Victor Vran: Overkill Edition
by Mikhail
Aug 28, 2018 |
1
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10
rate
Genres:
RPG , Adventure , ActionGraphics:
3DLabels:
Co-op , Monsters , Demons , Fantasy SettingPlatforms:
Publishers:
Haemimont Games Enter the city of Zagarovia and fight demons as Victor Vran, demon hunter extraordinaire. Fight across the city, including Fractured Worlds and the Motorhead-inspired levels. Experiment with your demon-slaying arsenal with different weapons and outfits. Enter the city with three other players or go alone! Play Now Similar Games Played
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Note: This is an early access review of Victor Vran: Overkill Edition on Nintendo Switch. Summary
On August 28th, a curse (the good kind) will befall the Nintendo Switch: the cursed city of Zagarovia will descend upon Nintendo’s hybrid console, and it will be up to you to liberate it. Victor Vran: Overkill Edition is coming to the Nintendo Switch, and it delivers an action-packed RPG experience that is hard to put down. Developed by Haemimont Games (responsible for developing the Tropico and Grand Ages series), the game was first released on Steam and other consoles, like the PlayStation 4.
The Nintendo Switch version includes all the DLCs, like having more demons, locations, outfits, and weapon classes. It will also have the Motorhead and Fractured Worlds expansions, not limiting the play-time to its already fun and impactful 12-hour campaign. Regardless if you love action-RPGs or not, should you give this game a shot or are you better off spending money on other titles? Let’s find out.
Plotline
The main storyline of Victor Vran takes place in Zagarovia, a large city that is infested with demons. Without diving deep into spoiler territory, its Queen sent letters to demon hunters, pleading with them to drive out the grotesque monstrosities residing in the city. You will play as Victor himself, and primarily, your goal is to find a friend and later, liberate the entire city.
Although Victor comes off first as an emotionless protagonist you see most of the time in other games, he is a surprisingly deep character. Even if he doesn’t show it, he cares deeply for his colleagues, friends, and the honor in his profession. The other characters fall to the same level: Queen Katarina appears to be a morally-upright and strong lady. Conversing with other characters results in interesting and well-written interactions, especially with the merchants and Irene. All in all, the story has major twists which are sure to leave your mouth hanging.
Gameplay
In terms of gameplay Victor Vran closely resembles games like Ys: Memories of Celceta and more popular franchises like Diablo. Featuring a bird’s eye view camera, you move around the map doing what Victor does best: taking out demons.
To get this done, you will need weapons and to utilize Victor’s demonic powers, allowing you to wield different spells. You can hack ‘n’ slash your way through the undead hordes with a sword and scythe, and also shoot them down with shotguns and firearms that shoot lightning. Weapons have rarity levels as well, and depending on this, they may have attributes of their own, ranging from increased damage, life steal, and even getting more gold drops whenever a demon is felled. In addition, weapons have three attack modes: X for standard, while Y and B activate special abilities.
Victor can equip spells that can be picked up and learned from enemies. These range from protective shields to raining fiery meteors towards your enemies and unleashing spirit boomerangs. However, you need to fill up your overdrive gauge, which is done by attacking enemies, before you can activate them. Granted, there are numerous possible weapon combinations (you can equip two at a time) and you will be able to find one that fully caters to your play style.
There are numerous outfits in Victor Vran, and these can be switched around, each granting different buffs and effects. There are 12 in total, which includes the standard Adventurer’s outfit that grants more destiny card slots and overdrive gain, and Lemmy’s outfit that gives you 2000 max overdrive and an armor boost when your HP is reduced to a certain point. The game also has Destiny Cards which grant various buffs and abilities including life steal, increased critical damage, and even explosions after a successful kill.
Victor Vran isn’t short of dungeons and worlds to explore. Being in the Hub - which is basically Castle Zagore where you can interact with characters and merchants - lets you access these worlds through the map. There are at least 50 dungeons to clear and explore, each with their own role in the story. Moreover, they have their own set of challenges, which are, as their namesake suggests, a challenge to accomplish, adding a dimension of difficulty to the game. They may involve you killing a number of demons without using spells, beating a boss, and using a certain weapon.
The game can come off as easy, but you can make the experience a little more challenging with hexes and different difficulty levels. If you want to breeze past the story, simply activate the casual mode. The controls take some time to get used to but are intuitive and easy-to-learn. And no, you don’t need the Switch’s gyro sensors to fully enjoy and appreciate the experience.
Community
Victor Vran can be played online with a team of four players, or you can opt for a couch co-op of two players. Matchmaking can be accessed through the main menu, and you can invite players who are online. Unfortunately, we have yet to try this out due to the game being not released yet, though there are a few unresponsive players online. Regardless, it has healthy online communities on Steam and Reddit, as well as its own Wikia.
Graphics/Sound
Despite being a rather dated game, Victor Vran looks and plays outstandingly in the Nintendo Switch. It doesn’t feel like it was ported at all. However, there are minor framerate issues during high-activity sequences. Fortunately, these aren’t big enough to hamper the overall experience.
Zagarovia can remind anyone of the city of Yharnam in Bloodborne, a PlayStation exclusive. However, its level of eeriness doesn’t reach the aforementioned’s level, opting to provide an “action-y” vibe instead of a spooky one. Nevertheless, the amount of detail invested in the dungeon and environmental design is amazing, and the same can be said of the characters. You could safely say the designers put thousands of hours into making them come to life, especially during the story cutscenes which are a joy (or scary, depending on which cutscene) to watch.
If the Tropico series is any indication, Haemimont Games made sure that the level of voice acting in Victor Vran is superb, with the actors delivering authentic experiences. Victor’s voice actor stands out, which isn’t a surprise considering he is voiced by Doug Cockle, the man in the booth for Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher franchise. Queen Katarina definitely sounds like a queen, while The Voice in the background sounds irritatingly annoying and funny, with his incessant jabs and jokes hurled towards Victor. The soundtrack is equally amazing, and if you reach the Motorhead DLC, you will get to hear some of the famous band’s songs.
Conclusion
Overall, Victor Vran: Overkill Edition is one of those under-the-radar titles that you definitely need to try out. The game delivers an outstanding action-RPG experience that will be hard to put down. Though the campaign is short, the DLCs have much to offer, giving you new and unlimited dungeons. With a robust cast of characters, a well-crafted story, and numerous loadouts available, your demon-slaying journey will never be stale and you will always get to enjoy various surprises along the way.
We highly recommend you start gearing up and making your way to Zagarovia as soon as the game hits the Nintendo Store on August 28th.
Victor Vran: Overkill Edition Blog
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