Missed Classic: Dracula Hakushaku (ドラキュラ伯爵) - Predator and Prey

Written by Morpheus Kitami

Horror of Dracula seems to be the vague vibe that this game is trying to get across, where Dracula is clearly a charming figure yet no less an obvious predator.

Over the years vampires have been depicted many ways, sometimes straight-forwardly, like a monster, a predator or a demon, or sometimes metaphorically, like for disease or oil. Count Dracula, the name of this game in English which I would title it if I had the guts, depicts Dracula firmly as a predator. A charming predator who insists upon himself. His victims have little chance of escaping once they're within his spell.

But as I've played more of this game, I'm not so sure that this game came across this theme entirely intentionally. Dracula is only unique in being a vampire, predators like him roam the world, seeking women to hurt themselves. We've seen that with Jack the Ripper, but soon we'll see that these are not isolated characters in an otherwise hopeful world. I said that Dracula was darker than I expected in the first entry, and it's gotten darker still. So, be warned.

Having finished with Jack the Ripper last time, we can't go further left or forward, so it's time to see what's right of the castle. We see some...ravens? "Count" Dracula, meanwhile seems focused on how many trees there are. When he finally gets there, he wonders how many crows there are gathered there...on a strange voice? That sounds like a child...? Er, I'm getting a bad feeling about this...and Dracula does too.

The first title I had for this one was beating a dead horse, even though we obviously don't do that. It seemed too fun to pass up.

I notice that I can use the knife and the black match thing I have. I try the knife, but that can't cut through all the birds. Dracula's not very persistent, apparently. So I use the match...which causes a rotting smell which causes them to flee? But they were eating a dead horse. What kind of castle just leaves a dead horse by the side? Dracula says it's in extreme decomposition. Imagine the smell.

I guess there must have been some reason why I did this. Looking at it just tells me what I already know, it's dead, it's disgusting. I can't really do anything by using it, so what about my items? The black match gets me something about a steak. Which as I write this, I realize actually means that's a chair leg that's been turned into a stake, but gives me an idea to use the knife to get myself a steak! A rotting horse steak. I'm seeing where some distaste for this game could come from. But no, that gets me a rib bone or something. Still red. That's the most disgusting item I've had to use in an adventure game...

This is obviously to let the player know someone is inside, as if as Dracula, you aren't going to find your way into houses to look for victims.

One step to the right is this scene. Dracula says it's old-fashioned, which strikes me as an odd comment. There's a woman inside, who the artist made a bit too posed for my taste, and a dog outside. What kind of dog is that? I recognize it, but forgot the breed. Now, how is Dracula going to get in here? Use his animal magnetism or whatever to scare the dog off? Use his superior strength to crush it or break it? Stake it? Knife it? Give the dog a bone? Yeah, that last one. Seems surprisingly unviolent of Dracula, but I guess he's trying to be pragmatic.

After I figure out how to enter the house, I get a save point. Guess that makes sense. Now to find out what Dracula is going to do to this poor, nubile maiden. Who I can't show you a picture of what you already know. The maiden's name is Christina, from Sweden. Who he actually knows somehow. She's also supposed to have abdicated the throne in favor of her brother. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be THAT Christina or if the writer just found a name he liked and stuck with it. Later events complicate this, a lot.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was going to be a scene in a game like this.

Anyway, Dracula talks about her beautiful and intelligent face before going on about how he has a longing. And then suddenly Dracula hears a sound before our attention is turned to another part of the screen, where a little girl is. (Or at least someone who looks like a little girl in this image) Dracula supposes that he looks like a devil from out of this world. That's really not what her face looks like, she looks more uncomfortable with strangers than terrified that a devil is going to kill her family. Seems like a problem drawn graphics shouldn't have, but oh, well. Let's talk to her.

He asks why she's here and her name, shockingly, she does not respond. He says he's Christina's friend and she asked him to come here. He insists that he's not scary at all. She just says her name, Mary. And then the dialog loops. Gotta think, look and try to use her before that can continue. He tries to coax her out of her hiding place. He succeeds.

"She's scared", yeah, she's smart to be scared. I'm scared too and I'm looking through Dracula's eyes!

