Code Vein Review
A Journalistic Review by DefiantParrot
Originally Written: 12/25/2019
*Spoilers May Be Ahead*
Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform: Xbox One
Genre: Action RPG, Soulslike
Release: September 27, 2019
There are games that define a genre, ones that leave an impact on the gaming industry so much that they can even create a genre themselves.
The term Roguelike comes from an older game called Rogue for instance and Dark Souls is another game that certainly left an impact.
Since the success of the Dark Souls series several other companies and games have attempted to capitalize and create their own brutally hard game. So would we refer to these games as Soulslike?
I'm going to roll with that term at least until someone comes up with something better. Today we look at Code Vein. An anime Soulslike.
I remember seeing this game in action for the first time when I was visiting my cousin Chrys, while I'd had bad experience with Soulslike games in the past and I had determined that they weren't for me something about Code Vein just stood out to me, I liked what I saw. So as we sat there talking I bought myself a copy and began playing whenever I had the time.
The very first thing I want to praise about this game is its character customization, in fact customization as a whole really. I must have spent an hour customizing my character and had a blast doing it. I went pretty in depth with it and was so very proud of my beautiful anime boy by the time I was done. Really fuckin' cool.
Anyway let's get into the meat here, the story in Code Vein details how this ravaged and post apocalyptic world was decimated in a war between humanity and someone called The Queen. Monsters referred to as The Lost fight and kill on behalf of The Queen so the humans decided to utilize Revenants, beings who were once human and must feed on blood to survive, to fight in their war for them.
You play as one of these Revenants, though The Queen is dead, The Lost are still a problem and with the aid of a mysterious MASSIVE titted woman you must face The Lost and understand what your place in the world is.
The game was a bit of a slog when I first started it and I had to get into that Soulslike mindset, had to get myself prepared. But the story did intrigue me a bit to keep going even when I got frustrated.
The story can be confusing and sometimes nonsensical so if cohesion is a sticking point for you this game may annoy you. While I got somewhat lost with the story at times I did enjoy the characters. Not your character because for some reason it's another silent protaganist and while I've given a couple other games a pass on this previously uh-uh not happening here.
There's no reason why our character cannot speak, it's distracting and just stupid.
But I got off track, the other characters particularly your allies are surprisingly diverse and we get to know them quite well and I found myself really liking most of them.
From Louie the kind hearted but very determined leader to Yakumo the joking powerhouse, Mia a woman as deadly as she is beautiful to yes even GIANT titted mystery woman.
The characters outside your group aren't nearly as interesting even the villains don't come off as very memorable to me.
So the gameplay here is very typical to a Soulslike your character has alot of weight to them and everything requires stamina blocking, dodging, running, attacking etc.
If you run out of stamina then you're screwed and this dictates alot of what you can do in Soulslikes and here in Code Vein.
But unlike so many other similar games I've played in the past I found one thing surprising here. I was good at it.
Indeed I found myself really enjoying myself as I played this game, I could combat enemies effectively, dodge rolling around and getting the oh so critical backstabs weren't impossible and if I ran into trouble I always had a partner with me to assist.
One of the strongest things I can say about Code Vein is this. I think that this game is perfect for somebody who either hasn't tried a Soulslike game in the past or had difficulties getting into or playing the others, this game is an excellent starting point.
Not saying it's perfect understanding what every item you pick up does can be confusing so the game does require you to pay attention.
A side effect of being a Revenant is losing memories from your days as a human, in this game however your character can collect these memories and restore them. This helps with getting the best ending in the game if you care about that sort of thing and helping to learn so much about these characters as I've stated previously.
When you restore one of these you're transported to this slow walking segment and you hear the forgotten memories play out. It's a neat idea and the first few times you experience this it's pretty cool but noone likes forced walk segments and these got pretty tedious to the point that when I saw I could restore one I kinda got annoyed that I had to do it.
Of course you don't HAVE to restore these memories and even then the segments are entirely skippable but you do lose plot that way and I think there could've been a nice compromise here.
There are a variety of different weapons you can come across and unlock in the game but that's just one layer to the customization here. See there are also Blood Veils these cloaks your character can wear that changes their backstab attack and gives different perks and buffs depending on the one you're wearing.
Then there are Blood Codes these are the essence of different characters and essentially act as classes. Each one has different abilities you can unlock as you play as them and if played with long enough you can master those abilities and use them even if you're using a different Blood Code.
On top of that there are also ways to immediately master abilities without having to wait for the skill to master itself during gameplay.
