The Weird Darkstalkers Games

Taking a look at the only fighting game sequels that the player base actively tells new players to stay away from; Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2!
-Thanks to @felineki for looking over the script!
-Follow me on Twitter if ya want: @GuileWinQuote
#Darkstalkers #VampireSavior

[@Vic_v._Gerdenheim]

Honestly, I would kill for a six-hour Darkstalkers lore video.

[@duuudewazzup8296]

I think there's a KZbin channel that already goes in depth of everything and every character in that game it's pretty neat

[@Vic_v._Gerdenheim]

@@duuudewazzup8296 Yeah, I've seen that retrospective too. I want MORE though!

[@duuudewazzup8296]

@@Vic_v._Gerdenheim MORE

[@axelthouin4389]

There also no Darkstalkers iceberg done yet

[@reichen609]

@Vic Me too! ✋🏼🥺 Never enough! #Darkstalkers Midnight Bingewatch Squad! 🦇🩸💀🔥🪦🔥💀🩸🦇 #mouthful 😓

[@KnightsDisillusion]

I couldn't agree more with the opening statement. Vampire Savior really is one of the greatest fighters Capcom has ever made.

[@LIONTAMER3D]

Have you ever heard of the "Street Fighter" franchise?

[@KnightsDisillusion]

@@LIONTAMER3D Who?

[@LIONTAMER3D]

@@KnightsDisillusion ...or the Marvel series?

[@KnightsDisillusion]

@@LIONTAMER3D Don't worry i'm just joking. Street Fighter is 100% up there in Capcoms greatest fighters. 3rd Strike and the Alpha series specifically. It also looks like SF6 is going to be on that hilltop, so let's look forward to it!

[@LIONTAMER3D]

@@KnightsDisillusion cvs2 tho...

[@CrimsonMoonM]

I was shocked when I first jumped online in these games on the Capcom Fighting Collections and realized that they had completely gutted the aerial pressure that made Savior such a nutty and technical game. I guess they felt that the barrier-to-entry were too high, but going back to the basic Hunter-style combo system felt like such a huge step backwards.

[@GuileWinQuote]

I'd definitely be more forgiving of these games given this one change wasn't made... Sure, make everything harder, but removing the air chains just made the games feel so much WORSE.

[@GentlemanQ]

The only one who benefited from dropping the aerial pressure is non other than our ancient warrior Anakaris.

[@mikeg2491]

@@GuileWinQuote I liked Savior’s air chains because it had hints of the Marvel Vs. Series style without making me motion sick

[@snakeshadowcollectibles6835]

Really? I just bought the collection thinking that no changes were made to those games and that I could experience them as they were intended to be...

[@Beelzeboogie]

​@Snake Shadow Collectibles Oh no the games on the collection are pretty much exactly as they were released. I think they mean the changes from Savior 2 and Hunter 2 from Savior.

[@WraxTV]

Experiments like these were necessary for Capcom to make better games. It was alright if MSHvSF or VSav2 sucked, we could always go back to XvSF and VSav. Nowadays with online updates making previous versions disappear entirely, the stakes are much higher and I think it's made them play things much more conservatively. We need Vampire and the rest of Capcom's wacky fighters to exist so that the Street Fighters of tomorrow have plenty of ideas and mechanics that can be plundered.

[@GuileWinQuote]

This is a great point that I wish I had articulated myself.

[@Enigmajestic1]

We need a SNK Vs Darkstalkers

[@Beelzeboogie]

​@@Enigmajestic1 Samsho Vs Darkstalkers.

[@austinreed7343]

Not counting Capcom character appearances in non-Capcom games, the last one was MVCI.

[@lingux_yt]

I like MSHvsSF! is it really worse than X-Men vs SF?

[@FuriousTH]

Actually regarding 11:52 on the video The PSX version of Vampire Savior does have the newer sprite of Donavan but weirdly enough is only used if you select him on the character selection with the D.F. POWER mode, that gives Donovan his sprite from vsav2, D.F. CHANGE just gives him his DS2 sprites, no idea why Capcom did that but hey, the two sprites are in the game so that's something Anyways, nice video explaining these two games that I'm somewhat fascinated to see that they sure exist

[@GuileWinQuote]

Actually didn't know that, thanks for the correction!

[@ODDiSEE_]

It's wild that the only version of any darkstallers game to have all the characters, is a psp game they gets no love.

[@nate567987]

and the ps2 game?

[@wyleFTW]

What characters are darkstalkers 3 for ps1 missing?

[@TVindustries5000]

​@@wyleFTWDee was an exclusive character in the ps2 collection. He's a corrupted version of Donovan. His ending features teenage Anita. I think its the last bit of in-game Darkstalkers lore in the series.