And we get a closer look at her. You know, I can't tell if she's supposed to be a child or just your generic anime pretty girl. Dialog doesn't help, Dracula's description of her could be anything from 13-20. Even based on the following events, I'm not really sure what her deal is. The artist seems like the kind of person who doesn't have any range in faces. There are worse artists out there of course, but I'm sure the other women here will mostly be the same outside of their hairstyle.

Dracula now asks her if she's Christina's attendant and if they came from Sweden together, which she confirms via a small nod. Dracula then notices that she looks like Alisha. Whelp, Mary is screwed. He asks her what she's doing up so late, before saying that he thinks he'll return home soon. She says that Christina gave her a game and promised they'd play it together...and doesn't seem to know that she fell asleep. Dialog loops again, so I try to figure out what else I can do. So I look and use her, and then think. He just muses about her hair and then her situation.

This opens up the next dialog. Dracula offers to substitute for Christina in Mary's game. Sad, high-strung violins may be playing right now, but in my heart Chopin is playing his funeral march in the corner. If it's not a bother she says...I'll say one thing for the writing, I feel real bad for Mary. Now, what game is it?

We get a board with black and white circles on a board that looks somewhat like a Backgammon board, but lacks the edges. Dracula makes his move...and beats her at the board game. She says he's the best, but before Dracula can make his next move, Christina calls for him from the next room. Dracula decides to go after Christina first. There's a save point here. I can't show you Christina, but I will say that I was actually wrong about the artist's abilities. He is capable of making different faces. At this point the game shifts into...ah, you can figure it out.

What follows is a great deal more dialog of very little practical interest. Trying to get this off politely, what is happening is a puzzle in which you have to figure out to either use or talk to parts of the body, but at least there's no thinking here. It's not entirely what you think, she's just really into Dracula sucking her blood. But Dracula can't decide where to do it, apparently. Then Mary comes in, takes one look at the scene, and flees. I then get a save point, and at first I think that I've been sent back to the beginning of the evening, but I then discover that it is not and Dracula can talk to Mary again.

Talk is a bit strong, since Mary seems to be interested in whatever it was she just saw and Dracula has to interrupt her. The conversation is basically just Dracula insisting that he and Christina aren't upset that she sneaked in on their presumed dalliance. Dracula, it seems, prefers two at once. I'm not going to go into details.

Now, I generally prefer not to moralize, since you don't really need me to tell you what's right or wrong. I hope not at least. What this game is doing now is really not that different in theory from more mainstream vampire romance stories like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Twilight. Twilight even has a great observation about this, vampires are predators. It never expanded on that much, but predators go after the weak, the young, the wounded and the elderly. We got two of those in Mary. In theory, this is exactly the same thing presented in different mediums. Whether the vampire is good or evil matters very little in the grand scheme of things, we're still talking about something supernaturally appealing, becoming involved with a teenager. In practice, it's a bit different when you have to solve a puzzle of awkwardly groping two women to get your fangs to grow, while one of them keeps asking you to stop.

"Haha, I will stop you, but I won't actually come in and try and stop you."

After biting Mary once, but before he can take his big prize, another person barges in on him. Only this time it's a mysterious man who has come for a different reason. He says that Dracula has had his fun, and now he's going to put a stop to the festivities...and goes away. I'm now deposited back at the previously seen side-scrolling section and am free to explore some more. Dracula has nothing to say about the mysterious person; just his conquests. Did it really happen or did I hallucinate it?

I'm impressed that the primary artist actually managed to make a bunch of women who don't all look like each other. Shocking!

Right of Christina's house is a ruined house. I know a lot of towns in western games are hardly normal, but this is one strange town. Something Dracula notices. There's a woman who may or may not have feet playing a harp. Let's find out what she's doing here. She's surprised that someone like him would be here. By chance, he says. Not likely, since this is where a contagious disease is going around. He asks why she hasn't left, she says she can't, she's blind. Now we just need someone elderly for Drac to pray upon.

