Nachtigal

Vampires are thankfully not as popular as they used to be a few years ago, back when the Twilight craze took over everything from TV shows, to music and video games. The subject itself is not bad, since you can get a lot of interesting ideas from it, but it’s important for the writers to come up with some original concepts, otherwise it’s difficult to get excited about the same thing over and over again.

Nachtigal is an interactive visual novel in which you play the role of a young girl as she goes on a holiday in Belgium, only to run into a bit of trouble after she gets lost in the woods. The game itself is not that original in terms of mechanics, but you get to make a few choices along the way that affect the course of the story and lead you to different endings.

The main character’s name is Miranda Namatgira, and she gets lost in the woods during her trip to Belgium. Naturally, she stumbles upon an interesting castle along the way, but the bad news is that the castle in question is the home of two vampires. They decide to keep her captive, although the story can go in a variety of directions, depending on your choices.

Even if there are three characters in total, Miranda can pick one of the two vampires and try to pursue a romantic relationship with him. Naturally, it depends on what you say to them, so you have to concentrate on what you how you approach every dilemma. There are six endings you can reach, some of which are quite gruesome, so bear that in mind.

Lastly, the artwork is worth a shoutout as well, because every background is very nicely designed to create the proper atmosphere. The characters look pretty unique as well, although there are no major revelations in this area. The soundtrack complements the graphics too, even if it’s rather short and repetitive sometimes.

When it’s all said and done, Nachtigal is a pretty standard visual novel, and the subject is not very original either. However, the writing is decent, and the fact that you can enjoy multiple endings should extend the game’s life by quite a bit.