Completion date: January 18, 2025

All my reviews contain spoilers. Major sexual abuse/violent content in this game that can be triggering to people.

No game rating will be provided to this game as it’s not a typical otome game. For those looking to get into this game that is a landmine with every trigger warning known to man, my advice would be not to take things seriously, and treat it as promotional material of the franchise & dummyhead mic seiyuu fan service. It’s ironic coming from someone who write ten thousand word-long reviews, but the less you try to analyze the LI/MC’s motives and whether how authentic their “love” is, the more you will enjoy the game. If you’re looking for something with a deep story and memorable romance, now is your chance to exit this page and pretend you never heard of this game. The guys are insane and cruel from beginning to end; this is not a Mary-Sue becomes their light and salvation kind of game.

To preface the article, I did not listen to the drama CD series or watch the anime. Being one of the most popular otome franchises (not game) in the last decade, Diabolik Lovers started out as a drama CD series in early 2010s while Do-S (extremely sadistic, the S in SM, dominant) trope was extremely popular. See this reddit comment which elegantly lays out the selling points for the game which includes the popularity of the Do-S trope, famous seiyuu, dummyhead fan service, and gorgeous art featuring mentally disturbed vampire boys. It is a product of its time, and would have not seen nearly same level of success should it be released today. The game line released a total of seven games mostly on PSP and PSV, with the NS ones being Grand Edition (Haunted Dark Bridal & More Blood; the first two entries) and Chaos Lineage which I believe is an NS-exclusive released in 2019.

With that being said, I present to you: Jirai Vampire – otome edition.

STORY & GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

Komori Yui is a high school student who was told one day to live with some “distant relative” as her father has to work overseas. She enters a haunted mansion and encounters the Sakamaki family who are six brothers of vampires who want to suck her blood. Yui gets to choose who her “master” will be thus entering their individual route – with Shu, Reiji, Subaru being locked out of being first route.

None of the brothers are sane and they basically engage in BDSM with Yui who becomes a plaything for them, and develops codependency with the vampire she chose. I’m surprised the game got away with an 15+ rating because it features many things that you don’t even see in R18+ material. Each LI represents one of the seven deadly sins – whether this is canon I didn’t bother to verify, but is an interesting theory that seems to make sense so I’m rolling with it.

Yui also comes from a Roman Catholic background, as seen with her attempting to use the Holy Cross to repel the vampires, praying to God. The game gives off pure despair especially if you read Yui’s monologues at the end of some of the scenes, where she laments that this is not love but codependency comprised of blood and lust, and that she begs God for forgiveness but she has no choice but to continue to sin, in order to survive.

I don’t know how to transition into this, but the OST has no reason to slap this hard, especially 禁断幻想ゴシック劇場 & 悶絶カタストロフィ.

Anyway, each route is comprised of 30 short stories (each around 5 min to read), and split into three chapters called dark, maniac, ecstasy. In each scene Yui has an option to choose her dialogue. The dialogue can either raise affection or move her position on the S/M spectrum. Depending on her S/M level three endings are available: ending 01 is usually considered the happy ending (choosing M options), ending 02 the normal ending (choosing S options), and ending 03 the bad ending (even mix of S and M options). There is a heaven scenario/extra story if you choose the correct keywords in Yui’s monologues which unlock in the extra section.

Yui is not just any random human girl. She has the heart of Cordelia who is the second wife of the Karlheinz who is the head of the vampire clan. Cordelia is also the mother of Ayato, Laito, and Kanato. She was a selfish woman who yearned for Karlheinz’s attention, but also had an affair with her brother-in-law Richter, and abused her children. Cordelia was killed by her children, but Richter harvested her heart and implanted in Yui’s body as a child with the goal of reviving his beloved one day. Cordelia is the daughter of vampire and the demon king and is rumoured to have extremely powerful blood; hence why most vampires are drawn to Yui and find her blood irresistible.

AYATO (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru)

Our poster boy Ayato represents “pride” out of the seven sins. He is the oldest out of Cordelia’s children and is the franchise’s oresama. He is basically a tyrant in his relationship with Yui, calling her chichinashi (“no tits”), demanding her attention at all times, and getting jealous of the most random people to things, from his brothers, others looking at her in the street (because he made her wear an extremely short skirt), to the book Yui is reading, or even the god she is praying to (yep). He likes showing off Yui to others, but then gets angry if others pay attention or show interest in Yui, and punishes her by sucking blood/implied sex.

