Review: Code Vein II
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Travel through time and fight in the past to change the future.
THE GAME
Code Vein II is a soulslike game developed by Bandai Namco Studios Inc. and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. After being resurrected by Lou, we, acting as the protagonist of the story, are tasked with trying to avert the impending end of time, caused by past events linked to the heroes who sacrificed themselves to prevent a great evil from destroying everything. The heroes, acting as a seal, have lost strength over the years and can no longer contain the forces they once defended. With the help of Lou, who can travel through time, our mission is to go back to the past and alter events that culminated in the catastrophic events of the future. Explore the open world with the help of powerful partners who will accompany you and fight alongside you on this epic journey through time.
MY IMPRESSIONS
With an open world full of enemies that will torment you throughout your journey, Code Vein II has everything a soulslike should have, but a little more forgiving, if I may say so. Its gameplay follows the genre's model, with battles that require careful consideration of each step instead of reckless attacks, rest points that allow some enemies to respawn, and a limited healing item. Knowing when to attack, defend, or dodge is essential for your survival. Generally, you'll have more trouble against bosses and mini-bosses, carefully managing your abilities, attacks, and resources, while smaller enemies will only pose a challenge if they catch you off guard. In addition to your main weapon, you'll have some extra equipment that will give you more resources and options for your combat. Defensive equipment, as the name suggests, will give you defensive options, providing alternatives so you don't just have to dodge by rolling around. You'll have options like defending or parrying attacks, depending on the item you have equipped. Offensive equipment offers a wider range of attack options, from a bow and arrow to a giant scythe, each with its own purpose in combat, and you can add the one that best suits your fighting style. Finally, in addition to a secondary weapon and amulets, there are cells. These items allow you to perform a special attack on an enemy that has been marked after suffering a few hits. It's also important to mention that leveling up will increase all your stats together, and what will really define your character's build are the blood codes, which can be changed whenever you want, allowing you to change your playstyle whenever you see fit. Each weapon grants you a different range of special abilities, ranging from direct attacks to temporary damage enhancements, but pay attention to how many points each ability consumes, as you won't be able to just randomly unleash special attacks.
Despite being an open-world game, you are guided by missions and maps. To view complete maps, points on the map must be destroyed, revealing dungeons and areas in their entirety to make exploration easier. Eventually, you unlock a motorcycle, which makes it easier to move around open areas and helps cover long distances; however, they aren't very good for more thorough exploration, and you'll generally do that on foot, in addition to being able to make quick trips across the map. Is it stylish? Yes, but I didn't see much use for it.
The story isn't that exciting, even though it seems epic, with incredibly powerful beings involved and time travel. I couldn't connect with the characters, since the protagonist is a character I created, but he doesn't react the way I would or would like to react, for example. So, the connections, which are important to the story since that's how you get partners, seem superficial to me. Speaking of which, you'll always have a partner who effectively helps you in battles, even though you have the option to "recall" the partner if you want. Besides all the benefits they bring, in terms of status and effects, if you suffer fatal damage, meaning your hit points reach zero, they leave the battle and give you a second life. You might think it's easier to just run around and let your partner defeat all the monsters, right? Well, no. All damage dealt to enemies is represented by a white bar on the opponent's health, and you must attack for the damage to be applied because, if you don't attack, the enemy will recover this "temporary damage" over time.
The characters are all very stylish, mostly with gold details on shades of white and black, like noble divine creatures. Many items follow this pattern, adding sharp details that suggest danger. On the other hand, the scenarios aren't very exciting, doing their job without any brilliance. The enemy design, with the exception of the bosses, doesn't particularly stand out, often only varying in the type of weapon they wield, but it doesn't detract from the experience. Character customization is quite complete, with many options to personalize your character as you wish.
A game with so many different mechanics and items requires you to have many commands and menus, which is the case in Code Vein II. The problem is that it's easy to get lost, sometimes even forgetting how to access certain game features. The buttons to access some menus are not very intuitive and could be improved. The game's optimization is lacking. In a game where precise movement is essential, any lag or freeze disrupts the player's experience and generates a lot of frustration, especially since it's a soulslike where the difficulty will punish you. Overall, Code Vein II is an enjoyable experience for fans of the genre or for those who want to start in this world, and although it could improve in many aspects, it will be quite fun.
ACHIEVEMENTS
We can say that the achievements in Code Vein II are quite straightforward. I say this because none of them require the player to do anything very different from what they would normally do, such as exploring the game's basic mechanics related to in-game items and battles. Exploring the game as a whole will always be encouraged, as we can see in the achievements where you need to unlock all the maps. In addition to these achievements, we also have those related to bosses, which will serve as a reward for defeating them after sweating to overcome some of them. Finally, we have the achievements for each game ending. Despite being straightforward, completing all the achievements in Code Vein II will require both skill and curiosity, as well as time to explore the entire map. I consider it a manageable, yet laborious task.
CONCLUSION
My overall experience with Code Vein II was a rollercoaster. Just when I was having fun, something would come along to frustrate me. The beginning of the game bombards you with so much information about mechanics that you find yourself drowning in text for simple things. When the game lets go of your hand for a moment, it's quite fun to explore what's nearby, more so than going straight to the main mission, where you'll see a story in which the character you created is participating, but you don't feel any weight in it. Testing the different weapons and their abilities is much more satisfying, as is exploring some random dungeons, doing side missions, because I really can't care about the story and the characters.
Over time, Code Vein II becomes repetitive, both in terms of basic enemies and mission structure, which can make the game very tedious. The battles are cool, despite facing many problems due to poor game optimization, which prevented me from using all the mechanics the way they should be used. Still, it's a more user-friendly soulslike, a great entry point into the genre.
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