If you check my profile on any number of the dating sites I’m listed on, you’ll find I have some very specific criteria for my perfect match: non-smoker, no kids, vampire (demons and werewolves acceptable).
Gosh, I’m lonely.
So, it’s no surprise that Cabernet has attracted me to take a bite. It’s a unique narrative game set at the end of the 19th century where you get to play as a newly turned vampire trying to navigate high society. I know exactly where I’d navigate to.
In any case, Party for Introverts has released a demo alongside the Steam Visual Novel Fest, which gives me a chance to see if Cabernet has the bite I’m looking for.
Delicious blueblood
You play as Liza, who has the good fortune of waking up dead in a spooky basement. She finds her way out of the depths and into the pleasant company of a bunch of bluebloods. After a quick wardrobe change, she learns that she’s a vampire. Rad, but it’s a lot to take in all at once. Rather than panic, she goes and mingles to learn about her new affliction through polite conversation.
The demo for Cabernet is teasingly short, but it lays out the basic concepts extremely well. Starting with your funeral, you’ve given points to put into four fields: Science, history, art, and literature. Having sufficient knowledge in any of these fields opens up dialogue options and other actions that affect how things progress. While proceeding through the game, you’ll gain experience. When you level up, you can put more points into these fields. Likewise, you can sit down with a good book, and at the cost of a chunk of a day, you can learn a bit more about those topics.
There’s also a good/evil dichotomy in the form of humanity and nihilism you get by either showing sympathy or just by being a prick. You also gain and lose relationship points by schmoozing with characters. All the above translates into additional actions you can take in conversation, which will affect the greater plot and provide a greater backstory and understanding of what’s going on.
Careful ambition
It’s an ambitious system tangle of systems that we don’t really get a chance to see fully in action. There are certainly moments that demonstrate these systems in action, but the 45 minutes of the demo don’t really show how knotted these can get. With the small handful of scenes you are given, it’s easy enough to manage the number of branches that can shoot out from the varying options, but beyond that, the complications begin to increase exponentially.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, even by a small team. It’s just a pitfall that’s easy to fall into. Ambition has to be kept in check by careful planning. It’s my biggest concern, and while the demo doesn’t hint at it becoming a problem, it also doesn’t prove it’s being approached with due care. It’s something we’ll just have to wait and see.
Just a bite
For that matter, what is present in Cabernet’s demo is extremely solid. The writing currently doesn’t allow itself to get weighed down by melancholy. The exposition is carefully woven into dialogue with other characters. So, while there’s a lot to get through, it isn’t just heaped on top of you but rather given bits at a time carefully over a few scenes. For that matter, dialogue isn’t needlessly long, either. It’s impressively lightweight and concise.
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that Liza still has some agency of her own. You’re presented with a few situations where you, as a player, aren’t really given much control over her actions. At least at the beginning, you’re not allowed to just go ham at the opening party and start opening every mortal artery you bump into.
I think the softened humanity/nihilism nomenclature for the moral choices you make is probably for the best. At least in the beginning, you’re not allowed to go full paragon or hopelessly evil. You can shape Liza’s moral fiber, but you can’t choose to throw all caution to the wind. You wouldn’t want to commit a faux pas.
The smell of blood
The demo also hints that you’re going to have lots of space to do your whole vampire thing. You’re only given access to two of your four spooky powers throughout the runtime, and with them comes a short list of rules you have to follow. I’m looking forward to seeing how they’re both enabled and restricted throughout the rest of the game. Likewise, I’m interested to see the day/night system in action and what ultimate conclusion the narrative works toward.
Cabernet’s demo is everything I wanted it to be and more. I am well beyond excited to see where things go and am already looking forward to my chance to peer beyond what I’ve seen already. The fangs are what brought me here, but the careful worldbuilding has convinced me to stay.