He then asks about her instrument, does it get her money. She says not, most don't have excuses to come here and that she can't move. He says that she could be useful to him. The screen shifts to her face and she talks about how a lady wanted her to be her maid a while ago. He asks why she continued to live in these terrible conditions. Because the lady's world was full of people who would look down at her. Dracula, of course, doesn't understand this. Because she was a lesbian who liked them young. I think I might have missed a linking element there, but I think we get the important parts.

The blind girl continues, she was born in the country, but separated from her nursemaid early on because of the lady. One day, a strange gentleman arrived, and the lady's husband...and she just trails off and returns to her seat. If I talk to her again, she asks Dracula to kill some people for her. Vita Sackville and Hellsing. Presumably the latter is the Dracula character, but the former is actually suspiciously close to the real life poetess Vita Sackville-West, who is as far as I'm aware, not a predator, but is allegedly a lesbian and I'm not really sure why the game seems to be using her as the basis of something monstrous. Is there something I'm missing? Even just a false accusation would give some explanation.

There are so many possible interactions and so little to actually do on this screen that there's definitely something hidden here.

Further right, as far as I can go, is a dead end in pretty bad shape. I can't seem to do anything here yet, so I go back to the other side of the area. The dead woman has been removed by someone, but nothing else has changed. I then think I should try the castle, since that's the only thing with something going on that I can interact with. I skip over some dialog since I think he's just repeating earlier stuff...

...Until a carriage arrives. There's a woman inside, she has the proof of something from a gentleman, which may be a letter from Dracula. The carriage is led in over the drawbridge and Dracula with Dracula hiding under it. I'm not quite sure what the deal here is, the next screen shows a forest and he says he's in a forest in Versailles, implying that he's traveling under the carriage, but this doesn't bear out with the events that happen. I'd just say this is the inside of the castle. He takes the time to muse about someone named Francesca for some reason.

Francesca and her attendant, who does not deserve a name.

He then spots two women. This fires off a a connection I didn't realize I should be paying attention to. I check my screenshot of the skeletons and the women showing up. Three so far correspond to skeletons. Curious. Is this Dracula's memory, or something else? The lady on the left is one of the skeletons, the one on the right doesn't seem to be. Guess we have the old one now, even if that's not really what it means. Jees, Dracula even refers to the woman, Francesca I guess, as prey. He then thinks about her some more, remembering how she was an opera...actress.

The two don't notice Dracula, but they do feel something odd about the area they're in. They're mostly just talking about her opera career. If I look at her, Dracula makes the same observations he made about one of the skeleton women. Then the conversation turns to a mysterious gentleman. Not sure which one, since both Dracula and Hellsing have been referred to that way and it could go either way. But enough of talk, let's have Dracula touch the attendant. So he prods her, causing the attendant to yelp and say something touched her, to which Francesca brushes off as a hallucination because of the forest, but it's clear that she's worried herself.

So Dracula continues to basically just annoy the hell out of this girl, for reasons I clearly need to be over 200 years old to understand. Some more looking and thinking and then Francesca goes off to use the toilet. And then Dracula makes his move on the attendant. Let's just say a pattern is emerging here and Dracula isn't just biting on the neck. Once that's done we come back to Francesca. Alone. She doesn't seem too concerned when Dracula comes back to talk to her.

I think I'm going to stop here, because I've gone through a lot of this and while I did get a bit past it, I was trying to get past too much at one time and ended up skipping what is probably important dialog and conversations. I kind of need a break from this and I'm not 100% certain that there's going to be a third entry.

Recap

Dracula unleashes a bad smell on some ravens so he can extract a horse bone to feed to a dog so he can meet with one of his ladies. The lady in question is possibly Queen Christina of Sweden for reasons that are entirely unexplained. Dracula also brings in Christina's servant Mary, who reminds him of his sister/dead wife. A mysterious man arrives after Dracula finishes...er...feeding off of the two. Then Dracula is told by a blind beggar girl that a nearby noblewoman named Vita Sackville is in league with Hellsing, and would you please kill them for her. Also, Dracula may be just remembering some of this as opposed to actually doing it in the present. We end with Dracula having fed off of the attendant of an opera star named Francesca.

This Session: 4 hours 20 minutes

Total Time: 5 hour 50 minutes