Between the variety of weapons, Blood Codes, and Blood Veils the level of customization for your character is amazing and no two players are going to play or look the same way it's a little daunting to be fair but once you understand it it's amazing how deep this game can get.
I also love the music here, seriously this games soundtrack can be pretty kickass at times. My favorite piece being when you encounter The Hunter.
But if there's something Soulslike games can excel at at times is the boss fights, so how are they here?
Pretty damn good actually, i always got excited when I neared a new boss and yes while I ended up splattered against the walls many, MANY times most were still fun as hell and rewarding whenever I finally defeated them.
The best fight in the game is definitely against the Blade Bearer and Cannoneer. Fighting these two fuckers at once was fun as hell and it is easily the hardest fight in the game. I must have died fifty times to these two but when Yakumo and I finally landed those killing blows it was.... Orgasmic.
Now that's not to say this game is perfect no absolutely not.
The level design here can be okay to downright bland and boring. Many levels are just variatians of ruins or caves and exploring these areas were never especially fun.
I mean I still did it because often times I'd find items to make the trek easier, new Blood Veils or Blood Codes or maybe a new weapon. I often felt rewarded when I explored but it still wasn't especially fun.
Also this is something some games do that really irritates me, this game can be played online. Cool nice have a buddy to play it with but even if you select offline which I did I couldn't pause the game.
Why is this a thing? It's fucking stupid and I got killed once or twice because of this, can you blame me? That's why I selected OFFLINE game you fucking twat.
Also this game looks really nice it can be downright gorgeous at times, but texture pop in was a major problem all the way through the game and the loading here could sometimes be unbearably long.
I gotta say that is the biggest punishment in this game right there. No not dying and losing all your EXP or failing to get it back.
No it's setting through another long enough to be irritating load screen.
And the framerate oh my god when transitioning from one area to the next this game drops frames like a motherfucker and folks I've said before I don't give a damn if a game is running at 30 or 60 fps don't give a shit as long as it's consistent but here this is anything but consistent.
Between these three issues it often led to me thinking that as much as I enjoy this game it gives off the impression of being held together by scotch tape, bubblegum and blind mans prayer.
All in all I really did enjoy my time here with Code Vein and that's why I'm going to give it my
Silver Seal of Recommendation
This game sets up for a sequel and I definitely want that, to anyone who is even remotely interested in Dark Souls, Soulslike in general or just another beautiful anime game definitely give this one a try.
Originally Written: 12/25/2019
*Spoilers May Be Ahead*
 |
| Anime Dark Souls huh? Alright I'm in |
Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform: Xbox One
Genre: Action RPG, Soulslike
Release: September 27, 2019
There are games that define a genre, ones that leave an impact on the gaming industry so much that they can even create a genre themselves.
The term Roguelike comes from an older game called Rogue for instance and Dark Souls is another game that certainly left an impact.
Since the success of the Dark Souls series several other companies and games have attempted to capitalize and create their own brutally hard game. So would we refer to these games as Soulslike?
I'm going to roll with that term at least until someone comes up with something better. Today we look at Code Vein. An anime Soulslike.
I remember seeing this game in action for the first time when I was visiting my cousin Chrys, while I'd had bad experience with Soulslike games in the past and I had determined that they weren't for me something about Code Vein just stood out to me, I liked what I saw. So as we sat there talking I bought myself a copy and began playing whenever I had the time.
The very first thing I want to praise about this game is its character customization, in fact customization as a whole really. I must have spent an hour customizing my character and had a blast doing it. I went pretty in depth with it and was so very proud of my beautiful anime boy by the time I was done. Really fuckin' cool.
 |
| Here's an example of what you can do in the creator |
You play as one of these Revenants, though The Queen is dead, The Lost are still a problem and with the aid of a mysterious MASSIVE titted woman you must face The Lost and understand what your place in the world is.
The game was a bit of a slog when I first started it and I had to get into that Soulslike mindset, had to get myself prepared. But the story did intrigue me a bit to keep going even when I got frustrated.
The story can be confusing and sometimes nonsensical so if cohesion is a sticking point for you this game may annoy you. While I got somewhat lost with the story at times I did enjoy the characters. Not your character because for some reason it's another silent protaganist and while I've given a couple other games a pass on this previously uh-uh not happening here.
There's no reason why our character cannot speak, it's distracting and just stupid.
