Master of Darkness is a 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. It's a platformer starring a psychologist named Ferdinand Social, who gets a weird message:"Killer vampire. Go to Thames. Caution, caution, in the wake of Dracula!" And he must now clear five stages and defeat the vampire. The gameplay is really similar to Castlevania, with it involving classical horror and the gameplay being almost identical, but it has some other tweaks.
This game provides the following tropes:
- Alternate Company Equivalent: This game is in all 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, who is the Big Bad.
- Badass Normal: Ferdinand has no magical powers and uses ordinary weaponry, but he can still defeat Drac and various other monsters.
- Barrage of Bats: The vampire lord himself is 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: Dracula is back and at it again and has moved stop terrorizing Transylvania and moved his dealings to London instead.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Given that this is a game where Dracula is the main antagonist, each level has at least a little bit of this.
- 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: The vampire Dracula himself serves as the villain. There aren't any Belmonts to take him down here, but fortunately Dr. Social is up to the task.
- Evil Overlooker: The game's cover art depicts Dracula 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 Dracula looking down at his castle.
- First Town: Round 1 takes place in 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).
- Meaningful Name: The psychologist's name is Ferdinand Social.
- Ouija Board: In the opening cutscene, Dr. Social is seen using one that tells him to go to Thames River, where Dracula was last seen. You see it again in the continue screen, and finally during the closing credits.
- 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.
- 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.
