Managed to finish something not FFXI-related, as I do occasionally. Maybe I'll manage more this year.
Anyway, started this last year, and wanted to finish it before starting a different game on the Xbox.
Code VeinCode Vein is easily billed as “Anime Souls”, and certainly lives up to that, for better or worse. While certainly not just a skinned version of
Dark Souls, it felt to me like the team was free to copy or use assets from those other Bandai Namco published titles. Rather than use Fromsoft’s engine though,
Code Vein is Unreal 4 based, so it has different quirks. Still, the feel of it all skews closer to the
Dark Souls games than other Souls-likes out there. With Fromsoft moving on from that template, it’s hard not to feel like Bandai Namco might be hoping for this game (maybe series?) to pick up where they left off, given how well it sold.
To start off with, things I wasn’t as keen on -
While I could contrast how
Code Vein approaches its narrative versus how Fromsoft’s games did, to be fair, it’s just a different approach. Having a more straightforward narrative can be great!
Code Vein’s is just...not. It’d be one thing if it were
just tropey schlock. It’s an anime style game, so that’ll be the case more often than not. Where
Code Vein really started to grate on me though, is how much it tries to just keep shoveling that at the player and slowing things down. Quite a lot of story is told via “recovered” memories that are presented as static scenes that you walk between. Walk to this point, listen to voiceover, path to the next point opens up, walk that way, etc. Areas are all using the same monochromatic textures and sad music, revealing yet another tragic backstory/etc.
But you have to do it. Not just to get the better endings or whatever, but to open up new traits/abilities to learn. Skippable? Sort of. You can skip the cutscene once you’re in it, but that won’t save you from the loading screens, which get annoying if you have a bunch of memory shards to convert or something.
Lessons like “show, don’t tell”, or “less is more” were likely taught on days that the writers skipped school. Presumably to draw boobs.
Mechanically, I felt like the game tended to lean towards being cheap. Bosses having absolutely brutal moves with little in the way of wind-up or tells is common, and it felt to me like the game was a lot less forgiving about iframing through stuff than other games in the genre. Could just be me ultimately not needing to learn the fights as well, but it just didn’t seem to be as tuned as Fromesoft’s efforts here.
I also didn’t feel like the actual levels tended to be very interesting. They did do the standard looping back around interconnected stuff decently well, but just aren’t memorable. While part of the plot, basically everything is ruined cityscape, just possibly covered in ice/fire/desert/etc. Unless it’s a massive cathedral lookin’ thing.
Makes for some expansive-yet-forgettable labyrinths to work through.
Where
Code Vein excels is in customization. It starts out with a robust character creator, where you can craft both the physical look for your character, and the majority of their clothes - the only “armor” that you swap out is basically a coat. This also remains available to you for the entirety of the game, so you can continue to craft your look or incorporate new clothes as they appear (it seemed like seasonal or tie-in clothes would be added from time to time).
This level of customization extends to combat mechanics and builds as well. One of the ways the player character is “special” is that they can learn more than one job class (Blood Code), which are found/rewarded as you progress through the game (around 40). Each of those has traits and abilities to unlock and master (well over 150 in all). There are pros and cons of them, and some limits to what can be set up, but they’re things you can just swap around at will.
It’s probably one of, if not the, most flexible job systems in a game like this. A build in a
Dark Souls game is more of an investment, and respeccing is somewhat limited in a playthrough.
Code Vein lets you change it all up on a whim, even on the fly. I think it’s a general improvement on the Souls games, since you don’t end up “stuck” with an unsuitable build.
Code Vein is also designed around having an NPC follower for basically the entire game. One that, on top of actually helping do real damage/support/tank, can revive you with one of their healing items. You can opt to not bring one and make things harder, but personally I think the designers allow themselves to get away with cheapness by having it.
Additionally, the game is very much designed around using those various abilities tied to Blood Codes. Similar in a way to the magic systems in previous games, only,
Code Vein has you refill the charges needed for them via combat, with “backstabs” refilling the gauge entirely. Heavily utilizing them seemed to be another thing that helped balance things out.
There are still points that the game can be pretty tough, but being able to retool your build for a fight, and then have help/free revivals/technically infinite buffs/etc does serve to make a lot of it a bit easier going.
Ultimately, it’s a solid B-tier Soulslike that’s easy to recommend for folks looking for more
Dark Souls...and just as readily ignored if that’s not your thing. The aesthetics are decently done, but the story itself isn't worth enduring mechanics you don't like.