What if instead of fighting monsters in Transylvania, you could fall in love with them? You may have spent Undertale making friends with your enemies, but in Romancelvania, you’re going to have to fall head over heels for a legendary, supernatural baddie. You’ll have a rogue’s gallery to choose from.

Everything spanning a well-read wolf to the tantalizing Medusa herself is on the table, and you’ll have to woo them, vote them off, and narrow them all down to one. But it’s not all fun and games. You’ll also have to fight for their affection, siding between arguments and undertaking tall tasks to earn their love. How does Romancelvania fare after three years of development?

After a successful Kickstarter campaign just barely earning its goal of $200k in 2020, developers The Deep End Games plugged away at Romancelvania for an initial March 2022 release date. After another year of fine-tuning, it’s now available as of March 2023. Very quickly, the game gets you up to speed.

You’re playing Dracula who’s been sulking for a century over a lost love, and the Grim Reaper thrusts you into a dating game show where he’s hired other villains for potential romance. You start out with three tempting choices and must make your decision on who to dump before discovering who else you may want to spend the rest of eternity with.

There’s one glaring issue within Romancelvania: the combat is not great. While it’s perfectly functional and has depth to it, I can’t help but feel like this was the aspect focused on the least by The Deep End Games. That’s not a bad thing. The voice acting, writing, and dialogue are all gut-bustingly hilarious and are a treat to wade through.

However, fighting through the same enemies in the early game with just one or two weapons at your disposal is a slog until you acquire more weapons, powers, and abilities to utilize. With this as the driving force, it’s something every player is going to have to deal with, but the more they play, the easier it gets to enjoy. When I finally acquired the double jump, long-distance whip, and healing spell, Romancelvania was a joy through and through.

The variety of datable monsters and villains from start to finish in Romancelvania is a delight to experience. Between a genie, a succubus, a mummy, a pumpkin, a wolf, a demon, and much more, all of your affectionate guests on the dating show are lovingly voice-acted with actors/actresses really giving it their all from start to finish.

It’s a massively crass affair, with a double entendre, a sex joke, or just something thirsty coming about in every conversation. Even as an asexual person, I died laughing at the absurdity on more than one occasion. That’s the best thing about Romancelvania, it’s campy as hell and easily enjoyable for those who are ready for a game that doesn’t take itself seriously.

There’s certainly a target demographic for Romancelvania. I didn’t think I would be part of it, but I ended up having a great time with this game. Usually, I’m wading through a lackluster story to enjoy some combat in a game, but this time it’s the other way around. Ultimately I found P.S. Elle, the pumpkin, to be my fit for Dracula.

However, I know each and every Romancelvania player is going to inject their preferences and I’d love to see the breakdown of who ended up with the vamp across the board. If you’re willing to power through some passable combat to engage in a hysterical, enjoyable romp, Romancelvania is the game for you.

A PlayStation 5 review code for Romancelvania was provided by 2124 Publishing for this review.

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Romancelvania

24.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Laugh-a-minute Humor
• A Character for Everyone
• Strong Variety in Settings

Cons

• Rough Combat
• Some Aspects Unfinished