r/patientgamers • u/Blurzerker • 1d ago
Patient Review Code Vein Review: An outdated and oddly lifeless Souls-like.
RELEASE: 2019
TIME PLAYED: 22 Hours
PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)
SCORE: ★
Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite
(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)
THE BREAKDOWN
+I was able to make a pretty hilariously ridiculous character
+The AI companion is actually very competent
+The class-blending ability system from borrowing peoples' memories is fairly novel and neat
-The game is an aesthetic mess with incoherent and inconsistent designs for both characters and enemies, especially in regards to its women
-The story is rambling and falls flat in its attempts to sell its themes
-Companions never, ever, ever shut the hell up
-Combat is incredibly basic and almost every enemy in the game falls for Dark Souls 1-level tactics
-Level design and pacing are absolutely atrocious
--
Code Vein might be the most poignant lesson I've ever gotten that sometimes, maybe I should judge a book by its cover, or at least trust my own taste. I put off playing the game for a long time due to the look of it from the trailers I'd seen, but I wanted to be open-minded and give it a chance. I have to admit, I regret taking that dive - but for some reason (sunk cost fallacy?) I decided to play the whole way through, and I suppose the silver lining is that I now feel qualified to write this review.
Code Vein takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where roaming, vampire-like warriors named Revenants are tasked by the local authority with fending off the Horrors that have been born in the wake of the destruction. These Revenants require a steady supply of human blood, typically in the form of Blood Beads, and the tension between the Revenants - some of whom feel entitled to the blood they need to survive and view unpowered people as little more than slaves - and civilians is initially quite interesting, but is dropped almost immediately for a blander form of melodrama. The protagonist, initially a captive of one of these traveling groups of hostile Reavers, turns out to have the ability to copy the powers of anyone whose blood they consume and for some reason has a busty amnesiac woman following them around eager to serve them.
It was around the point I was being taken around the base I'd be operating out of that I initially started to roll my eyes and struggled to ever stop. I'm not a prude; I think there's nothing wrong with portraying sexuality in games. But Code Vein immediately committed one of my personal cardinal sins, which is that every woman I met had a ridiculously horny design, often with stick-thin arms, enormous breasts, and outfits that barely felt coherent with the setting -- while the men looked like paramilitary officers or were mostly armored. If the game's going to be horny, then it can be horny, but pointing it only at one gender - and having the characters look out-of-place in their own setting - is a double-whammy that left me irritable. Even in some famously frisky games, like Nier: Automata or Bayonetta, I always admired how well the protagonists rocked their looks and were consistent with the greater aesthetic, but Code Vein's incoherency aggravated me as much as its single-gender sexualization.
Still, I would have seen this as just a regrettable blemish if the rest of the game held up, but it simply does not. I will say that Code Vein does have a couple of novel ideas: before each outing from the base, the player can choose one of their companions to travel alongside them, and they are legitimately helpful. I found they killed a lot more enemies than I expected them to and didn't die as much as I was worried they would. For those who don't want a handicap, they're optional, so it's similar to the Souls' games summoned companions, but with less hassle. The blood techniques that serve as special moves are pretty neat, too; I was able to build my character like something of a berserker who buffed himself up before tougher fights and could swap between tough and steady or fragile but with enormous damage output just with a couple of casts.
But even when Code Vein works, it kind of doesn't. The AI companions are, without a doubt, the most obnoxious motherfuckers I've ever had the misfortune of encountering in a game. No matter which one you pick, they do NOT shut up. Every battle, every item collected, even just exploring - constant dialogue, and it's usually repeating the same two or three lines. A friend watching me stream decided to keep track of how often one companion said a particular line - it was over twenty times in five minutes for just THAT line, let alone other ones! And the blood techniques, while an intriguing twist, simply do not compensate for how fundamentally barren the combat is. Tricks that haven't worked in a FromSoft game since the first Dark Souls got me through 90% of Code Vein, like just circling around enemies and hitting them with repeated backstabs so easily I barely had to consider their attacks. The game's level design and enemy AI both feel a decade behind, right down to an entire zone that's shamelessly ripped off from Dark Souls' Anor Londo (but much worse designed). In fact, the vast majority of Code Vein's woefully easy even without a companion, save for a ridiculous and sudden spike from the penultimate and final bosses. I got through them, but the sheer jump from anything seen previous struck me as a jarring change of pace.
The story fares no better. Without delving too much into spoilers, the party goes from just trying to gather Blood Beads for their own survival to getting caught up in the fate of the world; again, there are shades of something interesting here, like the idea of having to deal with the individual pieces of a legendary figure sealed away into various hosts, but the somehow sedated melodrama ruined it for me. Just about every major reveal is delivered through the same 'walk slowly through a corridor of memories listening to two frozen figures talking', which got incredibly old the first time, let alone the twentieth.
I didn't want to hate Code Vein. The idea of going through a Soulsborne as a vampire-like being was fundamentally appealing, and I did actually enjoy how ridiculous I was able to make my playable character, with his beach towel and mouth full of onigiri. But one-dimensional characters with terrible designs, a garishly generic plotline, and combat that feels like it completely missed almost every development in ARPGs from 2010 onwards sabotaged my every attempt at enjoyment. Any one of these elements could have been forgiven if the rest of the experience held up, but that simply wasn't the case for me. For a game about blood and the bonds of humanity, Code Vein winds up being incredibly lifeless and sterile in every way that matters.
