Hello, players!
Nachtheulen it's a difficult word to spell, and it's also an Rpgmaker game made by Puddor for the RPG Maker VX ACE Lite Cook-Off competition. Nacht heulen means "night howl" in german, and in fact it's the reboot of an old pgmaker 2k3 experiment project with the same title.

This adventure (that took me 1 hour and 15/30 minutes to complete, more or less) sees two vampire mercenaries as the protagonists: the german Leander (that speaks english with a heavy german accent) and the scotish Fionn, that are hired to protect a village from dark creatures, because this is a job that normal human beings cannot do!
The game opens with a nice cutscene with Leander looking out of the window of the house, before the game sets into the normal rpgmaker graphics, introducing Fionn. Then the two leave their house and enter the forest at night...


Ok Leander... but I've a question: are you german? There are some little hints!

... and this is how we learn one of the mechanics of this game: there are Safe Zones, where we can save and no one can harm us, and Danger Zones that we can call Dungeons (even if the first is actually a forest!) where instead we'll face enemies, and saving is not an option!

Combat is what you can expect from a classic RPG Maker VX Ace game, with front view of the enemies (different creatures of the darkness like undeads, werewolves and various demonspawn), and our characters with different skills: Fionn for example is a talk that has an automatic counterattack AND a skill used to taunt enemies to make him the primary target, and I guess that now you know a very simple stratey that still can turn the tides of a battle. Leander is instead a classic sorcerer, since he's a glass cannon that's powerful but quite frail. It's not a surprise that he well complements his tougher partner. The only problem is that the game uses random encounters (plus boss battles, of course!) and I am not really a fan of these!
For the rest the game sees our heroes going from town to town, looking for clues and unfolding a mystery, exploring dungeons and collecting loot. All very linear, simple but well done.

Visually the game is pretty good: mapping is nice and the tileset from the DS packs are always a good choice. Battlers are also appropriate for a dark gothic/fantasy game but what probably stands out are the custom made assets, like the portraits of the protagonists and some cutscenes. Oh and I also liked the full body "figurines" of our two heroes, even if they seems of two different vampire races, since Leander has a pair of wings, and Fion has a... tail? Well, nevermind!


Hey Leander, do you seriously think you can terrorize this unholy thing???

Final Verdict
It's curious how I recently reviewed another game by Puddor (ReCrisis) and was another short game starring a duo of mercenaries, and while this game has a less original and captivating setting (I mean I do not mind "dark fantasy" settings like Ravenloft, still I have more interesting for the cyberpunk/futuristic or modern setting, that are much more rarer in gaming) but still it's a more polished, solid and balanced game. And I liked it more. Anyway, while complete this is apparently another prequel, of a game named Blood Rose.
Anyway this is a competently made event game, that despite the restrictions I found to be pretty enjoyable and good.