Let's talk about Code Vein [SPOILERS]

It's been a VERY long time since I've had the opportunity to just sit down and talk about an individual game that I've played.  The last time I was able to do that was April of last year for Furi.  October is nearing its end and went by fairly quickly.  I wasn't able to upload any new audio work, but I've been working on multiple projects this past month as I still wait for that job my friend offered me to come through (still no official word).  I'm pretty excited with two of the projects I've been working on as they involve some stuff I've never done before.  I'll upload it once I finish it.

Code Vein [PC]


I spent the first half of October playing Code Vein.  Starting up the game and hearing this song during tutorial immediately set the tone of the game and I instantly fell in love with the song.  It's a sort of haunting melancholy that's both beautiful and sad at the same time.  Code Vein is an Action-RPG that is heavily inspired by the Souls-like games with an emphasis on difficulty and character growth; however, it has a strong narrative that reveals itself little by little rather than making it sparse and ambiguous like the Souls games do.  I went into the game hoping for a familiar yet unique experience to the Souls-like formula.  I got what I wanted and possibly more.

Let's start off with the easiest thing for me to talk about: the graphics.  Those familiar to games published by Bandai Namco won't be surprised by the strong anime style as its art style.  Despite the post-apocalyptic setting, the color choices and art style really stands out and has distinguishing themes to each area, character, and enemy.  An interesting design choice for portraying memories is rather than recreating a scene, the player walks through a series of floating environment with statues resembling the characters are shown with the scene played back through means of audio.  Whether it was an artistic choice or a practical one to avoid the need to create dozens of cutscenes, I found it to be an effective and intimate story telling experience.

I'd like to talk about music next.  I knew right when I heard the Title Screen music and the Tutorial Theme that the music was going to be great.  Upon hearing the tutorial theme and knowing that the same studio that developed God Eater created Code Vein, I was pretty sure the music was composed by Go Shiina.  He has a knack for creating music that is emotionally evocative, unique, and sounding bigger than life.  I'd like talk about the "Tutorial Theme" in particular as it plays a HUGE role throughout the entire game.  It has been given the name of "Memory of the Lost" by fans as it only plays whenever the player dives into the Memory of an individual who has become a "Lost".  The song has many variations played throughout the game: One played by a cello, one played by a violin, one with vocals (the one linked above), one that's only piano, one that's played in a major key and sounds happier with a cello, and possibly a few other versions.  It has a strong link to "memories" and each time you dive into one, the music brings the player into that mindset that they're revisiting a scene from someone's past.  I don't think the memory diving scenes would be nearly as effective without the music.  Another thing I really want to talk about is how the music evolves and is reactive to situations in both story and combat.  When walking through a memory, the song could start off with the cello version and set a somber tone.  As the player walks further into the memory and the dialogue becomes more intense, it might change to the violin version.  And then it could switch to the vocal version near the end if it reveals something important.  All this is done by smoothly transitioning between the different versions of the same song through a simple fade-in, fade-out process.  Combat is the same where no music is played while exploring, a simple beat is played when fighting, and the music transitions and becomes more intense as more enemies approach the player.  Music is really taken into consideration for design and is a pivotal component to the overall experience for Code Vein.  It enhances the story telling, gets the player excited, and gives audio cues to things that happen around the player.  Despite all my praise for the music, I have to admit that the soundtrack doesn't have a ton of memorable tunes asides from a few individual pieces.  It's just that the music is so powerful and synonymous to the overall experience that I can't help but praise it.

