Code Vein II

Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PlayStation 5
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $69.99 USD – Available Here $99.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

It can be hard to make a mark in a genre where even back in 2019 Soulslikes were brimming with variations. That is when Bandai Namco tried something a bit different, infusing anime-styled characters and a storyline packed with unique takes on the genre with Code Vein. Offering a different approach to combat, skills, and even the standard approach to playing with allies, Code Vein found itself a certain niche with its style and now seven years later the series has returned and is looking to reinvent itself again. Only this time, it will do so both with some time traveling and an open world to boot. The question is, have these adjustments to Code Vein II retained what made the original unique enough to stand out from the pack?

Story

Set completely apart from the original game, very little background information is provided outside of glossary texts so players will likely want to have a quick refresher if they’ve never touched the original. That being said, Code Vein II takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the land has been destroyed and humans and Revenants, vampire-like undead with incredible powers, strive to survive through an unknown world destroying Resurgence. Players begin with their created Revenant Hunter just as they are being revived from an unknown apparent death. The one that has saved the player’s life is a special Revenant by the name of Lou who has the unique ability to travel through time. Lou has shared half of their heart with the player, tying their fates together.

Shortly after being revived, the player learns that the current world is on the brink of falling apart entirely due to the events that happened in the past. A hundred years ago multiple heroes sacrificed themselves to quell another bout of Resurgence that would have torn apart the land. These heroes cocooned themselves in an effort to hold out as long as possible but now as their life force dwindles away, the cataclysmic aftermath of their unsealing will doom what is left of the world. As such, it is up to the player, with Lou’s ability, to travel back in time to find a way to fix these situations as well as put an end to these heroes’ twisted forms in the present before they can destroy the very land they had tried to protect. Or will players attempt to change history itself even if it means altering the future in unknown ways?

Code Vein II tells a fairly interesting storyline that may not reach the heights that the original game did but does find some solid footing. The post-apocalyptic setting and time travel work as great ways to show off how a land is prior to certain events and their current situation, as well as if any changes have been made through the player’s actions. It is also worth noting that the overarching storyline is quite emotional especially since many of the characters that players interact with have some great personalities behind them and, since many of them are also partner characters that will fight alongside the player, it helps make them feel a bit more attached than if they were simply standing around the hub zone. That being said, it is unfortunate that the player character is entirely silent again and has literally no voice outside of a few dialogue choices that appear superfluous at best. 

It also works exceptionally well when it comes to pulling at emotional heartstrings since almost every occasion that sees players traveling to the past and growing close with a character over their time interacting with them will eventually result in a terrible loss once they see them again in the present. This impact works for each instance and hits home especially hard with a few of the heroes that players encounter, including the first hero and a certain healer. As mentioned earlier it is worth noting that not all of the characters are handled the best and a few happen to fall quite flat along the lines which is disappointing. Plus, although the game’s open world structure does allow for some environmental storytelling thanks to the time travel changes, the optional “dungeons” and most of the environment lack any noteworthy lore where they easily could have included some.

Gameplay

Code Vein II has done away with the stage-like structure used in the original game and has expanded into a full open world experience where players will now be able to, mostly, travel wherever they see fit. Unfortunately while this sounds good in practice, it doesn’t quite work as well as one may hope. The open world is often quite barren with enemies scattered around here and there in small groups or patrolling roads with the occasional collectible that will serve to boost how many times the player can use their healing “Regeneration” and others that increase how much it heals. It is also worth noting that many locations that may seem interactable are often not or are completely walled off through invisible walls. While this may make sense during the past sections where player exploration is limited slightly due to the time travel zone, it doesn’t make any sense during normal exploration.

This is also something of an issue when it comes to optional locations and dungeons that players actually can explore. Many of these do have useful rewards at the end such as weaponry, boosters, Jails, and even Formae guarded by bosses that tend to be a bit on the easy side, especially since the respawn point is often right outside the fog gate. Some locations can even feature region-wide buffs that players can have active once they are located. The only issue is, once again, trying to find which location is actually a dungeon and which is simply a desolate building or empty cave and this is often simply done through trial and error or unveiling the map through slaying a Horror that otherwise shrouds the map. This often makes exploring the open world feel more trouble than its worth, especially when some falls can instantly kill the player for no reason as they should easily be survivable.

One thing that players can do in most locations is travel via a Formae formed motorcycle to navigate through various locations but not only is the terrain often too much of an issue at times, the ability to “jump” the motorcycle and deploy wings to glide is also often ruined by the aforementioned invisible walls. Players cannot simply jump their way through to the top of a dungeon if they find a way, as it’ll simply be blocked. This means that while the motorcycle is neat, it is often sparsely used and has an oddly small durability meter meaning it can’t even be used to crash into enemies well. That and the fact that players can easily fast-travel to any “Mistle,” that serve as spawn points and level up spots, that they have unlocked at any time as well as bond locations.

Mistle works as a mini-hub of sorts as players not only respawn at the latest one they’ve rested at, a place to talk to Lou, storage management, and also level up at these locations using “haze” obtained from slain enemies. Unlike most games in the genre, leveling up is literally just that, a straight level up that boosts some stats each time. The real factor when it comes to building the player’s character and build happens to revolve around the Blood Code they have equipped. As the player progresses through the game and interacts with various characters they will be bequeathed Blood Codes by these characters and each one has various stats and benefits of all kinds. The longer the player fights using a Blood Code the more they will master it and eventually, if mastered, be given a higher tier version of that same Blood Code. 

