
Famitsu has published an article with new details regarding Bandai Namco’s Souls-like action RPG Code Vein, alongside a gameplay video showing off the latest demo, and an interview with director Yoshimura Hiroshi and action director Yoda Yuuichi.

The demo includes much of the content seen in the “Second Blood” demo, which we previously covered, and also seems to mostly play the same, but also had different enemy and item placement and included a massive amount of content not available in the previous demo such as character creation, equipment upgrading, new cutscenes, new areas, new bosses, and also served as a network test. The Queen’s Knight boss seen in the previous demo also appeared, but seemed mostly unchanged.



Character creation as shown in the demo

The Blood Code system

Players can equip a “Blood Code” which massively changes their stats and grants them special powers, something akin to the job classes of regular RPGs, or “builds” in Souls-like games; This is clearly what the game is aiming for, as the three Blood Codes the player is given in the tutorial are titled Fighter, Ranger and Caster. Yoda says that as this allows players to change their build at any time, they do not need to worry about levelling the wrong stats, or respeccing.

Each Blood Code also has its own active and passive skills, and the player can equip up to eight active and four passive skills at the same time. The Fighter, Ranger and Caster are weaker Blood Codes, and Yoshimura says that all Blood Codes that the player obtains outside of the tutorial are balanced so that they can be used up to the end of the game. Some will be obtained via story progression, while others will have to be found.

The Depths

The new demo includes an optional dungeon called the “Depths”. There are multiple of these dungeons, which the player unlocks by finding the corresponding map items. They have large amounts of loot for players, but also carry the danger of sudden “Test of Blood” events in which the player is suddenly attacked by large amounts of enemies (it is unstated if these are random or scripted).

The Depths also allow players to fight bosses they have already defeated again. In the version seen in the new demo, the player has to defeat three bosses to obtain keys to unlock the fourth and final boss of the dungeon.

Co-Op

By sending out an SOS signal, players can engage in co-op play with random peers. This can be activated at any point before fighting the boss, and players can also set keywords to make it easier to choose who they are matched with in co-op. In the case that the person joining the session is at a higher level than the host, their level is reduced to match the host’s.

Release Date

Yoshimura says that though they cannot yet say when the game’s release date is, the necessary development is finished and only minor changes from responses to the network test are left, meaning that the release is not far off, and he thinks that the release date can be revealed soon.

Code Vein is to be released for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC (Steam) in 2019. No precise release date is known yet.