Today I played through the new Reverse: 1999 event titled Midnight Whistle. Despite being quite hyped by the trailer, it turned out to be... quite boring, actually. It gave off a completely different feeling compared to what I was expecting judging from the promotional material alone.

It is kind of a curse when it comes to Reverse: 1999. While they manage to grab my attention with trailers and overall character designs, the actual content is usually hit or miss. This is even more true when it comes to the non-main story events.

The story follows Rubuska, a girl who lost her family and city to the war and is currently living alone. She tries to enter a train by stealing a ticket from another passenger. She is discovered, but Semmelweis (an agent of the Foundation) saves her by claiming she is her assistant.

This train seems to have some rumors about being haunted by a real vampire, even if most of the passengers dismiss it as mere legend. Once inside, however, various weird incidents start occurring and those legends start to become more and more realistic.

Rubuska is a self-proclaimed vampire, but in reality, she is just a poor girl with Arcanum power that allows her to manipulate shadows. The truth is that the trauma runs deep because of her family's death while she was powerless to help. She dreams of the legendary vampires who can bring the dead back to life.

Reality, though, is less welcoming. The vampire in question exists, but he is more of a monster than what she was dreaming of. It was really cool watching her betray the vampire to try and hurt him (despite it being ineffective since the legends about vampire weaknesses were just stories). In the end, she settles on traveling together with the train crew, so she got her happy ending at least.

The art design was, as usual, really amazing. I loved every single CG added to the story, and even the designs of the various characters introduced were outstanding. The voice acting for Rubuska (in JP at least) was also on point and very good.

Overall, the event wasn't downright bad, but it wasn't memorable either. Rubuska was an interesting character and I liked her quite a lot, but everything around her in the story felt uninteresting. From the real vampire to the other passengers, and even the Manus Vindictae involvement in the plot, it just fell flat.

I am still hopeful, though. Maybe the next event will be better. Just maybe...