His ego is explored a bit more in the heaven scenario where instead of taking it for the 99th time Yui confront Ayato and asks if he is so possessive because he’s afraid of losing her and her blood to someone else. Ayato doesn’t answer directly and tells her to shut up and that her world can only consist of him. The scene ends Yui’s monologue stating any light she attempts to shed in his world gets swallowed by darkness, and she has nothing left to offer but this flesh and blood, as he will never believe she truly loves him and will never leave him.

Ayato also has an Oedipus complex and complicated love-hate story with his mother, Cordelia. Growing up, he was never shown any affection by Cordelia, and instead only berated, punished and being constantly told he needs to be #1 so that he will be chosen as Karlheinz’s heir and bring Cordelia recognition and status. Eventually, he killed his mother, and drank her powerful blood in the process. When Yui started caressing his hair, he sarcastically commented she’s acting like a mom, but then recognized his own mother never gave him this love that he deserved as a child. Hence, once he found out that it was Cordelia’s heart residing in Yui’s body, he had trouble processing this information.

In the happy ending, he kills Richter and marries Yui with her wedding ring being a scar created from Ayato’s bite marks.

In the normal ending, Ayato kills all his brothers and entire clan so that Yui will finally have no one but him. She is so broken that she can only repeat the words “I love you”. Sometimes I wonder if this is the Yui that Ayato truly wanted as he didn’t seem to want any personality or spunk in her.

In the bad ending, Ayato kills Yui by taking out her heart in order to consume all her/Cordelia’s powerful blood to ascend to throne of the vampire clan/demon world.

Finally, I’ve attached a pic of Ayato’s smile because it is kind of precious

LAITO (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke)

Representing “lust”, Laito is supposed to be the hentai out of the brothers. While Hirakawa Daisuke’s … sounds are very fitting for the role and made me blush from beginning to end, the authors dropped the ball majorly in his route. I initially enjoyed his route because he has a lot more layers compared to Ayato. However, because the authors wanted to add on every single fetish possible on him (Do-S, Do-M, voyeurism, etc.) they didn’t get to elaborate on any of them. In the end I ended up preferring Ayato’s one-dimensional Do-S.

On top of the writers going in 726 different directions with his kinks, his route is further diluted by exposition about how Yui came to the Sakamaki household as a “sacrificial bride” provided by the church so that one of the brothers can marry her and gain the power to kill the vampire lord Karlheinz. I mean, whoever becomes Yui’s husband will become the next vampire lord and expecting them to have pity on humankind just because “Yui is a human” is extremely naive, but I cannot play this game with more than two brain cells. Yui also feels Cordelia’s presence in her mind and wrestles for control of her body with the vampire.

This route further enforces how Cordelia is a piece of shit – there is no other way to describe this vile woman. Her abuse of Ayato does not hold a candle to what she did here. She committed incest with Laito as a child, then had him watch her have sex with other men including Richter, who was also uncomfortable with this but cannot say no to his goddess. Cordelia fed on Laito’s obsession with her and jealousy towards other men, becoming pleased when he killed her other lovers. As such, Laito had an extremely twisted views of love, believing love is expressed in torture, jealousy. He has a strong love-hate relationship with Cordelia, and believes the highest form of love is to kill them and allowing their life to be eternally preserved in that exact beautiful frame. After Ayato mortally wounds Cordelia, she runs to Laito for help and orders him to kill Ayato. Instead, Laito pushes her off the balcony, and then Kanato burns her into ashes – I am saving Kanato route for the end because I heard his route is the most f-ed up and don’t want to drop the game prematurely…

Laito would offer up Yui’s blood to other brothers, then feign annoyance that she is “cheating” on him and comment he should “punish” her. He would also cause Yui to hallucinate and see visions of him having relations with another girl in order to make her jealous and beg him to take her. In other words, he is insane lol.

What I appreciated about this route is that Yui was allowed to be herself a bit more and have some spunk, because the occasional do-S retort would actually turn Laito on. It is easier to convince myself here that Laito as opposed to Ayato actually likes Yui for who she is and does not just want a mindless blood doll.

