Secret Asshole
Expert in things that never, ever happened
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⚡ Thunderdomer ⚡
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kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
So lets get this out of the way first. This game is anime. This game is anime as FUCK. Its so anime it has an anime intro. So if you can’t stand anime, don’t buy it. Seriously. This is a literal playable anime. If that thought makes you nauseous, then the game isn’t going to be for you. If you don’t care, can overlook it or just went ‘FUCK YES PLAYABLE ANIME I DON’T NEED TO HEAR MORE’ than you’ll like it. You can also play it in Japanese as well *coughs* subs over dubs *coughs*
First off, performance. My rig has a first gen 1080 and an i7-7600k. So basically it was cutting edge two years ago. But it still runs everything with max settings at 60 FPS at 1440p. Unlike some games from glorious nippon, it is well optimized. I can't speak for console peasants I'm afraid.
Second, the story. When I say its like Dark Souls, well….you are aundead revenant who needs souls blood to stay sane. Revenants are immortal and every time they die they lose a bit of their memory. They can only be killed by destroying the heart. If you don’t get enough blood you become hollow one of the Lost. Souls Blood is in short supply because the world is dying and there are few humans left. To stay sane you need humanity blood beads to feed off of instead of humans, because they’re rare. More and more are going hollow Lost due to the fire of the world going out a special plant called the Mistle dying, which cleans the air from inducing insanity and stops the spread of the bloodlust. The bonfires mistle provide a safe haven from the creeping miasma. However, the bonfires are going out mistle is dying and everyone is on the brink of becoming hollow lost and it is up to the chosen undead your revenant to stop it. You begin your quest in a prison slave pen, and go out into the world where your fire keeper mysterious girl in white is captured. You have a estus flask regeneration ability when you camp near bonfires mistle which also restores all enemies. If you die, you lose your souls haze and have to go pick it up. If you die again, you lose all your souls haze. See what I mean? But nobody really cares, its anime dark souls set on Earth. With vampires. So who gives a shit if the story is basically a copy-replace from Dark Souls? It also offers different enough mechanics, art-style and setting to separate itself from the pack. Its not a carbon copy, more inspirational.
Also lets get this out of the fucking way, since every journo faggot on Earth mentioned it. Yes, the female companion who finds you is scantily clad and has a bit of jiggle physics, as if she wasn’t wearing a bra, which she isn’t. The only reason you’ll ever notice this is because “OMG WAHMEN EXPLOITATION” was pounded in your head over and over again. There are other female revenants in the game who are fully clothed (Your revenant can be as unclothed or as clothed as you want). Its pretty obvious she was designed this way to stand out. If you’re like any normal human being, you’ll be like, ‘Huh, cute’ and move on, basically barely noticing it because it fits in with the overall look and style of the game. It isn’t jarring or out of place. So as usual, never believe a word they say. The only reason this design stands out is because journos wanted to force it to stand out. There’s literally no reason to go over it because its inconsequential. She’s an important character and was given a unique look to stand out from others. A sexy look. But these people are all fat and ugly and jealous over anime tits, which is pathetic. If you're a normal human being, you'll give it a look once, go nice and then 'how do I murder and suck blood?' Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…
The character creator is pretty fucking in-depth and you can easily spend a half-hour or more customizing. There’s even a ton of options to save appearance. It is far, far more in depth than any Dark Souls game. You have about 500 save slots for tons of looks. I imagine there are going to be tons of cosmetic choices and DLC which is why these slots exist in the first place. Also what I find funny is that you can’t make a fat character or an ugly character unless you REALLY try. I wonder why all the ugly fat women and soyboys were pissed off? It’s a mystery!
Here you can move tattoos around the face and place them pretty much anywhere. It puts customization in games like ME: Andromeda to shame. You can also do this with clothing and accessories. And yes, you can be a genetically engineered catgirl
It also has blaxploitation Revenants as sample characters, so they’re never happy anyway. So if you want to run around as afro samurai, you can. The character and level design gives you a post apocalyptic fantasy feel, and everything has this sort of Gothic look to it, which is pretty unique. I mean, you're vampires running around in post apocalyptic earth.
The combat and RPG mechanics are where it significantly differs from the Souls games. These are very complex and I highly recommend you play with a controller. Basically, there’s no ‘classes’ in the game. The class system functions as ‘codes’. Like the fighter blood code makes you hit shit with weapons. The Ranger blood code makes you nimble. The caster blood code makes you shoot magic. These codes can be changed on the fly, so if your friend wants to take a break as a caster, they can switch the code to a fighter or ranger and change it up.
Each code comes with a trifecta: Stats, Passives and Actives. Actives are called gifts. Passives give you passive bonuses and can be switched when leveled. The stats obviously alter your stats. Each code gives you several gifts, typically six. You put them on a trigger menu, much like ‘The Witcher 3’, if you’ve ever played that. You can have up to 8 gifts at a time and switch them on the fly in combat. Each gift is tied to a specific code. Until you master that gift. Which then means you can switch it between codes. Remember when I said codes alter your stats? This is where things get tricky. Certain gifts benefit from certain stats, which you can enhance by switching your code. So you need to balance these synergies out, which requires trial and error.
