In V Rising, you play as a vampire – a motif that is rarely explored in video games. The new indie game, however, exploits some folklore prejudices instead of portraying vampires as purely bloodthirsty beasts. This results in some interesting mechanics and one of the best features one could wish for in a survival game – notes MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus.
If you want to quickly and easily empty your bags and fill your chests in V Rising, there’s a simple button for that. In your inventory, you have the function “compulsively count.”
With a click, you can sort all items in your inventory into the opened chest, as long as at least one unit of that item is already in the chest. So if you’re coming back from the hunt for cotton for threads, just a push of a button and your inventory is empty again.
Sorting chests is often a big hassle in many survival games. Especially in clans and groups with multiple players, there’s always that one chaotic player who simply dumps their inventory in the next chest, ruining any order.
V Rising provides a very simple feature to alleviate this, which is so clever that every survival game should have it. But it makes sense particularly in V Rising, as vampires, according to folklore, actually have an obsession that explains all of this.
Vampire prejudices lead to innovative features
What does this have to do with an obsession? According to folklore, vampires suffer from an obsession known as arithmomania. This compels vampires to obsessively count everything that can be counted.
According to legends, it even goes so far that one can kill vampires with a bowl of sunflower seeds or rice. If you pour the bowl in front of them, they must count every single grain – even if the sun rises and they burn.
This obsession also explains why Count von Count from Sesame Street is a vampire. With this prejudice, Bram Stoker addressed in popular literature how a vampire truly is, as a vampire expert explains in an interview with Tagesspiegel.
During my literature studies, I also dealt with folklore and legends. While vampires weren’t one of my core themes, I often wandered into that corner of the library.
Vampires are an exciting subject, which is why I also acquired the legends and myths about bloodsuckers in my spare time. Many of the facts listed here come from my own knowledge. However, keep in mind that these are always folk tales and traditions, which can change and vary greatly over time. More information about vampire myths can also be found on the website of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
Everything you need to know about V Rising can be found here in 2 minutes:
V Rising also plays with further prejudices surrounding the undead. Of course, vampires are primarily known as bloodsuckers, and therefore everything revolves around blood. There are about 6 different blood types that strengthen you in different ways.
Moreover, vampires are depicted as classic villains who like to keep humans like cattle – even though some less sadistic players may try to oppose this. However, there are even more mechanics in the game surrounding the entire mythology of vampires:
- to rest, you traditionally sleep in a coffin
- garlic weakens you, which is why many people hang garlic at their doors
- silver burns you, which can be deadly if you carelessly pick it up – and of course, people only pay with silver coins out of caution
- if you stay in the sun too long, you burn. Therefore, you should only conduct major raids at night or hope for plenty of shade
- holy symbols – often simply represented by Christian crosses in folklore – stop you and consecrated ground can kill you quickly
- vampires can supposedly transform, so we also have different forms available in V Rising, such as wolf, bear, or rat
In folklore, there is also the belief that vampires must untie every knot they come across. While we do not see this in V Rising, the yarn balls and spools are all remarkably neatly rolled …
Furthermore, vampires supposedly have no reflection. However, we can build mirrors to adjust our appearance. Also, they can usually only enter houses if invited – and considering how often we go raiding, one wonders how much truth there is to this.
Speaking of blood, tell me: What blood do you actually like to drink the most?
