What We Know About Visual Novel Translation Libra of the Vampire Princess

When it comes to visual novels I generally feel that the best ones come out of Japan. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy a good Western game but when it comes to interesting stories the Land of the Rising Sun tends to tell them the best. Which is why I found Libra of the Vampire Princess to be interesting enough to at least back at the lowest level to get access to development updates. And while there hasn’t been much in the way of story released so far what we have been shown is promising. With just a little over two weeks left on the clock I thought it would be a good idea to do a short recap of what we know so far about this translation project.

It’s generally best to start with the plot and go from there. Libra of the Vampire Princess is a tale about a young man with vampiric blood running through his veins. Up until the beginning of the game these genes lie dormant and he’s basically your average high school student. Until a “ringleader” Vampire decides it’s time to awaken his abilities and in the ensuing scuffle he manages to fight her off but not before partially succumbing to his base instincts. If this doesn’t spark interest in those who enjoy “creature of the night” tales then it should.

Story aside, just what has MiKandi Japan been up to during the course of the Kickstarter? There hasn’t been much in the way of development or story tidbits beyond what’s in the pitch but there were a fair number of updates released so far. Mostly having to do with add-ons and new reward tiers. Most of which, while pricey look incredible. And the very limited tiers pushed out on December 31st sold out in 15 minutes according to the update announcing the news.

Most of the rest of the updates revolved around status of the funding for Libra of the Vampire Princess. While normally this would be a ho-hum piece of news stating that they’re at 30% or 50% or whatever the way they went about doing this was at least entertaining. Using the metaphor of storming a castle and taking down the dreaded “Kickstarter Balrog” each update focusing solely or mostly on how far they’ve come read like all of the backers were part of a great raid to take down a tyrant.

Unfortunately, this sort of enthusiasm and push towards getting more backers and funds alone won’t work. While they’ve been struggling to get Libra of the Vampire Princess funded, even with a Thunderclap campaign, at least I know that they won’t go down without a fight and will take it to the bitter end even if the “Balrog” proves victorious. Whether it makes funding or not at least I’ve got respect for someone who won’t go quietly into the night. I do wish them the best and I really would love to see it get the money asked for, but with such a long campaign to see it only slightly over halfway a few days ago it’s still going to come close without help.