Vampires in Popular Culture - Video Games

Video Games

Video game series featuring vampires primarily use Dracula or Dracula-inspired characters. Konami's Castlevania series is the longest running series which uses the Dracula legend, though its writers have made their own alterations to the legend. An exception to this trend is the Legacy of Kain video game series, which features vampires set in an entirely fictional world called Nosgoth.

Other vampires seen in games include:

• The Elder Scrolls game series involves vampires created by demon lord. They have all the typical attributes, but some (though not all) can walk in sunlight if they have fed on a victim.
• Mortal Kombat series, there's a species of vampires, although Nitara is thus far, the only vampire known in the series.
• In the tabletop wargame Warhammer Fantasy: Vampire Counts are one of the playable forces.
• Role-playing games such as Vampire: The Masquerade (1992), in which the participants play the roles of fictional vampires (for specifics, see vampires in the World of Darkness).
• The Darkstalkers (1994) fighting game series (known as Vampire Savior in Japan) features a vampire along with other mythological and horror-themed characters.
• Shadowrun features vampires whose existence is explained by a resurgence of the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus. As such, the afflicted are not undead, but instead are still alive but radically changed by the retrovirus. They normally do not suffer from the supernatural limitations such as crosses, but still are vulnerable to sunlight.
• The comedy game Conker's Bad Fur Day features a Dracula-like vampire who is often insulted by Conker. He dies by falling into a grinder due to extreme blood drinking.
• The Sims 2: Nightlife, the second expansion pack for popular series The Sims 2, introduces vampires to the game. These vampires in this game follow many fictional conventions, such sleeping in ornate coffins, wearing gothic clothing, and being able to transform into bats. Vampirism can be spread between game characters through biting. If caught outside during the day, a Sim Vampire's will soon die. In The Sims 3: Late Night, Vampires makes a return. Unlike in Nightlife, these vampires live longer than normal Sims, won't die in the Sun but will suffer burns, get sick from eating Sim Food with Garlic, and drink Plasma either by biting a Sim, Plasma pack, or Plasma Fruit. They still can die from noraml deaths that happans to Normal Sim, with the exception of Hunger in where it's replaced by Thirst.
• The video game series Castlevania establishes a new origin for Dracula and chronicles the never ending struggle between him and the Belmont clan of vampire hunters stretching from the 11th century all the way to the 21st century.
• The video game series Shadow Hearts have four known vampires (Three playable) in the games (though hardly stereotypical).
• The video game series Boktai revolves around the Vampire Hunter Django. However, even though the games sometimes equalize the terms of Vampire and Immortal, there are only a few true vampires in the games, such as the Count of Groundsoaking Blood.
• The scrolling shooter Embodiment of Scarlet Devil features two vampire sisters as the final boss and the extra stage boss. The older of the two, Remilia Scarlet, became playable in two later games of the Touhou Project.
• Video game series such as Konami's Castlevania and role-playing games such as Vampire: the Masquerade have been especially successful and influential.
• Video game series Metal Gear Solid include a character in it called Vamp, who drinks blood and appears to be immortal (though in Metal Gear Solid 4, it is discovered that this is due to nanobots in his body). At first glance, it could be noticed that his name stems from his Vampiric abilities, but actually comes from his bisexuality.
• Several Buffy the Vampire Slayer video games have been released.
• In the Guilty Gear series, Slayer is introduced in Guilty Gear XX as the first, and currently only, vampire so far in the series. He is a Nightwalker, though unlike other vampires, he seems to be unaffected by sunlight. He is also seen drinking blood from his own wife Sharon before a match, although Sharon is immortal.
• BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger features Rachel Alucard as a vampire who carries a cat-like umbrella named Nago and is occupied by a red bat familiar named Gii.
• In Rosenkreuzstilette, regardless of whether the player is playing Spiritia or Grolla, the player meets Graf Michael Sepperin, who is vampiric in appearance and acts like Dracula in the Castlevania series, as the boss of Sepperin Stage 4.