[@PinkyJustice]

What a good launch game

[@sacredeight]

There's also vampire saviour for the Saturn, but that game never got a western release despite probably being the best contemporary port of the game. There is a fan translation, though!

[@RingloomAzur]

Probably Chronicles: The Chaos Tower is the closest thing we have to a "Definitive Version" of Vampire Savior due to maintaining the additions of the console ports and the new modes, stage and higher quality voice clips, but sadly it doesn't have Dee

[@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA]

It also has the issue of not actually being arcade-perfect. The entire game is based on Savior 2, and many of its changes were not reverted for the Savior versions of the characters (e.g. damage nerfs, removed dash links, altered hitboxes, removed unblockables), in addition to introducing quirks and oddities of its own (such as Demitri being able to throw aerial fireballs much closer to the ground than before). IMO the definitive version would be the "arranged" Savior in the PS2 collection, which can be made arcade-perfect by toggling a few DIP switches (plus the extra characters). The only downside is one extra frame of input lag in versus mode, but IIRC that isn't too significant to impact gameplay.

[@Eliburgo]

​@@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA Also liked the for matching dreamcast version

[@cookiemint8439]

Is the Dreamcast version based off of savior 2’s engine?

[@cookiemint8439]

Hopefully the DC version isn’t based of Savior 2’s engine​@@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA

[@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA]

@@cookiemint8439 It is. The PSP version is just the DC version with extra content.

[@tedjomuljono3052]

I just realized the title of each Japanese release refers to the focus characters of each game Vampire is Dimitri, the OG Vampire Hunter is Donovan & BB, the, well, Vampire Hunter/Darkstalkers Vampire Savior is the ultimate Vampire himself, Jedah

[@atomu27]

BB is not even in Hunter. The title refers to Donovan and Lei-Lei

[@Eliburgo]

​@@atomu27 exactly came to say this but you already did thanks 😊

[@john-sp8jk]

​@@atomu27why does BB go by two different names? They also call her bulletta.

[@atomu27]

@@john-sp8jk Bulleta is the japanese name. They decided to change some names in the west to make them "sound cooler" to a western audience

[@TVindustries5000]

​@@john-sp8jkI just think of BB Hood as Bulleta (instead of Baby) Bonnie Hood lol

[@Jaybaybay2838]

I always wanted a Vampire Savior HD Remix with all the characters playable in one place, using a rebalanced version of Vsav gameplay and mechanics. Maybe make the push block slightly easier. We have definitely made leaps in tech since the CPS2 hardware, why not just finally have them all playable

[@TexasHollowEarth]

Doesn't the PSP port, Chaos Tower have all characters under one roof? The situation is alot like Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, also on PSP 👍

[@DragoonCenten]

Darkstalkers is forever damned to Rule 34 Hell.

[@KonaKonaKaabisteru]

@@DragoonCenten Right next to Kid Icarus. I remember joking how Morrigan prolly has hanged out with Captain Falcon for last decade or two.

[@Eliburgo]

​@@TexasHollowEarth not only all the characters under one roof but you can pick three versions of every character darkstalker , Hunter or savior

[@aegisreflector1239]

That already kinda exists in the Dreamcast and PSP exclusive versions. Those are the best Darkstalkers games imo

[@masternorg]

Many thanks for breaking down the system changes to the two games and why no one plays them. Still happy to see them on the recent collection for completion sake

[@GuileWinQuote]

Absolutely. As weird and unnecessary as they are, they're a part of history, so I'm glad they weren't forgotten. But I do feel bad for the people who hopped on VSAV 2 first because they thought it was the "definitive" version 😅 Hope it didn't leave a bad impression!

[@BonesAnalises]

Excellent video as always. VSAV2/VHUNT2 are a huge laughing stock in the community but the added characters are really cool. The best version is probably Chronicle (which is on FC2), where it at least allows you to choose your "version" of the character like Hyper SF2 (even though the framedata is always from VSAV2, ew). It allows you to do some crazy shit like air dasher lilith and motion Rikuo with fullscreen bubbles, but the framedata kills it (5LK is a universal low, wtf). Also, from what I remember dash links are still a thing, just infinitely more difficult and even impossible with some characters for some reason. Still, in the Brazilian community we make a VSAV2 tournament every april fools and its a lot of fun doing the throw loop wars LOL

[@GuileWinQuote]

Haha, every time I joined the FC2 lobby for VSAV 2 & VHUNT 2, the only people there would be Brazilians! So if Capcom ever hosts a VSAV 2 world tour I'm putting all my money on y'all cause y'all got the tech lol

[@megamanZXdelta]

Carai, eu tô por fora de torneio mesmo hein? Se fizer esse ano eu tô dentro po

[@-cactus.raven-]

When I was growing up the only darkstalkers game I had was the Chronicles on my good old psp. And, as that was my first introduction into the fighting game genre let alone the darkstalker series, it will always have a special place in my heart. It my not be the best (hell, not even good) version/representation of the darkstalkers series but I’ll always remember the car rides getting my ass kicked by the low leveled cpus with glee, because it introduced me to a community, to friends, and it made me who I am today.

