I've been aware that a point and click game called A Vampyre Story existed for a long time, likely first discovering it from randomly browsing adventure game related Wikipedia pages a long time ago, and that it was somehow related to ex-LucasArts people. However at that time there wasn't much information online about it and it wasn't available digitally so I never thought much more about it. Recently I was reminded it of when during the last big Steam sale I discovered it had been digitally rereleased a few years ago. Since it was going for a really cheap price I just bought it on impulse. The past few weeks I've been casually playing it on and off and I just finished it yesterday so thought I'd write up some thoughts on it.
(By the way, after writing the following I realise I got a bit carried away, I never meant to write so much. I guess long form discussion is one the benefits of forums though... skimming and posting your own thoughts about the game is fine.)
Note, the following contains no direct spoilers but there are some mild indirect spoilers that naturally occur when describing a game. I also talk about the status of a sequel too near the end.
The story follows Mona, an in denial vampire who is attempting to escape from Baron Shrowdy, the one who turned her and then imprisoned her within his castle. After escaping she wishes to return to her life as an up and coming opera singer in Paris. If you try to imagine what a cartoonish french opera singer from the 19th century may sound like, what you're thinking of is very likely close to how she speaks. Even though it is (I assume deliberately) cliche I thought it worked quite well for her character and the type of game this is. She is joined by her friend and side kick Froderick the bat. Their comic dynamic is similar to other double acts found in quite a few other adventure games.
While the story is mostly light hearted, one small detail about Mona's character that I liked was her constant denials of being a vampire to Froderick and her resorting to other explanations like she is just 'cursed' and so has to drink special 'wine'. As the game continues these denials start to lessen with each small step towards her goal of returning to her former life, perhaps in some way showing that she is slowly realising that goal may not actually be possible given she is now a walking corpse and while getting away is still the plan, she will have to 'live' with her new life (but I've no idea how this is actually resolved, but back to this later when I mention the sequel). It's not a dark game though so definitely do not get the wrong impression, it's just a subtle thing I noticed underneath the wacky cartoon comedy atmosphere that makes up the vast majority of the game.
![[Image: A-Vampyre-Story-01.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/QCSWBrXK/A-Vampyre-Story-01.jpg)
For interactions the game features a click and hold wheel to pick actions from, a style I've always liked and which really reminds me of the mid to late era LucasArts games. In Mona's case hers features a 'fly' action that is used to attempt to use her bat transformation ability on things - I always appreciate it when characters have unique abilities that fit the theme of the game. One detail I liked is how large items are handled with your inventory, Mona does not immediately pick them up but instead keeps a mental note and when you do eventually find what you're meant to use the large item for, she quickly travels back to grab it. One annoying thing that I noticed in the first few minutes of gameplay is Mona's walking speed is very slow, but I quickly found that the cancel button also cancels animation and can be used to 'teleport' her to the target location she is walking towards. Right clicking arrows for location changes also works.
For puzzles I quite liked them for the most part. Nothing too insane but still with some challenge to give that bit of frication that makes point and click games enjoyable. However there was one puzzle around the middle of the game that did verge close to being irritating and I suspect someone that isn't used to 'adventure game logic' may struggle with it and give up. In the second half of the game it 'opens up' a little, allowing you to work on several different tasks at the same time over a slightly larger series of locations and this part felt better designed than the first half.
The art of the game uses a mix of detailed 2D backgrounds with animated 3D characters and interactive elements overlaid on top of them. I think it looks rather nice, and the approach reminds me of games like Full Throttle and The Curse of Monkey Island which each use a more distinctive style over the nostalgia driven 'chunky pixels' look that so many 2D adventures go for (that may be a controversial thing to say...). This comparison makes sense given that, after I completed the game, I looked up information on it and found that the main LucasArts connection is Bill Tiller who worked on the art for these LucasArts titles.
![[Image: A-Vampyre-Story-02.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/4xjHHPT1/A-Vampyre-Story-02.jpg)
While I don't want to include direct spoilers I have to mention how the game ends. It ends suddenly. The credits come out of nowhere right after a cinematic that was seemingly setting up the next location the story was going to progress to. It's almost like the end of an episode in an episodic game. Despite deliberately not looking up information on the game up right before playing it so I could go in as 'blind' as possible, one detail I did still remember about it was that it was a commercial failure so as soon as I seen the credits I was sure there was no way it got a sequel. After the credits ended (which included a message saying Mona and Froderick will return in A Vampyre Story 2) I immediately looked it up and yes, a sequel was planned but never happened. It's rather unfortunate as there was clearly set up for where the story was going and even a bit of foreshadowing of one character that would likely appear in this sequel and may have a large role based on them being featured in the drawn story book illustrations that appear during the opening cinematic, and who seems to be referred to and given a name in some random Mona and Froderick bantering in the second half of the game.
