Vampire Hunter D

Other products by Jaleco

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004U4SR
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 1, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,147 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

This Resident Evil-like action-adventure game takes place in the distant future--A.D. 12,090, to be exact--some 10,000 years after vampires have won control of the planet from humans. Vampire Hunter D is based on the original Hideyuki Kikuchi novel and the cult-classic anime that followed. Your character is the aptly named Vampire Hunter D, a half-human, half-vampire who is hired to rescue a kidnapped child. The linear plot has three endings, each of which is triggered by meeting certain criteria.

GameSpot Review

Vampire Hunter D is an action-adventure game based on the novel written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, and the anime that followed. You take the role of a vampire hunter named D who is the offspring of a human and a vampire, who is hired to rescue a girl who's been kidnapped. The game is similar to Resident Evil, using polygons for the characters and prerendered graphics for the backgrounds. Gameplay and control are also quite similar, with the addition of a few extra moves. The main character can jump, guard, and strafe, which would seem like an advantage. But is it? One of the main problems with the game is the control. The addition of jump, guard, and strafe functions may sound like a good idea, but it's actually the cause of the problem. First of all, you will come across places where you are required to jump. Since the background is a flat graphic, you'll have a hard time judging distances properly and may end up falling into a pit. You'll also meet enemies that fly, so naturally you will want your character to jump and attack them. Sometimes, you may want to be more aggressive and risk getting hit while attacking, but you'll find your character will often accidentally perform a backflip when you jump and you'll get hit. When you're not wielding a weapon, the control is exactly the same as in Resident Evil, but when you are wielding a weapon, the control changes, letting you strafe and circle strafe. Pressing the D-pad in battle causes you to face the enemy. So let's say you have your back turned to a monster. You would think you'd press forward to run away from him, but instead, hitting forward will cause you to turn and run at the enemy. The game's backgrounds get confusing easily, particularly when you're in a room with doors on all sides. This is more pronounced when you're fighting an enemy, as the camera angle might shift midfight, leaving you reeling. The running could also use some work. When you stop running, the character slides forward, which can mean the difference between life and death in certain situations.

The graphics in VHD are merely average. The CG movies are pretty amazing, although they don't stand up to the movies found in other PlayStation titles. The only detailed character is D himself, while the other characters and the enemies look a little blocky. The motion of D drawing and putting away his sword is good, but many other animations are poor. Likewise, the sounds are quite quirky. Some effects are really great, while others are just awful. The music department is really lacking, failing to set the mood and atmosphere properly. Even worse, the music actually suffers from slowdown in certain cutscenes. The game gives you the ability to skip some cutscenes, while others are required viewing. Strange.

Although the back of the box says the game has multiple scenarios, it really doesn't. The game has a linear plot and three endings, each of which is triggered by certain criteria met during your game. If you want to take a look at the different endings, all you have to do is start from a certain save point and just fulfill the criteria as you see fit. The game also says you can control another character named Leila, but you only get to do so for a very short while, sort of like when you controlled Ada or Carlos in the Resident Evil series. The gameplay time spent totals about ten hours - quite shorter time than you'd expect.

Overall, much like most other Resident Evil clones, the game just doesn't capture the magic of the Resident Evil series. Die-hard fans of the genre or the novel may find some value here, but not enough to warrant a purchase.--Ike Sato--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great game with some drastic flaws, August 26, 2002

By	H. Thompson (Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

INTRO: Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Vampire Hunter D the series, its just I am doing an unbiased review that won't spare any of the flaws with this particular title. To say this game is the best game in history is just foolish, and to say its the worse game in history is also just as foolish. It may be really fun to someone, but the truth of the matter is its got some issues.

FLAWS: Well, the major flaws aren't to be ignored. Jaleco (the company responsible for this game) needs to realize that the pre-rendered backgrounds so famous in the Resident Evil games, just doesn't belong in any other game that can't pull it off just as well. Resident Evil tended to switch camera views when it was most convinient (well, most of the time), but this game will switch camera views well...a lot. And a lot of them aren't very helpful and will get you killed a lot. Also, the fact that drawing your sword takes a minute and you have to do it every time you enter a screen is just annoying. Drawing a gun is much quicker than a sword I know, but when you are being ambushed right when you walk through a door and your only real weapon is sheathed, this can be a big problem. Another thing is the controls...ugh! They aren't horrible, but then again...they aren't anywhere close to perfect. You'll find yourself being stuck on the walls, facing the wrong way to attack enemies, and so on. Its just frustrating and will take a lot of getting use to. As a nitpick, a lot of D's moves could be a little bit faster to keep up with the computer's foes.

