Perfect World has finally lifted the veil on their third main character for their dungeon crawling hack-and-slash title, Rusty Hearts, that of the nobleman Frantz. He may be the leader of the Rusty Hearts team, but he’s not exactly the most chipper person of the group.

After Frantz was bitten by a vampire, he was able to block the transformation process through sheer willpower (yes, in the Rusty Hearts universe at least, this is apparently possible). This caused him to become a half human, half vampire hybrid. Despite his strong will, he only bit one person; his fiancé, whom he did so in order to save her life after a tragic accident. Unfortunately his fiancé couldn’t fight the transformation the same way he did, and ended up turning into a full vampire, vanishing shortly afterwards. Frantz now searches for her to reverse the process (apparently this is also possible) and give back her humanity.

Frantz utilizes two distinct weapon styles. He primarily utilizes a short sword in combat, true to his noble heritage. He wields this weapon with swift movements, using the dark powers granted to him through his vampire side to bolster his attacks. When something a little tougher needs to have its skull cracked, however, he can switch to the more powerful, but much slower, massive axe. Along with the skull cracking potential, Frantz is able to use his vampire strength to hurl the object with ease. Being able to balance these two playstyles is key to using him effectively.

Frantz definitely looks like a interesting character, with a mix of magical ability and physical strength to help him in battle. Personally, after getting some hands-on time with the game at E3, I’ve found that I enjoy punching things in the face with Tude. No offense to fans of vampires (unless you’re the kind that prefers the sparkling variety, then you don’t get any sympathy from me).

The closed beta for Rusty Hearts is set to start up in two weeks, on July 27.