As for combat, you’ve got three resources: Health, Stamina and Ichor. If you've never played a souls game, your stamina depletes when you do attacks, sprint and use certain abilities. I’ll mention the Ichor. Its basically like your ‘MP’, which fuels your gifts. This has to be stolen from enemies using a charge attack, in which your controller will vibrate when ready.
Why hello sir, yes I am from World War One. Why do I have a giant axe? Best not to ask questions.
As for combat, its basically like any 3D action game. You get a lock on function, have to balance your health and stamina. There's a heavy attack and a light attack. The weapons you get are pretty varied; from big, fuck-off hammers to rifles with bayonets that shoot blood at people. A thing about equipment. Unlike gifts, which you can use on other codes even if they have crap for synergy, equipment DOES have stat requirements. So if you're in a pickle and switch your code out, you have to be aware that your super awesome weapon will not work with codes that lower certain stats. So you can fuck yourself if you switch your code and your weapon is suddenly shit. That's a good way to kill yourself.
The controls are pretty responsive, the animation is smooth and you actually have a map so you don't get lost. As for multiplayer, its similar to Dark Souls but you have WAY more control. Its co-op only, you can have matchmaking passwords and you can send out a ‘distress signal’ to automatically have someone join your game. A rando or a friend. Its much less stringent and its not like you need to magic it if you want your friend to join. There’s no special conditions, just summon them and you’re off to the races. If you don’t do want to do MP, you do get an AI companion. Its not required to do co-op if you don’t want. I think the most annoying thing your companion does is murder enemies before you want to suck some blood from them. But you also gain blood from beating the ever living fuck out of enemies....if your weapon has that function. Which requires you to pay attention. I'll sum up the main way this differs from Dark Souls: You have to balance the synergy of your gifts, the spending of your ichor and the weapons that you use. If you fuck this combination up, the enemies are going to be a lot harder and its going to make your life miserable. Its best to fuck around with this sort of thing early on so you get used to the system, since if you just assume 'oh, Dark Souls', its not going to really work. There's a lot more you have to keep in mind.
EDIT:
I forgot. A HUGE part of this game is parrying. Sure, you get some weapons with drain, but when you parry an attack with your claw, you stab it in the motherfucker and drain a ton of blood. So you really need to master that mechanic I feel to keep your abilities up, which requires timing, precision and knowing enemy attacks.
Conclusions!
Its a bit easier if you're used to a souls-like game because you have a companion you can switch out. I enjoy the different art style and the gift system, which switched things up. I'm a fucking sucker for anime and vampires and the combat is pretty smooth, so I wasn't really looking for something super hardcore. Maybe I found it easy since I played through too many souls games, I don't know. But I enjoyed it, I'm not always looking for something insane. Code Vein retails for $60 for the regular version and $80 for the deluxe. If you're outside the US you can get the regular for just $40 and the Deluxe for $50. Check https://isthereanydeal.com for it. If you're in the US, its five bucks more. $45 for the regular game and $55 for the deluxe edition. I'm not sponsored by these guys, I just recommend them to save you some money.
If the anime and art style isn't your cup of tea, but you're looking for another co-op experience that resembles Dark Souls without the bullshit summoning, go check out Remnants: From the Ashes. If you've missed that one, its basically Dark Souls with guns. More gritty, a bit more unpolished and less pretty, but still fun. So if the anime art-style doesn't appeal, you can check that game out for another co-op experience. It'll run you about $40 on Steam.
First off, performance. My rig has a first gen 1080 and an i7-7600k. So basically it was cutting edge two years ago. But it still runs everything with max settings at 60 FPS at 1440p. Unlike some games from glorious nippon, it is well optimized. I can't speak for console peasants I'm afraid.
Second, the story. When I say its like Dark Souls, well….you are a
Also lets get this out of the fucking way, since every journo faggot on Earth mentioned it. Yes, the female companion who finds you is scantily clad and has a bit of jiggle physics, as if she wasn’t wearing a bra, which she isn’t. The only reason you’ll ever notice this is because “OMG WAHMEN EXPLOITATION” was pounded in your head over and over again. There are other female revenants in the game who are fully clothed (Your revenant can be as unclothed or as clothed as you want). Its pretty obvious she was designed this way to stand out. If you’re like any normal human being, you’ll be like, ‘Huh, cute’ and move on, basically barely noticing it because it fits in with the overall look and style of the game. It isn’t jarring or out of place. So as usual, never believe a word they say. The only reason this design stands out is because journos wanted to force it to stand out. There’s literally no reason to go over it because its inconsequential. She’s an important character and was given a unique look to stand out from others. A sexy look. But these people are all fat and ugly and jealous over anime tits, which is pathetic. If you're a normal human being, you'll give it a look once, go nice and then 'how do I murder and suck blood?' Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…
The character creator is pretty fucking in-depth and you can easily spend a half-hour or more customizing. There’s even a ton of options to save appearance. It is far, far more in depth than any Dark Souls game. You have about 500 save slots for tons of looks. I imagine there are going to be tons of cosmetic choices and DLC which is why these slots exist in the first place. Also what I find funny is that you can’t make a fat character or an ugly character unless you REALLY try. I wonder why all the ugly fat women and soyboys were pissed off? It’s a mystery!