Now for the most important topic: gameplay.  If you've played a Dark Souls game or similar to it, you'll know what to expect.  Your attacks and actions are a bit slower and deliberate from your usual action game, enemies hit hard, bosses are challenging, and there is a lot of playstyles to choose from.  I got into the game not knowing much about the gameplay other than that it's like a Souls game.  What I wanted was a unique take on the Souls-like formula and what gave that unique experience is the class system.  Contrary to your typical RPG, the class system isn't the player chooses and sticks with for the rest of the game.  Classes are acquired throughout the game from NPCs or from vestiges left from the "Lost".  I found this design choice to be a good way to bring characters into the narrative.  With each class that the player gains, the strength and memories of each individual becomes are part of them as each class labels the name of the character they're acquired from.  It's such a profound method of emphasizing the significance of each individual the player meets throughout their journey.  With each class comes a set array of skills, skills that can be mastered through proficient use.  By mastering a skill, they can be used on different classes as long as they meet the required stats with the exception of a few skills that's exclusive to a class.  Character levels are fixed and so there's no dumping attribute points into certain stats for specific classes or playstyles.  Rather, everything is determined by what the player equips (Weapons, armor, class, and passive and active skills).  Because the player can freely switch between all equips, there is no such thing as locking into a playstyle for an individual character.  The player can switch to whatever class or playstyle they wish as many times as they want which is part of what keeps the game fresh throughout the entire playthrough.  One unique mechanic that isn't found in Souls-like games (but is found in Hunter-like games) is the ability to bring a computer-AI partner along.  The game throws a lot of enemies at the player, and so having a partner can help split the aggro, provide back-up, and alleviate the difficulty of the game.  It is possible to play the game without a partner, but I hear it's way harder and feels clear the game was balanced around having a partner.  Partners are NPCs that you meet along the way that are important to the story.  They're actually really smart.  They do a lot of damage, some make excellent front-liners, they save you from death when you get a lethal injury, they point out points of interests like enemies and pathways, and they will try their best to protect you.  This also adds to the narrative as their banter and support gives depth to each character and how the player perceives them.  Bosses are diverse and dynamic with some of them having a strong resemblance to bosses from Dark Souls.  Most of them aren't particularly difficult with a partner and definitely easier with a friend joined in as well.  However, I hear they can be even harder than Dark Souls bosses if played solo or on New Game+.  There is one thing in particular that the game doesn't do very well: Multiplayer.  It's structured a lot like Dark Souls where a player can be summoned and one good thing about Code Vein is that you can set a password so that you specifically summon your friend.  The problem is that once a player is summoned, neither player can use the mistles (checkpoints) to replenish curatives.  The summoned player must be at or beyond the summoner's progress in the story and can't be summoned into a game that's past their progression in the story (which makes sense).  When a boss is defeated, the summoned player is kicked back into their own game and doesn't get to watch the cinematics (if there are any) afterwards.  And only the host keeps the progress while the summoned player only gets to keep their Haze (Souls / currency for leveling).  Because of this, friends can't experience the game together in a streamlined manner where instead of playing a "co-op" game, it's more like "dropping in to help out".  I can go on and on about gameplay such as level design being uninspired, but I mostly enjoyed the gameplay with a few gripes here and there.

[HERE COMES THE SPOILERS]  And finally, there's the story.  I was honestly not expecting such a strong narrative out of a Souls-like game.  Much like God Eater, the world is in ruins and people live in fear.  In the world of Code Vein, the earth is invaded by these creatures called "horrors" and humanity was looking for a way to fight back.  While creating a biological weapon being tested on a girl, the experiment goes wrong and the girl becomes this unstoppable being that destroyed everything in its path.  With this newfound threat, humanity developed a parasite that would allow compatible humans to become immortal so that they could take on the transformed girl dubbed the "Queen".  With the elimination of the "Queen", the undying humans now known as revenants faced a new problem.  Revenants could no longer die, go hungry, or face any normal human problems; however, they have a thirst for blood and would turn into a monster called the "Lost" should they succumb to the thirst and frenzy.  With a barrier enclosed around the city, a red mist that causes frenzy, and trees that provide "blood beads" becoming scarce for revenants to survive on, the world becomes more bleak by the day.  With the stage set, the player wakes up with no memory of the past and thrust into the dying world of Code Vein.

