Down the Rabbit Hole: Darkstalkers 4 Rumor Round-Up

Darkstalkers 4 has been vaporware for years. It’s something fighting game fans have demanded. Over the years there have been numerous hints and teases, but no solid details despite Ono, producer of the series, repeatedly saying that it is his dream project. Since the release of Street Fighter 4, speculation surrounding a similar Darkstalkers can be found in the corner of any fighting game community. It all began with a US petition on Capcom Unity asking for Darkstalkers fans to post if they wanted a new Darkstalkers game. Without hesitation, fans flooded the boards. While there hasn’t been any new details, we thought it would be interesting to summarize the story so far.

During comic con of 2011 Ono made it known that Darkstalkers was not dead. In fact, he had pictures taken of members of the audience at that panel holding money up in order to tell the Capcom corporate bigwigs that there was enough interest for a possible sequel. But there wasn’t real confirmation. Until Venture Beat (who previously uncovered games such as Resident Evil 6 as well as this tidbit) suggested that finally after all these years a new Darkstalkers game was in the works.

This rumor came by Ayano Ono’s replacement who seems to be implying something. In fact Ono confirmed he was still working with Capcom on some sort of Mystery project.

Then on Hadoken.net this was anonymously submitted this little package of information:

The Japanese name is Vampire Resurrection. The Western release will be titled Darkstalkers 4: Vampire Resurrection.

It is in development, but it is still early on. It will be running on a modified SFxT engine. Don’t expect to see so much as a trailer for a few months at least, and no gameplay for a few months after that.

The only characters I know will be returning (as of now, it could still change) are Morrigan, Felicia, Hsien-ko, Demitri and B.B. Hood. The only new character I am aware of is apparently a human Dark Hunter named Will who wields two shotguns, and fights mainly by striking with them, but can also shoot.

It is being developed for PS3 and Vita only at the moment, but that could change in the future.

Ono added further fuel to the fire when this tease cropped up in a recent Street Fighter x Tekken trailer for the incoming DLC release continuing to tease Darkstalkers 4.

Finally during Comic-con Ono finally gave a more concrete answer when he posted this suggesting that it’s only a matter of time before the announcement of a new Darkstalkers game.

Sven from Capcom also threw his hat into the ring numerous times suggesting a new fighting release is just around the corner.

There’s a possibility that Darkstalkers 4 might be announced very soon. If not, it’s been exciting tracking down these rumors and following the twisted and surreal path of a Darkstalkers sequel.