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Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge, Vampire Hunter in Japan, the “sequel” to Darkstalkers premiered in arcades in 1995. However, the “sequel” part of Night Warriors a bit misleading. As much as Capcom would like you to believe its a sequel to Darkstalkers, in reality it is far from it. However, there are some very noteworthy editions added in Night Warriors that make it worth mentioning in the history of the series.

Before we dive right into Night Warriors, we need to talk about what was happening with Capcom fighters during the year of 1995. The fighting games that appeared along side Darkstalkers, X-Men Children of The Atom and Super Street Fighter II Turbo, spawned sequels/new series. Marvel Super Heroes: War of The Gems was the spiritual sequel to XCOTA based off of Marvel's comic book cross over event the Infinity Gauntlet. The game play was fast, furious, and brutal. The game featured many elements that were found in Darkstalkers such as chain combos, super attacks via a meter, and even guard cancel like mechanic known as an infinity counter.

Meanwhile, Street Fighter was also getting its own new series, the Street Fighter Alpha series (also known as the Street Fighter Zero series). Taking place in between the first and second Street Fighter, the Alpha series brought back a familiar cast with new faces as well. On top of this the Alpha series gave new, anime like sprites to cast. It also featured Darkstalkers like qualities to it such as chain combos, air blocking, guard cancels (alpha counters in SFA), and supers. Speaking of supers, SFA had a unique three tier super meter system which allowed players to store up supers. It's amazing that Darkstalkers has influenced many other Capcom fighting games. However, its Night Warriors that help keeps Darkstalkers alive...even if its not much of a sequel.

 

What is New?

I've been egging on about the fact that Night Warriors really isn't a sequel, to Darkstalkers I think I should I explain what that really means. Night Warriors does add on a lot of things but for the most part nothing really changes. The new elements that do come into play, however, change the pace of the match. A host of aesthetic changes were given to Night Warriors. Characters have more colors to chose from and stages have been recolored with new remixed music. Many of the existing cast have been give new moves to use and also gain the ability of pursuit. Pursuit was the ability to attack a downed opponent. In Darkstalkers, this skill was exclusive to L. Raptor but is now allowed for all characters. However, the biggest change was to the meter system. Gone is the old meter that only fills for a limited amount of time. The special meter is now on top of life bars and you can hold multiple bars to do whatever you need to do. Now powering up a special move cost only part of a bar and is called an ES moves. You can tell you performed an ES move when your character glows blue while doing the attack. Super attacks also return, now called EX moves, and make your character flash a rainbow colors when you do. Speaking of EX moves, there's a few interesting ones to note. Some characters have special EX moves that function more as an assistance for combos and set ups. Anakaris' Pharaoh Split literally splits Anakaris in half while he floats above which is great for mix ups. Morrigan also gains her Astral Vision EX move, where she creates a clone behind the opponent. This EX moves are interesting to note because they will play a large part in one of Darkstalkers 3's new mechanics. But like the first Darkstalkers, the main draw of Night Warriors Comes with the new characters it brings.

 

Characters

While there are 4 new playable characters, two of them we have gone over already. Pyron and Huitzil pretty much play like their boss forms with some minor adjustments and super moves added. So lets talk about the actual two new characters in Night Warriors. The two new characters in Darkstalkers share in the same profession of hunting Darkstalkers which is where the Japanese title comes from. However, their back grounds and play styles are night and day.

 

Donovan Baine

Strangely enough, despite the shear similarity to Darkstalkers, Donovan Baine is billed as the main protagonist of Night Warriors. However, Donovan can fit that title as he one interesting character to break down. Donovan is a dhampir, half human and half vampire. When he was young, Donovan was sent into a rage due to his vampire side and killed his village. Since that day, he tried to atone for his sins and control is vampire side. Donovan learned Buddhist teaching to control himself but it wasn't until he found a little girl named Anita. Anita is a stoic child who lost her emotions due to her extremely powerful psychic and was feared for her powers. Donovan adopted her and he vowed to fight the Darkstalkers to make her heart open again. To do this, Donovan masters various types of magic and uses a cursed sword known as Dhylec.

