CODE VEIN

I like most of this game. It has some good mechanics that are a bit faster and more intuitive than most souls-likes. I also like the extrensive lore and story it brings, together with the wide options for character creation.

Some downsides: restoring the vestiges gets old after a while (I only found out hours into the game that they can be skipped). The white cathedral level: the level design almost made me want to end myself IRL. The items and scaling are not very intuïtive.

Also: Blade bearer and cannoneer have to be one of the most BS fights I've gotten into in any game.

This game is great character custimization. the gameplay feels like another dark souls but with anime which is neat. the graphics is super good for anime... hopefully one day code vein gets a 2nd game!!!!!

One of my favorites soulslike games.
Even though it can't be compared to Elden Ring or Dark Souls, the game has quite good different mechanics and build system, and that made me love it.
The game has good designs. the soundtracks are amazing and the boss fights are quite well suited to the game's reputation, which isn't much compared to others soulslike games.
Although the exploration is A LITTLE confusing and can make you go round and round on some maps to find
important items, I love the combat and the game itself (the lvl reputation achivement was so pain)

Good Darksouls anime game. Story is decent. Problem is delivery. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have players walk slowly through memories with 10-20 seconds of downtime in between doesn't know gamers.

Other than that, boss fights were pretty decent and engaging. Great music. Would recommend game on sale.

Recommended for people who, like me, are anti souls-like difficulty. No time for those learning curves, but wants an experience of beating one. This is the game for it.
Code Vein is extremely forgiving for a souls-like. AI companions are actually competent and can carry you & you can retrieve half of lost haze (souls) by taking a soak on hotspring.
Combat is good & character creation is very great. This is a good game.

You will never get one of the very good weapons and the best veil Venous Claw with best stats for avoid build, because this is a pre-order bonus.

Great game. The story is a tidge cliche, and also quite dark, but it was incredible. Nearly got all achievements, but it would take another 2 playthroughs at least LOL.

If you like souls-likes, give this one a shot!

I like that you can repeat bosses and master them.
You can't really do that in souls games without tricking the system by returning to camp at last second or installing mods or just playing again.
I like the flexibility of the builds and while the learning curve is about a play through long, it makes the seconds play through very satisfying.
The story is tragic across the board and begins to feel like a washed out gimmick but the game is fun.
Eye candy is always nice too.

This game was recommended to me by a friend because I was looking for other action games. When I checked the reviews, I was a bit wary because some players said that this is just "a porn game".

After playing the demo, purchasing and now having just cleared the second Successor, I can recommend this game. Questions about humanity and existentialism are tackled in its story. And if you don't care about that, the action is challenging but not frustrating. Check out the demo if you're unsure. As for the "lol this is just porn" reviews, they might be babies who can somehow type on a keyboard and think that anything that shows boobs is porn.

Anime souls. Not just any anime, though; a post apocalyptic-industrial punk-vampire-fantasy-booba anime. The character creation alone is worth it (on sale). It's a unique and fun game.

Amazing music, decent bosses, great story. Some of it is a fucking maze but 7/10.

I have a few hours in the game, i like the story and gameplay.

Fun game with an interesting weapon/combat system and decent boss fights

Recently i found out that i actually have Code Vein in my library that has not been played much since i bought it in 2020, i thought on myself "why i never finish this game ? i remember im liking the pretty decent character creation feature on it but i never know why i never bother to continue the game at all". And oh boy i think i finally realizing it again why i was never wanting to continue the game after i decided to downloaded the game again.

The game is not that great (at least for a so called Souls-like anime game).. down to the not so interesting world building, not so interesting lore and dialogues, the AI aren't so much considered to be "intelligence", and (imo) bad control placement at least for controller user like me. Like i need to modify some buttons to match up to my liking, but even when i already done it i still not having fun playing the game. Im trying to give this game another try, but at this point i dont think i would go even further, probably i would still having fun playing Dark Souls 2 than this tbh.

Really good Souls-like game, the combat and how to use blood codes may be kinda messy at first, but aint a problem at all, it has a great gameplay. I dont really understand those bad reviews, in my case, I didnt feel it repetitive or anything, it was fun to get every achievement.
My only complain is that Io never survives ;-;

Code Vein is a very cosy anime version of Dark Souls. It's one of the few proper souls-likes that have nearly the same mechanics, but more streamlined. It has bonefires, estus, currency dropped on death, respawning enemies, looping level design, stamina based combat, rolling, blocking, parries, equipment load mechanic and animation locks.