Laito ends up killing Karlheinz in all three endings. Happy ending: he confesses to Yui that he loves her for who she is, which finally lets her overcome Cordelia and take control of her body. They exchange “wedding vows” with Yui saying if Laito ever loves someone else, then he needs to kill her or she will “go insane” (have Cordelia take over). The after story was where Laito fed Yui an aphrodisiac made by Reiji intending for her to fall in love with him, but the medication works by making her lose consciousness briefly then falling in love with whoever she sees first… who happened to be Shu. Laito became really anxious but eventually Yui snaps out of it and confesses her love only belongs to Laito once again, renewing their wedding vows.

Normal ending: Laito has his demon-servants attack Yui and wound her so that she bleeds, then gets turned on and starts having sex with her. (…) Bad ending: Cordelia takes over Yui’s body and orders Laito to revive her love Karlheinz. Laito kills Cordelia/Yui and Yui dies. Heaven scenario: the two do some more Laito things, don’t care to write it out at this point.

REIJI (CV: Konishi Katsuyuki)

[Konishi apparently also voices Sylus from LADS. While I don’t play the game even I have heard of this popular mobile otome character. Breadmasterlee made a comment that the blood sucking sounds from Reiji this game sounds like hacking phlegm and I cannot agree more LOL and cannot unhear it and just start cackling every time it plays… Hopefully Sylus doesn’t have similar sounds to make or Konishi changed his ways]

A DL route with an actual plot and somewhat functional relationship?! Ladies we found him guys.

In the Dark chapter I was falling asleep because Reiji acted like that strict Asian father that nobody asked for. He constantly belittles Yui for everything she does for their imperfections, and clearly has some kind of OCD butler persona going on for him. He likes to drink black tea but will not allow Yui to sit or enjoy tea with him because she is “inferior”. He finds excuses to punish Yui and all you needed to do to succeed in this route was to pick M options lol. He is also a medical geek of some sort, having a laboratory that he concocts potions and poisons in. He makes Yui be the test subject for his poisons but never actually put her in harm. In fact, he once teased her by manipulating her body to drink poison, only for Yui to find out it was tea.

Reiji represents “envy” in the seven sins with him being envious of his older brother Shu. Both of them are children of Beatrix who preferred Shu even though Reiji tries hard and appears more reliable. Reiji gets angry when Yui talks to Shu, calling him “good for nothing” and forbids her to interact with him at all. Shu is completely unaware of this and his reaction to Yui ignoring him (out of fear for Reiji) in the heaven scenario was really funny.

Some more backstory is revealed about Yui’s “father” who is a vampire hunter hired by Reiji to kill his own mother Beatrix because she “was too stupid to tell which son was the better one”. However, when Beatrix was at her last breath, she thanks Reiji stating she knows it is him who sent the hunter after her, but she’s been so tormented by Cordelia she wanted to have the easy way out anyway. Reiji was completely enraged by this as the revenge is no longer sweet when the recipient wanted to die. Hence, after all these years he’s been working on a revival potion for Beatrix just so he can kill her again and let her suffer in agony. Woah.

The plot takes a quick 180 as Cordelia awakens in Yui’s body and manages to take over early on in Maniac, with Yui basically being commentary for both Maniac and Ecstasy chapters. She basically goes full do-S mode and forces Reiji to be her servant muahaha. When Reiji wants to fight back, Cordelia would threaten to harm herself/Yui’s body, which results in Reiji panicking and giving in to anything Cordelia demands. Unlike the previous routes, Reiji clearly had a little more feelings for his good little girl Yui, as if he played the game of chicken with Cordelia and let her harm Yui’s body, Cordelia has much more to lose and will back down if Reiji says go ahead do it, I dare you, I don’t care. There wasn’t a logical explanation to why Reiji, who is portrayed as a calculating person, just rolled back and took it other than as Cordelia put it, he’s caught feelings for his sacrificial bride. Cordelia also demonstrates the same love-hate relationship Laito has for her, but for Karlheinz. In Laito’s route she was desperate to revive Karlheinz, but here she states she wants to find Karlheinz right now so she can kill him with her own hands, as this is the highest form of love. Y’all crazy man.

