malkavian. The plot revolves around the aftermath of the violent circumstances of the reunification of Boston and Hartford domains negotiated by Hazel Iversen, the Prince of Boston, and Tremere Chantry of Hartford. Various highly influential members of the Camarilla community were destroyed or captured by a group that appears to be highly knowledgeable about their quarry's habits and weaknesses. Quickly it becomes evident that these foes are none other than the Second Inquisition, which came to Boston to cleanse all Kindred.

The events occur in Boston, September 5 - 7, 2019. The player takes control of three multifaceted vampires: Galeb Bazory, a high-class, intimidating Ventrue; Emem Louis, a bold, alluring Toreador; and Leysha, a Malkavian that's being followed around by her daughter, Halsey, who likewise is a Malkavian. The plot revolves around the aftermath of the violent circumstances of the reunification of Boston and Hartford domains negotiated by Hazel Iversen, the Prince of Boston, and Tremere Chantry of Hartford. Various highly influential members of the Camarilla community were destroyed or captured by a group that appears to be highly knowledgeable about their quarry's habits and weaknesses. Quickly it becomes evident that these foes are none other than the Second Inquisition, which came to Boston to cleanse all Kindred.

* ScarsAreForever: Midway through the game, [[spoiler:Galeb is captured by the Society of Leopold and is brutally tortured by Monsignor Stanford. He eventually breaks out when the Beast takes over, but not before his entire right arm, the right side of his face is scorched almost to the bone and he's rendered blind on one eye.]]