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[Arsic]

Over the years I've played many many many fighting games. For the longest time my favorite was tied between Garou Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter 3 Third Strike. But in the year of lord and vampire savior 2026, both have become dethroned.

Vampire Savior, AKA Darkstalkers 3, is the most genius fighting game I've put my hands on.

In the past I've seen some VS be played, dismissed it, tried it myself for a few minutes and didn't feel it click right away, and dismissed it. This had to do with me thinking combos must be super hard to do since I couldn't cancel a chain into a special or multiple hits into a special. Which isn't how VS works.

Thanks to the capcom fighting collection, the recent doom and gloom of physical media, nostalgia overload, and EVO Japan and USA 2026 VS hype - I jumped in.



This game is the godfather of so many incredible ideas that didn't exist before it like an air dash, and character archetypes like I-No from guilty gear were born here.

I'm baffled that VS baseline isn't copied today in what so many people are asking for in a fighter. Easy to pick up, combos are short, chains, it's fast, it's flashy, it has personality, incredible art style, and that soundtrack? Oh baby!

Personally my two favorite aspects are how combos work for chains, and how cancels into special moves works. It's perfect for beginners and feels like the combos portion of the game isn't a barrier at all and you get to jump into learning the footsies, match ups, etc. Yes there is plenty of advanced tech, hard AF shit to do like Sako combos but it isn't mandatory to get in and feel competent to hang and have fun.

I wish Capcom would give this IP a revival. Highly recommend Capcom fighting collection to mess with it if you're interested, or Fightcade if you want to play others and try to get good against others.

 

[MrRibeye]

Red riding hood with an Uzi

Werewolf with nunchakus

Undead British punk with electric guitar

And a vampire girl whose tits are exploding …

Never seen this game before (fighting is not my thang) and wtf are these gifs bro, but downloading this now for Fightcade to give it a try, because how can I not after this OP

 

[Arsic]

Red riding hood with an Uzi

Werewolf with nunchakus

Undead British punk with electric guitar

And a vampire girl whose tits are exploding …

Never seen this game before (fighting is not my thang) and wtf are these gifs bro, but downloading this now for Fightcade to give it a try, because how can I not after this OP

It was developed after Street Fighter 2 and a few iterations of it.

It's a 6 button fighter like SF, but combo routing is very different, and the "rounds" function like stocks in smash bros where you immediately go into it from where the life bar died off. First to take off 2 bats wins.

Play turbo 3 speed (that's the standard), and do not pick auto. (Auto guards for you which is not allowed in competitive play lol).

Standard combo is cr lk, cr mp, cr MK, into either a cr heavy kick or stand heavy punch for example. Depends on character buttons.

There's also push block but that's more advanced to explain. For now go mash and have fun.

The whole roster is just horror theme monsters and such. Victor uses his ass cheeks for command grabs. It's sick.

 

[SkylineRKR]

VS is the best 2d fighter of all time. I've been playing it first in 1998, on PS and Saturn. And then in Mame, and finally on PS5. I still return to it regularly.

Its the controls, the moves, the variety of the cast, the animations, the music, the atmosphere. Its perfect. Its not too hard to get into, you'll have some chain combos and some you can end with a ground pound. There is one bar that manages both super and ex moves (some you would rate as a super because of their radical change). Its fine as is. It fills fast but its not like you can super all day and some cost 2 meter. If I lose i'm usually not pissed off, the game is just fun to play.

This is controversial but I prefer the rounds system from Savior, which is likely taken from Killer Instinct. It feels better than a full health bar reset and keeps you in the groove, my 2 cents. Playing a few games of Vampire Hunter online afterward felt odd and slow. The first game, Vampire/Darkstalkers, I never really liked. Its about Hunter and Savior. Hunter renders the original useless, and can co-exist next to Savior for being different in feel. Both Hunter and Savior on Saturn were 10/10 ports back in the day.

One caveat, sadly there is no 'ultimate' version available on PS5/Xbox. Vampire Savior arcade was sliced in 2 more versions for memory reasons; Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2. But they aren't really sequels or anything, just a few characters are being replaced and stages are recolored.

The original console and PSP ports used to have everything in one package, just like SFA3 was heavily expanded. But I often swap between Vampire Savior 1 and 2 and if I want the Vampire Hunter cast and OST with the newer VS mechanics, I load up Vampire Hunter 2. Its not a big deal.

 

[GymWolf]

Loved darkstalkers 3 when i was still into fighting games.

 

[Parazels]

To me, Vampire Hunter and Vampire Savior are equally excellent.

 

[Davevil]

no brain that Capcom has never expanded the franchise, for example with a jrpg

 

[spookyfish]

My Arcade1Up "Big Blue" is pretty much my DarkStalkers Machine. I have several others with Street Fighter on them, so it just stays in Vampire Savior attract-mode.

I haven't yet, but I need to swap out the big-ass Street Fighter marquee with a Vampire Savior one.

EDIT: And agreed -- Nightstalkers is just as good as VS.