Missed Classic 137: Dracula Hakushaku (ドラキュラ伯爵) - Introduction

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

When paying for games for 1994 was well and truly done and I got started on finalizing the year, I then went over the games I was on for the year, and my heart kind of sank when I spotted what my first three games were this year:

1. Necronomicon
2. Desire
3. Policenauts

Ah, nuts. It's not that I don't necessarily like playing Japanese games, but I am aware of my limitations and how draining it can be. I'm also not really that much on the train to playing Desire and Policenauts, which I view more as obligations rather than things I'm genuinely interested in even if I will give them a fair shake. I'll explain why when I get to those, but Necronomicon is definitely a game that's been on my radar since learning Japanese, since I like me some HP Lovecraft. And yes, I know that if you look at what I'm currently on, there are only three games that aren't Japanese, but it's only these three that are the sort of Japanese titles that feel like they're not quite adventure games that can feel draining. So, let's get into the first of basically nine such games I'll be covering.

Necronomicon is the fourth collaboration between director Hajime Kanasugi and writer Ken'ichi Hirono, so, we'll start with their first collaboration. Not their first games, because there would be fifteen of those and I don't think anyone wants me to go through fifteen at once. And if I do that, I have to justify why I'm not playing games that are prequels to those, and frankly we still haven't played every Sierra game up until this point, so I'm just sticking to these. Because at that point I would be going into basically every single game developer Fairytale made up until 1994 and I don't want to do that just yet.

Side note, no, I don't know anything about them, they are as anonymous as someone posting here without their name filled out. But you don't make five games together without some sort of understanding.

Dracula Hakushaku, or Count Dracula, is according to a copy/pasted description online, Fairytale's own take on Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is the PC-98 box, which has been spread far and wide, no idea who originally uploaded it. Darkforce is mysterious, no idea what that is. The subtitle is "The Blood of Beautiful Girls is Dripping", which is quite creepy. Dunno what's on the right, but The Man Called DRACULA reminds me of a The Man From UNCLE novel about vampires. The game was released in 1992 on PC-98, a Sharp X68000 release soon followed and then the next year there was a FM Towns release. I'll be playing that one.

All the information I could find through admittedly sparse magazines we have for Japanese computer games basically told me that this game did about average. Interestingly, we have accurate release dates for this game thanks to luck, one of the magazines has a release date. Oddly, we do have a few people in English speaking circles playing this, albeit it seems like it's people hampered by the language barrier. I even saw one person who didn't seem to know the language bought a copy. Which frankly, seems bizarre to me, but I could have a few games floating around my house that I effectively can't play. I also wonder what that person would think if he knew the content of the game more clearly.

I note that if you pay attention you can infer some things that are going to happen in the game in later entries. In particular, you can see that the dude holding a woman on the left is probably the guy getting killed in the middle. I'm going to point out that later on, that's the screenshot I'm not showing you. You can't see anything here, but I put some boxes there to be on the safe side.

Now, this is the first time I'll be playing a FM Towns game on this blog. It's basically a high end system which was the first computer to have a CD drive as a regular feature. There are games which don't use CDs, but these seem to be rare. Most games I've seen seem to use a weird hybrid system of using the CDs as the game itself, and a floppy drive as the save data. Sort of a precursor to fifth/sixth console generation memory cards. I've played a couple before on my other blog, but those games were action games and made use of the system's gamepad in a way that wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, because of weirdness of emulators for this system, I'll also be using a gamepad to control the mouse. As a result, I will be more generous to the controls than I should be.

As there's no nudity in the intro, I've taken a video of it. I will of course, be explaining it all here though.

When you set out for revenge, first dig two graves.

To start with, the game gives a title, which offers the ability to create a save disk, which I need even if I don't actually use it. (I have yet to figure out how to save in-game) After this there's the company logo and then another game start option. This has a sort of thumping water drip sound going on while I choose the option. The game starts up in total blackness, with the thumping continuing. An unnamed narrator talks about being trapped in darkness. Haunting cries can now be heard in the background, this must be the intro music track. It's moving between creepy and annoying. The narrator continues with how he can't move his body, this place is very unpleasant and his name is Dracula.

Or rather, this is the name vulgar people attached to him 300 years ago. I'm not entirely sure, but I think he's implying that his name has spread across the world, and then talk of how people went after him. He feels no guilt about this. Then one night he went after chaste women who were baptized. He then talks a lot about his desire for women in a way that seems weird to me but might just be because I'm missing something. This vagueness is apparently down to his poor memory. He then talks in such a way that implies but doesn't outright say that these women because his women, and should be sleeping nearby. He then realizes that they aren't there. He decides it's time to live again and take his jewels of women. With a touch he breaks through the wood and starts to rise, thinking the names of his girls.

And we finally get out of the ground.  At the start of the next three images, we get the credits. Gotta say this is the nicest looking Japanese game we've had so far, but it's early yet. Dracula apparently didn't know how he came to be buried here, as he takes in his surroundings and ponders some more. He's not very happy about being put in a grave by who he refers to as vermin, but he won't let himself get angry about it. His mind wanders to his women, did he leave them in safety? So he goes to where he left them, rushing through the forest.