It builds upon what Dark Souls established by expanding and upgrading the mechanics. Weapon transformation makes sense unlike in DS1 and you can teleport between bonefires freely from the start. Code Vein also builds upon looping level design taking it to the next level. The infamous Cathedral of Sacred Blood is peak level design with an insane amount of loops and nonlinear multi level exploration.

When it comes to difficulty Code Vein is far on the "easy" part of the spectrum. Companions deal an insane amount of damage, can revive you and will even mark enemies or exploration points on map. Sure you can disable them, but the game was designed around having a companion so some fights (mainly the dual boss fight) will be extremely annoying without a companion.

Code Vein also features an amazing character creator which is honestly one of the best character creators out there. It gives so many custiomsation options that even Cyberpunk or Monster Hunter games feel limited in this aspect.

While amazing, Code Vein is not perfect. Memories are a boring way to tell the side stories. There are way too many cutscenes. I felt like 30% of the gameplay was just watching cutscenes. And lastly the worst part - The Depths. The Depths take everything Code Vein has and turn it into shit. Maps are repetitive and boring, you refight the same enemies and exploration is so linear you would think the design was outsourced to Ubisoft. And the worst thing about The Depths is that you cannot skip them if you want to see all the story and unlock all the skills.

Overall, Code Vein is a great game with some horrible "optional" content. It has the Dark Souls mechanics and atmosphere, but is way more approachable.

I was quite surprised by how amazing this game is. I had it in my wishlist for a long time and it is absolutely incredible! The souls-like mechanics and story and characters all blend to make a phenomenal game!

Amazing anime vampire anime, souls like. Good story, nice game mechanics.... good play in 2025

The concept idea and gameplay elements are there but..... beyond prologue and start of the game i was basically forcing myself to keep playing the game, it felt just like a grind without aim..... with nothing to carry the player onwards

good game mid combat story mid character creator is very good, for a souls like games it is pretty easy

I liked this game despite some of the design choices.

Boss fights were hit or miss. Some were epic and fun, but others were frustrating because it was hard to see where the bosses' moves would land. Some bosses might have been unnecessarily difficult for me because I didn’t bring a companion to the fights.

Soloing all bosses is definitely doable, though I don't think the game is designed to be played that way. Having a companion makes boss fights much easier, as they can revive you if you take too much damage. Most bosses can kill you in one shot if you don’t block or dodge their attacks.

The music was enjoyable and, at times, even quite epic.

The gameplay is reminiscent of Dark Souls 1 in its clunkiness. Compared to the more modern gameplay of Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring, it’s definitely less refined, but still good enough in my opinion.

Visually, Code Vein offers environments that are both stunning and bleak, fitting well with the game’s theme. However, the beauty of these environments is somewhat diminished by a lack of variety within the same area.

Each location, while initially impressive, quickly becomes repetitive, offering little in terms of new scenery or unique elements as you progress. The level design primarily consists of corridor mazes, which can feel monotonous and detract from the overall exploration experience.

The story is probably the strongest aspect of the game, along with its characters. I found it genuinely enjoyable to follow the narrative and learn more about each character.

Overall, I think this game is good enough to be recommended to anyone who enjoys Souls-like games.

Souls like with anime boobs 10/10

Also as a KB+M player, I was able to rebind everything which I really appreciate.

Easy souls like game, story is good, gameplay a bit clunky but still fun

I paid about 11 bucks for this and all the DLC, and I still regret the purchase. It's too linear, too grindy, too boring, and the UI is too poorly designed. The world is fascinating, but the plot is fed to you so slowly with such flat characters it's hard to enjoy.

I'm at a part people say to spend 2+ hours grinding xp/currency to overcome, and I just don't know if I have the energy for that. There's no other areas to go to instead. I've got a boss in front of me and all the other content up to that boss is finished with another hour or so of grinding to do, so that I can level up and tank the harder to avoid hits. And... I just don't want to do that.