I then looked the game up on Steam to check the reviews/forum (I put this off until finishing the game so I could form my own opinion on it) and while doing so a new upcoming game called 'A Vampyre Story: A Bat's Tale' appeared in the search results which has a store page with trailers, screenshots and recent news updates. It turns out that a sequel just so happens to actually be happening now and being made by a new team with the blessing of the original creator, with some of the voice cast returning (including Mona's), and there is even a AGH interview about it: https://adventuregamehotspot.com/intervi...unas-ledas (which I haven't watched yet). So I guess I'll need to keep my eye out for whenever that releases now that I'm somewhat invested in the story...
I enjoyed playing the game and I can't help but wonder if its failure was down to the unfortunate timing of when it came out. If it came out in the 2010s instead of the late 2000s it may have found more success.
Technical issues with the game
I thought it was worth mentioning a few technical issues I encountered while playing. The biggest one was the game taking a long time to initially load locations, while I never timed it these loading times can could be around 30 seconds or more, during which the game freezes on a black screen with the background music still playing in a very broken this-game-has-crashed way. This does not reoccur when revisiting locations until you restart the game. I actually thought this was some kind of issue caused by running the game through proton (the game is listed as Steam Deck verified but that's not really a complete guarantee) and since it only happened once per location per game load I just lived with it. However after finishing it and reading the Steam forums I found this is just a problem that can happen with the game itself.
Another issue I found was a crash when attempting to use Froderick on a specific thing in one location. It happened a few times in a row from the same save but after doing some other things and then later reattempting it, it worked fine after that. In that specific case if it had not 'fixed itself' it would not have been game breaking as this specific interaction just triggered some dialogue.
(By the way, after writing the following I realise I got a bit carried away, I never meant to write so much. I guess long form discussion is one the benefits of forums though... skimming and posting your own thoughts about the game is fine.)
Note, the following contains no direct spoilers but there are some mild indirect spoilers that naturally occur when describing a game. I also talk about the status of a sequel too near the end.
The story follows Mona, an in denial vampire who is attempting to escape from Baron Shrowdy, the one who turned her and then imprisoned her within his castle. After escaping she wishes to return to her life as an up and coming opera singer in Paris. If you try to imagine what a cartoonish french opera singer from the 19th century may sound like, what you're thinking of is very likely close to how she speaks. Even though it is (I assume deliberately) cliche I thought it worked quite well for her character and the type of game this is. She is joined by her friend and side kick Froderick the bat. Their comic dynamic is similar to other double acts found in quite a few other adventure games.
While the story is mostly light hearted, one small detail about Mona's character that I liked was her constant denials of being a vampire to Froderick and her resorting to other explanations like she is just 'cursed' and so has to drink special 'wine'. As the game continues these denials start to lessen with each small step towards her goal of returning to her former life, perhaps in some way showing that she is slowly realising that goal may not actually be possible given she is now a walking corpse and while getting away is still the plan, she will have to 'live' with her new life (but I've no idea how this is actually resolved, but back to this later when I mention the sequel). It's not a dark game though so definitely do not get the wrong impression, it's just a subtle thing I noticed underneath the wacky cartoon comedy atmosphere that makes up the vast majority of the game.
For interactions the game features a click and hold wheel to pick actions from, a style I've always liked and which really reminds me of the mid to late era LucasArts games. In Mona's case hers features a 'fly' action that is used to attempt to use her bat transformation ability on things - I always appreciate it when characters have unique abilities that fit the theme of the game. One detail I liked is how large items are handled with your inventory, Mona does not immediately pick them up but instead keeps a mental note and when you do eventually find what you're meant to use the large item for, she quickly travels back to grab it. One annoying thing that I noticed in the first few minutes of gameplay is Mona's walking speed is very slow, but I quickly found that the cancel button also cancels animation and can be used to 'teleport' her to the target location she is walking towards. Right clicking arrows for location changes also works.
For puzzles I quite liked them for the most part. Nothing too insane but still with some challenge to give that bit of frication that makes point and click games enjoyable. However there was one puzzle around the middle of the game that did verge close to being irritating and I suspect someone that isn't used to 'adventure game logic' may struggle with it and give up. In the second half of the game it 'opens up' a little, allowing you to work on several different tasks at the same time over a slightly larger series of locations and this part felt better designed than the first half.
The art of the game uses a mix of detailed 2D backgrounds with animated 3D characters and interactive elements overlaid on top of them. I think it looks rather nice, and the approach reminds me of games like Full Throttle and The Curse of Monkey Island which each use a more distinctive style over the nostalgia driven 'chunky pixels' look that so many 2D adventures go for (that may be a controversial thing to say...). This comparison makes sense given that, after I completed the game, I looked up information on it and found that the main LucasArts connection is Bill Tiller who worked on the art for these LucasArts titles.