[@moebiusvsav]

0:56 THERE I AM GARY Great video as always, appreciate the quality over quantity of your content. Beside just explaining what they even are I also appreciate the look at the mechanics of each game, especially pushblock, and explaining why altering them hurt the game, despite how difficult they can be to utilize. Glad to have vsav represented with quality content like this.

[@Mankey619]

I love DarkStalkers and it’s one of my most favourite Capcom fighting games next to Street Fighter. The characters,the backgrounds and it’s universal monsters inspiration is what made me love this game so much.

[@millerwrightt]

Always wondered why there wasn't a "definitive" vampire savior. Thanks for providing all this detail!

[@diasflac0g]

There is. The one on Sega Saturn. The problem is that it's for Japan only and it's very expensive now. It also uses the 4meg ram cart and runs super good. As far as I know it's basically arcade perfect and has the extra 3 characters with not cuts.

[@yunjin909]

I would say the japanese exclusive PS2 Darkstalkers Collection is the definitive Vampire Savior, it even has a new character even though it's just a heavily modified sprite of Demitri who is supposed to be Donovan after losing his humanity.

[@DaiAndOh]

I have heard myself that extra CPS2 boards were why these games were made. CPS3 was right around the corner. Also, very true final words!

[@droketheroper]

That sounds like a very probable reason lol. They're so similar yet seemingly created around specific memory constraints.

[@Wolfedge75]

You might have a point with how the omitted trio were originally meant to be exclusive to home ports only to be ported back in updated versions, but in hindsight this might have led to Capcom releasing SFA3 Upper as it was (a re-release for the Sega Naomi with a bigger roster) after learning from the mistakes from making Savior 2 as it was. But yeah, Savior 2 seemed to have made Capcom to abandon the series, deeming it a lost cause. Which really sucks since a "definitive" version of Savior with a complete roster was never made for the arcades like Hyper SF2 (again they could've done so). But hey, the home ports with their more complete roster is still fun for casual play, so....

[@bennetthobbitt9847]

They released Vampire savior, then two months later released Vsav2 and Vhun2 and nobody bought them because they JUST bought this other Vampire game for their arcade and capcom went "well i guess nobody likes Vampire anymore!" actual idiots running capcom even to this day

[@bradido]

I have always been confused by this and it's great to learn about the different versions.

[@FrMZTsarmiral]

And you thought Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha was wacky! Jokes aside, I remember emulating both games as a kid and always feeling baffled about this. Like aside from some different colors for the stages, a different intro and the ending just being an image with text (iirc) I was unable to notice many major changes. It is such a baffling game, the changes in the gameplay are too small to be noticed by a casual yet so critical that they are a deal breaker for a fan of VS

[@RagingRowen]

One change with the new Dark Force that ya' forgot to mention is that each characters gets an enhanced version of one of their EX specials.

[@miasuke]

Is it from vanilla Savior, or from VS2/VH2? Can you give some examples of characters and changes of EX Moves during Dark Force?

[@RagingRowen]

@@miasuke VS2/VH2. Examples: Demitri gets his old Demon Blast from VH, Hsien-Ko throws 2 bombs in her Chuukadan. The rest of the cast just get extended animations for the most part.

[@miasuke]

@@RagingRowen Thanks... I'll make some tests in Capcom Fighting Collection when I have time after business.

[@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA]