The Ecstasy chapter ends in Reiji feigning interest in Cordelia and pulling her close for a kiss at the ball. However, he actually fed her the medicine he made to forever banish her from Yui’s body. From here we diverge into three ends, which were all reasonably well-written (yes I used this for a DL game).

Happy ending: Yui and Reiji live happily ever after. No mention of whether Karlheinz died or if Reiji took over the family though. However, I wanted to shift focus to the after story, where Reiji was seen being close to some girls at school, teaching them homework questions, and answering calls from them after school etc. Yui became insecure and jealous to the point her blood started tasting bad, but Reiji ended up reassuring her that she is irreplaceable to him, and he asks her to trust him more. He then draws a firm boundaries with the other girls at school.

• Am I reading this correctly?? The LI being the sane/healthy one and Yui being the unreasonable one? I was shooketh and had to double check what game I was playing again don’t mess with me like this Rejet now I will actually have expectations for the future routes

Normal ending: Yui prevailed, but she pretended to be Cordelia so she can be the sadist over Reiji forever. I LOVED THIS ROUTE and highkey I was expecting every character’s S-ending to be like this why Rejet why.

Bad ending: Cordelia prevailed. From her conversation with Richter, Richter already killed Reiji.

Heaven scenario: Just Yui being Do-M.

Reiji’s CGs in the first game were meh. He has some nice CGs in further games. It’s interesting seeing how Satoi grows as an artist through her works over the years tbh.

SUBARU (CV: Kondou Takashi)

I am writing Subaru’s section from memory as it’s been a few days since I finished his route. It’s obvious to anyone who’s read the common route that the youngest member of the Sakamaki family represents “anger”. He was the one who is the most irritable out of the six, and seems to escalate things physically quite easily. He is the delinquent of the vampire high school I guess. I was quite put off by how in his fits of anger he would punch the wall beside Yui and leave holes in it, or break furniture. Even though he’s never laid a hand on Yui (despite threatening many times), it is red flag galore but then this is Diabolik Lovers.

However, as many people noticed he is actually a sweetheart deep down and doesn’t know how to process his emotions or deal with a situation in a rational manner. Much of this has to do with his upbringing and his mother Christa being driven insane as she is forcibly taken by Karlheinz and gave birth to him. She was also locked up by Karlheinz and implied that he tortured her physically and mentally, causing her to become psychotic. She keeps referencing Subaru as someone who is “filthy” and begs him to commit patricide to set her free, which would mess any kid, in this Subaru, up. I believe at least once Christa also begs Subaru to kill her as well because she cannot take this torment longer. I read on the wiki that she and Karlheinz are cousins so Subaru was a child of incest – but did not notice this detail at least in the first game, not sure if I missed it or was going too fast.

He is not your typical tsundere but he protects Yui with his actions, including driving Ayato away when Yui was in the bathroom. While he looks like a rough and rugged guy on the outside, he is quite perceptive. He noticed Yui was transforming into a vampire and Cordelia. This progress seems to be accelerated with him sucking her blood, so he quietly tries to suppress his urge and acts all mean and tough towards Yui so she can stay away from him.

The ecstasy route ends in Subaru bidding Yui farewell stating he is going to kill Karlheinz. Bad End: Subaru is implied to be dead, Cordelia comes out and ready to take over Yui’s body. She decides to commit suicide with the silver knife he left her killing both herself and Cordelia. Normal end: Subaru killed his mother but did not have the power to confront Karlheinz. They run away because in this route it becomes an issue that they cannot live in the house anymore if they kill one of their own – yet the triplets are all there? Make it make sense lol. Best end: Subaru killed Karlheinz yet they still left which makes even less sense because isn’t that what Karlheinz wanted & wouldn’t that make Subaru head of family now? With the death of Karlheinz it appears Cordelia is also dead inside Yui’s body. They two live happily ever after. Heaven scenario: nothing worth mentioning tbh.

