10 Things We Learned About Code Vein at TGS 2017
Sep. 20, 201710 Things We Learned About Code Vein
In our interview with Iizuka-san and Yoshimura-san we learned thatCode Veinwill be 100% open world, with players being able to pick and choose when and where they go. Much likeDark Souls, not every way you can go is as easy as others, and if you’re not up for the challenge one area presents you will have to try another. Luckily the game features some checkpoints that facilitate fast travel for your convenience even if we don’t know how many or how often they will be spread through the game. Something we loved and hope stays the same is that there was zero load time when teleporting, it was literally instant.
Code Veinfeatures something that neitherSoulsorBloodbornehas, and that is the optional player companion that assists you and speaks to you through out the game. The one featured in our demo was namedMia, but we were informed there would be many moreCompanionsto pick from and that more would be unlocked as the player progresses the game. Players can swap outCompanionsat will, and unusedCompanionswill return to the “Base” and wait for further notice. Players with and without companions may experience the game story a little differently.
During our interview, we asked if the game would feature online multiplayer or co op of some form. And although the devs said that it doesn’t presently, they did mention that they are working on ways to incorporate it into the game. Because of theCompanionsbeing very much story related, and the way the game is presently designed, they said they were unsure just how this would take form and they don’t quite know how to pull it off. One can only hope they can get it figured out by launch, because it would be a huge boon to the game.
LikeSoulsandBloodborne,Code Veinfeatures no difficulty modes, either you can beat an enemy or you can’t. Since the game doesn’t dictate which order you go where, players may discover that they should have gone right when they went left. Some players will find that annoying, butSoulsvets like myself think that’s all part of the fun and what makes the experience of these types of games so unique. Regardless of how you feel, you’ll just have to Git Gud or GTFO!
During combat, if you die to an enemy or boss, your companion can revive you or you them using an ability. It isn’t unlimited, and it only resurrects you with about a quarter of your health, but it can be a tremendous life saver (pardon the pun). It certainly takes some getting used to, and some players won’t appreciate this feature, but there you have it.
Magic inCode Vein(calledGifts), allows the player to heal, increase their damage, take less damage and so on. EachGifthas a cost and it pulls from a pool of an unknown resource that builds up as you hit enemies. Every 3 strikes you will gain 1 of this resource up to whatever your cap is. My guess is that one of the stats that players have will raise this cap, allowing the player to store more resource and thus cast more spells. SomeGiftscost 1 resource, others may cost 6.
It’s entirely possible to stun-lock enemies or be stun-locked by them, but doesn’t always occur. What the determining factor is must be poise, and when you wield a large weapon you will find that after a certain point in the wind up, much likeSouls, you will follow through no matter if hit or not. And, likeDark Souls 3, it would see at first glance this is tied to the weapon, not the armor you are wearing. There are “stun” parameters onWeapons. However, since we weren’t given access to any otherArmor, this needs more testing to determine exactly how it works.
When facing enemies I tried toParryandBackstabto see if these are possible and found that parries are very much doable and use the “L2” button just likeSouls. However, they are rather difficult to pull of, you can take a lot of damage very quickly if mistimed and there didn’t seem to be a way toRiposte. Backstabs, I could not seem to do for the life of me. Not only did there appear to be no window, but enemies don’t seem to give you much of an opportunity, so even if you were able to you won’t be able to very frequently. What I mean by that, is that enemy AI simply doesn’t give you it’s back easily and seems somewhat smarter thanSoulsgames.
When asked about whether or not there would be aNew Game Plus, the developers responded that they were still unsure about this aspect ofCode Vein. They mentioned that they want players to enjoy multiple playthroughs with many different builds since there is great variety in theBlood Cores. Given the game has choices that can be made and different companions, there are many things you’d miss in a single playthrough.
UnlikeSoulsorBloodborne,Code Veinis a much more story driven experience, and with that comes decisions the players must make about certain plot related things. Not all decisions will impact the world state, but depending on how a player approaches a scenario he or she may see branching paths that make the player wonder what would have happened if he/she chose differently. Players will also see slightly different scenarios depending on whether or not they are playing with or without aCompanion.
All-in-allCode Veinis shaping up to feel much like a combination ofAnime,SoulsandBloodbornewith some wrinkles. The combat feels fast and tight, and besides a few camera-related bugs here and there, it just feels good. It’s got that sort of combat that makes you want to keep playing and you learn from your mistakes. It certainly has a learning curve, and even as aSoulsborneveteran I had a hard time getting used to some of the new concepts, that I have no doubt will become second nature to many of us would beCode Veinplayers. All this game really needs in my opinion is some polish and multiplayer and it will certainly keep players occupied for months. I look forward to seeing more from this title really soon.
If you would like to see how Code Vein relates to Dark Souls in a summarized fashion, you can check out thisbatch of GIFs showcasingCODE VEIN‘s gameplay in action!
Visit theCode VeinWiki!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
There’s a lot more gameplay where this came from, will upload an unedited version next week
