After choosing Victor’s romantic story, one of the largest criticisms I had was that he would be poor at combat and defending Cardia in the long run. As a result, it was my impulse to see what would happen if she chose the person reputed to be strongest and most suited to combat out of the gentlemen. In other words, I chose to investigate “the human weapon” Van Helsing next.

Activating Van Helsing's Romantic Storyline

The same truths for Victor’s line are true for Van Helsing’s as well. Just pay attention to the storyline and do your best to side with actions Van Helsing would consider to be good options.  When Cardia is being trained by the gentlemen, choose to be trained by Van Helsing. The main “non-romance” story will proceed for awhile. 

Don’t worry about messing up when his romantic chapters activate, because if you choose wrong, a “game over” essentially activates.

First Impressions of Van Helsing's Personality

In general, he seems like a tsundere character. (For those who do not know, this means he seems cold to all or certain people. Perhaps even mean. However, once he gets to know people he seems to warm up and actively defend them.)

Spoilers Below

A uthors Note: There are some situations described or illustrated in sections below pertaining to violence against women. If you are sensitive to this, please keep this in mind and take appropriate action. Thank you!

Pros and Cons to Van Helsing's Route

Pros: 

• He is extremely powerful at combat; Cardia will never have to worry about personal safety so long as he keeps an eye on her.
• As a general comment, his route isn’t heavy on the romance. He only accepts Cardia in the very last moment of the game. To some this would be a negative, but if you want to see this (rather good) story without the heavy emphasis on romance then Van Helsing is your guy. 

Cons:

• Van Helsing does everything he can to push Cardia away and reject her love. For those who like this, it is good. However, this is dragged on so long it makes the story a little stale. 
• Van Helsing believes that the best thing for Cardia for a majority of the game is to leave her alone. This has very pronounced and surprising consequences, none of which are good for Cardia. In other words, he is a great “human weapon.” When he is actually around. 
• He is mentally unstable. In his path, he was literally brainwashed and tortured to unlock his full combat potential. He overcomes it, but will he be safe long term?

Very Powerful at Combat

Van Helsing is extremely powerful. He dual-wields shotguns and was specifically trained an elite military organization called “Twilight.” He is an ex-member, but all of his training is intact.

This game also has vampires as an alternative but stronger race living besides humans as well. Van Helsing was a key warrior in the "Vampire War" in this game.

In addition, in this game there are humans who were subjected to a failed military experiment. The effect is called Hidden Strength, and essentially anyone who goes through it is selectively tortured and brainwashed in order to try and artificially enhance their battle prowess. Both humans and vampires can go through this process.  

Van Helsing defeats multiple individuals who have unlocked power through the Hidden Strength experiment. In addition, it turns out he also is an individual who also went through Hidden Strength, it was just performed on him in a sneaky and long term manner.

Van Helsing's Route is Light on the Romance

As mentioned, this could be a positive or a negative. However, this is listed as a positive since his story is used to explain and display more information about some sub-characters. Aleister, Finis, and Holmes definitely get to shine and get the spotlight more.

In addition, this game has a very interesting and robust story without the romance. (Some romance visual novels don’t; they are all about propelling the romance.) It is kind of sad to think some would skip this story just because it has romance options. For those who don’t want to be force-fed romance and just want the story and more sub-character representation, his route is viable. (But absolutely still has problems, explained better below.)

Story Flaw: Van Helsing’s Romantic Rejections are Not Implemented Well

In other words, a large portion of Van Helsing’s personal route goes something like this:

Cardia: “I love you, and I won’t abandon you.”

Van Helsing: “No, I am bent on revenge and cannot be happy. Stop following me.”

Then he runs to another place, Cardia follows him, and a variation of the above scene replays again. 

The first two or three times make sense. But it does get to a point where it gets extremely old and makes the story stale. For a game with good writing, a flaw like this is very glaring and makes it harder to forgive. It feels like his personality type was just meant to be a loner, and the writers forced it into a romance.

Van Helsing Constantly Tries to Abandon Cardia

Some could argue he is trying to make her depend on herself or make her stronger.

But as stated above, Van Helsing is indisputably a master at combat. But the problem is he constantly abandons Cardia. Due to this, his power does not matter because he is not around to use it and help her. 

In dangerous circumstances, any other non-hostile person is helpful. Even if they are not great at combat it is still an extra set of eyes, ears, and hands. Cardia would be better off with any person, even a girl beside her. At least that person would be there. 

As a specific example to illustrate this point, Cardia runs from the mansion and the other gentlemen because she is worried she will be a burden to them for being a “monster.” This is after she found out she was actually not human at all. Victor stops her from fleeing in his route. In Van Helsing’s route he does not appear. He lets her fend for herself.

The result is Cardia, a young woman, is wandering London. She has nowhere to go. She doesn’t really have a plan. 

Unfortunately, in this circumstance, she is not alone for long. 

The serial killer focused on women, Jack the Ripper, finds her and captures her. She awakens to a sewer lair where another woman is heard being tortured or killed in the background. Cardia is dazed and tied to a chair. Captive to this killer.

She is able to escape from her bonds eventually and flee, but this Jack the Ripper is a powerful male. Fortunately, Van Helsing appears in the last moment and saves her, which is nice. What would have been nicer is if he watched over her a little better to start. The game states she was lost for three days. Not three hours. Three DAYS. It is thanks to the game writers that she is alive really.

Van Helsing is Mentally Unstable?

Van Helsing’s incredible resilience and power comes from Hidden Strength. It is known this experiment used torture and other psychologically harmful means to unlock the hidden power in people. 

The people in this state literally live in a nightmare in their own mind. The result it that they want to kill the person in front of them because they mistakenly believe that person is the source of the living nightmare. They cannot be reasoned with. They are not sane.

As it turns out, Van Helsing went through this process over a longer period of time than the other people displayed in this game. But he still went berserk at one point and tried to kill Cardia himself.

Ultimately Van Helsing overcame his berserk state and didn’t kill Cardia. So it is up for debate. Is he safe in the long run because he went through this process longer? Or is he just as vulnerable and unhinged as other Hidden Strength sufferers?

If he can be made to be in the waking nightmare state indicative of Hidden Strength then he is the worse possible person to be around. He is the most powerful person in the game. He will kill whoever is around him in this state. Worse then being aloof is this exact scenario. He is the one person Cardia cannot be saved from if he turns hostile, no matter who is around her. Getting away from Van Helsing is the only real cure for this. 

All in all, it will be interesting to see how the sequel handles this.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Van Helsing’s route is worth exploring for the main story. In addition, his path is fantastic for exploring other sub-characters that are forced in the background when romance is the emphasis. 

However, as a romantic option he is an extraordinarily poor choice. He does not treat Cardia well (to put it lightly) and the writing gets clunky at times when romance takes the center stage. Cardia is also still imbued with her poison, so she cannot express "physical" romance with Van Helsing or live a more normal life. Her real problem was not solved in his route, in other words. 

All in all, this was a very educating entry in this visual novel game. This is also a great example of the kind of romantic partner people in general need to stray from. Any abuse or harmful intent from a partner cannot be condoned, and the best defense is distance. Not understanding and acceptance.

Thanks to the creators of this game.  Code:Realize - Guardians of Rebirth belongs to Aksys Games, Idea Factory, Design Factory, and Otomate. I make no profit off of this website or from writing this, and hope this article was informative. 

Further Reading