Romancelvania Spiel

by Rian

Ever thought of serious Dracula dating sim? I have read some fan fictions, but I certainly did not think of putting dating sim and Metroidvania together. It immediately peaked my interest as Romancelvania encompasses most of Halloween favorites and then some. What I didn’t realize was that this is a crowdfunded game, and just like many other crowdfunding projects, it overpromises and underdelivers.

Romancelvania starts with laugh-provoking premise, where Drac the vampire is on a reality dating show for monsters after being defeated in the hands of his nemesis a century ago. His potential dates, much like the protagonist, are also going through their slumps. While interactions and dialogues gave me good chuckles at times, but much like how players are seeing the dates at the low point of their life, what we are seeing is also unpolished, unedited version of how their relationships: characters only knee-deep, and their entire outlook on life hanging on one quirk they have. It’s less a dating sim than a visual novel as the relationship meter is seemingly impossible to recede.

As for Metroidvania part of the game, I personally could not tell if half the glitches and odd behaviors were intended in-jokes on the genre or not, especially the lack of controls setting. I was surprised to find out I cannot change any key mappings, let alone combo for abilities. There is an entire D-pad and right analogue stick waiting to be used on DualSense. I had seen several abilities either misfire or not fire at all. That is not to say the abilities add much to the gameplay; Romancelvania is an easy game, and this is coming from someone who rarely plays any Metroidvania. With all that said, raising the HP quickly made exploring and platforming less exciting every moment.

Conclusions: Midlife-crisis Vania

Behind the graphical glitches, missing letters, and weird 3D modeling of the original comic-styled arts, Romancelvania does give a good chuckle as a dating sim and Metroidvania hybrid. But as any hybrids often do, the game has neither the good dating sim nor Metroidvania experience. I can’t help but note that even if the game had developed its dialogues with the characters (i.e. the dates) more, it would still not be a genre hybrid it wants to be, but rather a visual novel.