Missed Classic: Dracula Hakushaku (ドラキュラ伯爵) - Flashback, Heart Attack

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

One person watching another person in the darkness, we need a lot of words for this one.

Welcome back to Dracula. It's been far too long. To bring everyone back up to speed, last time Dracula had just drained the blood of the maid of another paramour of his called Franceska. We start with him staring at her alone, in a gazebo in the forest. She's not yet aware of him.

How's she doing? She's gotten past her fear, but she looks like she's about to break out crying. This amuses Dracula, in such a way that he could laugh. How's Dracula doing? Sucking that girl's blood has made him more...vital. Well...I wasn't missing that. Now I can talk to her. Dracula introduces himself and apologizes (ha) for making her wait. She already wants to get out of here. He asks if she's here on her lonesome. She mentions her maid, but wonders where she went to. He wonders if she'll return. After a little more talk, he says they should go to the palace, because she must be cold out here.

The most useful translation of this is probably "words, words, words", which is how I felt about a lot of what happened in this entry.

While they go to the palace, Dracula thinks about the past. How they indulged in high class but vulgar acts. She asks why they're never in public together. Perhaps he's frightened He thought that her beauty would be too visible. So instead they endlessly walk around the park. He says he's not scared, but her popularity is such that until he can get used to it, it isn't wise to be seen together. They keep talking about a palace, I think it's a metaphor. Because Dracula's talking of completing the castle, then extinguishing its candles.

She talks of wanting to return to Paris, as she's inexperienced with the darkness of London. He says he's never been there, because most people are afraid of him. He tells her to have patience and they'll work this out. Now the touching can commence. Or not, because this causes her fear. She then asks if Dracula will return her to her carriage. What can I do? It's been staring at you the entire time.

That's right, there's a button here. If I press it, the light turns on and I can talk to Franceska again. It's odd, it's well set-up as a puzzle, yet it does feel like a pixel hunt, but that could just be because the actual puzzle half of this game is mostly superficial. I can talk to her again. Dracula mocks her by asking what would the world think of this? That's it, back to struggling to find the way to advance it.
 

Displaying some awareness before returning to being easy prey.

More thinking and looking, and suddenly Franceska notices that Dracula doesn't have a reflection. Dracula thinks some more, and then it changes to the screen it was before. Dracula tries to play it off, asking what kind of question is that? He knows he didn't hide himself well enough. She tells him to leave and thanks him for the meal, before correcting herself and saying that she doesn't thank him for the meal, and she'll leave. He says that their meeting was not by chance. She asks what he means, is his lack of reflection caused by some sort of illness? It doesn't matter, any reply would be unsatisfactory. Dracula says that what she says is no problem. His is a familial condition that his ancestors received for an act of cruelty, that he didn't think about. It happened because they impaled their enemies. Many, many people.

After many invasions, they were left with an evil influence that made them unable to act. She's shocked, commenting about what a bad experience that must have been. He says that since then, the mystery has plagued his family. Could he be said to be guilty of this sin? This gives her pause, and he thinks about how the only part of that which is true is that he received the curse for his cruelty. I can start another talk, and Dracula asks if she would like to return in his carriage. She says she won't return, she was just a little taken aback when he started touching her. As she's grown fond of the count. Dracula thinks that it's just like a woman to dismiss her fears like that. One moment cold, another friendly.

Now Dracula can touch her, and he sucks her blood. Unlike previous times, we go back to the scene before it happens for some post script. Unlike previous victims, Franceska is happy afterwards. It seems that Dracula biting her has filled some deep-seated need of hers. She says that he's a strange person, but what has happened has made things clear to her. He says that this is the first time he's seen her smile. She asks if he thinks she's a bad person. He says no, and she says that's a lie. She then tells him to tell a priest. He wonders if that would make a difference. She says that he's a good person, and that it would make all the difference. He questions this, and she says that he's headed for hell if he doesn't. He wonders what kind of person would say such a thing. Does she know something he doesn't?

Now it's time to cue the Linkin Park. We need the full teenage angst!

And it's back to the castle. Er...Versailles Palace. He thought quite fondly of her, and won't keep thinking of her. Now control returns...wait, Dracula wasn't under the carriage. Well that feels like a waste of time. I can't do anything here, so I wander around for a little bit. Aha, that alley, maybe I can do something there now!
 

Thank you, Ernest Hemingway for going do-lally...

This scene happens because I looked at the wall. The writing is just that, suddenly a carriage appears in front of me. It's the same one the woman was on. Because I can't do anything but look and think on this screen, I have to move forward on the carriage door to advance. I can save again, the third time this session, and then I get a prompt to hit any button.

Leaving me the heritage of damnation alley.

Before things can advance, I need to get through this wall of text. It was natural that he could get this carriage. Someone big helped him get this carriage, and that person is guiding him, even if he is only guiding him out of a persecution complex. Now, he will go to whatever destination this force has put him towards. Another box of text follows. Which is just talking about the noise of the carriage going towards its destination.

