As announced at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, the sequel to Code Vein was a pleasant surprise. The original was Good! It was one of those games that didn’t necessarily impress people, but was fun popcorn for action RPG fans who enjoy deep character development, over-the-top storylines, and way more weapons and customization options than anyone can reasonably keep track of. Whether it’s a good thing or not, plenty of great games in this genre never resurface after their initial debut, so Bandai Namco’s willingness to revisit its vampire take and refine the idea again is really good news. Of course, the developer denied any plot connections with the original, which worries some fans. But I just got 45 minutes of free time with Code Vein 2 and came away confident that direct sequel or not, this sequel feels like a much more fully realized vision of the fast-paced, flashy action RPG that Code Vein 1 always strived to be.
Dress to impress
I had a very, very brief exposure to Code Vein 2 because Bandai Namco let me play around in the character creator before they took over. There are no massive surprises here, but if you liked the robustness of Code Vein 1’s character creator and can spend hours reshaping your eyebrows, I have good news for you. You can of course choose from pre-made designs for people who don’t want to sit in front of a screen all day, but you can also customize even the smallest details like the shape of your teeth and ears if that suits you better. I had a lot of fun choosing a really massive, stupid hat for my character. One of my favorite elements of the creator is the ability to select an outfit and then turn individual elements on and off. Love the cute dress but don’t like the weird garter you wear with it? Just turn it off!
Once I had decided on a nice hat and hairstyle, I handed the controller back to the creators and sat down to watch what they had to show me. The mission they chose to demonstrate was to send the player with a partner (buddy) named Josée to restore power to an area of the city. They chose a quest area from the gigantic world map and immediately got there, although they didn’t reach a closed dungeon, but a gigantic, pretty, ruined city with many dungeons accessible to them by simply running (or riding a motorcycle). I got to watch the gameplay both from an optional dungeon near where we landed and from the destination dungeon itself, a substation where the hero might be able to restart the city’s power.
Define “open”
One of the main questions I had during this preview was whether Code Vein 2 was open world, open zone, or something else. After talking to the team, asking about the issue several times, and watching the demo, I’m still not 100% sure how to answer this question. The team says it’s not open world, but they also reiterated that Code Vein 2 has “one single world” and that the traveling is “a little more open” than in Code Vein 1. There seems to be a lot of interconnectedness – I watched as he=ro navigated the outdoor area on his motorcycle (with Josée sitting adorably cross-legged on his back) and covered a significant amount of distance without hitting artificial walls, but it was possible that there were much further. Director Hiroshi Yoshimura also told me that the world is “much” larger, while the dungeon sizes are roughly the same as Code Vein 1. Make of that what you will for now.
When I asked about the world, director Yoshimura repeatedly emphasized that the focus was less on exploration and more on the various character companions you’ll meet in Code Vein 2. You’ll travel to points in the world specifically to complete missions related to these characters, which will allow you to get to know them better. Indeed, much of Code Vein 2 seems to be centered around these buddies, or partners as they’re now calling them, even more so than the first game, as the sequel won’t feature a co-op mode.
Friend’s Circle
In my preview, I was able to get a decent look at the partnership lively between the main character and Josée. Josée has an elderly, gigantic sword that he swings, sluggish but powerful. At various times I saw her set it on fire for both close and long range attacks. Without playing it myself, it’s difficult to say whether the AI has improved compared to Code Vein 1 (where it can be a bit finicky or lead to suicide at times). However, if you don’t like dealing with AI partners at all, they can aid you in Code Vein 2 by “assimilation” – effectively removing them from the battlefield, but giving you significant stat boosts and powerful modern abilities to compensate. Another feature I really appreciated was the ability for partners to revive you if you go down in battle and vice versa if your partners fly, wisely on cooldown so you can’t spam for immortality.
From what I’ve seen, Code Vein veterans will be thoroughly satisfied with the sequel’s expansive pantry of combat skills and character customization. Code Vein 2 wants you to be really comfortable navigating the different skill types, and boy, you better keep track of all those proper nouns. But here’s the gist: you’ll attack with your weapon to start bleeding on the enemy, and then employ your equipped “Prison” secondary weapon to gain a resource called Ichor. Ichor can then be spent on much more powerful abilities, such as “passed forms”, special, powerful weapons such as a huge bow and arrow, or a powerful shield. You can also activate your Prisons to perform powerful finishing moves, such as swinging a giant scythe or briefly gaining huge vampire wings.
I’m not going to spend the entire preview lamenting that it’s a hands-free demo, but man, I wish I could get my hands on a controller to poke around in the menus! Code Vein 2, like its predecessor, seems to benefit from simply trying out different things and seeing what is fun and effective, and even with only the options I saw in the demo, I feel like I could waste a lot of time wildly swinging around different combinations until I was joyful with my particular expression.
When that baby hits 88 miles per hour…
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see anything of one of Code Vein 2’s most intriguing key features: time travel. The action takes place in the present, where a terrible catastrophe happened in the past, and you and your companions can go back in time and change history. Even though you are strongly urged not to pry into the past, of course you do it anyway. I was told that most of the time you can travel freely between the past and the present (sometimes you will be prevented from doing so), and the things you do in the past can affect what happens in the present, even to the point of making it impossible to return to the present. However, I didn’t get to see it in action during the preview, so it’s difficult for me to say how extensive and engaging this piece is.
One more, slightly fan-like note – hey, I love Go Shiina’s music? Shiina returns as a composer for Code Vein 2 after working on Code Vein 1, and also composes for two of my favorite Tales games (don’t laugh at me for this): Tales of Legendia and Tales of Zestiria. Its perfection was on full display in both my preview and the story trailer I watched earlier, with soaring strings and disordered vocals set against the backdrop of Code Vein 2’s intense battles. Sign me up for another Shiina banger soundtrack, thanks!
While Bandai Namco has confirmed that Code Vein 2 is a complete departure from the first game’s story and universe, it’s familiar enough in terms of gameplay and style that I came away from it quite joyful with the direction we were heading. I’ve seen fans call it a “soft reboot,” and I think that’s an true summary: it follows the Code Vein philosophy without having to stick to the Wiki with the story. So far, nothing I’ve seen has shocked me, but I don’t think it has to be: everything good about Code Vein 1 is here, just bigger, shinier, and more slashed. Now let me tinker with the character creator for a few more minutes…