The character creator is great. Gameplay is…. Alright. Very reminiscent of God Eater, just slowed down a little. Story isn’t anything special, but it’s something that is common because it works well. I’m stopping mid-playthrough though because of that god damn cathedral. I despise that place with every single cell in my body.

not the best gameplay wise imo but i did enjoy the story

If you are bad at Souls-like games and have a friend, then it's truly going to be a fun game!

- "i appreciate the amount of customization, waifus, and fan service you added, but how will this sell our souls-like game with an post-apocalyptic setting with dark and gruesome tones?"

- "souls-like game?"

the second souls-like game I've played. not disappointing. interesting story and background, I really like this concept cuz it make me wanna be one of them. great customize menu

I can't say I would recommend this game at all. The game gets extremely repetitive extremely quickly and cathedral of white really shows just how formulaic and predictable the game is super early on. If you want to 100% the game like I did there is a stupid amount of side dungeons and repeated "Boss fights" for very little reward. At the end of the game the only truly viable build is a strength build as almost every late-game enemy has serious elemental resistances, with rifles being too wonky and slow to get off reliable damage without having to study every bosses' move-set intensively. Magic isn't fleshed out at all, with every blood-code except for a few having one damaging or support spell with lack-luster effects. There is only rifles style guns so the ranged combat isn't fleshed out either. The gift system for NPC trades is janky and requires a guide as they drop almost no hints on what they like in dialogue and the aforementioned side dungeons are located with an NPC that is never introduced as the singular access point to them. The game ends super abruptly and the story finishes on a VERY sour note as well. All-in-all I can't really think of almost anything positive to say about this game other than the visuals are pretty. This is not a good game.

This game is full of bugs like wtf cant even get out in gift menu on npcs...

Character creator seems to be the best part of the game whatsoever. Everything else bored me.
Combat is bad.
Story isn't good.
Characters are forgettable.
Visuals are nice... kinda ?
I feel like I've wasted my time trying to find something to like in this.

I mean, its anime souls. with a character creator that has no right being as good as it is

Forgot to write a review when I played through but this was honestly so good it landed a permanent spot on my featured games on my profile

I tried to like it, the character creator is honestly really good and better than anime souls should have, but the rest of the game is just eh. Combat isn't very fun or hard, leveling is boring, the class system is cool. Honestly the lack of interesting bosses, level design and boring mobs just makes me not wanna finish the game. I'm sure some people might like it, if you've not played better soulslikes before you might think it's decent and if you're a weeb maybe it's a good entry point into the genre, but I just think it's very mediocre and don't see a point in playing more.

It's a shame, if the actual game had as much visible effort as the character creation it'd probably be one of the better soulslikes, but instead it's just kinda non offensive and boring. Setting is cool because it's just God Eater lol.

As everyone said, this is dark souls anime version. Love the blood code mechanism, where you dont need to fill up another skill attributes or start over to change and try between classes.

The cons: level travesty felt the same between one and another.

Juegazo. He yorado 10/10 volveria a repetir. Musica God. Me la pela lo que digan que si el gameplay bla bla bla juegazo, hisstoria 10/10 T-T

Beautiful animation, wonderful and fulfilling storyline, phenomenal gameplay

I really enjoyed Code Vein.
It's basically a souls-like game with an anime aesthetic.

The game itself is not that hard.
After defeating Soldier of Godrick (Rick for short) from Elden Ring I was able to rush through Code Vein bosses without any issues.
The real enemies I've faced were:
1. The labyrinths, with their maze-like locations, were a significant challenge.
2. Some random dude that was casting a frost armor on himself therefore becoming almost immortal

Anyway, I had a great time with Code Vein.
The engaging combat, interesting character customization, and unique setting make it a worthwhile experience.
I highly recommend it.
10/10 for me.

Anime Souls is alright. Not the greatest, but you didn't buy it cause you thought it would be the next big step for souls like games did you.

There are many options when creating characters, and it's fun for those who like to create original characters! The game was a bit difficult for me at first… But there is no such thing as habituation. The way the characters do it is very handsome, the one thing I don't like very much is that I will definitely get lost in the church. :(

Im new to dark souls genre and this game really entertain me as the first game ive ever played under the dark souls genre.

For a game with an anime style, CODE VEIN delivers good visuals and sound. The character designs and storyline really appealed to me, especially the side stories of the supporting characters. These stories are presented through a unique mechanic where players enter a "memory maze," exploring a character’s inner world while gradually uncovering their past. This interactive approach adds depth and emotional resonance to the narrative.