While I don't want to include direct spoilers I have to mention how the game ends. It ends suddenly. The credits come out of nowhere right after a cinematic that was seemingly setting up the next location the story was going to progress to. It's almost like the end of an episode in an episodic game. Despite deliberately not looking up information on the game up right before playing it so I could go in as 'blind' as possible, one detail I did still remember about it was that it was a commercial failure so as soon as I seen the credits I was sure there was no way it got a sequel. After the credits ended (which included a message saying Mona and Froderick will return in A Vampyre Story 2) I immediately looked it up and yes, a sequel was planned but never happened. It's rather unfortunate as there was clearly set up for where the story was going and even a bit of foreshadowing of one character that would likely appear in this sequel and may have a large role based on them being featured in the drawn story book illustrations that appear during the opening cinematic, and who seems to be referred to and given a name in some random Mona and Froderick bantering in the second half of the game.
I then looked the game up on Steam to check the reviews/forum (I put this off until finishing the game so I could form my own opinion on it) and while doing so a new upcoming game called 'A Vampyre Story: A Bat's Tale' appeared in the search results which has a store page with trailers, screenshots and recent news updates. It turns out that a sequel just so happens to actually be happening now and being made by a new team with the blessing of the original creator, with some of the voice cast returning (including Mona's), and there is even a AGH interview about it: https://adventuregamehotspot.com/intervi...unas-ledas (which I haven't watched yet). So I guess I'll need to keep my eye out for whenever that releases now that I'm somewhat invested in the story...
I enjoyed playing the game and I can't help but wonder if its failure was down to the unfortunate timing of when it came out. If it came out in the 2010s instead of the late 2000s it may have found more success.
Technical issues with the game
I thought it was worth mentioning a few technical issues I encountered while playing. The biggest one was the game taking a long time to initially load locations, while I never timed it these loading times can could be around 30 seconds or more, during which the game freezes on a black screen with the background music still playing in a very broken this-game-has-crashed way. This does not reoccur when revisiting locations until you restart the game. I actually thought this was some kind of issue caused by running the game through proton (the game is listed as Steam Deck verified but that's not really a complete guarantee) and since it only happened once per location per game load I just lived with it. However after finishing it and reading the Steam forums I found this is just a problem that can happen with the game itself.
Another issue I found was a crash when attempting to use Froderick on a specific thing in one location. It happened a few times in a row from the same save but after doing some other things and then later reattempting it, it worked fine after that. In that specific case if it had not 'fixed itself' it would not have been game breaking as this specific interaction just triggered some dialogue.
ClusterLizard, thank you for writing a tremendously detailed review, I appreciate long form content and read every single word. 
I've never played the game, but I will factor in your appreciative endorsement if I ever do decide to eventually purchase it. I especially like that you went in blind to avoid being influenced by other people's opinions when writing this review.
I like the inclusion of a verb coin for the interface controls. I absolutely love the peppering in of lore morsels such as Mona referring to blood as special 'wine'. Whether that's just resulting from her denial of being a vampire, or even elements of feeling guilty about what she does to sustain herself, either way it's great stuff for players to draw their own conclusions and theorise about.
Slow loading screens is fine by me, it was released during the 2008 era of people only using primarily Windows Vista and Windows XP, combined with it being a brand new development company, so flaws like that seem somewhat acceptable.
Autumn Moon Entertainment is the developer. To be quite frank, it was a labour of love project that clearly deserved a more admiring reception from adventure game fans. I mean, come on people, look at those immensely colourful and creative visuals! *chef's kiss*
Fun fact: You can purchase the game DRM-free on the Zoom Platform if you don't want to use Steam:
https://www.zoom-platform.com/product/a-vampyre-story
It's cool to hear that a spiritual successor is in the pipeline. In the meantime, ClusterLizard, maybe you would be interested in checking out the only other game that Autumn Moon Entertainment created. It's called Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/34403...ju_Island/
I've never played the game, but I will factor in your appreciative endorsement if I ever do decide to eventually purchase it. I especially like that you went in blind to avoid being influenced by other people's opinions when writing this review.
I like the inclusion of a verb coin for the interface controls. I absolutely love the peppering in of lore morsels such as Mona referring to blood as special 'wine'. Whether that's just resulting from her denial of being a vampire, or even elements of feeling guilty about what she does to sustain herself, either way it's great stuff for players to draw their own conclusions and theorise about.
