How Tsukihime Broke Me…
Article at a glance:
- Thought this was just a vampire VN—now I’m in too deep and simping for an eldritch horror with a pretty face.
- The remake didn’t just glow-up the visuals—it rewrote my brain with lore, trauma, and god-tier fight scenes.
- Nasu cooked. Takeuchi approved. And I’ll gladly let this spiral consume me all over again when Part 2 drops.
Yeah, this article will be a story of how Tsukihime broke a perfectly sane, reasonable man like me and made me into an S-tier simp for an eldritch vampire girl—all the while bombarding my brain with some deep lore and concepts. Yeah, this article is meant to document my spiral into the world of Tsukihime. It started off as just another VN till it absolutely consumed me. And you know what, I will gladly let it happen all over again once part 2 of the remake drops.
Yeah, there was once a time when I thought that this shit used to be about Vampires. But after getting a chance to play the remake recently, all I’ll say is: Nasu cooked, and Takeuchi said yes.
There will be some major spoilers ahead for the Tsukihime remake, and if you have not played it, please do that and come back here. But first, let’s begin with the OG.
The OG Tsukihime
The OG Tsukihime is a year older than me LMAO. In fact, it first came out on a damn floppy disc! Most of you reading this article probably don’t even know what a floppy disc is! So yeah, the OG Tsukihime: Blue Blue Glass Moon, Under The Crimson Air, released in 200. What does “Blue Blue Glass Moon, Under The Crimson Air” even mean? I don’t know, it is just the subtitle for the OG VN. Why? Because it sounded cool and Nasu likes cool.
The original was an Eroge; it was never officially released in English, and it was a product of the time when people only bought VNs for the well… you know, adult stuff. But still, the OG Tsukihime is strangely soulful and has rich lore. This was a few years before Fate/Stay Night absolutely blew up and the Nasuverse became a thing, so a lot of the lore concepts were not solidified. The OG VN had two types of routes: Far-side routes dealt with more personal stories, and Near-side routes dealt with most of the supernatural stuff.
The character distribution among routes is like this:
Near-side: Arcueid and Ciel
Far-side: Akiha, Kohaku, and Hisui
Tsukihime Remake
So we currently only have Part 1 of the remake, believe it or not. Part 1 covers both of the Near-side routes, that being the Arcueid and Ciel routes. Arc’s route is more or less the same as the OG, aside from some updated vampire lore that’s more in line with what we know of the rest of the Nasuverse. There are a few new characters added to the mix, but most of them don’t go anywhere. Infuriatingly, though, they took away the “happy ending” of Arc’s route! It only has one ending now. My eldritch vampire wife deserves to be happy 😤
Things really change in Ciel’s route, though. Aside from the beginning, Ciel’s route has been almost completely revamped. Her route has some of the best action I have seen in a VN, and Nasu really does cook. The final fight between Ciel and Arcueid in the True Ending is absolutely insane. More about it in the next section, but Ciel’s route is VERY different from the original, and it even connects to Melty Blood: Type Lumina.
I do have to wonder if they will also remake Kagetsu Tohya or just move to a full-on Tsukihime 2 after the 2nd half of the remake is released.
Nasu MomentsTM
Yeah, so uh, Arcueid can turn into a being made of light ripped straight from Evangelion. I did not know Nasu was an Evangelion fan too, but well. The OG only hinted at how dangerous Arcueid can be, but the remake made her into a true Eldritch being. So what happens is Ciel actually just ends up killing Arcueid. But when she died, Arcueid was so angry and full of mana that she turned into a Luminary upon death. A massive being made of pure mana.
The fight was going hard as it is with Arcueid summoning Castle Burnstead and going full Domain Expansion, but then things just go off the rails when she “dies”. We were always told that, as a True Ancestor, Arcueid is a Nature Spirit, something very important to the planet. But we never really understood the true repercussions of that fact till now. The death of a Nature Spirit should be a big deal, and it is. Her rage is so scary that even Roa, the guy who has been aiming to take over Shiki’s body this whole time, agrees to help him.
And to think that all this started because Shiki just had to slit Arcueid’s throat. Arc even warns Ciel that killing her will not end well. And she was right.
The Lore
All that eldritch stuff isn’t even the main reason why Tsukihime broke me lol. It is the constant barrage of long lore explanations, action contrasted with some legit trauma. Tsukihime handles the trauma of its main characters really well, and these are just the Near-side routes where the trauma isn’t even the focus.
But all in all, Tsukihime Remake adds a lot of lore about the True Ancestors and what separates them from the Dead Apostle Ancestors. They replaced Nrvnqsr Chaos with Vlov for some reason, but it looks like Nrvnqsr Chaos will be returning in Part 2 of the remake. Still, Vlov is a cool character, and he is very different from Nrvnqsr Chaos. I like how he leads into the eventual struggle between Roa and Shiki as well.
In the original, Ciel’s route felt like an extension of Arcueid’s route, in a way, but now it is completely different while still staying true to the characters, and I really like that. If you want to read further, you can check out Kagetsu Tohya or Melty Blood.
That is all for now
Look, in the end, all I’ll say is that I don’t care if Arc succumbs to bloodlust and ends up drinking my blood every day, I would still kill for her smile. I can fix her, guys, I’m different. I’m down worse, I’m a bigger simp, I’m better. Ciel has my respect; she is an incredibly well-written character and a certified badass, but eldritch vampire mommy is love.
To put it into simpler terms: “RAW. Next.”
And you wonder why I said Tsukihime broke me. In the end, it is not the lore or story of Tsukihime that truly broke me; it was the desire to see one 700-year-old vampire smile because her smile is worth it. But yeah, let me know what you guys thought in the comments. I really wish that they don’t botch the English release of Remake Part 2, but hey, it’s Type/Moon, no launch goes without drama lmfao. With that said, see ya!!
Also, check out our summer 2025 full anime guide here!