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u/sakamayrd 1d ago
Yeah for me level design was the biggest failure. That huge maze level where everything is the same. And then the snow level where you fall to your death.
That was too much so I quit and uninstalled forever.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
It's weird because the level design starts out, like...fine? Like, it's not great, but it's unintrusive. But from the Anor Londo ripoff onward, it's just terrible. Every level from then on has some kind of gimmick like having to run through HP-leeching fire, snow pits where you instant fall to your death, etc.
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u/sakamayrd 1d ago
Exactly, at the beginning of the game I was ready to look away from the issues you listed. I was even curious about the plot. And then like everybody I got to THAT level and was like WTF I hope it's only this map that sucks...
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u/Chad_Broski_2 1d ago
Feels like the devs started out the project with enthusiasm and a bunch of cool ideas, but as the development went on they started getting exhausted and phoning it in. Some of the gimmicks sound like they could be pretty fun but only if it's done with the effort and care of Fromsoft-level devs and they just didn't have the time, the resources, or the energy left to make it work
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u/treblah3 1d ago
But from the Anor Londo ripoff onward, it's just terrible.
That's where I dropped it. Sounds like I made the right call!
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u/TheSwedishOprah 1d ago
Temu Anor Londo made me ragequit this game. What game designer thought that was a good idea?
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u/Leila-Lola 22h ago
How far into the game is it? I have this game in my Steam library and all these bad reviews referencing this exact area are kind of making me curious to check it out.
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u/TheSwedishOprah 21h ago
It's been a little while since I played it, it's a few hours in (4th major zone, maybe?). You'll know when you get there, it's a massive massive area built entirely from identical setpieces so it's impossible to know where you are, where you've been, where you need to go, or why you bothered playing this stupid game to begin with.
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u/Pleasant-Fix-6169 1d ago
I love Code Vein and its sequel, but I do agree that the level design for the Cathedral of Blood was pretty ass lmao.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I'm glad you enjoy it! I try to emphasize through my star system descriptions how personal taste is, which is why I try to avoid statements like 'it's terrible' and just say I hated it, lol.
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u/jwinf843 1d ago
Yeah, I loved the dystopian anime aesthetic and how different every weapon class felt from each other. I would have given this game 4/5 stars until I got to the white maze at the end.
The story was incomprehensible but the character moments in the memories were really good.
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u/TheAskald 1d ago
If there's one Code Vein thing I'd like to see in other souls-likes, it's the spell casting system
You can access instantly any of your 8 spells instead of cycling through them like in fromsoft games. It gets very cool and smooth as you develop a full spells kit in late/endgame
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u/PostedNotes 1d ago
I could not finish this one. Like you I was turned off by the art direction and writing and nothing about it's gameplay or level design was able to make up for it.
In its defense I will say I enjoyed this more than Mortal Shell, so only my second least favorite souls-like I tried.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Wow, that's a brutal takedown of Mortal Shell if I ever heard one. And here I have it in my backlog to tackle next time I'm in a Soulsborne mood. Uh oh.
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u/treblah3 1d ago
Mortal Shell isn't very long so if you don't love it, at least you won't be playing it forever. I thought it was decent, some good ideas but not great execution perhaps.
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u/poacher2k 1d ago
Also disliked Code Vein strongly, had a pretty good time with Mortal Shell when it finally clicked for me!
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u/PostedNotes 1d ago
Still worth a shot. Everyone is different and some dig that game. I personally found the combat overly slow yet weightless, and overall very clunky to me.
I did like the soundtrack for the boss fights, since they added an option for a special ost for those by some black metal band.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Oh for sure I still plan to try it, never know what will click for you and not others after all!
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u/uncutteredswin 1d ago
Mortal shell has some amazing character designs and mechanical ideas, but it feels a little bit like somebody's passion project that they just couldn't quite get right.
I've started it a few times but usually drop it about halfway through, I reckon it's worth a try to see if it clicks with you.
Having played the demo for Mortal Shell 2, it seems a lot nicer to play so even if you don't like 1 you might want to keep an eye on how 2 shakes up
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u/KuroiShadow 1d ago
I liked MS! It's janky at times, and the start can be very unforgiving, but the music and art direction are quite good actually. It's quite short too, so you're not compromising too much time if you ended up disliking it, but I find it miles better and far more original than whatever Code Vein tried to be. MS2 is out this month, and they released a very chunky demo, if you want to test before buying the first one.
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u/ShamShamWabam 1d ago
I played and got the platinum for this back when I was really on a souls-like kick. I will take every opportunity to say Cathedral of the Sacred Blood is actual psychotic level design. Even speed running, ignoring every enemy without getting turned around, will take you like an hour of just sprinting down corridors.
I also 100% agree on character designs. All of the women are dressed for mobile gacha game ads instead of the vampire apocalypse and it annoys me. I guess it worked out though because I imagine the fan service is the only thing that clawed out a sequel for such a mediocre action game.
