So, no character creation tools?

[Drakken]

Not a good start if you ask me.
For that kind of game, i really love so much to create MY own character and i hate to have to play someone else character.
It's like playing an RPG, around a table with your friends with a DM asking you to not play your character but the one he is ending you. Too bad you wanted to play your elven goth like female magic user, but instead you will have to play an old grumpy cleric, that can be fun too, you'r with your friends after all, but not in a video game...

edit : i am too disapointed, i am adding it to ignore, good luck still.

[President Cthulhu]

I wish the only problem with this game was the lack of character creation. Fixed characters can be arguably good. A very good story is easier to be weaved around them. That being said this game is simply very very very bad.

[Snake Eater]

Everyone shares your sentiments tbh, though I can see why they didn't let you make your own character - it's a very player-character-focused story. Being able to make your own character is one of the most requested things out of the WoD games right now, it seems - with good reason, a lot of people wanna play the characters they've made from their own VtM games.

[corbo]

Doesn't look like an RPG to me anyway, more like a visual novel or some other form of interactive fiction.

[MTL5]

Originally posted by corbo:

Doesn't look like an RPG to me anyway, more like a visual novel or some other form of interactive fiction.

How does it not look like an RPG to you? It is entirely driven by character stats and skills. What specifically doesn't look like an RPG?

Originally posted by Drakken:

For that kind of game, i really love so much to create MY own character and i hate to have to play someone else character.

It's not that kind of game. It's a spiritual successor to the game The Council. For example, you don't get a choice on whether these characters dislike humans or not. This isn't a self-insertion RPG.

[corbo]

Originally posted by MTL5:

Originally posted by corbo:

Doesn't look like an RPG to me anyway, more like a visual novel or some other form of interactive fiction.

How does it not look like an RPG to you? It is entirely driven by character stats and skills. What specifically doesn't look like an RPG?

Did you even look at the promotion material ?

[MTL5]

Originally posted by corbo:

Originally posted by MTL5:

How does it not look like an RPG to you? It is entirely driven by character stats and skills. What specifically doesn't look like an RPG?

Did you even look at the promotion material ?

Yes. But I've also played the game, and its predecessor (The Council).

If I had a criticism, it would be that none of the trailers on the Steam page show you how the game plays. Still, the Steam page states:

Based on the cult role-playing game and developed by specialists in the genre, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a narrative RPG in which your every choice determines the fate of the three main characters and of the Boston Camarilla.

Play as 3 vampires who are over a hundred years old. Progress in the game through their intertwined destinies, deal with their different points of view and use their character sheets to try to separate the truth from the lies. Each character has their own vampiric abilities and disciplines that you can upgrade individually to suit your preferred approach. Will you choose intimidation, seduction or stealth? It's your decision, as long as you can sate your Hunger for blood.

It's also by the same studio as The Council. A lot of its design is the same as that game, but significantly expanded. At least with The Council, one of the trailers on the Steam page explains how the game plays.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/287630/The_Council/

[corbo]

There is indeed no gameplay presented; with 3 trailers, so a triple-sized red flag. RPGs always show some gameplay while pretenders don't.

Keywords are unreliable, since the vast majority of devs do not understand them, or lie outright (the RPG keyword sells.)

As for the little bits of promotional text, they can apply to a dozen genres, and the bottom one smells strongly of Choose Your Own Adventure.

Saying it's like the Council partly reinforces the impression (only partly, because the Council's promo utterly confuses all genres, so it's not reliable either.)

Bad promotion hurts sales.

[Drake]

Gameplay wise, it is an rpg, you have the stats, the skills, the powers, just like in pnp and you spend xp after every session yo raise them. There are rolls when you use your skills in dialohs or on objects. Your choices have some consequences. And last but not least, you can't do everything in each session, the build you will direct you toward certain resolutions instead of other. Like if you build the ventrue toward physical stats you will fail some psychology checks, but you will be more intimidating and more resilient toward physical hazards.

It's pretty much an rpg session with 3 pregen characters (because no even in pnp, you don't have to use custom chars, pregen exist for that purpose).

While the game has issues, it is at least true to itself.

[MTL5]

Originally posted by corbo:

There is indeed no gameplay presented; with 3 trailers, so a triple-sized red flag. RPGs always show some gameplay while pretenders don't.

Bad promotion hurts sales.

I 100% agree, and I really think Nacon/BigBadWolf should update the Steam page with some gameplay shots, maybe some shots of the upgrade trees, stuff like that. Like, people shouldn't have to go look up gameplay on Youtube to understand what the game is.

And of course the waters have been muddied by several WoD VNs that have choices but don't really have proper character stat stuff to be "RPGs".