SHU (CV: Toriumi Kousuke)

I’ve loved his design best from the start, and after his route he has consolidated himself as my Diabolik Lovers bias! Shu represents “sloth” out of the seven sins. In the prologue, he is the one who tells whoever Yui chooses to “do whatever you want but don’t kill” because it’s “too annoying to deal with”. He appears extremely lazy and don’t want to do anything. Man is the definition of inertia. There are at least two CGs showing him falling asleep on the ground, with Yui mistaking him to be dead:

That being said, Shu clearly enjoys teasing Yui when she inevitably bothers him about something or tries to change his ways, usually by making some lewd joke or daring her to do something very sus haha. When she tried to bond with Shu by asking him to share his music with her, he just played porn AHAHA – we will never know if he was teasing her or listening to it all along…

In the prologue when Yui chose Shu, and other brothers wanted to challenge this for the right to suck her blood, he said he didn’t care and they could do whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t kill her. However, nobody actually had a chance to lay a finger on Yui as Shu would either direct them somewhere else or participate in their silly games with Yui as the prize and prove he is the big bro for a reason… by playing pool or darts I don’t care to remember lol.

Shu is clearly the most normal out of the brothers… because he didn’t really have any childhood trauma at least from his parents. He was the favoured child between him and Reiji by Beatrix and grew up like the sheltered bocchama he is. He sneaks out of his home one day and befriends a human boy Edgar. The two become BFFs but Edgar and his village one day all die in a mysterious fire, which was revealed to be set by Reiji due to jealousy towards Shu being the golden child. I am shocked but not that shocked, but definitely ruined my impression of him a bit as it was quite good from his route. Reiji also mocked Shu for being “useless” and unable to do anything to save his human friend. This explains why Shu is this whole “mendoukusai” attitude today because he is an emotionally stunted manchild who hasn’t matured past that stage, and still thinks he is useless and that he cannot protect the people he love.

Shu does show a possessive side to Yui as stated above, probably because she is the only one who has patience for his whining and “I don’t wanna do anything” attitude and actually complies with the outrageous requests he makes. I was quite disappointed in the heaven scenario where this went all out of the window and there was an NTR scene where Shu just let Laito have his way with Yui in front of him.

Also for the prettiest boy this entire franchise, why did they make all of Shu’s ending CGs look bloody and bad end-like?? I just want to see those two pretty people ichaicha in pretty clothes in a pretty place, C’mon.

Good end: Shu runs away with Yui to Transylvania because he is “too tired” to fight for being the successor.

Normal end: (This should be the good end imo) Reiji, who is still jealous over Shu, almost killed Yui because he knows if this goes on Shu will have the powers to become heir (as whoever has Yui/her blood will succeed Karlheinz), and that “if I can’t have you/anything I would rather destroy it than let Shu have it”. Shu came a bit late and was enraged by this and decided that protecting Yui is a good enough reason to actually be bothered to fight for heir, and so he does. Much more interesting than the ending above.

Bad end: Shu confront Reiji for what happened to Edgar and died in the duel with him. The remaining five brothers lust over Yui while she screams Shu’s name with his dead body in her arms.

KANATO (CV: Kaji Yuuki)

Definitely the most unhinged character out of all the brothers with many CGs straight up NSFW to post due to violence/gore. Many who have played this game (and probably Kaji himself) probably got traumatized by his unpredictable outbursts where he just starts SCREAMING at Yui for making him unhappy.

Him and Yui’s relationship is probably the most codependent one in this story. He physically abuses her. I was very close to dropping the game when he already pinned Yui to the floor and poked her with a FORK on the very first story in Dark chapter, because she took too long to make French toast for him. He is supposed to represent “gluttony” in the sins but honestly his sweet tooth don’t have any importance at all in this route. In another story he cuts Yui’s thigh with a knife to suck blood. He actually killed a few people in front of Yui, in the name of self defence, who wanted to rough him up because they got beat by Subaru. He has his own wax statue collection that Yui comments is eerily like really people… because he made them from real humans/vampires. He has those wild mood swings where he goes from normal/melancholy boi to “WHY DID YOU TALK TO ANYONE THAT WASN’T ME” “HOW DARE YOU COMPARE YOUR CROSS TO TEDDY” and it was giving me Ayato vibes. This is also the route where Yui’s monologue straight up says “I am very, very, very afraid of Kanato”.

