Master of Darkness is an action platformer video game developed by SIMS and published by Sega for the Sega Master System and the Game Gear (though it was called Vampire: Master of Darkness on that system) in 1992 and later released for the 3DS Virtual Console in 2013.
In Victorian London, fear grips the populace. A rash of unsolved murders have people huddling in fear, with whispers that the victims were killed at midnight, their bodies drained of blood. Dr. Ferdinand Social, a psychologist and amateur paranormal investigator, is consulting his Ouija board when he gets a message, warning him of a vampire behind the evil, and that he should start his investigation at the Thames River. You then take control of Social, who travels across five stages going from Victorian London, to a wax museum, a graveyard, a castle converted into a laboratory, and finally stopping the evil at Dracula's castle. You begin with only a dagger, but can acquire more powerful weapons like axes, sabers, and staves, while picking up sidearms like stakes, pistols, bombs, and boomerangs.
While very similar in gameplay and themes to Castlevania, the game still has a decent reputation and has enough new tricks to be enjoyable to classic gamers.
This game provides the following tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The manual has an extended plot featuring a fellow occult investigator and psychic named Julia Arkham being abducted, and Jonathan Harker as a good friend giving advice, but that doesn't play out in the game, only starting with Social consulting his Ouija board. The ending only briefly mentions Harker in a way that makes it seem like he was living in Transylvania at the time.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: This game is in essence a Castlevania game made for the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear without Konami's involvement.
- Antagonist Title: The title obviously refers to Dracula, though he's more of a Greater-Scope Villain
- Badass Normal: Ferdinand has no magical powers and uses ordinary weaponry, but he can still defeat vampires and various other monsters.
- Barrage of Bats: The final boss, among his attacks, he uses a circular barrier of three bats that flies around him and he releases at the player character.
- Big Bad: Though Dracula is often mentioned, the main villain is Count Massen, channeling the powers of Dracula to haunt England.
- Big Boo's Haunt: While most levels certainly have a haunted undertone given the game's theme, Stage 3 takes place directly in a graveyard.
- Clockworks Area: Act 3 of Round 3 takes place in a clock tower. You see spinning gears in the background and travel across pendulums, and at the end of the stage, you fight Count Massen atop clock hands.
- Dracula: Often mentioned as the true source of the evil, though not it's guiding hand. Count Massen is channeling Dracula's power, and appears to be gaining his abilities as well.
- Evil Overlooker: The game's cover art depicts Dracula (Or at least a vampire) as such, though it's different for each version. The Master System version's cover art depicts an illustrated Dracula looking down at Dr. Social as the former summons an army of monsters from within his cape to attack the latter, while the Game Gear version's cover art depicts a photo-realistic Bela Lugosi like Dracula looking down at his castle.
- First Town: Round 1 takes place at Thames River.
- Historical Domain Character: Jack the Ripper is the first boss.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The stake is the best ranged weapon (it deals high damage but isn't found until endgame).
- Insistent Terminology: The manual calls one primary weapon the stake, though it looks more like a cane or walking staff, while the secondary weapon that does look like a stake is called the 'projectile.'
- Meaningful Name: The psychologist's name is Ferdinand Social.
- Ouija Board: Social regularly communes with a Ouija board for advice. The beginning of the game has it giving him the message to start his investigation at Thames. It's also used for the password screen and the end credits.
- Password Save: The Ouija board is used to input a password to take you to the later stages, though you start without any powerups.
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Both normal enemies and bosses die this way.
- Power Up Letdown: The dagger is the main melee weapon you start out with, and can only do one point of damage. Stronger melee weapons in the game can do more damage pointsnote , so if you have one in your inventory and collect the dagger, you're back to using it until you can find another stronger melee weapon.
- Recurring Boss: You fight Count Massen three times in the game as the boss of every stage from 3 onwards.
- Rewarding Vandalism: In lieu of Castlevania's candles and torches, Master of Darkness has levitating masquerade masks to hit for items and powerups.
- Timed Mission: You have only 400 seconds for each stage to clear. Running out of time results in instant death, costing you a life.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Played literally; Round 5 starts you off in the dungeon of Dracula's castle before navigating a maze that leads you to Dracula himself.
- Wax Museum Morgue: Stage 2 is a wax museum. It's alluded that the evil wants to kill Social and make him into an animated wax doll to replace Jack the Ripper.