Here's a list of enhanced EX specials. • Anakaris: Pit of Hell traps the opponent in Anakaris' sarcophagus, à la ES Mummy Drop. • B.B. Hood: Apple For You drops eight apples instead of one upon a successful connect. • (Oboro) Bishamon: Togakubi Sarashi (the OTG execution) has him do three cuts instead of one. • Demitri: Demon Billion becomes Demon Blast from Hunter (bats travel fullscreen). • Donovan/Dee: Press of Death stomps twice. • Felicia: Dancing Flash ends in a Neko Punch spike. • Hsien-Ko: Chuukadan throws two bombs. • Huitzil: Final Guardian β fires 43 shots (instead of 34) and finishes with a single-hit ES Plasma Beam. • Jedah: Prova di Servo's combo repeats in full before the paper smash. • Jon: Moment Slice does a six-hit autocombo before the slice (total of 8 hits). • Lilith: Splendor Love rises higher and does more hits. • Lord Raptor: Evil Scream ends with a Skull Punish. • Morrigan: Valkyrie Turn spawns two Morrigan clones so that all three positions are covered and the opponent has to guess which one is real (though the clones disappear when she attacks). Pyron: Cosmo Disruption has a new formation and cannot be charged. Unfortunately, I can't tell which constellation this one is supposed to be. • Q-Bee: Qj (honey sphere) has a different pattern. • Rikuo: Aqua Spread fires two jets. This applies to both variants. • Sasquatch: Big Ice Burn is followed by a fully-charged Big Blow. Victor: Great Gerdenheim (install throw) is followed by two Mega Stake punches (albeit without electricity). I'm gonna try to make a short vidya on this, though it'll take a while because a) I'm recording on Steam Deck, and b) I'm a total n00b at editing lmao.

[@nore5888]

They seemed pretty fun on the Capcom Fighting Collection

[@GuileWinQuote]

I'm a bit harsh on them here, but they have their own unique quirks and I'm glad they exist as their own little oddity!

[@superbros64deluxe]

Are all of them mentioned here in the collection? Arcade, not the console ports.

[@CherryPixelBun]

@@superbros64deluxe Yup, the entire Darkstalkers arcade series is in the Fighting Collection

[@Crimsonchado]

I'm a year late, feel like those games kinda destroy the collection. So many other games could've gone in that spot

[@ZzigZaG00NIN]

It makes me sad that there's always characters missing in games I like pyron and huitzil but they are not in the version people play the most 😭

[@DoKDelta]

Same, I just wanna play Pyron in Savior 😔

[@NateBoiBoi]

​@DoKDelta all of the console rereleases actually add all of the characters in one and even add some bonus secrets as well, like Dee, Lilligan, etc

[@Gamersgoinblind]

When I saw the thumbnail, why did I expect a darkstalkers horror game along the lines of the Athena horror game

[@GuileWinQuote]

I WISH

[@functionatthejunction]

0:20 Whoaa what is giant-sized BB Hood?

[@angelriverasantana7755]

I always had a thing for Vampire Savior on Saturn and Vampire Chronicle due to having every character plus the balancing changes that make them work within the meta. Chronicle is pretty awesome when ya use the DS1 and Vampire Hunter styles on the characters from later games. It just rocks. Too bad that, like Hyper SF2, there are bugs that prevent it from being the standard in competition, alongside coming out later. That and Chronicle used VSav 2 as a framework

[@GuileWinQuote]

I definitely wanna go back and make a video talking about these console ports. Although they're not arcade accurate, they're a lot of fun in their own right. Saturn is definitely my favorite for being as close to a complete VSAV as we'll probably ever get in "feel".

[@angelriverasantana7755]

@@GuileWinQuote indeed! It's my favorite for that reason alone. I hope some day, someone goes outta their way to make a ROM hack that fixes the gameplay foibles plus updates the sprites for Donovan

[@chazmaru9583]

@@GuileWinQuote Can’t wait for a video comparing the home versions! I played the Saturn and PSP versions to death.

[@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA]

The PS2 version would be perfect if not for the extra frame of input lag that exists in versus mode for some reason (but is absent from training mode, which makes it even weirder).

[@conradojavier7547]

I feel like Capcom should have made a CPS3 Game called "Darkstalker: Savior vs Hunter", like SNK Samurai Shodown V Perfect.

[@liublanka3925]

Darkststalkers resurrection should of been put out in capcom fighting collection. The best darkstalkers. The sound is uncompressed and visuals redrawn for hd. It’s sad that 360/ps3 got all the best ports. And a crime that we haven’t gotten mvc2 on modern consoles

[@denjindhalsim]

I grew up in Japan in the 90's and was in the arcades every day. Vampire was huge and the most beautiful fighting game yet with whacky new characters. Vampire Hunter was a fantastic sequel with new characters and it played waaayy better than the original. Saviour was a bit of a dud when it launched. It didn't look any better than hunter. It replaced characters in stead of adding them and changed the way it played. It was kinda a disappointment at the time. I know it's popular now overseas (hunter and saviour are both still popular in Japan). I'm guessing the two weird sequels (which both disappeared instantly from arcades) were a misguided attempt to fix that.

[@aaronlaluzerne6639]

In my opinion, the best way to play Darkstalkers is to play the PlayStation Portable game. It has all of the characters from the series, plus it's more balanced and has a good number of game modes and a lot of content. Personally if it were up to me, I would create a brand new Darkstalkers game with over 40 different characters based off of different monsters like living armor and a hellhound and have all of the best mechanics brought over from the old games while adding in new mechanics to add new options and variety to the game and a lot of different modes and content to entertain the masses.

