Code Vein - PlayStation 4

When I bought this game. I kind of went in completely blind. I just knew the characters were vampire like and the graphics looked neat. I didn’t even know people called it the anime version of dark souls until well into the game. But they weren’t wrong! Anyways, here are some of my key thoughts on this game.Character Customization! It’s amazing! No other way to describe it. Even years later, after playing the game, I still talk about the character customization to people who have never played the game before. I treat it like a selling point. But it’s worth it! I spent hours in there making my character look like my character from another game(an mmo), and seeing the characters that other people make is insane. Sometimes I just look up other peoples designs online just to see what others have come up with. That’s how good it is!The gameplay is good! It definitely plays like a souls game with the environments and what not. Multiplayer can be a bit wanky at times. But good enough to play. And many types play styles. Overall though, I’m happy with it!Lastly, the plot of the game! Oh wow! It starts off a little slow, but still interesting. But man, that ending! There are 3 different endings based on how you play through the game. My first play through I got the “best” ending. But before that, there is one part in the game that made me really upset. Without giving spoilers, it felt like a twist, but it was done so good! And then having the best ending on top of that. Just wow.Overall, I was pleasantly shocked with how much I enjoyed this game I went into knowing nothing about. I still find myself recommending it to gamers who haven’t played it years later. But don’t try and compare it to Dark Souls the entire time you play. It is it’s own game, and should be enjoyed that way. Definitely worth it!

I've played Dark Souls, Bloodeborne, and I'm past level 100 in this game. This game borrows most of its system from DS and bloodeborne. The leveling is comparable, swap the word magic for ichor and you have the primary alternate system for fighting. Swap the word souls for haze and you have the units that you level up or purchase stuff with. Overall, this game is easier with its inclusion of companions, people who'll accompany you as you power through the levels and who'll do a respectable job helping you fight the many small enemies along the way. It has more story to tell, and a more direct way of telling its story compared to Dark Souls which prefers to leave many things open to interpretation. The multiplayer is a copy of DS which is slightly inferior to DS, but otherwise totally comparable. The game runs beautifully with fps, has gorgeous graphics and the character creation is far more capable than DS, and you get to enjoy what you create as this game goes out of its way to let you appreciation your creation. Overall this is anime DS, but the difficulty is easier, it has more story which include a full cast of characters you'll remember, slightly inferior multiplayer, and overall a slightly better experience than DS. Io is best girl.

The short version is that this is a Soulsborne style game with punishing enemies, extreme character customization, anime looks, and perhaps a little too much edgy looks.This game allows near infinite character customizability in the opening on the game. Dozens of color pallets and a multitude of accessory and facial feature options give you excellent choices to start off with. The game itself is a sort of clunky dark souls with classes you can change on the fly and half a dozen weapon types, each type with various move set. The classes can give weapon skills, attack magic, heals, and buffs, and each class has it's own stat spread.The story strikes me as basic, but it has multiple endings depending on how much you explore, and the characters really pull the story together. There aren't any choices to make aside from how much exploration you want to do for the various boss memories. It's an ok story, but no JRPG super tale happening here. The title screen music is very cool and there are some good tracks, but most of it doesn't really stand out to me on the music side.The gameplay is good. Combat is unforgiving and you have to play defensively. Blocking and dodging are great at mitigating damage, but the enemies don't wind up the way Dark Souls enemies do. As such, you really have to know what they are doing before you can accurately dodge. You have a teammate who can heal you, and even revive you if they have the health to spare and aren't on cooldown. It's much easier single player than Souls games tend to be. Online was terrible in my experience. The lag was ungodly, and bosses were hitting me from across the room before their models got near me. Offline is much, much smoother.All in all, I highly recommend on sale for fun Souls action and even just to see the character creator. It's fairly absurd and I'd like it in all anime games that can afford to have it. Ok story, engaging characters, good combat and excellent presentation. 4/5 would play 'Waifu'-Souls again.