Code Vein Review

The following review was published elsewhere, but that site has been decommissioned. This review appears here out of pride in my work, and as a portfolio of sorts. Enjoy!

Code Vein is to Dark Souls as God Eater is to Monster Hunter.

I have been saying this for weeks now, so I am a bit of a broken record, but this statement is very true. Where Code Vein differs from that statement is that it does a far better job than God Eater of adapting its source material and making it at once more accessible, brighter, and faster while also keeping the core Soulsborne aspects and strengthening them. Code Vein cannot possibly touch the magic that is From Software’s magnificent catalogue. They created the genre after all. What it does do is exist as its own version of the formula, side by side with those heavy hitters. In my opinion it’s an absolute knock out of a game.

There is a massive caveat to my bold statements above. If you don’t like anime, Code Vein will likely not be for you. The massive injection of anime tropes into Code Vein help to differentiate it from other soulsborne games, adding colour, dramatic moments, over the top cut scenes, etc. They also hold the game back with some other questionable inclusions. We all know the anime female will be typically one of two things, an incredibly curvy impossibility or a quiet bookish young woman. Code Vein goes all in on one of these, and I’ll let you guess which one.

This may be fine for some, or even welcomed, but it is really over the top and noticeably out of place. God Eater 3 had Hilda, Code Vein has practically every woman in the game. Fan service can be distracting, and sometimes I can look past it. In Code Vein I can definitely do this, but when it is there, it is obnoxious. This is a criticism I am willing to move past though, as it does not mar the game or make it less enjoyable, and is more a comment on anime games as a whole. I think we can do better with the design of women in games. I mean, they should at least be able to comfortably walk if they were real people!

On this note, let us get my primary criticism out of the way, or at least the only one that impacts Code Vein at the design level. The map is completely and utterly useless! It is easy to access, and there is a prompt to enlarge it to better see where you are. The problem is it is completely stationary in the far right of the screen. In no way, at least that I have been able to find, can you scroll the map to get a better look at let’s say the Northernmost section while you are exploring the Southern reaches of an area. Wherever you are, and consequently the hard-to-see arrow denoting your location and direction you are facing, is where the map will remain. This is an extremely odd way to handle the map in a game where each Mistle (think bonfires in Dark Souls) maps the surrounding area so you can better see where you are and plan your next steps. In an area like the Cathedral of Sacred Blood (akin to Anor Londo) its verticality and labyrinthine design make the map an absolute nightmare to use, and quite useless. For that matter, if you have ever played a soulsborne game, you won’t need the map anyway. You know basically how the levels will be laid out, and that the joy of the levels is not a stagnant map but rather taking in cool landmarks, finding secret paths and noting enemy placements/tricks. For new entrants? Don’t bother with the map, it is absolute garbage.

So, you might be asking what is good in Code Vein? Quite a lot actually.

The character maker in Code Vein is fantastic. Some might take a cursory glance and see nothing but the limited selection of face types. There are not that many, and some do not differ much from each other at all. I was a little put off with this as well.. until I moved on to the next steps. I lost 10 minutes building the eyes for my character in the demo, and spent only a little less time doing the same thing in the full game. There are a ridiculous amount of eye types with a full suite of colour options including a custom palette, heterochromia options to have each eye differ, and even incredibly unique eye types beyond the typical cat eyes. Once past this there are hair options with fantastic control over the colour, grading and shine of the hair. Add to this an impressive amount of hair extensions that can be added, again beyond the atypical options like a ridiculous feathery swoop included in most anime type games, and you can truly make your character unique. Point is, there is a lot there and it’s easy to get stuck in a loop of re-creating your favourite characters from other properties or spend 20-30 minutes just making one standard character.

Speaking of aesthetics, the game is gorgeous. Though it keeps the general morose feel of the soulsborne series, the art style brings a ton of colour to the mix and, quite frankly, reinvigorates the genre much like Sekiro’s use of red really made its world pop. I’ve noticed minimal frame rate drops, and when they happen they are in brief tunnel areas that help to mask loading times between larger map areas. The lines are crisp and clear, the animations are fluid, and the boss designs are fantastic! The weapon designs are very reminiscent of God Eater, which seems intentional, but are all very cool crosses between ridiculous anime weapons and Dark Souls’ more gothic inspiration. The various mantles that you can equip as the only armor type hold a decent amount of variance in just their design, but also double as weapons themselves. Some mantles extend to to form a scorpion like tale used to impale enemies, create a claw gauntlet to take out the enemy, or even blades that shoot forth from the ground to impale and eviscerate. Each animation for these actions, parries, backstabs and drain moves are slick, gory and supremely satisfying when you pull them off. The cut scenes are fantastic and full of emotion.

The soundtrack is gothic, impactful and evocative. One of my favourite pieces is even when the game is just loading up and the title screen fades in, bright and loud with choral chants and organs. The creature grunts, mumble, moans and cries nail the feel of the world and add to the tension of exploring the world. Every sound in the game, be they footsteps, breathless pants after running, or teleporting sword strikes work in tandem with the gorgeous visuals, gameplay and soundtrack. One of the easier boss fights contains some of my favourite footage, and exemplifies the emotional voice acting, sound effects, soundtrack, and general badassery in this game.

This is also a good example of how the mechanics in the game work well together. Code Vein has the basics of combat found in similar games such as target locking, blocking, dodging, parrying, item use and light or heavy attacks. Each of these is delegated to a button on the controller. Sounds like more of the same, but the Bandai Namco flair has added a considerable amount that makes the combat feel faster, accessible and better in some ways. The R2 button (or equivalent) manages the use of learned skills that you can map to eight unique buttons pressed while holding down this button. Each blood code you pick up along the way has skills to be unlocked and then mastered through usage or other means to be available in whichever load-out you choose. This adds a ton of variety, especially when coupled with different partners or equipment. Some skills require certain partners to be is use, or certain weapons. Partners, for that matter, act as an interesting way to manage difficulty in the game. If you choose to not use a partner, they will not be there to generate aggro, take out enemies for you, assist with bosses or regenerate you after you fall. Some partners are better suited to certain bosses, enemies or playstyles. By trying out different combinations or going solo you can control the level of difficulty or make the game fit your playstyle or loadout. It is really a small tweak over the existing system in From Software games, but elegantly helps make accessing assistance less risky and easily accessible or manageable for those new to the genre. Their attacks are quick and aggressive, but so are yours if you manage your weight properly, so combat can be as fast and furious as you want it to be.

Fast reflexes are required, as well as timing, as the dodge and parry mechanics and hit boxes are slightly different than veterans may be accustomed to, but really are great. It would be easy to criticize these differences if one is not quick to adjust and learn timing in a new game. It’s an adjustment for sure, but an incredibly easy and rewarding one.

I’m not going to cover any of the story in this review, simply because I adore it. This is another improvement over other in the genre. It is a puzzle of lore to put together, but it is NOT convoluted or difficult to approach. The story is presented coherently and with lots of heart. There are side quests of a sort where memories can be “repaired” so to speak, and they are emotional and powerful. They fill in so many of the blanks for the NPC characters, the overall history of the world Code Vein inhabits and really carry so much emotional weight they add something special to an already great story.

I could go on for ages, but that would be full of spoilers (which hopefully I have not done already. I would gush about this game for days, but I think you get how I feel about this game already. It’s a flooded market out there already, and I feel many people have rejected this game on appearance alone, or perhaps feel that the huge delay on release is a reflection of quality. Code Vein could be a massive hit, but I feel it is a sleeper. My simple message is this, do not sleep on Code Vein, it is fantastic!