But I got off track, the other characters particularly your allies are surprisingly diverse and we get to know them quite well and I found myself really liking most of them.
 |
| Personally my favorite and my third video game wife |
From Louie the kind hearted but very determined leader to Yakumo the joking powerhouse, Mia a woman as deadly as she is beautiful to yes even GIANT titted mystery woman.
The characters outside your group aren't nearly as interesting even the villains don't come off as very memorable to me.
So the gameplay here is very typical to a Soulslike your character has alot of weight to them and everything requires stamina blocking, dodging, running, attacking etc.
If you run out of stamina then you're screwed and this dictates alot of what you can do in Soulslikes and here in Code Vein.
But unlike so many other similar games I've played in the past I found one thing surprising here. I was good at it.
Indeed I found myself really enjoying myself as I played this game, I could combat enemies effectively, dodge rolling around and getting the oh so critical backstabs weren't impossible and if I ran into trouble I always had a partner with me to assist.
One of the strongest things I can say about Code Vein is this. I think that this game is perfect for somebody who either hasn't tried a Soulslike game in the past or had difficulties getting into or playing the others, this game is an excellent starting point.
Not saying it's perfect understanding what every item you pick up does can be confusing so the game does require you to pay attention.
A side effect of being a Revenant is losing memories from your days as a human, in this game however your character can collect these memories and restore them. This helps with getting the best ending in the game if you care about that sort of thing and helping to learn so much about these characters as I've stated previously.
 |
| I do like these, but there's alot of them |
Of course you don't HAVE to restore these memories and even then the segments are entirely skippable but you do lose plot that way and I think there could've been a nice compromise here.
There are a variety of different weapons you can come across and unlock in the game but that's just one layer to the customization here. See there are also Blood Veils these cloaks your character can wear that changes their backstab attack and gives different perks and buffs depending on the one you're wearing.
Then there are Blood Codes these are the essence of different characters and essentially act as classes. Each one has different abilities you can unlock as you play as them and if played with long enough you can master those abilities and use them even if you're using a different Blood Code.
 |
| CHARGE! Fuck Them All Up!!! |
Between the variety of weapons, Blood Codes, and Blood Veils the level of customization for your character is amazing and no two players are going to play or look the same way it's a little daunting to be fair but once you understand it it's amazing how deep this game can get.
I also love the music here, seriously this games soundtrack can be pretty kickass at times. My favorite piece being when you encounter The Hunter.
But if there's something Soulslike games can excel at at times is the boss fights, so how are they here?
Pretty damn good actually, i always got excited when I neared a new boss and yes while I ended up splattered against the walls many, MANY times most were still fun as hell and rewarding whenever I finally defeated them.
 |
| They've come for your EXP AND your booty! |
The best fight in the game is definitely against the Blade Bearer and Cannoneer. Fighting these two fuckers at once was fun as hell and it is easily the hardest fight in the game. I must have died fifty times to these two but when Yakumo and I finally landed those killing blows it was.... Orgasmic.
Now that's not to say this game is perfect no absolutely not.
The level design here can be okay to downright bland and boring. Many levels are just variatians of ruins or caves and exploring these areas were never especially fun.
I mean I still did it because often times I'd find items to make the trek easier, new Blood Veils or Blood Codes or maybe a new weapon. I often felt rewarded when I explored but it still wasn't especially fun.
Also this is something some games do that really irritates me, this game can be played online. Cool nice have a buddy to play it with but even if you select offline which I did I couldn't pause the game.
Why is this a thing? It's fucking stupid and I got killed once or twice because of this, can you blame me? That's why I selected OFFLINE game you fucking twat.
Also this game looks really nice it can be downright gorgeous at times, but texture pop in was a major problem all the way through the game and the loading here could sometimes be unbearably long.
I gotta say that is the biggest punishment in this game right there. No not dying and losing all your EXP or failing to get it back.
 |
| Get used to seeing this |
And the framerate oh my god when transitioning from one area to the next this game drops frames like a motherfucker and folks I've said before I don't give a damn if a game is running at 30 or 60 fps don't give a shit as long as it's consistent but here this is anything but consistent.
Between these three issues it often led to me thinking that as much as I enjoy this game it gives off the impression of being held together by scotch tape, bubblegum and blind mans prayer.
 |
| For when you're a good alternative |
All in all I really did enjoy my time here with Code Vein and that's why I'm going to give it my
Silver Seal of Recommendation
This game sets up for a sequel and I definitely want that, to anyone who is even remotely interested in Dark Souls, Soulslike in general or just another beautiful anime game definitely give this one a try.
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