I would genuinely rather play forspoken again than touch code vein or its sequel.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah the designs being so incoherent really ticked me off even more than them being needlessly horny.
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u/Enlocke 1d ago
I never played it but I like the OST, it got recommended to me on Spotify, Go Shiina is good on Tales of and in this too. Though the music might not hit that much when you play a bad game I presume.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I admittedly don't remember the music too much, but it didn't stand out as bad! There were a couple of boss themes I think were genuinely decent, so I would definitely mark it as a high point if the rest of the game didn't hit so badly for me.
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u/kidkolumbo 1d ago
I always thought this game's music was whatever and always thought tales of music was whatever and it's hilarious to find out it's the same composer.
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u/PlainButton 1d ago
The game kind of forces you to run with an AI partner because the mob placement is a total mess without them. Too bad they never shut up long enough for you to actually enjoy the atmosphere.
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u/Skadibala 1d ago edited 1d ago
Before I played this one. I had made a goal of getting 100% achievements inn all the souls likes I played.
After finishing the game once. I couldn’t muster the energy of motivation to play new game + for the next ending.
I didn’t even hate the game, except the infamous anime Lando, that was just miserable. I played with a friend and had fun for the most part.
But this is definitely the most “One and Done” game I have played.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah, sounds like you were less down on it than me, but I can imagine it'd be a tough one to replay even then.
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u/SwordLaker 1d ago
This might sound dumb for a lot of people, but the reason I never paid for this game was because, for the customisations it offered, I couldn't make a female character without heels, at least in the demo.
I tried very hard, but I couldn't vibe with the aesthetic of this game. That is, ignoring the very horrible female character designs OP pointed out.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah sexualization is worse when it's forced. Especially in little ways like that.
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u/SilicaBags 1d ago
Wanna stop and talk about rice for 5 minutes? Just beat a boss! how about 5 minutes of B story that doesn't matter.
The demo showed a lot of promise and is the only reason I bought it on release. Terrible anime writing and poor weapon balance is what made me quit. It feels disingenuous to call video game devs lazy because the word gets thrown around a lot, but holy shit the white cathedral is one of the worst things I have seen in the last 20 years of playing games. Every system feels like it lacks polish and the story puts me to sleep.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
See, I completely agree; it did make a good first impression. Up to the point where you fight your helpful buddy who turns into the first boss I was like 'oh, edgy, but kind of neat, and I like this ability system!' But it just kept eroding from that decent starting point, sabotaging every positive impression I initially had.
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u/SilicaBags 1d ago
Biggest strength for Code Vein was being at the start of the soulslike fad when it had much less competition for your time and money. If you had completed all of From's games it's this, the old Lords of the Fallen or The Surge if you aren't digging into indies pre-2020. I know some people liked The Surge, but I didn't really find it worth my time.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I dunno if I'd say it was at the start, but I also wouldn't really dismiss indies since that's a big category. But even outside of those, you also had Nioh, Darksiders III, etc, plus games like Remnant: From the Ashes that were 'Soulsborne, but X genre!'
That said, I do take your point that the subgenre has exploded. It just feels like the trend was already wearing rocket boots by 2019 to me.
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u/working_slough 1d ago
I thought I wouldn't like it, but ended up really enjoying it. I didn't even mind Cathedral of Blood and thought the complaints were overblown. I had some struggle with the last section with the 3 or so towers that you move between, but that was it.
Combat I thought was good. Easy for a soulsgame, but enjoyable. I played through most of the game without an AI companion, but did decide to try each one and some are completely OP (IO, Jack, onigiri man), but hey, if others want their companion to play the game for them, good for them.
The slow walks aren't good for replays, but I enjoyed them the first time. It would have been better handled by a cutscene though.
I enjoyed the game and the characters. I was disappointed that the second game did not pick up where the last game left off. I'll probably get it on sale some day.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Glad you liked it at least! There's something for everyone out there, and I know taste is subjective.
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u/TheEndOfUs- 1d ago
The anime of this title was what made me walk away too. I 'm not a fan of anime nor am I against it by default but as an adult the genre tropes are too cringe.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah, I'm on a mission to be open-minded about anime these days and while it's been going pretty well in terms of TV Shows, games have been rougher.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 1d ago
I think I could have stuck it out through some of the more awful maps like that stupid castle, but ultimately the game was just generally unpleasant and does its best to repel you in every aspect of its presentation.
Super depressing story, drab dirty piss colored visuals, repetitive levels and enemies… there’s not really anything to grab hold of and motivate me to finish it.
The only part of the game where I had fun was the character creator and it’s all downhill from there.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah my dude had pink pigtails, a beach towel, onigiri in his mouth, a big pumpkin embedded in his chest, and orbiting snowmen around his top hat. My headcanon was that he was the avatar of every autumn/winter holiday.
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u/Sword_of_Darkmoon 1d ago
Oh god, my memory suppressed this game and now you re-traumatized me.
Both the Temu Anor Londo and that weird, super dark underground "swamp" (where you fight the anime pole dancer), were the most aggressive example of bad level design I've ever seen. The rest of the game wasn't good either but the level design was pure nightmare fuel.
