Jade Warrior: Huntress of Dark

Jade Warrior: Huntress of Dark is an action role-playing game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo. It was officially announced at Nintendo's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 press conference as a Switch exclusive and new IP from Platinum produced by legendary producer, Shigeru Miyamoto and directed by Bayonetta series director, Hideki Kamiya with the goal of making it a platform seller.

Jade Warrior: Huntress of Dark is based on the Dracula mythos set after Bram Stoker's Dracula. The game follows the story of the titular damphir character, Jade Van Helsing, elder daughter of the late Abraham Van Helsing as she battles descendants of the fallen Count Dracula, serving as a subtle nod to Konami's famed CastleVania series. The game features Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) motion capture and English voice actress, Camilla Luddington in the lead role, serving as the mo-cap actress for Jade Van Helsing.

It was released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on March 6, 2018.

Synopsis
Set in the late 20th century, damphir Jade Van Helsing, great granddaughter of the late Abraham Van Helsing finds herself in the middle of a grueling war between the militant cult Ministry of Light and Dracula's minions following the rise of the Kildreth castle. Little does she know her bloodborne disease has actually opened the gates between the human world and the Darkness Realm, Nocturnus and will soon merge the two worlds by activating the castle's Rite of Darkness ritual. Jade must battle through forces of light and dark as she finds herself in the crosshairs of the vampire hunter clan, Nightshade. Led by fellow vampire hunter, Alan Harker, elder son of Mina and Jonathan Harker, they are sent to hunt members of Dracula's own lineage who are out to avenge the loss of their great leader.

Meanwhile, Jade struggles with finding the secret and hopeful cure to her own condition which turned her into a damphir while placing the human world in danger of being overrun by vampires.

Gameplay
Jade Warrior: Huntress of Dark is a third-person, 3D action RPG. It features many elements from director Hideki Kamiya's predecessors, namely the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta series. While controlling Jade, the player may execute a wide range of melee and long-ranged attacks, complex combo strings and multiple weapons against various undead enemies. New melee techniques can be acquired as you progress through the chilling, Gothic, Lovecraftian-style environments of Transylvania with your AI-controlled partner, Alan, who can also be controlled by a second player in the game's Co-Op Mode either via linked play or online network. However, it utilizes them in an RPG style format, a notable departure from the action-based Devil May Cry and Bayonetta games it's inspired from. These new skills are earned through items and character-based level progression via XP points rather than purchased. In addition to XP, Jade Warrior: Huntress of Dark also has in-game currency, collected from cross symbols left by slain enemies in another nod to Bayonetta and DMC. It can be used to purchase enhancement and replenishment items and new weapons as well as weapon upgrades.

New to the game is the Blood Lust meter in which Jade is forced to regularly feed on enemies to keep her meter (and life force) intact as a result of her (half) vampirism-inducing bloodborne illness. As it fades, Jade's agility stats will increase (driven by her blood lust) at the expense of defense points, noting her resistance to pain. Additionally, the game also utilizes elemental magic attacks. They are divided into four classes: Ice, Fire, Lightning and Spiritual (where the player can summon a ghost or other supernatural being to perform assists). The player may pick up Tarot Cards during open-world navigation which equip him or her with new elemental magic attacks tagged with a Ki meter. They can then be combined with select Power Gems after leveling them up, granting Jade Ultimate Attacks, hybrid special abilities utilizing both types of Ki. Each Power Gem grants their own unique abilities based on the 4 elemental classes:

Ministry of Light
A deeply-rooted Catholic cult based in middle Europe. In 1569, their hunt for Matilda Swan, a sorceress carrying what they believed to be the Devil's Spawn, helped set off decades of witch trials during that period. It is believed that this very witch hunt spurred the Trier Witch Trials in 1581 and each of the ones that followed throughout the 16th century. Unbeknownst to them, however, it would also set off Dracula's centuries-long war on humanity, Matilda literally being his second wife after his first wife, Elisabeta's suicide, which continued after his death in 1897.

