Mobile Game Reviews: Vampire's Fall:Origins

In an age where smart phones are in nearly everyone's hands (and almost definitely in the hands of people under a certain age range), mobile games are big business; Konami, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all have a mobile game division in their companies, and they were some of the biggest game developers in the 80s and 90s.

However, if you've been playing video games as long as I have (since 1989), mobile games have a bad reputation, and for good reason.  You see, mobile games have one major obstacle to sucking in people like myself; control. Touch screens lack the precision control that a keyboard, mouse or controller have, so certain types of games are difficult on mobile devices unless they offer Bluetooth controller support.

And that's where this new series comes in; I download a game, play it for at least a week, and let you know if they're worth your time.  I'll be judging on a few criteria; control, graphical fidelity, sound, and frequency of ads, if any, and fun factor. And then, I'll round it up to whether it's worth your time and money. And with that, welcome to Mobile Game Reviews.

Today's game is something I found via an ad; Vampire's Fall:Origins. Published by Early Morning Studio, Vampire's Fall: Origins is a sequel to their previous game, Vampire's Fall. It's a full fledged turn based RPG with a full compliment of weapons, armors and abilities, as well as a full dark fantasy story.

Control: Vampire's Fall: Origins is pretty basic in its control needs; you tap the menus, tap the dialogue windows, and you use a virtual control stick to move around the map. For the most part, the tap  focused aspects of the game work properly, big thumbs/fingers issues not withstanding, but it's the virtual control stick that requires a little bit to getting used to. At first, I wasn't sure what I was doing, since it doesn't stay in one spot if you're not careful, but once I was used to the idea of pressing and holding in a direction, it became second nature. And honestly, it's this game that makes me think that virtual d-pads can be a good, accurate control method.

Graphical Fidelity: Vampire's Fall: Origins looks great. All the sprites are modern, all the actions are fluid, all the combat is graceful looking, and the overworld and all the things in it look like what they're supposed to. And since they're different, all the combat sprites look great too. All the weapons and armor make your character look different while wearing, something not illustrated by the overworld sprites. 

Sound:Vampire's Fall: Origins takes full advantage of what a mobile device is capable of. The music is a epic as it can be for such a small speaker, enemies and your player character all have cries of pain when they're damaged, and they're all distinct for the type of character that's getting hit; a distinct male grunt, a distinct female grunt, distinct sounds from spirits, wolves, boars, and all the other types of enemies are all distinct and memorable.

Story: Since Vampire's Fall: Origins is an RPG, I'd not be doing my duty if I didn't mention the story. Without spoiling the story, you start out as a human defending a town, learning the ropes of combat and interacting with NPCs and doing quests, only for the big bad of the story to defeat you and curse you to be a vampire. From there, your quest is to track him down across the world in your quest to destroy him. Once you find him, you have access to two possible endings, and from there, a full expansion full of quests with map as large as the main game. There is a lot going on here, and lot of twists and turns to get through.

Ads: Vampire's Fall: Origins is very good about its ad policy.  Not a single mandatory ad in sight. You can get bonuses at the end of some battles for xp gain, gold or on rare occasions, loot boxes of gear, and like the better free mobile games, you can buy an upgrade that lets you get rid of ads, and also grants permanent upgrades to your account, including a special badge in the game's chat and a vampire's lair which grants extra storage slots.  You can also buy shards for cosmetic upgrades, helmets that ad to your stats and wings that add special abilities. All of these purchases are optional and none of those items are required to beat the game.

Fun Factor: I've enjoyed every minute of Vampire's Fall: Origins, even the mandatory grinding.  Battles are fun, the story is serious when it has to be and silly when it can be, and the opportunity to pit your character against other players is not to be missed out on.

Final Analysis: Vampire's Fall: Origins is a fun ride if you're into RPGs. The grinding can get annoying, but not insurmountable. It's a wonderful experience from character creation to the final boss of the expansion. If you're an RPG fan who likes dark fantasy, you don't want to miss out on Vampire's Fall: Origins.