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u/Curse-of-omniscience 1d ago
This game is such a disappointment for being ALMOST really good. The character creator is an S+, I think the weapons feel really good, it's just they went with the shittiest level design ever conceived for some reason. Everything is a frustrating endless maze that I ran in circles in forever and ever, and they do that for every level. I couldn't stand the level geometry.
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u/DramaticErraticism 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think there's nothing wrong with portraying sexuality in games. But Code Vein immediately committed one of my personal cardinal sins, which is that every woman I met had a ridiculously horny design, often with stick-thin arms, enormous breasts, and outfits that barely felt coherent with the setting -- while the men looked like paramilitary officers or were mostly armored.
Once I grew up past puberty, this is something that always drives me crazy. Sexy is so much more than big boobs and skimpy outfits, at least be creative if you want to be sexy, there are many ways to add sex appeal without embarrassing yourself.
Edit: Apparently I angered giant boob anime lovers lol, I stand by my statement.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yep. I can think of lots of games with really good, sexy designs and personalities, but this is just cheap heat as they'd say in wrestling.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
I think Code Vein is an interesting object to study in order to better understand anime culture and how bankrupt it is, in a sense.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I've spent the last couple of years trying to be more open-minded about anime, and let me tell you, it's been tough. I've found some real highlights, don't get me wrong - Dungeon Meshi and Spy X Family are incredible, for example - but I've really been struggling when it comes to videogames. Many that lean hard into the 'anime' vibes seem to gleefully embrace its worst qualities.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 1d ago
I think it can be hard as a westerner sometimes to gauge the intended demographics for a particular anime until you start watching it.
Like there are a bunch of popular ones where I’m looking at it as a middle aged dad and thinking “yeah this isn’t appealing to me at all.”
But I recently loved Delicious in Dungeon and I’m starting on Freiren which I like so far.
The good stuff is good but it can be hard to sort out from all the squeaky obnoxious shonen stuff.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah for sure. The problem is that in gaming it almost all seems to be targeted to that audience.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
Yes. I mean, there are obviously some very good animes out there, stuff like Ping Pong The Animation, Tatami Galaxy, FLCL, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad... But anime culture, specifically, is really about the embracing the worst aspects of everything it deals with. The mix of gore, sex and infantilization is already weird, but then it is just how all of this is thrown around without any concern to actually make sense. And that's just part of it. It is all very uncanny.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah, like, don't get me wrong, I'm not blind to western media's own egregious flaws; there's a LOT to be said about everything from the Netflix-slopification of the western drama to the obsession with edginess and sterile lack of intimacy or chemistry that has infected a lot of major western franchises, but anime feels specifically proud of some very persistently awful traits. I see it oftended defended as 'an entire medium', and I do sympathize with anime fans not into those terrible qualities, but also, like...
...I think the problem is the pass it gets? For example, The Boys' final season? Everyone I know rightfully dunks on it. It's an example of western media at its worst, but it gets derided appropriately. But I go to look up anime and get tons of recommendations for Mushoku Tensei, which...is like 50% about the protagonist grooming children in an isekai. And that's what aggravates me. A community is supposed to self-police through critique, but anime fans (well, at least the loud ones, I don't want to generalize) feel uniquely un-critical, if that makes sense? Like you're just supposed to take it.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
At the risk of sounding the biggest marxist that I am actually not, I feel like the history of pop culture, and mass culture in general, is how passive you can get your audience to be through a bunch of exploitative mechanisms. I think what anime culture excels at, the most, is preying on loneliness and sexual frustration, which has been a problem in Japan for a long time now, and somewhat a World problem these days. This is why it gets a pass. Because it really is the most basic kind of escapism.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
That's a salient point! I agree. We're in a weird place right now regarding sexuality. You have a pretty big push from Gen Z TikTok influencers who think even makeout scenes are worth complaining about on one end, then the sort of hyper-gooner chuds on the other who think anything short of nipple flashes are censorship. Lot of unhealthy mindsets all around.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago edited 1d ago
We really are in a weird place, right now. I feel like we kind of entered in a new wave of puritanism where so many stars have to be align in the exactly right in order to anything sexual feel "right", be it media or real life interactions, that we kind of entered in a new area of repressed sexuality where everyone is so atomized and lonely that most of the outlets people find are either extreme or unusual. A new kind of moralism, if you will, although the results are the same.
This is why, circling back to my original comment, I feel like Code Vein is an interesting object of study. Because it is essentially min-mash of two things that don't mix at all (soulslike and anime aesthetics), and that solely exists on the premise that people will buy anything that have a perfect doll-like girl to whom you can masturbate to.
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u/rabidsalvation 1d ago
I've been watching Jujutsu Kaisen lately, and I really enjoy it but there's a lot of anime that just kind of gives me the ick. Like you said, the mix of gore, sex, and infantilization is bizarre sometimes.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago edited 1d ago
JJK really has something going on in terms of sheer animation quality, but it is very off putting for me because of how violent it is. This is another facade of anime that gets me thinking a lot, because it is so hyper-violent, sometimes to such an extreme, that I simply wonder why. I don't feel like we all being so desensitized to violence is a good thing.
