Dark Masters of the Night II: The Ringing Bell

Dark Masters of the Night II: The Ringing Bell is a Fighting/Adventure, Hack and slash videogame made by In-Verse Productions. The sequel of Re: Vengeance ~ Dark Masters of the Night. A spin off series based on the Re: Vengeance Novellas. It will be released in Arcades, as a Physical Copy in Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Wii U (Alongside the first game). With the arcade version omitting the Adventure Mode.

This is the first game in the Re: Vengeance series to get a Japanese cast (also the returning English cast), but the combat narrator is still in English.

A sequel named Dark Masters of the Night III: Of the End is in the works and closes the franchise as a whole.

Gameplay

It plays basically the same, but there are new additions.

A system that is similar to the Slash/Bust system from Samurai Shodown 3-4 (64 series too), called Dark/Light, personalities and some of the characters' moves will be altered of the original.

There are Examples:

Victoria in Light mode is more or less free spirited and less educated, Roxana in Dark mode is an "Alpha beetch", Shiroi in Dark mode is a literal monster without morals, Vlad is in Light Mode is pissed off, Keith in Light mode is more or less sane.

Story

The Story will be divided in two sections, Arcade Mode and Adventure Mode.

Plot (Arcade)

Many Events are altering the history of the world, even when the time comes fast, however, there's a disturbing thing that affects someone, Michael, once a kind and respected angel, "went nuts" and now wants to "purify" the Earthrealm from the Dark ones, indiscriminately. But in his road will be interrupted by the Shapeshifting monsters Keith and Alessandro, alongside Victoria the Vampiress, and by extension, Éclair the young and naïve combatant and many others.

Plot (Adventure Mode)

The story is Centered in year 2006, when the technology advances quickly, there's an invasion who comes from the heaven, but for mysterious reasons, Éclair Masters, a young woman with inner fighting skills, searches for the responsible of the chaos and destruction and she will find numerous allies and enemies in her travel, with the help of Ciel, a rainbow winged fairy and Gabriel, an angel turned messenger due to Michael's insanity. Claire will try to save the world and maturing by herself.

Story Chapters - Present Time Saga. Main Player: Claire.

Éclair - The Student turned Fighter. (Prologue of the Saga)
Roxana - The Light Princess Vampire.
Zima - The Humanoid wise Wolf.
Rock - The kind-hearted Experiment.
Francoise - The Undead Killer for Hire.
Noon - The Knight who serves Cold.
Antonio - The Swordsman of Terror.
Vlad - The Shady Vampire Prince. (Epilogue of the Saga)

Story Chapters - Dark Masters Saga. Main Player: Keith

Keith - The almost Ascended. (Prologue of the Saga)
Victoria - The messiah Vampiress.
Ray - The Dark Hunter
Lilly - The Friendly Catgirl.
Tate and Nina - The serious werewolf and the Superhuman in chains.
Vivi - The Proud Homunculus.
Shiroi - The Mystic Samurai (Bonus Chapter)
Lydia - The White witch.
Alessandro - The new ruler of Inferno (Epilogue of the Saga)

Story Chapters - Tragic Conclusions. Main Player: Éclair/Keith/Victoria/Alessandro.

Awakening, Transcending the Realms. (Prologue)
Death nearby you.
Hell and Heaven, united?
Is that you, Lucifer?!
Angels and Demons are one of the same.
Cruel Time
Like Humans, Dark ones have emotions. (Epilogue)

Characters

See also: List of Re: Vengeance Characters

Returning

(*)Means Secret character

(**)Means Character unlocked by DLC or completing the invitation.

