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Perhaps you've become accustomed to the flashy antics of the fighters in Sammy's fighter Guilty Gear X2 and find it hard to look back at anything that doesn't look as sharp or animate as well. Well you'd be denying yourself the pleasure of many other greater fighters that, while not as visually overwhelming as GGX2, play far superior and in some cases display better imagination. Besides, the characters in GGX2 are almost carbon copies of characters from other games: Sol and Ky are basically Eiji and Kayin from Toshinden (who are basically Ryu and Ken with swords), Faust is a copy of the form of Joker in Persona 2 with the paper bag over his head, Jam is Chun-Li in many ways, Baiken is a female version of Tachibana Ukyo from Samurai Shodown, Anji is Long from Bloody Roar, Testament is Jedah from Vampire Savior, Slayer is Bristol-Devil from Groove on Fight (which is actually Power Instinct 3), etc. Capcom paved the way for GGX2 and others with Darkstalkers, their take on famous horror characters like Frankenstein, Wolfman, and Dracula, only designed with a Capcom flavor to them.

First off, this was called Vampire Savior ~ Jedah's Damnation when it was released in US arcades and eventually came out for the PlayStation but was called Darkstalkers 3 instead. The Saturn Import version utilizes the 4-MEG RAM cart add-on and is arcade perfect as a result, effortlessly surpassing the PS arcade port and it animates better than Nightwarriors ~ Darkstalker's Revenge on Saturn. I must admit that VS is Capcom's most faithful Saturn port among their CPS2 fighters alongside SF Alpha 2 and X-Men vs Street Fighter. Enough with the background info -- let's get to it.

The opening sequence is the usual Capcom goodness, but I still like the opening to Nightwarriors more. The first thing you'll notice is that unlike the arcade Donovan, Huitzil, and Pyron are included and selectable (why they were absent from the arcade, I don't know). The game plays exactly like the former Darkstalkers games only with a couple of new additions and changes. The biggest change is that when a character is hit it will take off permanent and temporary damage. The temporary energy taken will refill if you don't keep striking so this is an added incentive to keep attacking and stop turtling. Good thinking Capcom. Aside from this, once a character's life bar is fully depleted during the first round they'll just get back up right then and there for the next round, which means that if you've taken some damage and beaten your opponent you'll keep any damage you've received. (During the down time of your opponent you can jockey for position as they're about to get up.) The other big addition is Dark Force. What you do is fill up at least one EX Meter and then press a punch and kick of the same strength to activate it. The screen will change for a brief period of time (the time is shown as a bar below your health) and during this time you can do things with each character you normally couldn't do. For example, Sasquatch can attack while little penguins surround him and then attack your opponent by blowing up. Or, if you're L.Rapter he'll have a long chainsaw he'll use with various attacks. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. The only thing you should know is that while you're using a Dark Force you cannot build your EX Meter.

Otherwise, the game plays pretty much the same as before. In other words, excellent Darkstalkers goodness. In case you don't know how DS games play think of Street Fighter-style gameplay but with more unique characters and interesting moves that you wouldn't expect to find in SF, except for with certain characters in SFIII like 12 who looks like (s)he belongs in the DS series moreso than SF. You've got chain combos, air guarding, guard cancels, etc. etc. In all DS games the EX Meter fills up much more rapidly than in SF titles and you can store more of them as well. Basically any special move that any character uses can become an ES version. For example, Morrigan's Soul Fist, a Hadoken-type fireball, can become an ES version which is bigger and stronger just by pressing two punches instead of one when you perform the move. These ES moves take off some of the EX Meter, but EX moves take off at least one full meter and are the strongest moves in the game. For a more detailed look at how this all works go here. You can also get codes here.

There are a few differences between the US arcade and Japanese versions of this game besides the sub-title. The names of some characters have been changed. Here's a complete look at all the characters (aside from the hidden 'shadow' character).
----------------------
English/Japanese (both versions have same name if no slash is present)
----------------------
B.B.Hood/Bulleta
Demitri
J.Talbain/Gallon
Victor
L.Rapter/Zabel
Morrigan
Anakaris
Felicia
Bishamon
Rikuo/Aulbath
Sasquatch
Q-Bee
Hsien-Ko/Lei-Lei
Lilith
Jedah
Huitzil/Phobos
Pyron
Donovan
----------------------

The graphics are among the best 2D I've ever seen on a 32-bit system, period. If you've played the arcade then you know how it looks. The stages are used seemingly randomly though you'll find some where certain characters show up more often, such as Anakaris usually showing up at Red Thirst which is a desert with a huge blood-soaked moon in the background, or is that Mars? Oh, who cares anyway? Perhaps I should go do some research to find out. Yeah, I'll get right on that one. Anyway, other backgrounds include Feast of the Damned, Green Scream, Vanity Paradise, Forever Torment, Abaraya, Tower of Arrogance, War Agony, Concrete Cave (not actually a cave), 'Iron Horse, Iron Terror', Red Thirst, and Fetus of God. Characters animate supremely well, as well they should seeing as this is Capcom and they're using a 4-MEG RAM Cart! It animates almost as good as SFIII - I'm dead serious. In fact, the amount of detail and imagination used is often more impressive to watch than the SFIII characters going at it (not that I'm knocking the game). The best thing about this import is that you can enjoy it in beautiful English!!! Oh yeah babay!! Bring it on! In order to switch between Japanese and English versions (as well as many others) you'll have to gain access to the EX Option Screen by beating the game without losing a round with any character on any difficulty. Then, at the title screen highlight Options and hold L and/or R and press start. There. Simple as that. Capcom, I love you.

I'll tell you this much: Capcom's English is far superior to SNK's 'interpretation of English'. SNK's translations are amusing, to their credit.
Check out some of my favorite win quotes:
"I understand your opinion. I just don't care about it...." ~ Jedah
"I'm quick right? It's got to be the shoes!" ~ Felicia
"I would give it.... 69 points!" ~ Morrigan
Etc.

The endings are very cool, just as they are in most Capcom fighters. The best one, without question, goes to B.B.Hood. It's among the best endings in any game ever!! Sorry, but you'll have to play it to find out.

Capcom delivers another memorable soundtrack to no suprise. My favorite songs are for the stages Green Scream, Fetus of God, Concrete Cave, and Tower of Arrogance. Great stuff throughout, though I do kinda prefer Nightwarriors soundtrack. The sound effects are splendid as are the voices. "GRAB MY LEGS!!" ~ Demitri

I've been playing this game for the last three days and refuse to stop. It's so damn fun and it truly embarrasses Guilty Gear X2 as far as music, gameplay, and characters are concerned. It's just incredible that Capcom never brought this version, the good version, outside of Japan. Such a pity. Oh well... go find a copy somewhere but make sure your Saturn can not only play imports but that you also have the 4-MEG RAM Cart as it is essential in order to play it, though I have heard there are a couple of other methods that work just as well. At any rate, if you consider yourself a fighting gamer then you owe it to yourself to play Vampire Savior. I'll leave it at that.

- Michael

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