Alisha speaks, guess we're remembering her now. It's a tender moment, between a man and his sister/wife, as Dracula assures Alisha that they'll reach there and I stopped paying much attention because it's mostly the same thing over and over again. I'm not doing more than half-assing it, because this is the second carriage ride we've had in such a short period of time. I don't need paragraphs upon paragraphs of text of Dracula moping about his lost love. Wait, is this like what I've heard about in American Psycho, where the narrator prattles on and on about something that isn't interesting to read about and then slips in something important? Guess I'm fooled.

Eventually, the ride ends, still in the past and on the carriage picture, because Dracula mentions Russia. Dracula has no memory of this place, apparently. There's even a paragraph of text explaining how he got out of the carriage. I can now save again. I can save before and after the wall of text. That's both a wise decision and something that ticks me off, but let's continue.
 

Hey, something happened.

We're in front of a stone door now, with a stone statue off to the side. Why the carriage dropped us off here is something that probably was in the text I skipped over. Now, something here catches the eye, the statue's thong. So being the astute student of adventure game reasoning I am, I interact with it, it breaks off and I can pick it up. It could be useful, thinks Dracula, proving that this game is an adventure game despite frequently turning into a novel. I can't move the doors, obviously, and Dracula can't turn into a bat or anything, so let's go left or right. There's no reason to think I can...

 

Grandma here gets her kicks in strange ways.

...and that was surprisingly amusing. The screen slides over, so you get the gate, seemingly all alone, then slide over to random old witch selling potions at a table. Was she watching Dracula grope a statue to steal something off it? Is this all just Dracula going off and doing random things because he's riddled with dementia, so every time he's lost in thought some passerby is looking at him as he imagines himself drinking the blood of his old conquests? I don't understand what this game is driving at.

Looking at her wares, it seems as though she's selling bad salts. Do we mean bad as in mediocre or bad as in evil? The old lady lowers her eyes and says, it's arsenic, a pinch of it every day in someone's soup will kill them in half a year. If your mistress becomes a liability, it's best to just kill her. After a number of months, she'll slowly become thin, and at the end, she'll just stop moving. Then she says something weird, which I guess means "after an appropriate period of mourning, start sending love letters to the next woman". I can't just take it, "it'll leak out and you'll die." I need gloves. Dracula, Prince of Darkness, needs gloves to hold arsenic. Guess he can't hold anything ending in -ic. Does that affect him and beatniks though?

Despite the obvious growing hatred in my heart, I still like the way the game looks.

Welcome to the inside of the church.

I'm not getting anything out of the witch, so I go to the right some more. An old church. I can go right inside to this old gal. I'm surprised, I would have guessed we'd see a pretty nun. Wait, this isn't a church, that's a Star of David. So it's a synagogue? It says church, but six pointed stars are not that particular symbol. Then the old woman tells me that black mass is happening here, and the priest is in on it. I'm going to stop for a moment to try to grasp what's going on here.

Is there some sort of corrupting influence in the location this game takes place in? Where such evil pervades the place that this old woman is assuming that the stranger who just walked in is ready for whatever messed up stuff goes on in here? (Possibly excepting that Dracula himself also pervades evil) Or is this just a setting where evil is just so everywhere that the woman still assumes that the stranger is ready for black mass? Which puts into question how evil Dracula is if his great sin is doing what his historical counterpart did in a world where his enemies probably did very evil acts themselves. Though I wonder if I'm overthinking the game and the writer just thought that they needed a nun in the game. (Morpheus editing this after the fact, there was no nun as of yet)

I can't open the door, because it's locked, even though the old woman is clearly saying it's okay to go in. I interact with some stuff and oh...it's a sliding block puzzle. There's something wrong about creating such a dark world and then having a kiddy puzzle being your obstacle to progress. I can't yet go through, first, I need a lamp. There's one right there, now...it's time for another flashback where Dracula goes to a black mass in London with Alisha. Lots of text against a black background talking about human evil and depravity. Jesus, are we not even a visual novel anymore? Just a novel? I just skipped over it, since it didn't seem important. 

Because people learning Japanese tend to learn weird things about the "wa" particle, you could incorrectly translate the sentence as "as for myself, I am Alisha and her two attendants."

Finally, we get to see Alisha in the flesh, as well as her attendants. Then we have three who are holding back laughter at Alisha for some reason. Maybe one's noble and two are the attendants, dunno. If I'm honest, I can't tell if either of Alisha's attendants are supposed to have cheaper dresses or something that shows them as attendants. It doesn't matter though, they're just background props, all I can do is talk to Alisha, either about herself or the other women; By using the icon on either Alisha or the ones in the background.

Asking about the other women first, Dracula asks what Alisha thinks about them. An unfriendly bunch of rural bumpkins, apparently. She'll teach them to come here. Dracula thinks she's saying these things sarcastically. Talking to her, and we get her concerned about getting to the black mass and then talk about smelling things. Apparently this is a big problem, because I have to look at everything in the room before I can talk to her again, at which point she's in good enough shape to continue.

