Oh boy, where to begin.
Let's start by saying this: I wasn't expecting this 4-episode OVA to be a masterpiece. I mean, look at most videogame adaptations, just mere publicity stunts to sell us merchandise or promote new material. There's always the occasional diamond in the rough, or even some adaptations that may even only appeal to long-term fans.
But these OVAs are not even that kind of fanservice. It's pretty safe to say that not a single person in the studio tried to understand the source, why their fans love it, what makes the game tick and the universe profitable. And I assure you, it's not me being all old man yells at cloud about it. There's definitely something off here, way off. I'll try to pinpoint what's wrong with Vampire Warrior or whatever it's called in your country.
1: The Plot
In a game about monsters beating the hell out of each other, with amazing over the top (and even cartoonish) animations, these OVAs chose to orbit mostly around some random HUMANS. Simple, common humans. A sage, a war general, a butler, some townsfolk, everyone gets their dialog lines. All the main franchise characters don't get to explain their motivations, or what are they doing besides trying not to be killed. Let me repeat that so it's completely clear: it's neither about the monsters, nor some human that's relevant to the Darkstalkers universe. This is about humanity itself and its impending doom, because apparently those pesky monsters are trying to annihilate everyone around. And that somehow should matter to the spectator... I guess?
I think that the studio tried so hard to tie every single character in a single plotline. Problem is... how do you make sense out of werewolf fighting furry catgirl and vampire vs cursed samurai armor? How do you draw a cohesive line that connects all these strange characters together?
Their solution to this problem was this: there's monsters. Monsters and humans don't mix. There's mostly bad monsters but also good monsters. Bad monsters are bad and try to eradicate humans. Good monsters then try to stop it.
So, then again, humans are key to the whole plot. Did I expect, when watching a Darkstalkers OVA series, to watch 10-minute long conversations between absolutely irrelevant humans? Well, of course I did, because that's what the games were all about!
2: The Animation
While the animation doesn't suck, it's kinda bland and generic-looking. These OVAs take themselves way too seriously, making some stylistic changes that don't seem to work that well. They made everything too dark and grim, where the original material had tons of humor and self-awareness galore. And bright colors, goddamn, just look at the original art direction, the contrast, the palette choices, anything.
And there is a yet another annoying thing about it, tho. Maybe the animators were way too eager to show us that they could replicate the characters' signature moves, you know, the hadoukens and kamehamehas of this franchise, but they spent so much time animating EVERY. SINGLE. MOVESET. of EVERY. CHARACTER. in EVERY. SINGLE. FIGHT. And then, it also fails to do so. Pixel art doesn't translate perfectly or easily to traditional animation, and in result everything looks overly stiff and choreographed.
I mean, it's fanservice. But I feel it's bad fanservice, the one that tries to push all the right buttons as fast as posible and be over with it. I felt like I was being milked while watching this. The occasional signature move or reference would have been a great thing, don't get me wrong, but this felt disingenuous.
Conclusion
Watch this one if you want to know how not to adapt a videogame to an animation series. Long gone are the quirk and charm of the source material, the original vision and design, and any reason to possibly love these OVAs and the Darkstalkers games at the same time.
But... maybe that's the marketing strategy? It really makes you miss the original games so much you end up buying more of their stuff.
As you read this last line, I may or may not have bought their last compilation game, Darkstalkers Resurrection, on my PS3.
17.5 out of 28 users liked this review
