History VideoGame / VampiresDawn

* ProlongedPrologue: ''Ancient Blood'' is right up there with ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' in terms of prologue length.

* OntologicalMystery: Definately takes the series into such a direction, with the heroes stranded in a strange new world, a much deeper exploration of vampirism and the reasons behind many of its curious traits, as well as a segmented reveal behind the backstory of the world and the events of the first game.

** A shady merchant in ''Ancient Blood''', in Thyrik, sells a game guide to ''VideoGame/UnterwegsInDuesterburg''.

* HauntedCastle: Used as the party's base of operations in both games. Asgar obtained it a long time ago by killing all the nobles within and turning them into undead guardians.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Elras and almost all vampires.

* AFateWorseThanDeath: Vampires who die end up in the realm of Blood Wraiths, essentially an equivalent of hell specifically for blood-suckers where they suffer incredible physical pain just by being there, plus isolation, regret and madness for all eternity [[spoiler: Well, until they are sucked up to become a power source for Elras magic, anyway.]] Asgar sums it up like this [[spoiler:before killing the first game's BigBad]]:

* EvilIsHammy: Most bad guys in this (and [[TokenEvilTeammate Asgar]]) have an intense love for senseless slaughter, EvilGloating and the classical EvilLaugh.

* StandardStatusEffects: Blindness, silence, berserk, confusion, sleep, petrification and poison work pretty much the way you expect. Additionally, bleeding makes the vampires lose blood/mana points every turn, sickness has them lose HP and blood both inside and outside of battle, and curse halves all of the character's stats and can only be healed when they enter one of the few churches in the game.

** Ability-wise, the ''Vampires Dawn'' vampires of the first few generations are really CursedWithAwesome. Vampirism comes with {{Immortality}}, a HealingFactor, increased physical abilities (Asgar at one point [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe tears a man in half]]), sharper senses, control over lesser undead, an enormously strong affinity for learning magic spells, VoluntaryShapeshifting right [[JustForPun off the bat]], a SpiderSense for dangerous areas, and an aura which hides their fangs and cold skin from humans.

*** Evil/Easy: [[spoiler:Valnar is possessed by Morlon and sides with the Elras. Alaine and Asgar defeat the evil trio, but fall into a conflict over whether or not to use the tablet. The tablet is broken and the two become warlords, creating new vampires and taking up positions in castles, warring each other for all eternity. Meanwhile, Valnar is stuck in the realm of Blood Wraiths with Jaina. This is the Ending leading to The Crimson Realm.]]

* CrapsackWorld: Pretty goddamn cynical on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. Few humans are genuinely good and pretty much all of them are powerless to vampires or Elras.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: The heroes aren't affected by fighting [[spoiler:Molona]] in a cave full of lava at all, only noting once that it's getting warmer. Justified by them being vampires, as the issue is brought up much later in ''Ancient Blood'' again, where they once again visit a volcano and outright state that only their vampirism is keeping them from dying right then and there.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: While Good Valnar can try to keep human casualties limited, no vampire can do anything against the SoulEating nature of their aura and spells, the vampires aren't exactly hesitant when it comes to killing or abusing humans. Asgar in particular loves it. Their enemies are usually worse, though. The Elras are an evil group, while the humans have a bit of a KnightTemplar attitude. With Evil Valnar, it turns right into EvilVersusEvil territory.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: While Good Valnar can try to keep human casualties limited, the vampires aren't exactly hesitant when it comes to killing or abusing humans. Asgar in particular loves it. Their enemies are usually worse, though. The Elras are an evil group, while the humans have a bit of a KnightTemplar attitude. With Evil Valnar, it turns right into EvilVersusEvil territory.

* DevelopersForesight: Almost every killable NPC in the games has at least two sets of dialogue, regular and terrified (if TheMasquerade is broken near them, usually by killing another person in front of them). In ''II'', because of the MindReading feature, this number goes up to four by adding regular and terrified thoughts as well.

* BookEnds: In the beginning of the game, Valnar's descent into darkness begins when he is tricked by Asgar on the road north of Klennar. In the (canon) Good/With Alaine ending, [[spoiler: Asgar does the exact same thing to Jayna in the exact same place, almost nostalgically noting the only difference being that she already is a vampire]]. Similarly, in the non-canon Evil/Solo Valnar ending, a blood text from the opening is repeating, but [[spoiler: instead of 'Evil died for all eternity' it now says 'Humanity died for all eternity']].

* OneHitKill: Nyria's signature move is a knife throw targeted at enemy vital spots. Unlike typical examples, it has an awfully good hit rate and no disadvantages other than that you'll have wasted a turn if it doesn't hit, since Nyria has no mana or blood points to begin with. It actually works pretty damn well in battle, so it's anything but a UselessUsefulSpell. Taken UpToEleven in the ''Everlasting Blood'' mod, where at level 70, she unlocks an area-of-effect version of the ability, trivializing most future battles against regular enemies.