[@SuperMiIk]

Dream darkstalkers game is one that's animated like kof13 (yes I know that game was expensive as hell 😭) with every single character (including dee and Anita)

[@strippinheat]

My first experience with Vampire Savior was DS3 on the PS1. I remember being able to air chain and push blocking relatively easily. I've also played the DC and PS2 Chronicles versions and they all felt pretty similar at their core, but I was also not trying to be competitive with them. Didn't get to experience raw VS until that PS2 collection, but I still preferred the "Hyper" version for the sake of fun with all the characters and mashing up their variations. It felt like the Moon style system from Melty AA.

[@KamyKam]

Push blocking being essentially harder and random in Darkstalkers 3 is NOT good. It being random and requiring so many variable inputs is just dumb and does not seem like a "reward" when you're able to pull it off. Its just random and boring.

[@GuileWinQuote]

Nah

[@johnsimon8457]

2:50 OKAY! Thanks for clearing that up. When you’re looking at a MAME archive with all the different regional versions next to the game versions this looks like insanity.

[@BRomega2900]

It's always a good day to see GuileWinQuote vid in my subscriptions, but a Darkstalkers vid is one of the best birthday presents I could get.

[@GuileWinQuote]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 🎉 🦇

[@redred622]

3:44 the Kingdom Hearts Timeline isn’t really complicated. It’s basically entirely linear with two prequels and three interquels. Even the one major non linear thing happens linearly.

[@kholdkhaos64ray11]

I remember when I was younger and finally got access to fightcade, I was excited to find out they made another VSAV but was weirded out why no one was talking about or playing it. Then I played it and looked up more information on it later on the Mizuumi wiki and slowly began figuring out the weird quirks comepared to VSAV 1 and understanding more and more why people don't really talk about this game too much

[@newtypepunk9967]

Well I had no idea the series was that confusing, I thought it was just a different name in japan, but capcom really set out to confuse everyone and doom a great start for a new series.

[@H250V]

Ngl, these games always were an enigma to me...kind of wish Chaos Tower was the definitive version being ported over, if not something new with every character. Like I get not having Huitzel nor Pyron back because they were both mini and final boss respectively, but no Donovan, despite him probably able to fight Jedah? Heck, would have been cool if doing his arcade run had him facing off against Dee at the end.

[@cuecrunch]

vsav is one of my favourite games of all time, lightning fast gameplay, no 10 minute supers, no bullshit just super fast aggro gameplay, it really condenses the anime genre into an amazing package as well as being absolutely beautiful

[@Jr-Reed]

Praying for Super Vampire Savior Turbo before the heat death of the universe🙏

[@kirbth4769]

I remember when I bought the Capcom fighting collection I only played savior 2 because I assumed it would be the better version and just assumed stuff like dark force, and air combat was kinda bad but one day I decided to play savior and immediately felt the improvement.

[@bananabike279]

Finally, now I understand where Hunter 2 and Saviour 2 got their names from. I never understood why they didn't just combine the two in a new port for the Capcom Fighting Collection

[@noway9320]

Because that would take effort. 40 dollars please!

[@modology]

the video failed to mentioned that it's impossible to include full roster in VSAV due to CPS2 hardware limitation (EPROMS size limit), thus Capcom did the stupid decision to make Vampire Hunter 2 (aka VSAV with alternative roster). Capcom had no choice but to do that to please the audience who prefer some characters that were not included in VSAV roster

[@bananabike279]

@@modology No he did actually mention that. What I meant was why didn't Capcom just make a new version of Vampire Saviour on newer hardware with all the characters included

[@nate567987]

@@bananabike279 they didn't have newer hardware cps3 would be a flat waste and that had flopped

[@bananabike279]

@@nate567987 No what I mean is what if they made a newer version NOW with CURRENT DAY hardware, like they did with Ultra Street Fighter 2

[@StudioRevoct]

Darkstalkers just can't catch a break, I can't imagine these two sold well, might have hurt the chances for the series to get sequels. It's also insane that Capcom won't just make new perfect versions of their old fighting games with all the extra characters from various console ports, SFA3 has a ton of extra fighters, and Vampire Saviour has the ones shown here. I'm sure there are other examples, Tatsunoko vs Capcom has that genie, but that game is stuck in licensing hell. I know there's balance to consider, but I'm sure fans would be happy to just have a complete roster.

[@TVindustries5000]

you are god tier for having a 4:3 HD aspect ration that fits vertically on a phone with no black bars on both sides

[@jercron]

This is great, I never knew the different nuances in the "2" games beyond basic roster differences.

