WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for Episodes 1 and 4 of The Vampire Dies in No Time, available on Funimation.
The Vampire Dies in No Time is funny because of its exaggerated characters, farcical misunderstandings, and satire of vampire clichés. Even sillier than these, however, are the various vampire versions of video games and game consoles in the series. Draluc, a ridiculously weak vampire who constantly crumbles into dust at the slightest provocation, is also an avid gamer.
Video games are a fitting hobby for a vampire who always seems to have an extra life. Only a few episodes in, the series has already had a variety of bizarre video game parodies. Here are some of Draluc's favorite games and their closest real-life counterparts.
When Draluc first meets vampire hunter Ronaldo in Episode 1, "The Hunter Comes and Flies in the Sky," he challenges him to a fighting game. Draluc holds up what looks like a perfectly normal Super Nintendo Entertainment System console and a "Qtendo" cartridge. The cartridge's label resembles the graffiti-style logo of the Street Fighter series. Funimation's subtitles translate the name of the game as "NF 2," and there is a figure that resembles Street Fighter's Ryu on the label. Perhaps "NF 2" is a pun on SF 2, i.e. Street Fighter 2, and Nosferatu, the iconic movie vampire. When Ronaldo indignantly rejects the offer, Draluc misses the point and assumes Ronaldo simply doesn't like fighting games. Draluc says that he also has "Vamperman," possibly a reference to Bomberman. Super Bomberman was also released on the Super Nintendo.
Ronaldo and Draluc then find the young boy who has gone missing in Draluc's castle, playing a "QSQ." The device in question resembles a gold-colored PlayStation Portable or "PSP," but with small vampire fangs protruding from the top. This is the first of Draluc's consoles to have a vampire theme, but the "Q" in the title implies a link to his "Qtendo" system. It is unclear as to what the letter Q has to do with vampires. Most likely it's a generic replacement such as the ubiquitous "WcDonald's" used in various anime to replace McDonald's.
After the accidental destruction of his castle, Draluc moves himself and his games into Ronaldo's apartment. Among them is what appears to be an upright PlayStation 4 on a stand with fangs or even horns and a similarly fanged controller. To eliminate any doubt as to which console is being parodied here, the large pad in the center of the controller confirms that this is a PS or perhaps QS4.
In Episode 4, "The Man's Name is Handa," the eponymous vampire control agent who has a grudge against Ronaldo visits the apartment. Draluc is reluctant to help Handa undermine Ronaldo because "if Ronaldo is destroyed, then I won't have a place to live." Handa calmly replies, saying "I have a limited edition of the new Age of Vampires game," to which Draluc instantly says, "you who are descended from my compatriot, I will give you what you desire." "Age of Vampires" is likely an English pun on the similarly named strategy game series "Age of Empires." Despite this, the cover of the game Handa shows Draluc features a single figure with his back to the camera, making it look more like the cover of a single-player third-person action game such as Devil May Cry 5.
Draluc's love of video games is just one of his many personality quirks, but it provides a lot of fun hypotheses about the kind of games a modern-day vampire might play. Hopefully, future episodes will reveal even more of Draluc's strange collection, and maybe even show some funny fictional gameplay.
