REVIEW – Cabernet – NintendoFuse

When you think of vampires, typically you might envision dark and menacing, bloodthirsty creatures living in some castle somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains, terrorizing the local villagers.  Or perhaps you think of a group of teenage vampires feeding on the eclectic folks in a coastal Californian town in the 80’s.  However, in Cabernet, you’ll find something completely different – a newly sired vampire, trained as a doctor in her previous life, caring for the residents of her town, all while having to balance her urges, with the need to feed.

Cabernet takes place in a 19^th century Eastern European inspired world, in the form of a 2D narrative RPG.  Players will be tasked with guiding Liza, a young vampire struggling with her morality and the supernatural world she unwittingly was forced into.

You are introduced to Liza in the most morbid of ways, at her funeral.  As you listen to her family members speak fondly of her, the dialogue will pause for you to choose which narrative options appeal most to you about her character.  These choices matter, as they impact Liza’s stats, of which, there are 4 – Music & Arts, Literature & Poetry, Science & Logic, and finally, History & Politics.  These stats directly impact the actions you can take during conversations with the townsfolk.  And these interactions are the “meat” of the game.  As a narrative RPG, you are tasked with a list of objectives, all of which require that you interact with the townsfolk.  As you progress through the story, you will uncover a hidden world of political intrigue, sinister secrets, class conflict, and corruption that spans both the living and the dead.  As the story progresses, you’ll also find out how you became a vampire and for what reason you were turned.

As you begin the game, you’ll wake up locked in a dark, dank room somewhere deep underground.  After you escape, you’ll make your way up a few flights of stairs only to find yourself in a fancy ballroom of sorts.  This turns out to be the home of Countess Orlova, who has ruled your new home for 400 years.  The inhabitants of this home of both human and supernatural.  You will immediately find yourself speaking to all the inhabitants, eventually being introduced to your handler who helps you get accustomed to your powers.  Speaking of powers, you will be able to turn into a bat and fly around quickly, turn invisible to avoid detection, and hypnotize your fellow townsfolk to feed on their blood.  There is a simple morality system in place which balances between Humanity and Nihilism.  The choices you make will impact these two categories, and you will find that some narrative choices are locked behind either Humanity or Nihilism, so you need the number indicated in the conversation choice or higher to choose the desired action.

Timing is critical, as you must make haste to the safe confines of your coffin before sunrise or else you will suffer death by painful fires.  I tried it once; I would not recommend it! Although, there is no permadeath, you just load at your last save point.  There is a helpful “clock” of sorts that indicates the time and how close you are to the sunrise.  Time moves at a consistent pace, except for when you choose certain actions, such as reading a book, which improves stats.  I found myself at times, reading books for all my actions before having to sleep for the day.  The process is quick enough though that it never gets too tedious.  Speaking of stats, each evening when you wake up, you are always in your nightclothes.  Before you can leave the room, you must choose an outfit from your wardrobe.  Certain outfits give stat bonuses when worn, so you must put thought into what you wear so that it benefits your conversations with the townsfolk.

There are only a couple issues I should mention – I ran into a couple weird visual bugs, with a character model who had died (I failed the optional objective) and a model of his body was laying down in two different rooms at the same time.  This wasn’t a game breaking, but it was odd.  The only big complaint I have is with the menu UI.  This was clearly designed for a keyboard and mouse, so playing on the Nintendo Switch was frustrating on a consistent basis.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Cabernet, and uncovering the hidden plots, the story of Liza, and even getting to know the townsfolk. I would recommend taking a bite out of Cabernet.  It will satiate your appetite for a good narrative rpg, trust me.

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