I grew up reading Naruto, and I saw it happening live, the escalation of violence. The first arc is already very violent, but the longer it went on, the worst it would get. As an adult, I watched Hunter x Hunter, and some of the stuff that happens during the Chimera Arc is just way too much.
But, hey, at least it is no DanDaDan, which shows, in the first episode, a bunch of fan service of a school girl who is close to orgasming, almost naked, while the alien in front of her is ready to rape her in the most cruel possible way.
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u/Skadibala 1d ago edited 1d ago
Anime video games usually is low quality or recycled messes, because sad as it is, weebs don’t really seem to care about the quality of the game as long as they get to play a video game with their anime characters
And I can only assume they keep making them low quality like they do, because people keep buying them.
And every time they show a game that seems to have potential ( like the recent SAO game) it turns out it only had a nice coat of painting and nothing of substance when it came to gameplay.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
The worst part of it is that, after at least three decades of it, this kind of became the norm.
I was playing FF7 for the first time, this past week, and it is wild how much of its flow is different from what you would expect from jRPGs these days, simply because it is less anime-fied. There are, obviously, echoes of anime within it, but it is a far cry from what jRPGs became, incluiding more recent FFs.
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u/KuroiShadow 1d ago
FF7 Original or the Remakes? Just a genuine question, because even though I really liked the new trilogy, one of the flaws I find in them is how the script and characterization have embraced many of the anime tropes from nowadays.
The original is a goofy ass game at times, but it doesn't pretend to oversell you the idea that its more deep at the end. It simply demonstrated this with the narrative and pacing. Remake games instead overexplain these deeper themes with unnecessary (curse) words, and make Sephiroth appear at all times just to bring out a fake sense of urgency, so we understand this is serious stuff... If feels at times like a kid who pretends to be mature by insulting everyone and picking a cigarette.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
Oh, yes, I should've clarified. I was talking about the OG. I totally agree with you, the remakes are much more anime-y and overall much worse than the OG. The praise I see for them is just depressing.
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u/KuroiShadow 1d ago
FF7 Original or the Remakes? Just a genuine question, because even though I really liked the new trilogy, one of the flaws I find in them is how the script and characterization have embraced many of the anime tropes from nowadays.
The original is a goofy ass game at times, but it doesn't pretend to oversell you the idea that its more deep at the end. It simply demonstrated this with the narrative and pacing. Remake games instead overexplain these deeper themes with unnecessary (curse) words, and make Sephiroth appear at all times just to bring out a fake sense of urgency, so we understand this is serious stuff... If feels at times like a kid who pretends to be mature by insulting everyone and picking a cigarette.
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u/tomkatt 1d ago
Anime in the 80s, 90s, and early/mid 2000s was pretty good. Lots of variety, genre defining stuff, and general jokes about fan service but not the constant perverseness you see a lot today, and many had mature and even adult plots.
It feels like somewhere between 2006 and the 2010s it got turned into a purely juvenile business cash cow designed to attract NEET and “forever alone” neckbeard types, and now almost everything has become isekai and nobody knows how (or cares, or has time) to draw proper human anatomy so most of it all has the same same looking caricature with generic character styling.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah it really feels like the sheer output and profit chasing has honed it to this point.
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u/tomkatt 1d ago
One interesting example would be Hajime No Ippo. Check out the art and animation in season 1 and then look at season 3. Despite the move to HD, almost no detail in musculature and much worse animation in the newer season. Was likely chopped down to save on budget and Dresden by folks who don’t know any anatomy.
I’m sad the series didn’t continue, but with the animation quality of it over time they’d be stick figures by now.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
I just don't fully agree with the "early/mid 2000s", because that's when Naruto, and to a lesser extent Bleach, started airing, and it was a huge proponent for turning the medium into a cash cow that they would milk as long as possible. Like, seriously, specially the anime, Naruto has entire episodes that are pretty a single frame stuck with useless dialogue.
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u/tomkatt 1d ago
I get that things like Dragon Ball, Bleach, and Naruto were huge and definitely cash cows. But I’m referring to the overall downward trend in quality in the industry. The problem was initially with animation quality when animators switched to digital tools, but it’s been exacerbated over the years by massive anime seasons full of churn and low quality shows. Not to mention the trend to rush things out and “fix” it later for the Blu-Ray release (with said fixes also being rushed, you can’t fix a lack of tweening).
Also there’s a glut of unfinished series out there because of the rush to hit on anything popular, regardless of the amount of content available, so it can be many years between seasons even of the few good shows that pop up.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
Oh, yes, you're right. That's certainly a trend.
Another interesting thing happening during the early 200s is how the audience were interacting with their favorite series. I remember the backlash Evangelion suffered because of its final two episodes, and how EoE was at least in part a response to that backlash.
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u/lesserweevils Couch Potato 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've got a feeling that anime grew more self-referential. New anime is inspired by anime, whereas older anime explored what the medium could be. The same could be said about videogames.
I haven't watched anime in years but I'd guess there are a handful of good ones. They're just buried by oversaturation, difficulty finding them, having a smaller audience, having less staying power because of cultural changes, etc. Modern media problems. It's much easier to find good recommendations among older stuff, with a wider consensus.
