As a games journalist, I don’t often get the chance to talk about my literary tastes, even though I am quite an avid reader. After all, gamers don’t tend to want to hear about hundred-plus-year-old books written by Victorian Brits with a dour outlook on life. There isn’t much overlap for enthusiasts of classic gothic horror novels and games.
However, at least one development studio is after my own dark, literary, Dracula-obsessed heart.
At PAX West 2024, I got the chance to meet several members of Fine Feathered Fiends, an Australian-based studio, who were showcasing Drăculești at the PAX Rising Showcase (an area of PAX devoted to up-and-coming developers). And I wasn’t the only one. The entire weekend, people were gathering around to try out the game, lured in by its fantastic, inspired artwork, themed booth, and costumed developers. And for good reason, as well; because Drăculești simply bleeds with style and — more importantly — substance. It’s the real red meat.
My time with Drăculești — both at the booth and once I’d returned from PAX West and played the full demo — was fabulous. It was rich. It was delectable.
But, ah, I get ahead of myself. “What is Drăculești?” You may be asking.
Well, apart from being one of the most lavishly-written games I’ve come across, Drăculești is a visual novel and a sort of retelling of Dracula as a romantic visual novel. It sees you assume control of Roger M Renfield — a character from the original Dracula, here refined into a lawyer for whom Dracula has a need — as he navigates the complexities of Dracula’s divorce (yes, his soon-to-be ex is a romanceable character) and the horror of Dracula’s mansion.
In short, Drăculești asks the question “What if Bram Stoker wrote paranormal romance?” and then turns that concept into an interactive, choice-filled narrative.
But to describe it as such is to do it a disservice; truly, Drăculești shines in two very notable ways, evident from even the demo: its art, and its writing.
Now, I know, I know, I always praise visuals in a game. It’s rare when I come across a game I don’t love the look of. However, I mean it when I say it: everything about Drăculești’s visual portrayal is lushious and perfect.
The character designs are dense and layered with detail, uniquely designed to be both immediately identifiable and radically distinct from more typical VN art-styles. They are appealing, in the way visual novel love interests need to be, but the artists of Fine Feathered Fiends knew they had to look different, and so infused a healthy dose of gothic illustration and horror manga in order to ensure that those less savory elements bled through.
The backgrounds are just as ornate, and decadent in just the way that anything associated with Dracula should be. And even the prose — with its right-side display and its frequent use of kinetic text elements — adds significantly to the experience. To play Drăculești is to immerse yourself in a dark-red bath of romance, mystery, and horror, where ideas from across the horror and romance gamut are married together to create something truly unique.
And, speaking of prose… Well, as I said before, I am a literary snob, and yet the prose in Drăculești more than crosses my threshold. It isn’t just that Drăculești’s text is good for a video game, or even that it is good for a graphic novel. The fact is, Drăculești’s writing, at least in the demo, is comparable to actual gothic horror. The good stuff: Carmilla, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Not to mention Dracula itself. Fine Feathered Fiends sure didn’t slack in their reading.
Given the enduring legacy of those works, that’s high praise. And it really sets Drăculești apart from the dime-a-dozen visual novels that now flood Steam and other gaming markets. Between an absolutely astounding visual identity and stellar prose that actually reads as though it is from an old grimoire that one might find tucked away in a bookstore’s “horror classics” section, Drăculești promises to be the next in a line of visual novels that I will not only play, but play multiple times.
I haven’t even found a chance to mention the characters. Dracula himself is one of the core romantic options, but you can also chose from “Cez”, Jonathan “Jonny” Harker (who you might recognize as the protagonist from Dracula), and the house ghost. And each of these routes — very different from one another — are just as grandly written and portrayed that they are all worth your time, even in just the demo (which is available now on Steam here).
Of course, the game is also many other things. It is a celebration of the intersection of queer romance and horror — a surprisingly dense topic with a shocking amount of overlap. And yes, the game is very inclusive of LGBT+ identities. It is also deeply reverential toward its source material, being covered in references and ideas that come straight from Dracula, with twists that are meaningful and explore or continue the themes of the original book. And, lastly, it is just a fun visual novel, with choices that actually take you on different routes and sub-routes that actually have narrative, thematic, and romantic weight.
In short, in just a brief demo, Drăculești already promises to deliver a frightful and lurid experience, one fully drenched in both the trappings of its gothic settings and in the repressed sensuality (or sexuality; I’ve been assured by the developers that each romance has a range of “steam,” so to speak) of the original book. It uses a flashy and completely original visual style and stellar prose in the style of gothic literature in order to take the story of Dracula in a new, more romantic, more queer direction.
If you are the type of person who scoffed upon reading my initial claim that gamers are not that into literature, then this is certainly the game for you. If you are the kind of person who wants more queer romance stories in games, this is certainly the game for you. And if you are the kind of person who just really likes to see how games are exploring horror-adjacency, and seeing how horrror is evolving within games, than this game is for you.
And, if this game is for you, then I’d highly recommend wishlisting the game on Steam and trying out the demo now, which you can do here.
And yes, this is the second time I’ve been won over by a subversive horror/queer romance visual novel with a surprising emotional core that I will inevitably give high marks too. But who’s keeping track?
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