[@CherryPixelBun]

Talbain is fun in VHun2 because a big part of his gameplan is his 6HK throw option select that accidentally got buffed by the change lol

[@GuileWinQuote]

an evil character gets even more evil...the world works in mysterious ways

[@minignoux4566]

Is the engine in Vampire Chronicles for matching service and Darkstalkers Chronicles the same as in vanilla Vampire Savior? I've heard that selecting the DS3 balance didn't fully revert everything to Vampire Savior levels, and keeps some of the engine changes from the sequels.

[@CDages]

Really hope you do a video dedicated to Vampire Chronicle AND Vampire Savior Arranged as I find both these titles alot more fascinating due to their more esoteric nature in their exposure or lack thereof But yeah, Vsav rocks.

[@MindGameArcade]

Best decision of my life: subbing to this channel

[@GuileWinQuote]

Thank you for the support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙇🏼🙇🏼🙇🏼

[@Roge9]

Kinda wish they released a new version like guilty gear ac+r , featuring all the characters.

[@MagmaMKII]

Maybe they wanted to port it to the CPS3, but after it crashed and burned they decided it wasn't worth the effort so they made these instead.

[@enker1417]

There is rumor of a darkstalkers 4 being in development for cps3 and for n64, in various old forums

[@thewave-qz9lt]

i think you forgot to mention the ps2 darkstalkers collection that added all of the characters into vampire saviour and a new character called ''Dee'' the vampire version of donovan.

[@ianmpena]

To be honest I think it's better if we got a remake of the first darkstalkers game because it's been a long time since we got a darkstalkers game and I would like to see a remake of the first game in the near future

[@garuelx8627]

Vsav2 has many deal breakers going for it, like how some es an ex moves now cost more than one meter. But the biggest one for me is the removal of Talbain. That poor guy gets enough disrespect from Capcom despite people liking him.

[@GuileWinQuote]

It's honestly mind-blowing that he never ended up in a Vs. game

[@garuelx8627]

@@GuileWinQuote from what I've been told, the closest he got was in UMvC3, but they ultimately settled for an Amaterasu costume...

[@otaking3582]

Wasn't the whole point of Darkstalkers Chronicles that you could choose which version of each character you want, including Savior being separate from VS2/VH2?

[@GuileWinQuote]

Yes!!...but sadly even those character "versions" aren't accurate to the game they represent! Many changes to frame data/mechanics still persist.

[@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333]

@@GuileWinQuote why does everyone blindly follow that arcade is canon version? Is there example of game where altered/changed home version considered to be THE way to play? Curious

[@JavenarchX]

I just can't fathom how they haven't made new game of this

[@anthonyr.2621]

Still a shame that out of all the revivals in the past decade, we still haven't seen a proper one for Darkstalkers. The fanbase, demand, timeframe and design elements are all still there. Its hard to understand why Capcom keeps on passing on this and instead supporting things like ExoPrimal, which is a detached attempt to revive a franchise nobody is really even asking for.

[@phorchybug3286]

At least these ones let you play as Phobos and Pyron. I love those guys.

[@etrotm1226]

These games probably doesn't beat out vanilla Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers 3 but, you can't go wrong with Darkstalkers Chronicles The Chaos Tower for PSP and the Vampire Darkstalkers Collection on PS2. Especially if you unlocked the hidden version of the vanilla Vampire Savior where you get all the characters including Dee I think. EDIT: Also it's even more weird that they finally released both Vampire Hunter 2 and Vampire Savior 2 in the west last year yet never translated either game. And the extra music tracks from both games are missing in the Capcom Fighting Collection Music Gallery.

[@rud5101]

Thanks for making a video on this very confusing subject. I wish someone would make a VSav3 mod that adds the missing characters (and maybe makes pushblock easier).

[@agentofstars2667]

Interesting, I was wondering if you could potentially do a video on the various secret characters in Darkstalkers (Dee, Oboro Bishamon and Dark Talbain). I don't think there are any videos documenting how those characters play and how they differentiate from the base versions of the characters.

[@mightywaranvil2912]

It honestly feels like, to me, Darkstalkers would have belonged on a tweaked CPS 3 board because of all the headaches from switching characters around between VSav 2 and VHunt 2.

[@mengo329]

I hate the fact that instead of removing some animation frames or effects or something, they just cut more characters to fit the originally cut characters in instead

[@roodabr]

I would very much like a version of VSAV with all the characters (hell, bring even Dee) and pushblock made easier... feels like there's no reason why a basic defensive mechanic has to be this hard to perform.

[@iroquoispliskin4347]

whats the psp version base, was it good?

[@CrymeScene]

one thing i really love is how you can block while in the air.

