Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows, macOS, Linux (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Recruit more Kindred to my coterie
Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York has sat untouched in my Steam library for a while. Having recently started up a game of Vampire, the original tabletop roleplaying game which Coteries of New York adapts portions of, now felt like a good time to finally take this visual novel for a spin.
And damn, am I glad I did. Thus far, Coteries of New York is proving to be great inspiration for my campaign; it’s doing a great job of keeping the game’s world fresh and active in my mind. Vampire is a dense TTRPG. Characters aren’t heroes they’re monsters coping with a hellish existence. And the setting has a ton of privatized lore and terms that can take a long time to memorize with confidence. Sure, you can always get that information by reading the rulebooks while listening to some wonderfully dreadful music (I heartily recommend Soma FM’s Dark Zone for late evenings spent dreaming of the Kindred), but having a creative work to experience and learn from definitely helps.
I’m also loving that Coteries of New York, unlike certain other, more high-profile Vampire releases, is a visual novel, making it a nice change of pace from the more active video games I’m used to playing. The genre allows my mind to focus more on the dark, gothic vibes of its World of Darkness setting than I could if it were a standard RPG—though I do still wish that, like Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest, it had a few more RPG mechanics. That game, which exists in the same universe as Vampire, effectively blends the visual novel format with the role-playing game.
But though I’d love some more gamey mechanics in Coteries of New York, it still does a wonderful job of delivering the dark sense of dread and despair a good World of Darkness game should. I’ve been playing as the Toreador character Lamar, mostly palling around with his newfound Malkavian friend Hope. But there are more vampires to meet from the setting’s various clans. And if the clever and faithful writing in Hope’s section is anything to go by, I have some more sanguine narrative treasures to unearth on the dark streets of New York City. — Claire Jackson