It begins with a voice, one not heard in several years. It's a strange voice that no one else seems to hear.

"I shall protect you...."
"...my words... hold power...."

A shout drives away the voice, denying its proclamations. Across the street, a strange girl in a sailor school uniform stands. More questions unanswered. A hand pulls you to your senses and the girl it belongs to leads you from the middle of the street and to the safety of the sidewalk. Brief and mysterious words exchanged and a new acquaintance or two are made. It is but the start of a rapidly building darkness. Creatures better known as vampires prowl in the night. What connections do they have to the events of late.... to the strange flashbacks, the mysterious girl... the haunting voice?

"I am what I am..."
"I am you... as you are me..."

You assume the role of a young man of seventeen, who although leads a seemingly normal life, has some dark secrets submerged deep within.

As an adventure game, there is no worry for battles and gaining of experience points. Most of the sequences are animated, and there is a full audio track that includes dialogue. During the course of the game, a choice menu will pop up with a given amount of time to decide what you will say, and that of course determines if you will die or live a little longer. It would help to be fluent or at least somewhat so in Japanese to make these decisions, as most of the choices are heavy in kanji and require some competence in the language.

There are two volumes to the game, and apparently the first of the two does not necessarily have to be played to start the second- although even if the beginning of the second game goes through a slide-show synopsis of the events that should have occurred in the first, it doesn't go into extreme detail. The endings vary in accordance to the choices made, and after each there is given the statistics for the percentage of the game completed, the character's blood level, and game time. There's a replay option for viewing the animated scenes that have already been played through, and amongst the standard controller options, one can also turn off the background 'wallpaper' which is mainly a repetitive dripping, ripple effect- red in volume one, blue in volume two. Other system features include a selection to review which routes you have taken.

The game's dark setting and storyline are intriguing, especially for Blood fans. It is but another chapter in the Blood: The Last Vampire saga, and for those patient enough to experience this game genre it is worth the time put in.

Get your Blood: The Last Vampire video game illustration book here from Akadot Retail.