In his ending, Donovan succeeds at getting Anita's emotions back but loses himself to the darkness inside him. Donovan struggle with darkness mirrors the future problems of another Capcom fighter, Ryu. Later on in the Street Fighter Alpha series, Ryu confronts the problems using the Satsui no Hado for power. The possible “what if” scenario of Ryu loosing this battle births the character Evil Ryu. Also, while Capcom has never said anything officially, Donovan's story, look, and profession could possibly be the influence for the game Devil May Cry and the titular hero of the series, Dante. Again, this is pure speculation but it wouldn't be surprising.

Donovan's play style is a bit odd. While he has decent speed and range with his normals, most of his game play revolves around his sword. He can plant it at any time and can call it back as well. This is great for setting up cross up traps and mix-ups as opponents try the block Donovan's attacks as well as his sword. The only downside to this is that with out his sword his range with is normal attacks is cut at bit. Donovan also has his magic attacks that help as anti-airs and projectiles.

  

Hsien-Ko/ Lei-Lei

 

Hsien-Ko, also known as Lei-Lei, really need no introduction. You probably have played her in a cross over or seen her in a cameo. However, she's a noteworthy Darkstalker to talk about because I'm sure like myself you have heard what kind of monster she is. Hsien-Ko is called a Jiang Shi (also known as Geong Si) or a Chinese Vampire. The creatures usually are known for the hopping motions and look to suck the life essence or chi from their victims to stay alive. However, Hsien-Ko wasn't always a Jiang Shi. She and her fraternal twin sister, Mei-Ling, lived a peaceful like village in China in the early part of the 18^th Century until it was attacked by Darkstalkers. Nearly everyone was killed, and almost the two of them if it were not for their mother who sacrificed herself to save them. However, her mother's soul was lost in the darkness. In an effort to save their mother soul, Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling preformed a forbidden martial art which turned Hsien-Ko to a jaing shi and her sister into a paper ward on top of her head to control her powers. Together the two set out to stop the Darkstalkers and release the soul of their mother. In their ending, the two sisters free their mother from the darkness but at their own lives. Seeing all of the hard work to help her, their mother saves the two sisters and reincarnates them.

 

Hsien-Ko aren't just revered in the Darkstalkers world for their cuteness, they are actual very versatile characters. Their dashes are very unique even for Darkstalkers. On the ground, Hsien-Ko's dash is a hop that makes her disappear for a quick second. Pressing dash up close to an enemy make her disappear and reappear right behind the enemy. She also has an air dash wish can help her get out of situations or over them. As special attacks go, she is also very versatile. She has a gong that can be used to both attack and reflect projectiles. She can also throw out random items from her sleeves. Some of these items can cause the opponent to become stunned temporarily. However her most versatile move is her guillotine swing. A multiple hitting move is best property is the ability to cancel the move at any time with a press of the kick button. It leaves the possibility to set up some nasty situations, possibly even unblock able attacks.

   

Unfortunately outside of the new characters, there's not a whole lot to left to talk about with Night Warriors. Arcade mode is still the same where you fight Huitzil before you fight Pyron. The only other thing worth noting that's somewhat new is that the ending in the game are slightly different. By slightly, I mean they now have an accompanying eplouge text. Most of these are worth explaining except for two, Demitri's and Morrigan's. They are just like in their endings in Darkstalkers, however, it is revealed that during events of the battle with Pyron, Morrigan's father, Beral passed making Morrigan the new ruler of Makai. Truth be told, Darkstalkers 3 doesn't do too much with this idea but it is worth noting. At the end of all of this, Night Warriors feels less like a new game and more like a Super Darkstalkers. However, the minor improvements and new characters would help set up the stage for the best (and strangest) chapter of Darkstalkers. Tomorrow, Darkstalkers 3. Nuff Said.

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