[@ainoapsn]

I'm not a tourney/competitive player (hell i despise that part of fighters), so I'm going to add: the arcade mode endings for these games are pretty lame: 1 ending for each game no matter who you pick. The ps1 and ps2 versions of darkstalkers 3 (the vampire collection) had the neat future of having all characters playable in vs1,, vs2 and vh2.

[@modology]

pity is that due to hardware limitation of CPS2, VSAV could not get full roster like Darkstalker 3.. but I do hope one day we can get a romhack for Mame or Misterfpga that include full roster in VSAV

[@MateusAuri]

I can't remember what's wrong with Chaos Tower on the PSP (besides being on the PSP and that horrible d-pad) because I'm not THAT into these kinds of details, but why isn't it even remembered as the one with everything?

[@PeruvianPotato]

Because it's on the PSP which nobody cares about these days

[@doritto4095]

Aight let's make a drinking game

[@ppgranja3]

Vampire Savior has to be one of my favorite fighting games of all time!

[@aegisreflector1239]

The best port is the Dreamcast and PSP versions since they have ALL the characters and selectable fighting styles.

[@wbl_unlimited]

I have been confused about this for years. THANK YOU for explaining it!

[@edfreak9001]

It seems like the kerfuffle this inevitably caused spooked Capcom from ever touching the damn series again, sadly. It'd be great to see a new game but I think the community would cheer even just from something like going back into the arcade ROMs used for CFC recently and just stitching together a "Complete" variant of all characters in the VSAV engine. Yeah we'd still be missing out on stuff like the apparently cool chaos tower mode but being able to play VSAV Pyron, Huitzel, and Donovan would be worth it and it'd be in the mode the community already likes the most. (That being said if you wanted to re-release that "complete" PSP game but tweaked to actually have the VSAV physics on the VSAV versions i'm sure people wouldn't complain...)

[@stoopidmansidiot]

watching this video made me realize that the background from a street fighter flash game I played as a kid actually comes from vampire hunter 2

[@abdelali9279]

I bought a PSP in 2021 and it came with a copy of Dark Stalkers and NGL it became one of my favorites but despite seeming like a short franchise there too many versions that okay so different it's quite confusing.

[@jeremyhall2727]

And that killed the series. I like the one on PS2 where you can play as the vampire hunter when he gave in to his vampire blood. His moveset is a mixture of the mc Dracula dude's & his old moveset. The game came in a collection. I emulated it. And that was the last darkstalker game I own. Well the psp one was the last.

[@captainnavigator6534]

I honestly though it was more of an Alpha 3 situation where the newer version was boring to watch, but this is much weirder lol Cool vid!

[@GuileWinQuote]

Alpha 3 Upper is another game I'd like to do a similar video on!!!

[@kholdkhaos64ray11]

@@GuileWinQuote Please do because I've never really got to play those versions too much and I'm curious to know community reception to the Dreamcast version mostly.

[@brobzoid]

@@GuileWinQuote if you do an alpha 3 upper video, please also take a look at the alpha anthology capcom released on PS2 which has an exclusive game called hyper street fighter alpha. it is similar to vampire chronicle (getting to use different versions of characters from all the games) but it also has ISMs based on different games like one based on vampire, one based on third strike, one based on vs series, and one based on championship edition SF2. its really cool and a great example of a particular period in fighting game re-releases when devs put a lot of effort into making new fun variant stuff (snk also did fun stuff with their ps2 releases)

[@GuileWinQuote]

@@brobzoid I've already recorded some stuff for a video on that, just need to find some time to get matches in with people at some point to have better thoughts around it :^)

[@SleightSoda]

Great video. I wish you had expanded on the meta surrounding pushblocking, and more specifics on how the ports differ from the arcade, but otherwise this told me exactly what I wanted to know.

[@boilingmanTV]

Throw loops from the final boss in tmnt tournament fighter, resulting in perma-death was peak difficult childhood videogames

[@Ceruleancast]

Still sad they didn't port over the PS2 extra edition of VSAV with all the characters (+ newcomer Dee) with fixed input delay for Capcom Fighting Collection. Would have given the collection significantly more worth and merit, it practically invalidates VSAV2 and VHunt2's pros overall.

[@BlackViperGX]

Happy new year dude, a good way to start the year is a video from you :)

[@GuileWinQuote]

This means a lot 🫡 Thank you for watching!

