Today’s issue of Weekly Famitsu included a spread on Bandai Namco’s Souls-like JRPG Code Vein that showcased quite a lot of new screenshots and provided more information, notably including the first look at multiplayer.
First of all, we learn more about the Queen. In the past, the fate of humankind was on the brink as a girl that was being used as a guinea pig couldn’t bear the pain of the experiments. She escaped, and she raised an army of Lost that she could control due to the research that was done on her. Many died in that battle, resulting in the creation of countless revenant and lost.
At the beginning of the game, the hero is seen among the many gathering to fight the Queen. He is paired with Jack and the two attack the research facility where she has made her base. A fight with the lost under her control ensues, and then the Queen herself enters the fray. During the struggle, the hero’s mask comes off, and he starts turning into a lost.
Jack decides that there is nothing left to do to save the hero, and shots him. The scene ends with our hero falling down a cliff to certain death… or maybe not.
The mask is important because the Queen is surrounded by an aura of bloodlust that allows her not only to control the lost but also massively accelerates the process that causes revenants to become lost themselves. That’s why Jack tries to kill the hero when his mask comes off during the battle against the queen.
Incidentally, we also meet Karen, who is Louis older sister and a researcher that was working on the Q.E.E.N. project. She died during the Queen’s escape and was revived as a revenant.
We also get to take a better look at the abilities of NPC companions, that can accompany the hero in his travels. They can distract enemies, offer buffs, and hold their own in a fight. They can even revive the hero if they reach him quickly enough.
Mia can support the hero by shooting from a distance, while also buffing his abilities, including the ability to suck blood from the enemies. Yakumo is very strong and fights using a greatsword. His buffs can reduce the stamina cost of guarding in exchange for dodging speed, he can also reduce damage taken and increase the power of a counter after a block.
Louis is mainly a close combat fighter using hit and run tactics taking advantage of his speed. He can improve attack power at the expense of defense, and boost evasion. You can aim for high damage, but overextending is very dangerous.
We then get to see the first look at multiplayer. In Code Vein the cooperation among revenants is crucial, not only with buddy NPCs, but also other players, who can be summoned online to help to clear a dungeon. If you feel that you can’t do on your own, it’s advisable to call for help.
Players can send a rescue signal, and players who meet the conditions will come to help. Other players may come alone, or they can appear with their own buddy NPC. The NPC’s buffs will affect the whole party.
Communication is done via emotes that can be customized with a gesture, voice, and icon. The range of customization is fairly wide, and the emotes you create can be saved in a palette and used instantly whenever you want. Using this feature well should allow players to quickly communicate about tactics and report on their situation.
In an earlier interview, developers mentioned that they were thinking of really new features for online multiplayer, but this feels very familiar unless they meant the emote crafting system, which is quite interesting. At the moment, we don’t know if there is more on the menu, and PvP has not been mentioned.
You can check all the screenshots out below, but keep in mind that they’re from magazine scans, so quality is not perfect. If you want to see more, you can enjoy some recent screenshots and footage, recent gameplay that we recorded at a press event, another large batch of screenshots, some more gameplay from Taipei Game Show, another recent gallery of screenshots, more images and information, and the latest trailer.
Code Vein will release in 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