Kanato was extremely attached to his mother Cordelia, who gave him the Laito treatment: she got intimate with Richter in front of him, as well as heavy implication that she also did the deed with Kanato – saying him singing Scarborough Fair (I’m still salty Kaji didn’t sing this, at least let him hum the tune!) makes her body hot as if it’s on fire, called him her little songbird and asked him to sign for her all night in her chambers… Many of Kanata’s wax statues were Cordelia’s ex-lovers that she got bored of. This lady seriously gives me the heebie jeebies yikes. He was also the last out of the triplets to find Cordelia’s corpse after Richter already took her heart out. He then burned her into ashes, kept it in a bottle within Teddy.

Despite Yui’s fear for Kanato and his unpredictability, she has no choice but to obey him and try to placate him. Eventually, Kanato becomes attached to her as well. It also makes it easier that Yui has Cordelia’s “scent” due to her heart that also physically confuses Kanato a bit. This still doesn’t stop my whiplash when Kanato confessed to Yui and burnt his Teddy as proof of his love and devotion to Yui… he yells at her less after that but still occasionally lol. Just take a deep breath and remember you’re in a DL game… Like all kids who suffer from Cordelia PTSD, he also holds onto this belief that loving someone is similar to wanting to kill them, and asks Yui if she will die for him, or commit double suicide with him. Yui is already so far gone in this route she says of course master Kanato anything for you, then he says why do you think I’d want something like that, I was clearly kidding. Remember this scene because this is foreshadowing in the best end.

Given how low my expectations were for the writers of this game, I was surprised when they actually managed to foreshadow the above scene and come up with interesting endings. The Best End was where Yui becomes a vampire (as Yui) and lived with Kanato, who killed at least Richter and became the head of the vampire clan – his brothers are not referenced. They are either killed or conceded the competition. However, Yui is brainwashed and locked in Kanata’s room. She does not have recollection of any events or people outside of Kanato; she asked if Kanato had any siblings.

The Yui/Cordelia dilemma is touched on in the after story where Cordelia, upon finding out that Karlheinz got killed (as that’s the only way to become the next leader), poses as Yui to kill Kanato for revenge. She clearly had zero feelings for Kanato and called him “annoying kid”. Kanato, who was foreshadowed to have a good sixth sense, sussed this out and asked to 1. suck Yui’s blood (to sense the emotions) 2. ask “Yui” again if she is willing to die with him. Cordelia refused to die so Kanato figured out that this Yui is an imposter then gave her true love’s kiss?? to call Yui back, and with this Cordelia was defeated forever. The heaven scenario is also an extension of this ending where some scenes Kanato was just being jealous of everyone and everything, but took a dark turn when Kanato ordered Yui to kill her own “father” (the vampire hunter) by sucking his blood and she complied. I mean, served him right because he wasn’t her real father and just dropped her off at the Sakamaki home, but still gives me the chills a bit.

This is the ending that I spent the longest writing about. It likely is one of those “Merry Bad Ends” that otome games/drama cds aim for. It’s “sweet” but not everything is as it seems.

Normal end: Yui was being promiscuous for some reason (I was skipping very fast at this point, something along the lines of Kanato wasn’t around much and she was lonely and needed someone to suck her blood?). Kanato found out and got pissed. To prove her love and loyalty to him she said she will do “anything” to please him, to which Kanato replied “kill the other five brothers” AND YUI ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED THAT. Given this is the do-S ending I was highkey hoping Yui just kills Kanato and claims the title as vampire queen but it is Diabolik Lovers we are talking about…

Bad End: Yui became Kanato’s newest wax statue.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What a game. It is definitely very niche and one should play only if they are:

• Fan of the franchise/drama CD
• Will sit through nonexistent plot and character abuse for Satoi CG (I am here)
• Want the dummyhead experience in otome game
• Are very do-M

If you are just looking for a standard otome game with a story and romance, and especially an MC who fights back, STEER AWAY DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME.

I definitely will need a break from this series. It likely will be a long time if ever when I play More Blood and then decide on whether I want to throw money away for Chaos Lineage. It is so cruel that they had to make Satoi draw this game so I can’t walk away from the series for good.

In terms of voices, I most enjoyed Midorikawa and Kaji but of course they were given the worst in-game LI personalities.

In terms of design/art, Shu is the most handsome boy but Kanato also had some pretty CGs. Surprisingly Ayato was supposed to be poster boy but his CGs were quite mid.

In terms of character personality if this even is a thing in this series, I’d probably say Subaru > Reiji.