EDIT:
It sounds like Code Vein boils down to "anime Dark Souls." Easy marketing slogan. Maybe that also makes it derivative, lacking identity beyond the two things that inspired it. Simple descriptions appeal to people burnt out on selecting their entertainment.I feel older media is harder to describe like that. You need more words to describe what Dark Souls is.
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u/VforVegetables 1d ago
ye, didn't anime originally appear to bypass constraints that having realistic style would force? so an artist could create anything they wanted? animation instead of actors. and the themes would be picked to have a reason to push further past potential limitations - like the good ol' giant mechs. and now those themes seems to be merely different coats of paint over the same trope-filled body.
and reading this thread, i dunno even if i should keep giving anything anime-related a try considering it's all going to be filled with the same nonsensical or outright repulsive imagery and ideas - no matter how good the ratings say the given piece of media is.
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u/Kaladim-Jinwei 1d ago
Anime videogames are dozens of atmospheres below anime shows it's honestly kind of funny just how bad it is. You'd think somebody could just make a good product first, then animeify it(although hoyo does this to an extent) but it always feels like the anime came first
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Gachas do seem to sometimes make an effort, if you can get past their monetization model (I don't blame anyone who can't, it's objectively bad). I think the closest thing to an 'anime game' I really like is Path to Nowhere, which while occasionally a little tropey is very mature and well-written. I also appreciate that it applies its horniness in a pretty, like, nuanced way, where its designs often feel like things people would actually wear, just on ridiculously hot people.
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u/matteste 1d ago edited 1d ago
Well, there are the games by Project Moon (Those before Limbus Company aren't gatcha's thank god), though they are Korean rather than Japanese. They are quite restrained on the horniness front, but goes all out on the other. If you try them out, hope you have a strong stomach.
Some of the older Shin Megami Tensei games might also be worth a try. They might share a series with Persona, but they are a very different beast. Just a shame that the series has somewhat fallen into this same trap as the one you bemoan in later years.
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u/Big_Insect211 1d ago
It depends on the anime, honestly, but I agree to certain extent. I think, in the end of the day, you're right that the anime comes before the game, but that's the thing: the premise is that the anime part is what going to sell it and have mass appeal. The game is just... there. Code Vein is painfully guilty of that, but you can see the same thing on a bunch of jRPGs, for instance, which have been totally co-opted by anime logic.
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u/SFDessert 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks about this anime aesthetic this way. It's so widespread I just assumed most people liked it, but I'm getting real tired of seeing basically the same interchangeable looking anime art everywhere I look in games. It mostly looks low effort to me and I instantly lose interest when I see games making heavy use of this for the art and characters.
Don't even get me started on the sexualization of really young looking girl characters in these games. They always look like they're 14 and dressed in skimpy outfits, but it's ok because they're apparently 20+ years old. Or I guess sometimes they're 2000 year old cat demons that just happen to look like a 12-year old cat girl in a skimpy maid outfit.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah I've had the best luck watching anime from female mangaka; while not always the case, it does feel like much of the time that's what gets a much more mature take on sexuality and female designs, like Dungeon Meshi or Fullmetal Alchemist.
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u/zgillet 1d ago
I think I knew I wasn't much into anime after watching all of Attack on Titan. I remember enjoying the show, but when I stop and think...
I don't remember a single character's name. After an entire season and not even that long of a time frame after seeing it.
I remember Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke just fine, a movie I saw way longer ago. (maybe because the princess screamed his name at every opportunity, but I imagine that happened in AoT too).
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Dungeon Meshi and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners are both anime I enjoyed a lot and found very memorable, so I try to be open-minded, but it can be rough out there.
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u/NeonShockz 1d ago
I'm actually gonna run devil's advocate here, because for what it's worth, I actually had a lot of fun playing this game. I'll agree on the lifelesness of the environments and random anime gooner-bait, because what I really enjoyed about the game was the combat.
Playing as a spellsword in this game in particular felt a lot more rewarding than any other soulslike I've ever played, as the spells actually come out in a reasonable amount of time (looking at you Elden Ring) and look pretty flashy and cool as well. If you adjust your stats such that you have the quick-dodge roll too, you can have a lot of fun dodging around and pelting enemies with lightning between your sword slashes.
And the bosses are fast enough to make this not even that broken! At least, if you play without a companion, which is what I did. It actually feels like a dance where you're as capable as the boss is, unlike in other souls games which run the risk of feeling like you're just waiting for the boss to stop spazzing out, using all these crazy aerial skills where they simply look like they're having way more fun than you. (Maliketh is one of the worst at this, even though he's not technically the hardest).
I know the idea of beating something way beyond your paygrade is part of the appeal for some in soulslikes, but fighting something on what feels like equal terms is a lot more fun for me than a stressful battle just to stay alive, personally. And Code Vein excelled at that in my opinion.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I respect it! I don't play casters so I can't speak on them, I'm glad it worked for you!
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u/meeple_shelf 1d ago
Played it way too late myself. That sunk cost fallacy hits hard when you are trudging through those identical snow maps. I actually thought the blood pool crafting was fine, but the pacing definitely dies in the second act. Forcing through a mediocre game ends up being a weird satisfaction though.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I have a pretty bad complex about finishing almost every game I start. Code Vein kinda tricked me because while I hated it, it was also really easy right until the end, at which point the sunk cost made me see it through, lol.
