
Code Vein, Bandai Namco’s Souls-like action RPG scheduled for release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC (Steam) in 2019, had a network test held from 31st May to 3rd June 2019.

The network test featured mainly the same content as the demo previously made available to the press, allowing players to experience character creation, the tutorial, the first dungeon and boss, the home base, and one of the “Depths” optional dungeons.

Frontline Gaming Japan participated in the network test and brings you these videos.

The Blood Code System

Gameplay is markedly improved from the 2018 “Second Blood” demo, and the player having access to changing equipment and abilities also makes a stark difference. Especially of note is the Blood Code system: By equipping different blood codes, players get completely different stats, the equivalent of switching job classes or “builds” in other games.

Each Blood Code also has its own set of passive and active skills, which once unlocked and mastered can be equipped on other Blood Codes as well. There are four passive and eight active skill slots, and this combined with the Blood Code system means that the player has unprecedented control over what sort of character they want to play. Additionally, as Blood Codes can be switched at any time, this means that the player can even switch builds entirely midway through a fight (given that they are fast enough with the menus).

The Depths

The network test also includes one of the optional dungeons called the “Depths”. There are multiple of these dungeons, which the player unlocks by finding corresponding map items and turning them in to an NPC. These dungeons 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 unknown if these will be random or scripted in the final game, but the one we encountered in the network test was scripted, and a one-time-only event).

The Depths will 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 (two of which were fights against two particularly strong enemies, and the third was the Queen’s Knight which had previously served as the boss of the Second Blood demo) to obtain keys to unlock the fourth and final boss of the dungeon.

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