In 1904, they waged a Holy war on the satanic cult, Order of Blood following the capture of fellow priestess, Aeris Svandsson, the new love interest of the grief-stricken Professor Van Helsing, who received the unfortunate news of his insane wife's suicide shortly after returning home. She would soon bless the Professor with a newfound sense of purpose and a new family after a trip to the Fountain of Youth upon his return. However, as they would soon find out, it was all a ruse for a much greater and darker cause. Aeris betrayed Van Helsing along with their son, Lucious, who had been turned by the vampires and their satanic followers. Their union would bring about decades of darkness and misery leading to the summoning of the Kildreth, a destructive, ritual-powered castle in the present.

Having previously aligned with Van Helsing's clan of vampire hunters (Jonathan Harker, Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, Dr. Jack Seward and Abe himself), they now find themselves at a crossroad with their descendants, Nightshade, nearly a century later. Upon learning that the castle-and Dracula's armies of undead-are, in fact propelled by a bloodborne disease inherited by none other than Van Helsing's great granddaughter, Jade, they've set out to eradicate the Kildreth and Dracula's minions at its source.

Nosferatu
Dracula's undead minions and a cult of Satanic followers of the now-late Count Dracula. After the fall of the Count at the hands of Abraham Van Helsing and his legion of vampire hunters in 1897, they looked to continue his legacy. After kidnapping Aeris, a Catholic priestess in his second wife, Matilda's image (who had been damned to Purgatory in carrying Dracula's child following his rebirth as a vampire in his renouncement of God), they cursed her to be the living vessel for Lilith, Queen of the Demons along with the Order of Blood via the Brimstone Relic, who's soul was trapped in Hell for eternity. Her capture drew the ire of her fellow Ministry of Light. Together, they stormed Transylvania, engaging in a bloody war with the satanic Order of Blood that lasted throughout much of the early 20th century.

With the two cults deadlocked in a raging Holy war throughout Transylvania, Lilith had her sights set on the only thorn in her undead underlings' side through the young, beautiful Aeris: Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. After returning home from his fateful encounter with Count Dracula, the Professor would immediately unravel in some dark times of his own, Dr. Jack Seward delivering him the saddening news of his troubled wife's suicide, having lost all will to live after receiving word of her husband's presumed death during battle. With the last remaining member of his family gone, Abraham Van Helsing similarly began to question his Christian faith and left on the brink of suicide, much like his wife. However, he soon met a gracious young woman who made him feel whole again: fellow Catholic priestess, Aeris Svandsson. After befriending the Professor, she took Abraham to the Fountain of Youth where, after singing a ritual, she revitalized the once-stoic vampire hunter, literally restoring his youth. After blessing Abraham with a clean slate, the two would inevitably fall in love, soon bearing a child after regaining his reproductive capabilities: Lucious.

However, another dark chapter would soon begin in the born-again vampire hunter's life. Both his second wife and son were kidnapped by the vampires and taken to Dracula's castle on Lucious' sixth birthday, June 6, 1904. A rejuvinated Van Helsing would be forced to revisit his slain arch nemesis' castle in search of his missing wife and child, hacking his way through the castle like the Van Helsing of old. However, as he reached Dracula's old chamber, he would be met with the disturbing reality: Aeris and Lucious had, in fact, allowed themselves to be taken in, showing their true colors as the vessel of Hell's own Lilith and a vampire, respectively. In a shunning act of betrayal, Abraham was stabbed via stake and decapitated after being bit and turned by their son, mimicking his arch rival, Dracula's death.

Now, after a generations-long feud against the hunters and priests, Lucious had successfully turned the two mutual allies against each other after filling Dracula's reigns as the new Lord of Vampires under the name Lord Vladivus, creating an eternal blood link between the elder Van Helsing daughter (Jade), the Kildreth and Dracula's armies of undead in an attempt to merge the human and Darkness realms together.

Nightshade
Descendants of Van Helsing's vampire hunter clan following his betrayal and demise at the hands of Aeris Svandsson, Abraham Van Helsing's second wife and member of the Ministry of Light and their son, Lucious. Led by Quincy Harker, son of Jonathan and Mina Harker and his son, Alan, a fellow vampire hunter in his grandfather's name under the guidance of the latter's son, they find themselves in the midst of a triangular blood war between the Nosferatu clan and the Ministry of Light. Battling against the colliding interests of the former's empowering the Kildreth and the latter's rescinding the castle, Nightshade ultimately seek its destruction with a shared means to their desired end: the damphir, Jade Van Helsing.


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