[@no_user1234]

I had the misfortune of having Vampire Savior 2 be my first time playing one of these games. I just wanna play Phobos god damn it

[@GuileWinQuote]

Have a feeling this was many new players' experience with the series with the new collection... And I wonder how many walked away thinking it sucked 😭

[@no_user1234]

@@GuileWinQuote What's worse is that it was in an actual Round 1 arcade, and I walked away thinking "man people are right this is really fun" before finding out only the garbage versions have Phobos. This same arcade would proceed to remove all of its fighting game cabinets (including SFA3, MvC2, MvSF, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, Project Justice) for a single Hyper SF2 setup. And that SF2 setup is set to 1 round per match. Even if I mostly play rhythm games anyway, I still resent that place.

[@DannySvnday]

I really wished they could release a definitive version of the game with all the characters and the og mechanics

[@KenMasters.]

They already did for the PS1, it's called Darkstalkers 3.

[@HEHEHE_I_AM_A_MASKED_WARRIA]

​@@KenMasters.Which is also missing a bunch of animation frames and has some quirks of its own that make it not arcade-perfect (which is a shame, because it has some extra goodies that no other port has, such as Lilith with Morrigan's voice and palettes). The PS2 port has unlockable arranged versions of the Savior trilogy that have every character and are arcade-perfect (provided you enable the right DIP switches), but the versus mode has an extra frame of input lag for some reason.

[@shinbios]

Makes me appreciate having the Saturn version.

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

My question is....are those games in the Capcom Fighting Collection?

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

They should be.

[@Eliburgo]

The Japanese sega saturn Vampire Savior and the PSP Darkstalkers chronicles Choas tower are the definitive versions for me still to this day tho I play my copy of Night warriors on Saga Saturn

[@conradojavier7547]

I wonder why Capcom never made a Denitive Darkstalker in the CPS3?

[@PeruvianPotato]

The CPS3 was released in an era where arcade games were dying... badly. It's the reason why the Street Fighter 3 series bombed HARD back then despite the many unique mechanics introduced

[@OddballEddie]

While I remember VSAV1 in the arcades, which was underrated when I first played it in Brazil. I was absolutely puzzled when CPS2 Roms of VSAV2 and VHUN2 were dumped and playable on Emulators. I thought it was a rom hack to add Putin, Donovan and Phobos, didn't see the point of them back then.

[@DemonBlanka]

4:12 that pink sand and green moon colour palette is super cool, altho I find it hard to beat how excellent the red looks coming off the sphinx, it's hard to say which is a cooler look. Very underrated stage to be honest. Also wish there was a nice all in one version of Vsav that had the new characters, I love Pyron but Vsav2 sucks and nobody's gonna play weird ports on fightcade.

[@mlalbaitero]

2:11 you shouldve said revampired instead of revamped

[@wellvergton]

Thos video couldn't come in a better time. I was thinking about playing vsav this week and wondering about that question. I was about to ask this on Discord tonight.

[@kitestar]

At the end of the day, the inclusion of these two “updates” in the capcom fighting collection are more of a curio piece than an “hey, you should deffo play this” considering the main trio are in as well

[@afriend9428]

*I was lucky to have a SATURN with 4MB cart it contains both 2 and 3 inside!* 💡

[@thrillhouse4151]

All Darkstalkers games are weird, never saw a single copy or heard anyone talk about it till decades later kinda like Earthbound. As a kid I thought Morrigan was a Street Fighter character. (Shows how much I liked SF2)

[@BloodRedFox2008]

I got the Capcom Fighting Collection a while back and only played it briefly, and as someone who is mainly a casual “plays for fun rather than competitively” fighting game player I admit I had a little trouble figuring out what the deal with Hunter 2 and Savior 2 were outside of a slight roster change. Now that I have a better idea it looks like now I at least know which ones to stick with once I get around to proper playthroughs in the future (Darkstalkers, Vampire Hunter 1, and Vampire Savior 1, don’t bother with the ones with a “2” in the title).

[@heardofrvb]

Are you going to cover Star Gladiator 1 and 2?

[@GuileWinQuote]

I want to eventually!

[@MrFutago87]

Why didn't they just call it Darkstalkers 1, 2 and 3? Why make it so complicated? That's Square Enix's turf.

[@PeruvianPotato]

They actually did initially it Darkstalkers 3 but then everyone decided to be weebs

[@Mohammed1000real]

Darkstalkers has a crazy lineage of fights.

[@JoLiKMC]

Dirty Beret probably wanted to bring back the _Vampire Hunter_ crew since they couldn't be in _Vampire Savior,_ but they couldn't decide how to do it, so they did both. Luckily, now we have _Vampire Collection_ for the PSP. It has all of the characters!

[@shinbakihanma2749]

With Capcom Fighting Collection released last year, ALL VAMPIRE/DARKSTALKERS entries have been released outside of Japan.

[@GuileWinQuote]

And they've still never localized so they follow the Japanese naming convention 👍