SUMMARY
Prince Nikolai and the Vampires is a SRPG in the classic style of Shining Force, Fire Emblem, Bahamut Lagoon, Feda the Emblem of Justice and from the same developer team, Princess Daphne and the Orcs.
Play as Prince Nikolai, a powerful priest who can unleash the power of both the sun and the moon, and gather an army of colorful, diverse heroes as he needs to save his kindgom from the threat of a dangerous lord, the arrogant and ambitious vampire Zarius.
Meet friends and foes along the way, manage your units and their inventories, purchase goods and weapons in this enthralling old-school SRPG.
HIGHLIGHTED CHARACTERS
Nikolai
Master of both the sun and the moon, this powerful lord and priest by profession has sworn to hunt down and eliminate the dangerous vampire responsible for the bloodied deaths of many innocent girls.
Despite his profession and healing skill, he can be deadly and cause immense damages to the enemy foes.
Tristana
Her reputation precedes her: Tristana is known as the most powerful witch in the world. As such, Nikolai considers her an asset and even the spearhead of his battle against the vampires. But can she live up to the expectations placed in her?
Undertow
Who exactly is this odd vampire? Undertow wields the power of darkness, can suck out the blood of his victims, but not only. Master of twilight, he is able to turn himself and his allies into blood-thirsty, relentless creatures, launching unparalleled assaults against the enemy side. A key element to strategy - but can you make the most of what he has to offer?
FEATURES
23 exciting battles of increasing complexity and difficulty
11 playable characters with different profiles, strengths and weaknesses
A New Game+ offering the ultimate challenge for tactics experts: all characters from the start, more damaging enemies, but you also get more experience boost for completing a battle fast.
Skills that evolve to Level 2 and 3 depending on use: choose which skills to favor in battle, resulting in unlimited combinations, strategies and ways of playing
Pure tactics and strategy: the troops, both allies and enemies alike, never do a critical and their damage are estimated before an action is decided, plus only a few selected enemies can evade, resulting in no miss most of the times -> pure strategy!
Adjustable Battle Animations Speed: 4 different levels for maximum enjoyment!
Great Replay Value! While the main quest lasts about 20 hours, you may want to replay this game over and over to refine your strategy and/or discover new ways of playing, not to mention New Game+ or the many DLC.
GAMEPLAY HINTS (must read)
The entire game is controlled by the ENTER and ESC keys (or left and right clicks if you use the mouse).
In battle mode, first pick your character with either the mouse or the directional arrows (by moving the cursor on them), then make them move to the selected position of your choice, and then a menu will appear, allowing you to select an action.
In most cases, it's Attack, Magic, Skill or Wait if you have nothing better to do. If enemies are nearby, you can select the target(s) of your choice - sometimes a skill or a magic can target several enemy at once, and it's your job to position the area of effect as best as possible to make the most of the magic. Even if allies are included in the area of effect, they won't suffer damage from the selected magic.
You need to play all your characters for the character round to automatically end, with the enemy round following, and so on until one side wins (generally by killing all the enemies, or killing the boss, or reaching a given position on the battle map).
USEFUL TIPS
Attacking from behind results in 30% extra damage and from the side in 10% extra damage. It is possible to position your character optimally after they have moved by placing the cursor on them and pressing ESC. Use this so they don't show their backs to the enemies, because the 30% also applies to enemy attacks.
If you need to navigate from one point to another distant point on a large map, it will be faster to do so with the mouse rather than the directional arrows.
Some spells and skills do not consume any turn, such as Undertow's Twilight Assault. This means the character can play again after they have cast the spell in question.
Spells improve if you use them enough. All spells can improve twice.
Terrain is important. There are three levels of "terrain mastery": can go through difficult terrain, can fly low and/or go through water, can fly and go above everything.
Spells that alter movement behavior generally cancel each other. So if you cast a spell that gives +1 move range and the ability to fly, and then cast a spell that only gives the ability to go through difficult terrain, the (better) effect of the first spell will vanish. Pay attention to this when managing your troops.
If you have a question, a remark and/or feel this list of tips is incomplete, please let us know on the forum. We are here to help and make sure you enjoy Prince Nikolai and the Vampires!
CONTROLS
To move characters and the cursor, use the directional buttons on the game pad or the arrow keys on the keyboard.
ENTER/SPACE: Confirm, OK, Enter
ESC: Cancel, Menu
PAGE UP: Previous page
PAGE DOWN: Next page
If you're playing with the mouse:
LEFT-CLICK: Move characters, Confirm, OK, Enter
RIGHT-CLICK: Cancel, Menu
ALT+ENTER: Switches between window mode and full-screen mode.
ALT+F4: Forcibly exits the game.
F12: Forcibly returns to the title screen.
DLC
This game features a total of 7 DLC to enhance your experience. In particular:
DLC #1: extra power (NG++) for new strategies and new ways of playing
DLC #2: play with the 3 main enemy girls
DLC #3: play with the entire enemy side (final boss included, contains major spoilers)
DLC #4: play with a brand new character (a knight)
DLC #5: play with Princess Daphne and the entire cast of the first game, Princess Daphne and the Orcs
The DLC of your choice can be selected at the beginning of the game before the introduction sequence.
NG+ (different from NG++ available with DLC #1) is only available after the game has been completed once.
