Vampire Survivors’ Ode to Castlevania Should Be Just The Tip of the Iceberg

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 14, 2024 30 Views 6 Min Read
Vampire Survivors' Ode to Castlevania Should Be Just The Tip of the Iceberg



Following a relatively quiet early access period in December 2021, Vampire Survivors was released in full on PC in October 2022, where it became an overnight smash hit. While 2022 was packed with great Indie titles, Vampire Survivors shot to stardom thanks to its addictive gameplay loop, its consistent sense of progression, and its abundance of unlockable characters and modifiers. And that was only the beginning of Vampire Survivors‘ tale.




Over the last two years, developer Poncle has continued to add to Vampire Survivors, bringing new characters, weapons, and stages via both free and paid DLC. These paid DLCs have occasionally featured collaborations with fellow video games like Contra and Among Us, but those pale in comparison to the latest Vampire Survivors crossover DLC. Titled “Ode to Castlevania,” the latest Vampire Survivors expansion adds more content than any DLC before it, bringing over 20 new characters, over 40 weapons, and the largest stage in the game, all for just a few dollars. While this is more than enough content for fans to sink their teeth into, this should just be the beginning of the game’s vampiric crossovers.

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Vampire Survivors: 12 Most Powerful DLC Characters, Ranked

These characters from the Vampire Survivors DLCs are some of the most powerful of the bunch.

Other Vampire Games Vampire Survivors Should Collaborate With


Vampyr

Vampyr, a fairly radical departure from Dontnod’s previous title, Life is Strange, was originally released in June 2018. In Vampyr, players take on the role of Jonathan E. Reid, a doctor who has just returned to London after the First World War and finds that he’s been turned into a vampire. The central hook of Vampyr is its morality system that’s woven naturally into gameplay. Players can only level up their combat abilities significantly if they feast on human blood, but they’re able to complete the game without harming a soul if they use their powers of deduction and stealth.

While Vampyr was met with mixed reviews upon its initial release, the last six years have been quite kind to Vampyr, with many now considering the game a bit of a hidden gem for the genre. It’d be fun to see Jonathan E. Reid come to Vampire Survivors in a future crossover DLC, perhaps alongside a stage inspired by an early 1900s London.


Vampire: The Masquerade

Beginning life as a 1991 tabletop RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade is widely considered to be one of the best vampire franchises in gaming. 2000’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption was the first video game adaptation of the TTRPG, and while it received an extremely mixed critical reception, its 2004 successor Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines fared much better, setting a new standard for choice-based narratives and variety for the RPG genre.

The Vampire: The Masquerade franchise may not be quite as influential as it once was, but it’s still got its fans, and it would make for a great Vampire Survivors DLC. Rather than bringing over individual characters, a Vampire: The Masquerade x Vampire Survivors DLC could add playable characters based on each of the Masquerade franchise’s clans, such as the Brujah, the Ventrue, and the Nosferatu.


El Paso, Elsewhere

Still regarded as one of last year’s most overlooked Indie games, El Paso, Elsewhere is a Max Payne-inspired third-person shooter that sees players take control of a vampire hunter named James Savage as he tries to track down his vampiric ex who wants to end the world. The high-octane action of El Paso, Elsewhere would lend itself well to a fast-paced game like Vampire Survivors, making it a great choice for a future collab.

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