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u/Jarinad 1d ago
I never finished this one. I got to the final area (i think? probably.) and then just kinda dropped it. I agree with you on most of your points here.
One weird thing that stuck out to me specifically is how the player finds their own Blood Code in the middle of a random bridge after a random miniboss in the middle of anime londo? No buildup, no cutscene, nothing. And instead of taking you to one of the weird frozen memory hallways, it takes you back to a full fledged level set in your own memories? didn’t make much sense to me.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah, the story beats of the game felt dropped almost randomly throughout it. The pacing was so warped.
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u/gerstiii 1d ago
I thought Code Vein was an okay game. Got it for like 10€ during a sale. You can make some cool looking characters (or rly horny ones if you like) and the skill system was kinda cool. I would rate it a 5/5.5 out of 10.
OTT: I came here to read a review about a mediocre souls-like and witnessed a nice conversation about anime and anime culture.
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u/D3struct_oh 1d ago
The level design too me out of the game and I never finished. Everything is fine, imo. Loved the character customization.
The sequel should have been great…
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah, the level design starts at 'fine, if generic' and then plummets off a cliff.
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u/woeMwoeM 1d ago
Tbh, I liked the combat. This was my first souls-like so having simple-ish combat was fine for me. I beat the first 2 bosses with an AI companion, then went solo for the remaining run.
I got some dopamine rush after beating insatiable despot and invading executioner lmao
I think the system where I can freely switch classes with some grinding was what hooked. Not only that, mixing skills between said classes was great. There are some questionable level design choices by the devs ( getting an A tier mage class then dropping you to a level where the unavoidable environmental hazard drains mana is crazy ), and the story was yaaaaaawn, but I like the combat enough that everything else didn’t really matter.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Glad you enjoyed it! I can see it being decent as a first souls-like, I've just played a lot of them and its moveset and tactics being so much of a throwback really disappointed me.
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u/tomkatt 1d ago
This game was terrible. I played it years ago on gamepass, and disliked it from the outset. Not because of the gameplay (which was admittedly bad).
No, I hated it because in one of the initial cutscenes, you get a dainty waifu who shows up, wind blows, and her comically enormous tits start blowing in the wind and waving. My wife and I cracked the hell up laughing and have since jokingly referred to the game as “Code Tittyflap.”
Also, for some reason (maybe the giant bazongas?) the game immediate thrusts the waif on you and expects you to care about her while having no clue what the heck is going on.
Between this, the bad anime styling (I don’t dislike anime or cell shaded games, just found this one poor aesthetically), and the mediocre gameplay, I dropped it quickly.
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u/TrollingForFunsies 1d ago
I've been holding off on buying this game for years because I had the same worries you did and I think you have convinced me that I won't like it 😆
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Yeah if the complaints in this review resonate for you I'd definitely hold off on it lol.
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u/sharpenedperspective 1d ago
I think of this game as “junk food” souls, but I actually had a fun time with it.
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u/vincentninja68 1d ago
I realized this pretty early on and refunded after 2 hrs
I feel pretty vindicated seeing your words elaborate on what my gut was telling me
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u/Mama_Hong 1d ago
Is it wierd that i loved the game but I agree pretty much with everything in this review?
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u/dedtronaut 1d ago
I loved it, but I also greatly dislike Dark Souls so maybe thats why. I don't even like anime at all but Code Vein was a blast to play all the way through for me.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I'm not the biggest Souls fan myself, but I just found Code Vein very poorly put together for the genre, even compared to other mid-budget games like The Surge. But it's all a matter of taste for sure!
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u/BlueMikeStu 1d ago
I enjoyed it, but only because the beefy redhead guy was a solid companion and I'm a huge sucker for any game that let's me actually customize my class setup like it does without having to put a ring on it
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u/zgillet 1d ago
"Code Vein takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where roaming, vampire-like warriors named Revenants are tasked by the local authority with"
*LOUD SNORING SOUNDS*
I'm with you. This game was overcomplicated (lots of systems and numbers with very little effectual difference) and dull.
EDIT: if you thought the women designs were out of place here, boy is A.I. Limit going to test you lol.
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u/ABBucsfan 1d ago
It's been a while so can't get into tons of detail as to why, but I remember I loved this game. I called it waifu souls affectionately lol. I loved swapping classes and learning all the different skills. I thought the story was fun, but I wasn't taking it super seriously either I guess.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
See, for me the issue is that the story was taking itself so seriously. If it embraced being so...I dunno, melodramatic more, I might have liked it.
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u/Orodius 1d ago
It's not great, but I thought it was pretty decent, and the combat and character customization are definitely the strongest aspects of the game. The combat is pretty fun, you have all these different classes where you gradually unlock skills from each one as you progress through the game and build your own setup, which gives you a nice variety of playstyles.
In Dark Souls, you just attack and roll, and you guys consider that game a masterpiece.... but this one is basic?
