Darkstalkers
3 / Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire
.
Story:
Jedah, one of the high nobles of Makai, is resurrected after a premature death
long ago. Seeing the state of the demon world, he decides that the only way to
save the world is to recreate it. To this end, he conjures a dimension known as
Majigen, to which he summons worthy souls to feed his new world. As luck would
have it, those souls belong to the characters from the first two games, in
addition to three newcomers.
Jedah is the new boss of
Darkstalkers. Don't argue with him.
Review:
The third, the Darkstalkers series
presents the biggest and
most colorful cast yet with Vampire Savior. Four interesting new characters
join the roster: Jedah, Q. Bee, B.B. Hood, & Lilith; but unfortunately,
Pyron, Donovan &
Huitzil were cut (from the original version of the game). There were actually
two simultaneously released
"updated versions" of Vampire Savior that
were released in Japanese arcades only a few months after the original
release... Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge and Vampire Savior 2
- The Lord of Vampire.
The key difference between the two upgrades and the
original Vampire Savior are in the character roster. Vampire Hunter 2
features the same character roster and soundtrack as Night Warriors
(known as Vampire Hunter in Japan), omitting the characters introduced in
Vampire Savior, while Vampire Savior 2 features the Vampire
Savior cast along with Donovan, Huitzil & Pyron, omitting J. Talbain (as
well as Dark Talbain), Rikuo & Sasquatch.
The selection screen music
was particularly catchy.
Darkstalkers 3 introduces the
"Damage Gauge System"... battles take place during a period of one
round, with each fighter having two "life markers" (by default) which
diminish after one character runs out of vitality. The player can also regain a
portion of their life during battle if they manage to avoid taking further hits.
Darkstalkers 3 also introduces the "Dark Force System" which allows players
to perform special abilities unique to each character for a limited time period.
Fighting on the side of a
skyscraper FTW.
Once again, the music, artwork,
and character animation of Darkstalkers' stands out as 100% original. The
stage designs are also clever and really get
you into the unique setting of the game. Overall it was a superb looking game at
the time and was the definitive version of Darkstalkers (until
Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower). The Playstation version of Darkstalkers
3 also included a cool color-edit mode where you could edit each characters
color scheme to your liking, which was a fun and innovative fighting game option for the time...
I believe it was the first color edit mode to ever appear in a 2D fighting game.
Last Updated:
7/30/2010
Developer(s):
Capcom
Publisher(s):
Capcom
Platform(s):
Arcade,
Playstation, Sega Saturn
Release Date(s):
1997 (
Arcade), April 16th 1998 (
Saturn), November 5th 1998 (
PS1)
- Review is for
Playstation version of Darkstalkers 3 -
Gameplay
Engine
8 / 10
Story
/ Theme
8.5 / 10
Overall
Graphics
8 / 10
Animation
8 / 10
Music
/ Sound Effects
9 / 10
Innovation
8 / 10
Customization
8 / 10
Options / Extras
7 / 10
Intro / Presentation
9.5 / 10
Replayability / Fun
8 / 10
"Ouch" Factor
6.5 / 10
Characters
9 / 10
BOTTOM LINE
8.5 /
10
Final
Words:
Darkstalkers 3 had a stylish presentation and a straight forward gameplay
system that Street Fighter and 2D fighting game fans could pick up and play
rather easily.
In my opinion, the gameplay finally started to live up to it's potential
in Darkstalkers 3. The cool new characters rounded out the roster and made for a more
balanced and enjoyable fighting game.
~F.Yagami,
Webmaster
of TFG
Arcade), April 16th 1998 (
Saturn), November 5th 1998 (