Here you can move tattoos around the face and place them pretty much anywhere. It puts customization in games like ME: Andromeda to shame. You can also do this with clothing and accessories. And yes, you can be a genetically engineered catgirl
It also has blaxploitation Revenants as sample characters, so they’re never happy anyway. So if you want to run around as afro samurai, you can. The character and level design gives you a post apocalyptic fantasy feel, and everything has this sort of Gothic look to it, which is pretty unique. I mean, you're vampires running around in post apocalyptic earth.
The combat and RPG mechanics are where it significantly differs from the Souls games. These are very complex and I highly recommend you play with a controller. Basically, there’s no ‘classes’ in the game. The class system functions as ‘codes’. Like the fighter blood code makes you hit shit with weapons. The Ranger blood code makes you nimble. The caster blood code makes you shoot magic. These codes can be changed on the fly, so if your friend wants to take a break as a caster, they can switch the code to a fighter or ranger and change it up.
Each code comes with a trifecta: Stats, Passives and Actives. Actives are called gifts. Passives give you passive bonuses and can be switched when leveled. The stats obviously alter your stats. Each code gives you several gifts, typically six. You put them on a trigger menu, much like ‘The Witcher 3’, if you’ve ever played that. You can have up to 8 gifts at a time and switch them on the fly in combat. Each gift is tied to a specific code. Until you master that gift. Which then means you can switch it between codes. Remember when I said codes alter your stats? This is where things get tricky. Certain gifts benefit from certain stats, which you can enhance by switching your code. So you need to balance these synergies out, which requires trial and error.
As for combat, you’ve got three resources: Health, Stamina and Ichor. If you've never played a souls game, your stamina depletes when you do attacks, sprint and use certain abilities. I’ll mention the Ichor. Its basically like your ‘MP’, which fuels your gifts. This has to be stolen from enemies using a charge attack, in which your controller will vibrate when ready.
Why hello sir, yes I am from World War One. Why do I have a giant axe? Best not to ask questions.
As for combat, its basically like any 3D action game. You get a lock on function, have to balance your health and stamina. There's a heavy attack and a light attack. The weapons you get are pretty varied; from big, fuck-off hammers to rifles with bayonets that shoot blood at people. A thing about equipment. Unlike gifts, which you can use on other codes even if they have crap for synergy, equipment DOES have stat requirements. So if you're in a pickle and switch your code out, you have to be aware that your super awesome weapon will not work with codes that lower certain stats. So you can fuck yourself if you switch your code and your weapon is suddenly shit. That's a good way to kill yourself.
The controls are pretty responsive, the animation is smooth and you actually have a map so you don't get lost. As for multiplayer, its similar to Dark Souls but you have WAY more control. Its co-op only, you can have matchmaking passwords and you can send out a ‘distress signal’ to automatically have someone join your game. A rando or a friend. Its much less stringent and its not like you need to magic it if you want your friend to join. There’s no special conditions, just summon them and you’re off to the races. If you don’t do want to do MP, you do get an AI companion. Its not required to do co-op if you don’t want. I think the most annoying thing your companion does is murder enemies before you want to suck some blood from them. But you also gain blood from beating the ever living fuck out of enemies....if your weapon has that function. Which requires you to pay attention. I'll sum up the main way this differs from Dark Souls: You have to balance the synergy of your gifts, the spending of your ichor and the weapons that you use. If you fuck this combination up, the enemies are going to be a lot harder and its going to make your life miserable. Its best to fuck around with this sort of thing early on so you get used to the system, since if you just assume 'oh, Dark Souls', its not going to really work. There's a lot more you have to keep in mind.
EDIT:
I forgot. A HUGE part of this game is parrying. Sure, you get some weapons with drain, but when you parry an attack with your claw, you stab it in the motherfucker and drain a ton of blood. So you really need to master that mechanic I feel to keep your abilities up, which requires timing, precision and knowing enemy attacks.
Conclusions!
Its a bit easier if you're used to a souls-like game because you have a companion you can switch out. I enjoy the different art style and the gift system, which switched things up. I'm a fucking sucker for anime and vampires and the combat is pretty smooth, so I wasn't really looking for something super hardcore. Maybe I found it easy since I played through too many souls games, I don't know. But I enjoyed it, I'm not always looking for something insane. Code Vein retails for $60 for the regular version and $80 for the deluxe. If you're outside the US you can get the regular for just $40 and the Deluxe for $50. Check https://isthereanydeal.com for it. If you're in the US, its five bucks more. $45 for the regular game and $55 for the deluxe edition. I'm not sponsored by these guys, I just recommend them to save you some money.
If the anime and art style isn't your cup of tea, but you're looking for another co-op experience that resembles Dark Souls without the bullshit summoning, go check out Remnants: From the Ashes. If you've missed that one, its basically Dark Souls with guns. More gritty, a bit more unpolished and less pretty, but still fun. So if the anime art-style doesn't appeal, you can check that game out for another co-op experience. It'll run you about $40 on Steam.
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