Year 2250: Marcus Ford is an ex-convict that works as a house-sitter in the city of Bridgeford, where humans and demons live side by side. When he was young he was contacted by a girl in his dreams several times in his youth, but this stopped happening, and later he was convicred for armed robbery. Now the girl of his dreams is back, asking him for help. Teaming up with Ashkii, an islander that seems to be related to the girl of his dreams, who is searching for his adoptive father, Marcus will discover that he possess a power called Solar that will become useful when facing some new enemies. Meanwhile Alex Ashford, the CEO of a demon-hunting agency, and a mysterious man named Bruce, are trying to find a way to stop the upcoming apocalypse that will destroy the world.
Vanity was made after Onyx 2, and shared many similarites, like the modern-fantasy setting, the colorful cast of characters and the use of side view battles. On the other hand it also introduces some new aspects, like wandering enemies that not only can be avoided, but also repelled, and there are healing points inside the dungeons, making this game more player-friendly than the previous ones. It also features several cutscenes with ripped assets from Shin Megami Tensei and images from comics and sometimes during these scenes it's possible to select various options, leading to alignment changes. Unfortunatly this game was never completed and it's released as an extended demo.
Random Fact: for some reason the game includes an unused alternate title screen (called Vanity B 2a), maybe it was made for one of the first demo version, and was scrapped for the black and white one of the last released versions. However you can stil edit the game and use it, it's the one below.
Like Onyx, this game had a re-relase of a new edition in 2023 with many changes: the protagonist is now named Jason, and looks a little different, there are many changes concerning the plot and the locations, for example Bridgeford is now full of hostile demons. One of the major differences is also the removal of battlers, in fact now the game uses a first person view in battles like Onyx. Unfortunatey this demo is far shorter than the older one! Anyway two demos are better tha ìn one, so find it here:
Final Verdict: Onyx was cool, and Vanity is more of the same, but with some neat additions like the comic-styled cutscenes. This game is also different because it's a setting where the supernatural is widely accepted, everyone knows that there are demons, and there are even renowned demon hunters. Aside for this difference, if you like the Onyx series you will like this one too.
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