More trees and graves. I note that the trees are not that well-drawn, just very well shaded. Interestingly, there's only one artist and like four colorists, so it's hard to tell who is truly responsible for how nice this game looks. Jun'ichi Tan's other work listed on VNDB is well-drawn, but obviously is for work of a very different design than this. The text is basically just him saying he's hurrying back to his residence.

Is this his residence? If I were to describe this place, my choice of words would be, "Sherlock Holmes once visited it to discover an important clue" rather than "home to the lord of vampires and his mistresses". Dracula expresses fondness of having returned to his home and notes that it's gotten very old. Is that something a vampire would notice? Would a human notice if a building was 20 years old if they were 100? I'm assuming this is a Victorian house and this takes place in modern times, with the implication that Dracula is Vlad III.

It's been a while since someone resided here. Even his women. He off-handedly mentions the statue of a woman next to the house, lit by the gaslamp. (WHAT YEAR IS IT!?) The statue speaks, telling him not to enter. Dracula wants to know what this thing is. She's a stone statue, which is a concept that Dracula seems confused by and thinks he's gone nuts. She assures him he isn't crazy, she's just telling him not to enter his crumbling mansion. Nothing good will happen if he does. Several people came in with coffins. Dracula believes that they were searching for him. Nothing else has happened since. Not even the ladies. He ponders this for a moment, then goes in.

There's something really odd about seeing such well-drawn skeletons wearing anime hair. Also, if these ladies were supposed to be Dracula's brides, I'm curious as to how they have crosses on them. He's surprised beyond words, before saying a lot more words. He wonders what the meaning of this is. Er...really? Here I thought Dracula was supposed to be smart. He muses about time in the past spent in "warmth". That's the word he used, but it feels like another word should be used.

And then I realize why Dracula was confused. These aren't his brides, they're just random virgins that were placed here. So much for me being smart! (Actually, by the end I'm really not sure what's going on) Still curious about Dracula being okay next to two crosses. He begins examining the bodies, focusing on how the bones have been bleached white. "The smile is stuck unbecomingly." They're young, he can tell from their bones. He goes into a lot of detail of how beautiful they were. A lot. When I started this game I did not expect to have to translate how a skeleton once took care of their ankles. Is this the game trying to put in the vampire weakness of counting whatever is laid out in front of him...?

The screen scrolls, because it can do that in this game, over to some more ladies. A noblewoman and her ladies in waiting. He observes how they differ in stature based on their dress. I'm guessing the middle is the noblewoman and the one on the right is supposed to be the matronly type he mentions. "She wears maturity on her jaw." I know that old people have bigger noses and ears due to a quirk of how our bodies work, but I wasn't aware that also applied to jaws. After he finishes examining them, he briefly mentions his baptism of fang before mentioning that he's no longer angry. Just sad that he couldn't suck their blood.

He then starts musing about someone named Alicia. This was brought on by the skulls of these ladies. I should really stop being surprised at how creepy Dracula is being. He then says that someone mistook a figure here for Alicia, I think it was someone else, but there's no personal pronoun there. He speaks fondly of her, for once, she's from Wallachia and he considers her pure. It seems he tried to separate her from the rest of humanity. I keep getting confused by the random mentions of fire, it's been happening for a while for no apparent reason. Was she burned in a fire?

Now we get a picture of somebody who is a vampire. Hmm, since if this were a lady vampire she would have lipstick, this must be Dracula. Actually, that might be a truism; My reasoning was more to do with anime designs, especially of this nature. This seems to be a flashback, of him and Alicia about to hide away from the world. This seems to be a flashback to a love scene. Not that kind of scene, Dracula thinking lovingly of Alicia. It's not really romantic either, it's just creepy. Also, Alicia is related to him, they don't mention the specific relation, hopefully a cousin.

Then he resolves to get out of his despair and start drinking deep from the abyss. He's going to go after the haughty and something about taking back his memories. Apparently his head is in bad shape. He certainly isn't at a loss for words! He's going to go back into the world and presumably kill some more people.

And the glorious title screen. My apologies for how long this has been. At least, that's what it feels like it has been to me. Having to work your way through I guess 200 lines of text only to say that the dress was very ornamental has an effect on me similar to being bit by a vampire.

And I get control. As you can see, this game is actually an adventure game for once. We get look, talk, a hand I can't use, possibly violence, and think. I know this is basically a dressing up of the usual ADV commands, but it reminds me of Blackstar: Agent of Justice, which gave you the option to have the main character think about the place he's in. Oddly, I have no easy way to save. The text is just him saying this is someplace from his memory, but he can't quite remember what. There's more text after that, but it's basically just more musing.

There are three buttons, one button activates, the other switches actions and the third tells you what the other two do.

There's also an inventory. Behold, items. Yeah, I'm mocking, because I've seen hell and I don't want to go back. Like the hand, I can't use it. The arrows from the last screen are movement, but the P isn't actually a pause, you seemingly don't need one. Instead, it's a boss key. It just sends you to a prompt with just the drive you're on, which I think might be suspicious. The only reason I could imagine that being effective is if you don't want your child to see you play the pervert Dracula game. Though I must admit, the idea of someone playing this at work is a hilarious thought.

