Picture a dark, atmospheric action RPG set in an alternate 19th‑century Paris where the City of Light is ruled by vampires. You become a fearless vampire hunter, wielding a razor blade and otherworldly abilities, tasked with cutting down ranks of uniformed soldiers in gilt‑button jackets and bicorne hats — along with an assortment of lingerie‑clad mademoiselles.
No, this isn’t a missed Gamescom reveal. It’s a Square Enix mobile release called Bloodmasque, which originally arrived on Apple devices in 2013. I hadn’t encountered it until researching a recent conversation with Kazutoyo Maehiro, the game director behind Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, so I asked him about it.
“When it comes to my moment with Bloodmasque, I was involved in designing the scenario. It was a really out there story, where you’re basically trying to defeat a vampire that’s taking over the world. It was originally released for smartphones, and now it’s no longer in service. But as for the gameplay itself, I do feel it was a very fun game. You basically swipe at the enemies [with your finger] in order to defeat them,” Maehiro explained.
The touch‑based mechanics may not have aged gracefully, but the trailer still brims with stylish touches. There’s an action sensibility here that feels like an early echo of Final Fantasy XVI — not surprising, given Maehiro’s later work — and much of Bloodmasque’s intriguing worldbuilding can be traced back to his contributions.
“At the time, I actually wrote really extensively for this. I wrote about 3,000 years worth of Iore for that game. So yeah, this is the first time I heard that name in such a long time — I basically just remembered it myself. But now that I’m remembering it, I do feel it’s a game that would maybe be interesting to launch, even in this day and age,” he said. “The intention for that game, we really wanted to be able to make it so you can have the story take place at any point in time, from a chronological perspective. So yeah, I had depicted or written out the story of the history of these vampires throughout a very long course of time, ultimately into outer space.”
A Square Enix vampire epic that stretches into outer space — and it flew under most players’ radars? Welcome to a truly cursed timeline.
Source: Polygon