GRAPHICS: The graphics are about as good as the Playstation 1 can really manage for this type of game. There isn't a lot of distortion in the character models, and compared to the Japanese version of this game, they actually improved a lot of the monster models. The cutscenes are good use CGI, and you'll find yourself being familiar with a lot of the characters.

AUDIO: The audio is pretty well done. I was skeptical at first because the Bloodlust movie offered some great voice actors, but this game managed to boast some not-so-annoying voices. From as much as I can tell, Meier Link's voice actor in this game is actually the same from the movie...and Leila's voice actor is a dead-ringer as the movie's in some parts.

PLOT/GAME STORY: This game is based (as few people know) on the Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust movie that was released recently as a sequel to the classic movie. This game captures the movie pretty well, but changes a lot of the stuff to get the pace moving faster. If you want full character development though, check the movie out first.

PUZZLES: The puzzles aren't IMPOSSIBLE but a little difficult. The only thing I can say about the puzzles is that they aren't very ...."encouraging". They are about as boring as puzzles come sadly enough. I usually am not inspired to pick up the controller just so I can look through the sewer for a wrench (an actual puzzle).

ABILITIES: The abilities are pretty cool. Your hand (as most fans know already) can absorb enemies after they have been weakened, and their power is added to a small meter at the bottom of the screen. This meter (once increased by a slot - 3 slots total) will allow you to use one of your hands 2 special abilities: "Heal" (full energy plus cure of poison) and "Attack" (a devastating attack that inflicts major damage on bosses and kills basic enemies). This is a cool and unique feature, and also the fact that you can gain an instant resurrection (life) if you fill the meter up to "full" once (you can gain further resurrections if you use the current one and fill the meter up again). Besides this much, you can use a variety of weapons (grenades, throwing darts, flash bombs, etc.) and power-ups (blood pills, potions, cures) which is common for any video game.

OVERALL: Overall, this game is pretty fun once you get used to the annoying flaws and can manage to beat them (you can save anytime in your items menu so there shouldn't be any problems). Other than these annoying problems, this game is a major "have" for any collector of anime games, survival horror games, and rip-offs of the Resident Evil series, since it boasts a lot of each of those categories, and since this game is better than the import version, its both "easier to find" and "better by far".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best Had for the Memories, January 2, 2005

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Vampire Hunter D is very much a creation of Yoshitaka Amano, a visionary designer who, among other things has had a significant influence on the visual effects of game and anime design. He is most famous for his work in the Final Fantasy series, but this game as a derivative of his anime work. As such, it arrived with a built in following, but failed to live up to expectations.

It is a fairly representative plot, based on the 2001 Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust DVD. Rescue a young damsel from the claws of vampire Meier Link, a story with several unexpected twists, which are used here as well. It is a puzzle-solving, watch your vitality sort of game.

The puzzles can be difficult, fighting is simplistic and clumsy, and the interface is awkward. For someone who has adjusted to games on the newer consoles, playing Vampire Hunter D may be an unsatisfying experience. IT is even a bit primitive by PSOne standards. Still it's not a bad game, just one that is very dated.

Its real value today is as a collectors item for D fans, who probably all believe that there isn't enough of the dunpeal vampire killer to go around. The graphics are murky, but it's still the world where half-breed vampires get even with their sires and damsels are there for the rescuing.

Collector, diehard fan, or curious game player, this is worth picking up. Just don't expect Final Fantasy level play and you will avoid disappointment.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vampire Hunter D on the U.S. PSX, October 10, 2000

By	Veronica H. Barnhart (Carlsbad, New Mexico United States) - See all my reviews

Alright anime fans!! Listen up!! If you love anime or just Vampire Hunter D, then you need to check this game out. Awesome voice acting and storyline. The music is alright. Good in some places and boring in other places. The graphics are decent. Basically, this game is great except for the controls. The controls make the game much harder than it should be, but if you can get used to them and overlook their constant mess ups, then you can like this game and get pretty far in it. The camera angles mess up a lot too. But it is a helluva lot of fun chopping of bad guys and stealing their life energy with D's left hand. You get a few items such as blood potions, wooden stakes, and even grenades to aid you in your quest. A pretty expansive and neat array of monsters. check it out. nice game.