Victoria Arcos (Vampire)
Keith Laurent/Nero (Monster)
Tate Moon (Werewolf)
Nina Ironside (Super-Human)
Angerona Lilly (Humanoid Beast - Cat)
Rayne "Ray" D. Heinrich (Dark Hunter)
Vivi (Homunculus)
Lydia Gardenias (Witch)
Shiroi (Samurai)*
Alessandro Quattrini/Bianco (Monster)
Luka (Succubus)*

Newcomers

Vladimir "Vlad" Arcos (Vampire)
- Victoria and Roxana's older brother, he has a calm and playful demeanor, but he's really dominant towards his sisters and anything about his beloved clan, moreso than Victoria.
Roxana "Rosa" Arcos (Vampire)
- Vladimir's younger sister and Victoria's older sister, she has a nice yet trigger-happy demeanor, unlike Vlad and Vicky, she cares less about the clan, and likes having human friends.
Ralf "Zima" F. Richter (Humanoid Beast - Wolf)
- Zima is a Humanoid Beast (Humanoids with animal traits), and a Scientist, he's well respected despite his heritage unlike others from his type because of his collaboration with science.
Françoise Girard (Undead/Killer for hire)
- Françoise is a greedy Killer for hire, she destroys for paying her services, she's far worse than anyone thinks, she claims to have killed her family and at least thousand other people.
Antonio (Swordsman)
- Antonio is a mysterious man who has the sword of his fallen rival Shiroi who died at honorable hands of Bianco when Shiroi was too weak. He lost an eye and seeks nothing but vengeance.
Rock (Frankenstein Monster)
- Rock is the codename of a big failed project made by Dr. Law whose name is unknown, but unlike his creator who's mad and crazy, he's serious but loves the nature and playing with kids.
Éclair Masters (Super-human/Huntress)
- Éclair is the girl that follows Keith Laurent, she is in her last year of highschool and wants to be stronger and help others to save the world, also wants to Dark ones and humans to coexist without any fights. She's the main protagonist in the Adventure mode.
Noon (Paladin)
- Noon is a woman who is a result of several experiments, she's a clad knight with a mission. Kill the Dark ones for the sake of the "good". She speaks really cordial even to her targets.
Vesper (Fallen Angel)*
- Vesper is a spirit, a warrior who pleads to Éclair to save him from the Dark Ones, however, it is revealed that he's an Fallen Angel and a Vagant Spirit, he's still in the good side. And even helps the Anti-Hero team to keep an eye on Lucifer. Eventually serving Roxana Arcos in the end. (Sub-boss)
"Michael"/Lucifer (Angel)*
- "Michael" is an ambitious and cruel Archangel who cares for nothing but himself, he thinks that his actions are for the good of the humanity, however, he's exceding his own "morality" and close to become a fallen angel himself. He's revealed to be Lucifer. (Final Boss)

NPC

Vali Bael - The Highest Prince on the Underworld.
Joe Phillips - Lydia's Ally who was turned into a cat by Lydia's family.
Nia Tremaine - Keith's informant, a fox creature.
Blanc Gardenias - Lydia's mother.
Karin Gardenias - Lydia's grandmother.
Gabriel - An angel, Éclair's boss and guide.
Ciel - A Fairy who has rainbow colored wings, Éclair's ally.
Solaria - Victoria's maid.
Vlad T. Arcos - The Arcos' siblings father.
Mad Clown: A messenger from "Heaven Realm"
Felix: Lilly's cousin cat.
Father Krauser and Sister Adele: Ray's friends and members of the church.
Dr. Law - A mad scientist who created Rock.

Themes

Dark Masters into the Battlefield - Original (Arcade OP)
Warrior of Wars - Original (Arcade ED)
Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath (Console Opening theme)
Get Away - VAMPS (Japanese theme/JP CS OP)
Show no Mercy - Slayer (Arcade Console Ending theme)
Nightmare Rondo - BABYMETAL (Arcade Console ED theme JP)
Strangers in the Night - Bert Kaempfert (Adventure Mode ending theme)

Stages

Victoria flying manor (Victoria, Vlad, Rosa)
Midnight City (Keith, Alessandro, Zima)
Bar Restaurant Lumiere (Lydia, Lilly, Françoise)
Desert (Ray, Nina, Tate)
Laboratory of Law (Vivi, Rock, Antonio)
Toy house (Éclair, Nue, Shiroi)
Sanctuary's Alley (Vesper, Tasia*, Luka)
Heaven's Gate (Michael Phase 1)
Inferno (Michael Phase 2)