Getting back to this screen, we have some mood music playing, more atmospheric than melodic, effective and less annoying than what's 10 minutes of music on other platforms. Now, let's look around. On the lower left, there's an aquaduct, which I can examine to see that there's enough room to crawl. Unfortunately, he can't cross it. Guess we're keeping the whole running water thing. I test this theory, and I can't go forward. And before you ask, the bat symbols do nothing, they're GUI flavor. Hey, at least we don't have Dracula's name plastered everywhere so I don't forget who I'm playing as. The only other interactable objects are the door in the middle and the old man in the kimono. At least, that looks like some sort of kimono. Examining him describes it as priest clothes. I've never seen a priest or a monk tie it like that.

I have Dracula talk to him. He asks about this luxurious palace, then when the old man doesn't respond, asks if he can hear him. The old man says that Dracula is awesome, but he wonders where Dracula came from if he hasn't heard of it before. He thinks, then says he comes from Versailles Palace. The old man says that it's fortunate that Dracula came by. Not really sure why, but Dracula asks to come in and the old man won't let him. He needs a reason to come in. Well...let's go left then.

Holy crap, look at those trees! I'm not just saying that because I think they look nice, the game itself is also focusing on the nice trees. Then Dracula starts going on about his memories again and you could almost swear that we weren't standing in front of a woman in a pool of blood with a man on top of her. We then get a nice closeup of the man, as well as the woman, dangling in his arm. The woman is dead and her top has slipped off. Great...another weirdo. I suppose I could do what I did with the ad version above, but eh. All throughout this conversation. He then stands there while I can do whatever I want, like look at him. Yep, he's just cut up a woman with a knife. He's a famous killer, says Dracula.

So, let's talk to this guy. The guy asks Dracula what's the matter. No seriously, he knows his name and then says that what he did was wonderful. This game is weird. He wonders why Dracula doesn't recognize him. He says that he used to wander around London. Oh, it's Jack the Ripper, and soon after he says his name was Jack. Dracula ponders this, then asks him if he's Jack the Ripper. The man just mocks him. Dracula just wonders what awful things Jack got up to while he was buried in the ground. It seems Jack was just a copycat of Dracula. Jack tells him to stop thinking and to speak.

Dracula takes this as an opportunity to think about Jack being impatient. Then he shifts into thinking how Jack should be punished for his crimes. Jack then asks about Dracula's sister and women. Dracula thinks, how did he know about Alicia? Well...that answers a question I didn't want answered. Dracula asks, then says he doesn't want to know how he found out...because the question flustered Jack? Dracula then determines that Jack was the person who killed the women we saw. Aha, that explains why I kept seeing variations on cut in a way that didn't quite make sense. Jack decides that he'll leave now, because it seems like Dracula he doesn't like the way this conversation is going. And he drops a knife, which I then pick up.

RECAP

Dracula rises from being buried in a cemetery, in a weakened physical and mental state. He doesn't remember things as well as he should. He returns to his home and receives a warning from a guardian stone statue. Upon entering, he discovers his former brides have all been murdered. He then mourns his bride/sister Alicia. Once done, he meets with Jack the Ripper, who he quickly discovers killed his brides. Somehow, Jack escapes, but drops a knife.

This is where I'm going to stop, mostly because this entry is already getting way too long. I think I'll keep the short recaps, since people seemed to like those for the Consulting Detective cases and this has me a bit confused.

Observations so far. So far this is the most adventure any Japanese game has been, in a good way. That combined with the graphics is a very good sign. I also note that it's hard to get across that Dracula here feels evil. His thoughts read like that of a serial killer, there's no trace of the moral ambiguity that is often injected into the character or would come naturally from the adaptations that come from him being based on Vlad Tepes. I'm getting the same sort of vibes from his dialog that I get from serial killers. At least that's what I thought until Jack the Ripper popped up, he threw a wrench in my thoughts.

This game is also weird, but so far not in a way that's distinctly Japanese. People are always making fun of weird Japanese games, but this one just feels weird. Yes the authors are Japanese, but this isn't what makes the game weird. The weirdness of the phrase "Jack the Ripper killed Dracula's bride/lover" is not uniquely Japanese. Any weirdo could have thought of it, Jack the Ripper and Dracula are some of the most popular figures from the Victorian era. This admittedly isn't as far a field as I credit it, since apparently Bram Stoker himself may have been inspired by the Ripper.

On the other hand, this game is in more advanced Japanese than I'm used to. Sometimes I'm looking up a word and discovering that I didn't actually know the English word beforehand. Which makes me ask the question, is there a word for discovering a word in your own language thanks to figuring out the word in another language? There's a lot of text too, lots of difficult text, I may have made a mistake in playing this now. If you don't care for these titles, the good news is that I'm trying to keep a good pace on my posts once again, and I'll be alternating between these Japanese games and mainline titles. If I run out before 1994, very likely, I'll just pull out some other missed classics.

This Session: 1 hour 30 minutes