The highlight of the combat system is the Blood Code mechanic. It allows players to switch between different "classes," each affecting base stats and offering a wide range of skill combinations. This flexibility adds a lot of variety to the gameplay.

However, the weapons feel lacking in impact. Even heavy weapons feel like they’re just scratching the enemies, which diminishes the satisfaction of combat.

In terms of difficulty, CODE VEIN is quite easy for a Souls-like game. AI companions can draw enemy aggro, leaving you to finish enemies off with little risk. The backstab mechanic is also too simple, making most regular fights effortless. Only boss battles and a few elite enemies require close attention to attack patterns and elemental combinations.

The level design, unfortunately, is pretty average, with a bit too much repetition. One particular area is especially frustrating due to its repetitive scenery and maze-like layout, with low visual landmarks that make navigation a tedious experience.

All in all, CODE VEIN delivers good visuals and sound, with an interesting system, but it lacks a sense of tension and excitement. It’s a solid mid-to-high-tier title, especially for fans of anime-style visuals and lighter Souls-like challenges.

Very repetitive enemys and combat. Would have worked a lot better if it wouldnt have aimed for a soulslike approach. Way too many cutscenes and dumb back and forth running to stretch game lenght. Still bugs with multiplayer, couldnt summon my friend for a long time and had to create a new character because of that. Wouldnt have finished it solo, because its boring alone.
Get it on massive sale if you're interested.

Good game, decent story. Combat is fun and feels anime. Amazing music. If you know and like god eater, this game is related to it.

Highly recommend.

Dark Souls combat made forgiving via AI Companion and interesting replenishable magic choices.

The design is beautiful. The English voice acting was phenomenal. Customization is fantastic as there are a lot of ways to do it. However, that is where the positives end. There are way too many cutscenes. Way too many. Each time you turn in a set of vestiges, you are transported to the flashback world to listen to parts of the story but they are too tedious to sit through. So, you end up skipping and miss on a lot of the story. You also get a lot of random cutscenes throughout the world as you reach places, and they feel like a soap opera with too much unnecessary dialogue. Thus one cannot properly connect to what is going on in the world of Code Vein. Another horrendous thing for me about this game is not being able to somehow customize your equip load. You are stuck with a light, medium or heavy roll depending on your weapon. I love STR builds, just big bonk sticks. Wanting to use them in this game means you HAVE to heavy roll. There is no way around it. There are no shields available either so you either are forced to parry or know EXACTLY how to roll with a heavy roll to avoid being hit. That's just not right. I finished Ruined City Underground, Ruined City Center, Howling Pit, Dried-up Trenches and Cathedral of the Sacred Blood. Probably not even half way through the game but I did everything possible to try to like the game and I just could not.

Pretty much Dark Souls but anime. The enemy variety is low and the bosses are not as well crafted. The game also have a simplified leveling system where you don't need to worry about respecing your character. Overall a very fun game for souls fans.

This is a very good soulslike. It actually does a better job of balancing magic against melee builds than FromSoft does. If you were interested in the Dark Souls series or Elden Ring, but were put off by the punishing difficulty, this is probably a good starting point. It's a lot easier than Dark Souls/Elden Ring and there's no commitment to one "build" like a Souls game. Respecing is as easy as switching out your blood code. The game is pretty generous with crafting materials as well, so it's not difficult to keep several weapons updated for builds of different varieties and better quality, late game items found usually come with current upgrades to keep them relevant. The DLC isn't a good value proposition outside of a deep sale and, as one would expect, contains all of the highest tier weapons, blood veils, and blood codes. Still, it's a very good game I will continue playing for dozens of more hours before I move on.

I beat this game on PS4 many years ago and I loved it. I wanted to own and play it on PC. Code Vein is anime Dark Souls but it has it's own unique identity that makes it stand out from the Souls genre. I love the mechanic of being able to switch blood codes and that being tied to the class you play as. I also love the companion system and there is a great variety of them to accompany you. Io is my favorite companion. :) The atmosphere, story and music are all great and help form this game's unique identity. I will say the the DLC is underwhelming and not worth it. Bandai dropped the ball in that area. If you want to try something else in the Souls genre, then give Code Vein a shot.

PS. Io is now my wife.