The types of weapons that players utilize, whether it be the new type of weapons such as twin blades and ruin blade or returning weapons such as swords, halberds, and even a bayonet, they all base their attack value and “equipment load” off of various stats depending on the Blood Code equipped. Similarly, players will have various Defensive Formae such as shields, parrying gauntlets, and even side-stepping Formae to defend themselves alongside dodging as well as offensive formae like a bow and arrow or even a massive axe that triggers an AoE that slows enemies within its range. Equipping items that surpass the player’s stats will “burden” them and reduce their dodging speed and lower the effects of the item they aren’t capable of handling properly. Thankfully players can not only equip boosters, as mentioned before, that boost stats but can change Blood Codes at any time to fit their playstyle.

In combat the aforementioned Offensive Formae will require “Ichor” to activate with different types requiring different amounts. In fact, all types of offensive Formae require Ichor including weapon based ones that focus on attacking and the best way to build up the player’s Ichor gauge is by attacking foes with their Jail. A Jail is a special type of weapon that not only deals damage but also focuses on making enemies bleed to fill the player’s Ichor gauge, allowing for them to continue to use special Formae moves in a fight. Jails also serve as the fancy “execution” style moves players can trigger on staggered enemies to deal massive damage and almost always refill their Ichor gauge. It is worth noting that Jails come in all different kinds of shapes and sizes, be it something akin to a scorpion tail, a swarm of bats, a giant claw hand, and more and they feature all kinds of unique approaches to combat on their own, so finding one that best fits the player’s style and potentially the enemy’s movements can be key to winning some of the tougher battles. Especially since the title’s primary bosses are the real test of a player’s skill.

Earlier it was mentioned that many side-dungeon and even main dungeon bosses are quite easy to defeat the first time through and this is true for the most part. This is thanks to a few things that we’ll mention momentarily but when it comes to the main storyline bosses that include cutscenes and everything else, that is where the challenge lies. These foes will put players through the wringer in more ways than one as they tend to inflict status ailments, have multiple forms, wide-reaching attacks that feel cheap more often than not thanks to exaggerated hit-boxes, and often arrive when players cannot try to upgrade their gear more before fighting them once again. Thankfully, many of these harder bosses can be taken down through sheer will and mastering their attack patterns as well as modifying attack strategies as needed, and a bit of luck sometimes of course.

Now, one thing that makes combat feel a bit easier for the most part in Code Vein II is that players are rarely ever actually alone in a fight unless they choose to be. While Bandai Namco has removed online co-op entirely from the game which is a strange and unfortunate decision, especially with how extensive the character creation is, players will almost always have a Revenant ally at their side. Throughout most of the story a Revenant involved in the plot will accompany players and fight alongside them and use their own Formae and attacks to slay enemies. While the damage they deal to foes is not “permanent” unless they kill them or the player lands a hit too, it does wonders to keep enemies distracted or draw attention away from the player for a quick heal or gain some breathing room to obtain Ichor. 

Should the player fall in combat their Revenant partner will temporarily join forms with the player to revive them and put them back into the fight, and should the player stay alive long enough, their partner will also return and this can happen multiple times even in a boss battle. It is worth noting that not all allies will fight alongside players and will only stay inside their fused form to provide strong buffs as a result, and players can always have their ally enter their form as well at any point should they feel like facing a challenge alone. Being able to have a choice of allies at any time feels like something more Soulslke titles could offer, especially with how it works here in Code Vein II. Though considering co-op was removed or even any form of summoning, that is probably how it is balanced as a result.

Audio & Visuals

The best example of how gorgeous Code Vein II can look comes from the character models themselves as not only can players spend hours customizing their own appearance but the various models of their allies are also gorgeously detailed. Censorship is a minor issue as well with some character outfits, including DLC outfits, but it isn’t too much of a problem in the end. The flow of combat and action works extremely well in most battles and never seems to suffer slow-down even when the boss battles grow rather intense. The various Jail attacks on staggered enemies are as flashy as any player can hope for but it is unfortunate that the camera really struggles to keep things in sight, especially if players end up getting boxed in by a large enemy, resulting in a blind battle and dodging situation. 

The actual open world itself is a mixed bag unfortunately. Thanks to the post-apocalyptic nature of the game, most locations are destroyed wrecks and a lot of textures are incredibly rough looking up close. It also really doesn’t help that so much of the open world feels empty and bland. On the other hand though, seeing how some locations change drastically between the present and the past is outstanding and really shows what type of challenges the world has gone through over the century. Time skips, especially when locations that were once manned by allies are now nothing more than hollowed out buildings and long forgotten graves.

Code Vein II offers both an English voice track as well as a Japanese voice track for players to choose from. The English voice actors handle their roles quite well and have a lot of emotion in their voices during dramatic sequences and crying out in their twisted forms during certain boss encounters. As for the background music the title features a fairly solid collection of tracks though only a few really stand out in any noticeable way and, once again, they tend to arise either during dramatic moments or action packed boss encounters.

Overall

Bandai Namco took a fairly large swing with Code Vein II by changing their standard formula up so much after only one game but for the most part it turned out alright. The story is engaging when it focuses on the characters that players meet and fight alongside on their journey while the combat is incredibly enjoyable and features both team-work and a wide-range of customization options that give players plenty of ways to tackle nearly every challenge. Unfortunately, dropping co-op entirely and shifting to an open world that barely feels worthwhile to explore at times and clunky to travel through at best isn’t the greatest look, especially when many of the locations are dreary and bland, like an idea stretched a bit too thin. That isn’t to say that Code Vein II doesn’t have plenty to offer, as it really does try its best to retain its identity while experimenting with new elements, but it simply stumbles along the way and falls short of its predecessor as a result.

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