Game modes

Arcade Mode
Adventure mode
Free Mode
Versus
Survival
Training
Customize
- Minigame: Card Collection (Featured in Wii U release, Free DLC for XOne, PS4, PS3 and X360)
Options
- Screen
- Volume
  - Language voice Customization
    - Voice per character (After Completing Arcade for the First time)
- Controls
Gallery
- Music
  - Opening and Ending themes
- Illustration
- Videos
  - The Arcade and Endings
  - Arcade Opening and EndingS
  - Console Openings and Endings
  - Adventure Mode Opening
    - Éclair's Dance - Strangers in the Night, 3:30 minutes of duration - Adventure Mode Ending.
- Invitation: Complete the card minigame, buy the illustrations in-game, play arcade mode, the adventure and the survival and complete the invitation. (This is also another way to unlock Asura)

Reception

The game in the Wii U version got 85% of approbation, saying that the only complains were that the story isn't relevant as gameplay, the AI often gets "crazy", minor glitches that makes the game unbalanced. However; it is praised by its original style in the cutscenes, noting that the Noir scenes are well detailed, and the Adventure mode was surprisingly a good experience despite some annoying characters that tried to get attention, and the fair amount of fanservice for the two sides were also approved. The voice acting was also a great, marvelous experience, and the Japanese voices were a grateful surprise for everyone.

Dark Masters of the Night II: Rondo of Vengeance

After completing the Adventure mode, a special episode is unlocked, the setting is different of the usual Heaven and Hell battle. Based in a short novel.

The kingdom of Aeidith is a pacific Kingdom in a mysterious era that is known by its high level of magic, however, a mysterious Sorceror named Ruiz takes Princess Isabella of Aeidith in hostage in exchange of taking the kingdom by himself, but he doesn't know that there's also a Prince and the younger brother of Isabella, called Lionel who was exiled for his own good, and helped by his guild, as he doesn't want to be weak, he will try to fight. Melanie Blood, now in her timeline she will adopt the namesake of Tusk to fight Ruiz in her own right, but there's some surprises here, the Vampiress Victoria, the Monster Keith and other fighters as well as Countess Éclair Masters, Duchess Aidan Spencer, Agent Eirian Gallagher and others will help them to fight the man who wants to conquer the kingdom in their own means.

Playable character since this update:

Prince Lionel of Aeidith (Lord/Black Knight)***
- The 18-year old Prince of Aeidith, and exiled from the castle in order to protect himself from the harm that could make Ruiz in him, who doesn't know that he even exists. He's a reckless, cocky, a little spoiled, but otherwise kind and even wise than he looks. He acts before thinking, he doesn't know even fight because he's a pacifist and doesn't want to harm anyone, who made his dad the king, really disappointed even before his death. However, he will train his inner powers and swordsmanship to defeat his inner devils and Ruiz.
Tasia (Specter)***
- Tasia is an avid whip fighter and Vlad's confident and advisor, she's merciless, often killing for orders without any question, She holds a sword and whip in battle, has green hair who brights like flame when activating her powers, she apparently is a specter.

(***) Character unlockable with this update.

Trivia

The game resuses basically the same music as its predecesor, with new themes for the new characters.
Some of the cutscenes in the Adventure mode will be in Black and White, resembling Noir films and comic book style.
- However, the major cutscenes, are full in color and fluid.
The two Chapters. Present Era and Dark Masters of the Night are unlocked since the start, and they follow different points of view but canonically the order is
- Present Time -> Dark Masters -> Grand Finale
When Lydia and Noon are defeated, the first gets her jacket broken, and the second gets her armor destroyed, Lilly in her case destroyed her suit but quickly transforms into her cat form, and when Francoise is hit with a special or EX attack, breaks her shirt, as a gratuitous fanservice. Other of the reasons of the M rating, also a shout out to Art of Fighting and Early KOF's, then KOF XIII.
- The cutscenes in the other hand, shows a scene featuring Éclair and Nia and their reactions when they saw their master (Keith) Shirtless and they end with nosebleeds.
The covers varies per version.