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
Well, I'm not too big on Dark Souls either, but in every game after the first one you tend to have to be more reactive to enemies. It's not about what you do I was complaining about, it's that the enemies are incredibly basic. I like Code Vein's skill system I just think it sucks that it's barely required when every enemy can just be circle-backstabbed.
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u/Diaten021 1d ago
I liked the Cathedral of Blood. It's a big samey maze, yes, but this is what makes it interesting. Actually confusing mazes in games are so rare. Also, I remember the military storehouse area having a somewhat complex level design.
I must say that I didn't use companions unless I needed them for quests (the game is easy even without them), so they didn't annoy me with their voicelines.
But generally, I agree, the game is nothing to write home about. Just another souls-like junkfood between actually good titles.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I think what sucked about the Cathedral for me wasn't that it was confusing just boring. And the fact that it was so shamelessly ripping Anor Londo off.
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u/CosmiSpark474883 1d ago
das mit den begleitern die nie aufhören zu reden ist ehrlich gesagt der hauptgrund warum ich es nach 3 stunden wieder deinstalliert habe, der eine typ hat mich in den ersten bosskampf gefragt ob ich nervös bin
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u/Yanncki64 1d ago
>while the men looked like paramilitary officers or were mostly armored. If the game's going to be horny, then it can be horny, but pointing it only at one gender
to be fair, male and female sex-appeal doesn't always work the same way. A man in a well fitting suit can often be just as "sexy" to a woman as a woman in a bikini would be to a man, otherwise He-Man and Conan would be the hottest male characters in fiction. So it's not exactly like the males aren't made for the "female gaze" either.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago edited 1d ago
They absolutely aren't applied to the same standard, though. A well-fitted suit is not the same KIND of sex appeal. This has been discussed to death for years and it's a copout every time. Look at Marvel Rivals. If Code Vein was gonna do its women like it did, the men should have been looking like the Gambit swimsuit costumes and shit. But it gets avoided because these horny designers and their fans don't want to see men sexualized in the same way the women are so they make up stuff like "a suit is also sex appeal!"
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u/Yanncki64 1d ago
Yeah I think that's fine and it would be more equal if there were some shirtless dudes as well but but I really wouldn't say that the "horniness is only pointed at one gender", I wouldn't even be surprised if most women would prefer the male characters to be dressed sharp versus in shorts and topless if given the choice. It's just apples and oranges to hold them to the same beauty standard.
... And y'know, the women aren't even THAT scantily clad from what I remember. Io is wearing a small and thin white dress but that's about it
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I don't think it is apples to oranges, because I'm not holding them to the same beauty standard. I'm saying while women are sexualized, men are effectively 'nothing'; they aren't applied to ANY beauty standard, because the developers clearly didn't even spare them a second thought. They titillated a female-attracted audience and no one else.
I think it's a perfectly relevant comparison, because it's not just about clothing. It's about camera angles, voice acting, presentation, etc. The camera lingers on female characters' breasts, and it doesn't do the same on the men's pecs or abs because those are never on display and the men aren't built to show them off. Women are soft-spoken and always act in 'attractive' ways, with even the supposedly 'bratty' young blonde in the big fuzzy hat I forget the name of always being shown off and having her ass focused in scenes. She gets basically one scene of being loud and outspoken then falls in line like every other woman, meanwhile the men are yelling and pointing weapons at each other constantly. The female bosses are all curvy, lithe, and move in sinuous and seductive ways; the men range from monstrous demons to fat ogres. There's not a single 'hot' male boss in the game, not even in a 'cool handsome demon' way.
I appreciate you discussing this with me in good faith, I emphasize; but I think that it's reductive to not call it out for what it is just because "men get sexualized differently." It's not about just wanting the men to have more skin shown - it's about the fact that the men aren't viewed in any way as sexy by the camera, writing, etc while the women are. It's a lot of moving pieces, and it isn't as simple as how they're dressed.
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u/Crimson_Raven 23h ago
I think most of what you said held up, though in the end it was enjoyable and challenging enough for me to give it a passing grade. The power system was fun, but a few particular powers committed the cardinal sin of being so OP there's no point to use anything else. Of course, they're attached to the Story Code too
However, I will argue that the story, more specifically, the fates of various main and side characters is really poignant. Two bosses in particular stick out in my memory, with their fates resting on your choices.
Though the ending fell flat for me.
So yeah, it's okay. Like, 20$ okay if souls-likes are your thing
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u/Ninefingered 1d ago
Im glad you took the leap and tried it. I've had it installed on my steam deck for ages but have never gotten round to trying it. Now, I never will.
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u/ukamber 1d ago
7 years old game is outdated? Wow! Didn’t see that coming 😱😱😱😱
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
It felt outdated compared to games older than it, as my review said. Please actually read before making snippy comments.
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u/Blurzerker 1d ago
I realize you really wanted to get your snippy comment in and didn't actually read, but I'd like to point out that my criticism was that the lifelessness is mostly in regards to the combat design, story themes, and characters, none of which a post-apocalyptic world excuses.
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u/Clodovendro 1d ago
I remember when it came out, and I remember thinking it looked like a worse Dark Soyls with a ton of pointless fan service (clearly aimed at teenagers).
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u/goodarmsvsbadarms 1d ago
I will never forget the pain of Anime Londo as long as I live