The game starts off with a mysterious girl leading the player to a tree of blood beads to feed on with a few rowdy bunch capturing them and later forcing the player to look for more blood beads.  Capture and forced to scout for more blood beads with the player is a man named Oliver.  Oliver is kind and mild mattered while being able to convincingly fight off the monsters you encounter along the way.  But due to a small bit of carelessness, Oliver is attacked and has his breathing mask damaged.  I was under the impression that Oliver was going to stay with you throughout the entire game.  It is to my surprise that you meet another individual along the way out of the cavernous depths and end up having to fight Oliver at the end.  With Oliver turning into a "Lost" and defeating him, a bright red crystal is left behind.  Upon Louis', the other man you meet, advice, I try to walk away from it.  But as game design dictates, I picked up the glowing shard as it impales my hand and thrusts us into the memory of Oliver.  We see that Oliver did not live an easy life as a revenant and that he did things he regret.  In the end, all he wanted was to do what was right and survive.  It was sad and heartbreaking to see everything that transpired up to the point of his end, and that's what really set my expectation for the rest of the game.  I love the concept of vestiges both as a narrative and as a game design.  The memories of an individual shed a little more of the story, creates a much more intimate connection of the character to the player, and creates a significance to the power the player gains.  Throughout the game, the story isn't clear and throws a lot of information that doesn't quite make sense at first.  I generally dislike a story being so ambiguous and told piece by piece in a backwards manner, and yet I found myself entirely engrossed to the world and its people in Code Vein.  There's so much build up and it keep making itself more clear with each passing memory that you visit until you get near the end and finally realize what this entire game is about: the prelude to God Eater.  The "horrors" that humans couldn't fight back were the Aragami all along!  That one moment blew my mind and made everything so clear to me.  I even made a joke early in the game asking my friend if "Code Vein takes in the same world as God Eater because there's a bugarally doll".  So I was especially shocked to find out it really was in the same world.  I do think the writing often suffers from the tropes found in a lot of Japanese animé and videogames, but the overall story and the way it was told was good enough that I forgive it.  I'm split on how I feel about the differing endings though.  I didn't know how the endings worked on my first playthrough and was locked out of the true ending before I found out.  So I got the neutral ending, then the bad ending before I played a third time to get the true ending.  The neutral ending felt like it could be a sad "true" ending for the game where the player takes the responsibility left behind by Gregorio Silva by keeping the barrier and red mist in place for eternity (or until all revenants die out).  And then strangely enough, I found the bad ending to be the most appropriate one.  Not being able to save a single successor of "Queen's" body parts, the player must absorb and contain the parts themselves until they can no longer control it at the end in which Louis does what he needs to and subdues the player.  The player is dead, the successors are dead, (and I'm not sure on this) Louis takes on the role of Gregorio Silva and keeps the red mist and barrier in place, and everyone left behind continues a life of loss.  As depressing and awful of an ending it can be, I felt as if it reflected the theme and tone of an unforgiving world shown at the beginning of the game.  With the true ending, it felt like your typical Japanese game where the power of friendship saves the day.  Io, the mysterious girl that watches over the player throughout the game, sacrifices herself to keep the barrier and red mist in place, produce blood beads, and protect the revenants.  Everyone who was transformed as a successor was given back their human form and everyone was happy together.  Then the player walks out to the outer edges of the barrier and is able to walk out of it.  The main support characters joins in and says they'll stick by the player all the way as they walk into the sunset of the unknown world outside the barrier where the Aragami run rampant.  And if you fulfill the special ending, you get a short clip of the player's character turning around and calling out for Io's name one last time.  It is a good ending and leaves the player feeling hopeful for an uncertain future, but I also liked the bad ending too because of the impression it left me.

Overall, I loved the story and the game despite the some of its short-comings.  It might have even been my favorite game of the year, but there's been so many great games I played this year I'm not sure.  Code Vein was definitely a lot more than what I was expecting, and I'm so glad I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Reflecting as Autumn arrives

I've been incredibly busy the past two months right after EVO finished and have barely given myself a chance to really rest a little.  While it's great that I've been so productive, it's very easy to keep rushing forward and lose sight of where I'm headed.  With getting one audio project done after another and switching from one new game to the next, both work and play has kept me busy.

What eventually broke this chain and gave me a bit more to think about was an offer a friend gave me.  The same friend that I helped with a project back in July was now able to officially hire me for contract work and asked me a few weeks ago about doing it.  I thought about it for a while and ended up initially turning down the offer and decided to focus on music since I was incredibly motivated and inspired the past few weeks.  He eventually contacted me again last week and really tried to convince me to take the job.  In my mind, I felt it was unnecessary for my participation.  But he was adamant on specifically having me do it.  I was rather surprised by his enthusiasm and started to consider if I could put aside time for it.  I asked for more details with the duration of the job in particular and it's about 4 weeks.  After spending nearly an hour trying to persuade me, I eventually sort out how I was going to approach taking this job, slowing down on my audio work, and then continuing what I was doing after those 4 weeks of work time in my head and agreed to take the job.

Honestly, I felt bad for making my friend work so hard to try to convince me to take the job when I've been complaining about not getting any job opportunities for so long.  Having been so unfocused all year since returning from Japan, I didn't want to ignore the motivation and inspiration I've recently gained and so I've been fervently working on remixes and continue to do so until I start on that job.  In any case, here are the remixes I've finished the past 2 months.










On the videogaming side, I've jumped from playing Fire Emblem Three Houses to having to switch to Astral Chain, then to Daemon X Machina, and now Code Vein.  With no more pre-order games in mind (other than Mario & Sonic at the Olympics 2020 in November), I can kind of relax a little on time constraint and slowly take on those 4 games.  With the amount of work and games I've been putting time into recently, I felt almost as blind as I was before I got so motivated.  I think that's why it's important to me to take one day out of each month like this to write in my blog to be able to reflect and clear my mind a bit so I can stay on the path I want to head towards.  You can say I've been pretty happy with the amount of progress I've been able to cover in both work and games the past two months, and yet I still feel empty at times.  I want to be able to reach a point in my life again where the uncertainty of my future feels exciting rather than daunting.  My trip to Japan proved that my life still has that potential.

As we get into the Autumn season, I push forward towards my short-term goals and hope that it helps my long-term goals.