We go down to the black mass, where two things are happening, human sacrifice and an orgy. Dracula focuses on the important stuff, namely, that this place smells in a very irritating manner. I'm glad Dracula is focused on the important aspects of this. I didn't see one word I recognized as being related to the people doinking in front of him. I'm just saying, if one fart is enough to make Dracula's eyes water this much, he probably shouldn't be going to the orgy part of black mass anymore.

...and then I have him look at the people engaged in activity, and he's talking about how they used tallow...for torches. Which I did a quick check on, and lo and behold that's not that special? Is the writing in this game actually kind of bad? This is just research clumsily inserted into the narrative. Dracula would find this no more special than you having a light powered by electricity. He does get to it eventually, but in such a way that one would use to describe a lady lying back and thinking of England.

Blood. Blood. Blood. Copper tasting Blood. And bits of sick.

Alisha brings Dracula's attention to this lady on the altar, which is apparently discolored by blood. How informative. Blood that's spilling from the woman on the altar. I'm showing you the picture you get while this is said to be happening. Someone forgot that this is a visual medium. This combined with the various burning things, is apparently quite beneficial to the mood and tone of the event going on here. It then cuts back to the image I can't show you. But this isn't helpful to Alisha, who seems to be negatively reacting to all the fire and beef fat and wants to get out of here.

Dracula just hangs around for a little while, being alone at an orgy, before some guy who looks like Tony Iommi pops up. Dracula's narration tells me that he's the Count of St. Germain, a bizarre figure who claimed to be immortal, among other things. As in, this is a guy who actually existed, Voltaire knew him. Well, at least Sherlock Holmes hasn't shown up. (I will quit the game if he does) He says it's been fifty years since they last met. Dracula muses a bit, then says it was probably 100 years ago. Was Dracula ever supposed to be alive in this game?

They talk over the meddle of their worth or whatever and how the language has changed. Germain explains how he became this way thanks to alchemy, guess he found the philosopher's stone. He doesn't have the free time to help others out with it though. Recently he's become aware of strange men following him. Dracula ponders this, then we get a scene change to two muscular men harrassing two women who are wearing skirts, who the game tells me are about to be taken to the priest for another ritual.

We are told that these women are adultresses. This is a celebration, despite the fact that the image shows the ladies looking very much like they're being forced to do this. They're brought to the altar for a kiss on the head. Then a man in a strange mask comes out. He says they're here because of an ugly fight they had over someone, but grace will be granted by Satan. They're sacrifices. Not dead sacrifices, but blood all the same. Eugh. The two girls grab their blood afterwards and the priest orders them to pour it over the girl on the altar.

Whereupon the priest stands menacingly over the bloodied girl, holding a dagger in his hands. Curiously, he too has Stars of David on him, with one of those Egyptian-style collars. I'd say he was a nutter if this setting didn't have enough supernatural stuff around to make me think his craziness is legitimate worship. He's just about to kill her when...

There's something oddly charming about someone with that big a neck just getting it crushed by someone who can actually wrap his hand around it.

Dracula snaps his neck with one hand. I'm guessing the blood caused some issue in his head. I don't really think much matters in his motivations at this point. He takes the girl away, undoubtedly to do his usual thing to her.

And that's where I'll end for now. I must admit, this game is starting to remind me of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a British parody series of old British genre shows with 0 budget. When I was watching it, it came off like exaggerating the negative traits of shows that do exist to the point that it seems like it's not parodying anything real, but now, I'm not so sure. There's a scene in the show where one character gives his backstory quite clumsily which the description of the torches nailed exactly what was going on. I can't find it, but have another funny bit from the show anyway.

Now, I don't yet know if this is something that could apply to the writer, but that's because I'm not sure what point the game is trying to drive to yet. Dracula seemed to me to be layered at first, but either the flashbacks reveal the current Dracula's biases or he was always some weird, creepy dude who was casually going to black masses. Perhaps when the cards are revealed, it will all make sense, or I'll just be left scratching my head.

RECAP 

Dracula remembers the time he enjoyed the company of an opera singer. In the present, he looks at a random wall and a carriage pops up. He then remembers his sister/wife before getting deposited in front of a gate that looks like it's from some ancient temple, but is actually in the middle of another part of town.

Dracula enters a church, which is about to have a black mass, and strangers are welcome. Dracula solves a sliding tile puzzle, then grabs a lamp before entering the mass. He then remembers how he used to go to black mass with his sister/wife back in London. He then remembers how his sister/wife was butthurt about some country bumpkins being jealous of her and how nasty the place smelled. They then go to an orgy, complain about the smell some more, watch a lady get prepped for a sacrifice, then his sister/wife goes home. He goes onto conversing with Saint Germain, an immortal. Once the black mass starts, the scent of blood causes him to kill the priest and kidnap the sacrifice.

This Session: 5 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 10 hours 50 minutes

Side note, recently, I've been made aware of The Tripods, a multi-player adventure game based off the British science fiction series/novels. Currently, I have two possible players and need a fourth. It shouldn't be too big a time commitment, but nobody is going in thinking this is going to be a mind-blowing experience. If anyone is interested, shoot an e-mail to the Google Groups.