Cabernet

Cabernet was a really nice surprise! Though fairly linear and limited in certain ways, the game allows for a surprising degree of freedom and player agency. Inhabiting a newborn vampire doctor, you navigate meaningfully consequential moral choices that gradually come to define your character, the relationships she forms/maintains/complicates/ruins, her place within vampire high society, and the stubbornness (or frailty) of her tether to humanity. There is also an interesting metaphor here about alcoholism. Liza (the protagonist) grapples with memories of her father's alcoholism and the destruction/instability it caused, as she finds herself struggling to manage a destructive drinking habit of her own. The feeding mechanics reinforce the metaphor: in this game, feeding is not only necessary, but addictive. It can also offer diminishing returns... unless you're careful, you can end up needing more and more to achieve the same result. You might even become a blood-addled haematophiliac, cultivating angst through the slaughter of cute, innocent bunnies (and cute, innocent humans). Alternatively, you might decide to use your vampire powers for good. Or to make your pet cat immortal. Or... It's a relatively short game, but it gets a whole lot longer once you start replaying. I was happy to find that there are often multiple ways to solve problems or resolve quests... and to find that the ways you resolve quests have lasting ramifications on the story. In a world with not nearly enough games narrowly tailored to indulge my love of vampire roleplaying, I'm very happy to have discovered this one!

Beautifully written

I've had this game wishlisted for years while it was still in development and I was so excited to finally get the chance to play it! It's one of my favourite vampire games, no doubt! What I love most about the game is its understanding of the source material by maintaining the Eastern European tradition. Most Western media removes vampires from their original context in favour of shock value and fantasy. Cabernet maintains consistency with many original Eastern European folk tales of vampires and the Victorian Gothic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, thus offering something simoultaniously authentic and familiar to audiences. The notes explaining Eastern European vampire lore creates for an immersive experience as well as a learning oppoutunity for players to understand the contexts of which vampires emerged from. The choices Liza makes and their consequences tackle the nature vs nuture problem, and in turn takes a more humanist approach to vampires. Similarly to Louis in Interview with the Vampire, Liza ponders the consequences of her actions as she navigates her new, unwilling unlife as a vampire. This is best exemplified with the "vegitarian vampire" trope where Liza can gain sustinance from animals despite it being less filling. The modern trope deviates from blood and sex of True Blood and The Vampire Diaries to offer insights into the feelings of the individual as they navigate a new world. By providing the player with the choices of good vs evil--and later their consequences-- the game exemplifies that vampires are not born evil, but made to be evil through their circumstances needed to survive (or plain bad decisions). I appreciate the diverse romantic interests as it stays true to the Victorian notion of vampires representing all that "plagued" society ie. sex workers, homosexuals, immigrants, etc. I also appreciate it because it's 2026 (2025 release date).

Cute game, easy play through, would suggest if you want something mostly chill to play through that has an interesting story.

Enjoyable from beginning to end. Good voice acting, choices matter, look forward to this teams future projects.

Wonderful story with fully voiced characters. I greatly appreciate the refined vocabulary and folklore explanations used in this game. Shame it has only 4 languages.

I absolutely adore this game. The visual style looks like beautiful paper dolls, and the Victorian aesthetic is such a creepy-cozy vibe. I want to live in this world.

Delightful storyline where all your choices matter as well as your character stats

A well written wholesome adventure. I didn't know that I needed to play specifically this genre of game, but here I am - I totally enjoyed it. The characters and the story are very strong suits of this game - it draws inspiration from the Masquerade lore-wise and Vampyr ethics-wise. There aren't that many good vampire themed games nowadays (Masquerade 2 sucked in a bad way), this one is.

Initially frustrated because I couldn't get it to play well on my pc. I have found a solution and so far, the story is worth it.