* OneHitKill: Nyria's signature move is a knife throw targeted at enemy vital spots. Unlike typical examples, it has an awfully good hit rate and no disadvantages other than that you'll have wasted a turn if it doesn't hit, since Nyria has no mana or blood points to begin with. It actually works pretty damn well in battle, so it's anything but a UselessUsefulSpell.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Alaine refuses to let you turn kids into vampires. Killing them is just fine, though.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Asgar. He was never a nice guy in the first place, but by the time of the third game, much of his more playful and laid-back villainy is gone and instead, he has just become incredibly angry and impatient and developed a massive victim complex. While the player has the option of having him act mercifully during sidequests, the actual main story and endings scale back his already rare EvenEvilHasStandards moments from the previous games, instead pushing the NotSoDifferent angle between him and the villains, whose EvilPlan he comes to admire.

* GameMod: A (as of this writing) German-only creator-approved fan remake/remaster of the game exists, called ''Everlasting Blood''. Among other things, it fully integrates Nyria into the main plot as a fourth party member with her own story beats, allows (mostly) peaceful negotiations with the Holy Warrior Clan on a castle-by-castle basis, lets you ally with a small Elras splinter faction, reshuffles the main plot with a completely new conclusion that allows you to EarnYourHappyEnding if desired, skips the ProlongedPrologue and provides more CharacterDevelopment, both for the original cast and also by introducing a couple more potentially recruitable supporting characters (including [[AscendedExtra Alyda]], the HotWitch Asgar [[BackFromTheDead murders]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation in the original game]], and Shahiro, the first merchant he meets).

* GameMod: A (as of this writing) German-only creator-approved fan remake/remaster of the game exists, called ''Everlasting Blood''. Among other things, it fully integrates Nyria into the main plot as a fourth party member with her own story beats, allows (mostly) peaceful negotiations with the Clan on a castle-by-castle basis, lets you ally with a small Elras splinter faction, reshuffles the main plot with a completely new conclusion that allows you to EarnYourHappyEnding if desired, skips the ProlongedPrologue and provides more CharacterDevelopment, both for the original cast and also by introducing a couple more potentially recruitable supporting characters (including [[AscendedExtra Alyda]], the HotWitch Asgar [[BackFromTheDead murders]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation in the original game]], and Shahiro, the first merchant he meets).

* GameMod: A (as of this writing) German-only creator-approved fan remake/remaster of the game exists, called ''Everlasting Blood''. Among other things, it fully integrates Nyria into the main plot as a fourth party member with her own story beats, allows (mostly) peaceful negotiations with the Clan on a castle-by-castle basis, lets you ally with a small Elras splinter faction, reshuffles the main plot with a completely new conclusion that allows you to EarnYourHappyEnding if desired, skips the ProlongedPrologue and provides more CharacterDevelopment, both for the original cast and also by introducing a couple more potentially recruitable supporting characters (including [[AscendedExtra Alyda]], the HotWitch Asgar [[BackFromTheDead murders]] in the original game, and Shahiro, the first merchant he meets).

* GameMod: A (as of this writing) German-only creator-approved fan remake/remaster of the game exists, called ''Everlasting Blood''. Among other things, it fully integrates Nyria into the main plot as a fourth party member with her own story beats, allows (mostly) peaceful negotiations with the Clan on a castle-by-castle basis, lets you ally with a small Elras splinter faction, reshuffles the main plot with a completely new conclusion that allows you to EarnYourHappyEnding if desired, skips the ProlongedPrologue and provides more CharacterDevelopment, both for the original cast and also by introducing a couple more potentially recruitable characters (including [[AscendedExtra Alyda, the witch Asgar murders from the original game, and Shahiro, the first merchant he meets]]).

* GameMod: A (as of this writing) German-only creator-approved fan remake/remaster of the game exists, called ''Everlasting Blood''. Among other things, it fully integrates Nyria into the main plot as a fourth party member with her own story beats, allows (mostly) peaceful negotiations with the Clan on a castle-by-castle basis, lets you ally with a small Elras splinter faction, reshuffles the main plot with a completely new conclusion that allows you to EarnYourHappyEnding if desired, skips the ProlongedPrologue and provides more CharacterDevelopment, both for the original cast and also by introducing a couple more potential supporters (including bringing back [[AscendedExtra the witch Alyda from the original game]]).

* GameMod: A (as of this writing) German-only creator-approved fan remake/remaster of the game exists, called ''Everlasting Blood''. Among other things, it fully integrates Nyria into the main plot as a fourth party member with her own story beats, allows (mostly) peaceful negotiations with the Clan on a castle-by-castle basis, lets you ally with a small Elras splinter faction, reshuffles the main plot with a completely new conclusion that allows you to EarnYourHappyEnding if desired, skips the ProlongedPrologue and provides more CharacterDevelopment, both for the original cast and also by introducing a couple more potential supporters.