Slow loading screens is fine by me, it was released during the 2008 era of people only using primarily Windows Vista and Windows XP, combined with it being a brand new development company, so flaws like that seem somewhat acceptable.
Autumn Moon Entertainment is the developer. To be quite frank, it was a labour of love project that clearly deserved a more admiring reception from adventure game fans. I mean, come on people, look at those immensely colourful and creative visuals! *chef's kiss*
Fun fact: You can purchase the game DRM-free on the Zoom Platform if you don't want to use Steam:
https://www.zoom-platform.com/product/a-vampyre-story
It's cool to hear that a spiritual successor is in the pipeline. In the meantime, ClusterLizard, maybe you would be interested in checking out the only other game that Autumn Moon Entertainment created. It's called Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/34403...ju_Island/
I really enjoyed playing A Vampyre Story and was terribly disappointed when the sequel wasn't made. I'm glad that it's in production.
I played the game on an iMac and don't remember any loading problems. I bought it from the MacGameStore and still have it on my older computer.
I played the game on an iMac and don't remember any loading problems. I bought it from the MacGameStore and still have it on my older computer.
Life: Adventures guaranteed. Instructions not included.
(11-09-2025, 10:22 PM)Legerdemancy Wrote: ClusterLizard, thank you for writing a tremendously detailed review, I appreciate long form content and read every single word.
Thanks for reading it.
(11-09-2025, 10:22 PM)Legerdemancy Wrote: It's cool to hear that a spiritual successor is in the pipeline. In the meantime, ClusterLizard, maybe you would be interested in checking out the only other game that Autumn Moon Entertainment created. It's called Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/34403...ju_Island/
When I was looking up some info on the sequel status for this game I did seen that one mentioned. I wouldn't mind trying it, although based on the SteamDB stats it seems it hasn't went on sale in a long time so it's a bit more of a gamble buying it at its full listing price assuming it may not run so well, or at all, on modern machines. I checked the other platforms too but other than finding a GOG Dreamlist request it's not available digitally anywhere else.
I also discovered this slightly more recent spin off of it too: https://store.steampowered.com/app/47242...shbuckler/
(11-09-2025, 10:41 PM)LadyKestrel Wrote: I played the game on an iMac and don't remember any loading problems. I bought it from the MacGameStore and still have it on my older computer.
It could be something that only happens in the Windows port and/or something that is only happening now when trying to run it on more modern machines.
This post was last modified: 11-10-2025, 10:54 PM by ClusterLizard.
(11-10-2025, 06:31 PM)ClusterLizard Wrote: I also discovered this slightly more recent spin off of it too: https://store.steampowered.com/app/47242...shbuckler/
That's an interesting discovery, thanks for the link, I never knew they continued as Venture Moon Industries.
Duke Grabowski is short, but pretty fun. Unfortunately the next episode never manifested, but the art is really pretty (even as it kinda screams "Bill Tiller really, really, really wants to remaster The Curse of Monkey Island". Features a fun cameo from Dave Grossman and Larry Ahern, too.
I enjoyed A Vampyre Story when it was released and while I was playing it. But I was angry that it was obviously not a "complete" game, but just an episode instead. It is quite a while ago, but I remember the feeling that I just played an intro to an actual game, but paid for a full game.
I don't think I will touch the sequel, but never say never, I guess.
The graphics are pretty nice (and still, after all the years, they aged well) and the setting was interesting as well - there aren't many "cartoony" vampire adventures.
I didn't play Duke Grabowski, partly out of spite because of what I felt about AVS, but also since I didn't like the player character and the whole theme was too colorful and "loud" for my taste. But this is just me ...
I don't think I will touch the sequel, but never say never, I guess.
The graphics are pretty nice (and still, after all the years, they aged well) and the setting was interesting as well - there aren't many "cartoony" vampire adventures.
I didn't play Duke Grabowski, partly out of spite because of what I felt about AVS, but also since I didn't like the player character and the whole theme was too colorful and "loud" for my taste. But this is just me ...
Thanks for the writeup!
I remember starting playing it way back when. But I just couldn't get into it at the time. I remember it feeling very slow paced, even for an adventure game. Considering that's 17 years ago, my memory of the game might be hazy, and also I might experience it completely differently if I were to play it again today.
It does overall seem like a good game though, and I did see the news somewhere before that they were making a sequel. Which makes me happy for the fans, especially considering the abrupt ending you speak of.
I remember starting playing it way back when. But I just couldn't get into it at the time. I remember it feeling very slow paced, even for an adventure game. Considering that's 17 years ago, my memory of the game might be hazy, and also I might experience it completely differently if I were to play it again today.
It does overall seem like a good game though, and I did see the news somewhere before that they were making a sequel. Which makes me happy for the fans, especially considering the abrupt ending you speak of.