Review: VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE: COTERIES OF NEW YORK and SHADOWS OF NEW YORK Are Decent Non-Horror Visual Novels for Spooky Season

Funstock recently launched physical versions for Vampire The Masquerade: The New York Bundle. This includes two visual novel RPGs set in the World of Darkness: Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York. You can purchase the physical editions from select retailers including GameStop (affiliate link) for Nintendo Switch and PS4. The Collector’s Edition comes with a fun Collector’s Box, a 52-page artbook, and a branded USB drive with hanging cross keychain that has digital wallpapers and the soundtrack of 28 tracks. I’ve been wanting to check out more Vampire The Masquerade games lately and Funstock was kind enough to supply me with digital codes to review the games on the Nintendo Switch. All thoughts below are my own.

I made the bold decision to review both games in the same article, but I stand by that decision. It originally stemmed from the simple fact that Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York were bundled together for the physical release. It is worth noting that Shadows of New York is not a direct sequel, but it is connected to Coteries of New York. The games will share a score though to reflect the bundle.

In both games, you take on the role of a newly turned vampire. In Coteries of New York, you can select from three predefined characters while in Shadows of New York, you control Julia who feels like you have more say over who she ends up being by the end. As mentioned above, both games are visual novels that let you make certain dialogue choices as well as choosing where to go at times. If you don’t like these kinds of games, this isn’t going to be an exception. In all honesty, they tend to be hit or miss for me and for a while I was worried that these would be a complete miss.

Coteries of New York has a very slow start. However, I knew that it wasn’t a long game (only about 6-7 hours) and after the first hour or so, things picked up. Slowly at first and before I knew it, I realized I was about ⅔ of the way through and I didn’t want to stop. Shadows of New York didn’t seem as slow and that might have to do with the fact that the prologue doesn’t seem as long and there’s a time jump early on that jumps several months and means you’re not a new vampire. The stories in both games are really well crafted to a point and I really did enjoy my time. That said, there were weak spots.

For starters, while I appreciate the fact that both games are pretty short as previously mentioned, the stories felt like the player isn’t given enough time to feel completely satisfied. For instance, in Coteries of New York, you get to a point where you have a few nights to go meet other characters, but unless you really dedicate time to only two of the four specific characters you won’t be able to complete more than one of their storylines. I know it’s meant for you to play through multiple times with the different clans, but it was still a bit of a bummer when it felt like the ending snuck up on me a bit. In fact, the ending of Coteries of New York is very unsatisfying to me. It ends with your character being presented with a choice, but you have no idea what happens from there. You don’t get to make a choice. Your character doesn’t make a choice. The last line is more or less you being offered a choice and then the credits roll. Thankfully, Shadows of New York had a more satisfying ending. It wasn’t what I hoped for, but it did feel more conclusive.

I feel like it’s important to note that neither game has a happy story. This is the World of Darkness and if you’re not okay with not happy endings, you’ll want to not play these games. I think that’s one of the things that gets in its own way. Because the game is trying to get to its specific ending it needs to ensure that certain elements are left incomplete. I’m sorry, I’m really trying to avoid spoilers.

Apart from the story, you can expect very atmospheric music to help get you in the brooding mood. These are dark stories and the music is very dark but it’s also very much just background music. I do wish that the music was more of a character in certain parts instead of maintaining the ethereal vibe throughout the entire game. That said, I do also wish that there was some voice acting. Even if it wasn’t for everything, having a few lines that could be as simple as a laugh or “oh…” I think would’ve gone a long way. The art and visuals are really fitting though and Shadows of New York seems to have more animated visuals, even in just the backgrounds which help that game feel a bit more alive.

One final complaint I want to raise is that after you complete the game your save file gets deleted. You can’t just reload it and choose another path. You have to play the entire game again. This is not a big deal for me personally, but I can see how that would be a little annoying, especially if you have longer gaming sessions and were hoping to go back to a specific choice. I just don’t understand why this is a thing.

Overall, Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York provided me with hours of engaging story that sucked me in. I appreciated the fact that Shadows of New York had connections to Coteries of New York but wasn’t a direct sequel. That said, I do wish that Coteries of New York had an ending that felt like an ending. There are a few areas that I feel the games could improve, but if you want some vampire visual novels to enjoy during spooky season (or whenever you want to enjoy it, no judgment), then these are decent choices. That said, I would recommend playing both of them and not just one.