Code Vein II Review: Bonds Across Time and (Wasted) Space

Launching nearly seven years after the launch of the original title in a new Soulslike franchise, Code Vein II elevates the narrative to a time-traveling open world narrative still rife with vampires and the Revenant Hunters who aim to put them in their place. We recently sat down to see all that Magmell Island and beyond have to offer in Code Vein II from Bandai Namco Studios and former God Eater development alumni.

As mentioned in our earlier preview for Code Vein II, despite being a numbered entry, this story is by and large standalone from the first game. It’s still a post-apocalyptic world filled with vampires, the same sort of weapons and gear, and progression linked to modifying one’s potential through equipping Blood Codes (Blood Veils in the first title), despite being the type of hunter that’s tasked with slaying vampires. The world has already fallen into disrepair from a variety of maladies and blights, the most recent of which is a calamity known as the Resurgence. During this event, living beings around the world were twisted and disfigured into beings known as Horrors. To seal this plague away, five great Revenants sacrificed themselves to seal away the Resurgence and lock themselves away in Cocoons, while history remembers their sacrifices as heroes of the world. Now, as the seals begin to weaken, the player Revenant Hunter has to break open these Cocoons and slay the Heroes who have since been misshapen by the same calamities they aimed to lock away for good. 

This is where Code Vein II’s unique hook comes into play. By utilizing the power of the player’s eternal partner, Lou, of whom they each share half a heart, they can journey back into the past one hundred years and ally themselves with the Heroes before the Resurgence even has a chance to go off. While the destruction itself may be set in stone, players can choose whether to ally themselves with the Heroes and complete a personal quest for each, thus securing them as a lifelong partner. Of Code Vein II’s three different endings, it comes down to just how many of these partners the player is willing to change history for.

Code Vein II’s challenge lies not with persevering against smart and intelligent horrors in the world, but with how punishing they can be against the misstep of the player. There are three ways to mitigate or prevent damage in Code Vein II on top of specific weapon skills that can also nullify damage: blocking, parrying (which, if mistimed, still results in a block if done in time), and evading with a quick dash. The issue with blocking in Code Vein II stems from the massive stamina cost required to withstand a hit. Perfectly timing the block reduces the impact, yes, but at that point, wouldn’t you be better off parrying instead? Enemies tend to have long attack strings, especially with the militaristic types with weapons matching the player’s arsenal, which can overwhelm even the heartiest of builds.

Combat in Code Vein II is all about using those precious Gifts, using Ichor extracted from enemies for your main source of damage, while basic attacks are more about being supplementary once you get the hang of combat. To refill your Ichor to power your abilities, it’s all about draining that resource from enemies (while one blood code in particular does give you back Ichor for regular attacks) by using aptly named Drain Attacks. These utilize a special wearable bit of gear called a Jail to harvest that resource from enemies with a variety of special attacks, ranging from simple gauntlet grabs to laying down spike traps to my personal favorite: sending out a swarm of bats to passively suck Ichor out of enemies and return it to the player. Only one Jail can be equipped at a time and set to the R2 button, but whichever you choose will be a core part of combat.

Players only have access to four Gifts equipped at a time, and this includes a combination of temporary passive boosts as well as attacking Gifts, limiting the potential of some builds. I found myself opting for one evasive/defensive maneuver, one attacking Gift (namely a jumping slash that could also evade enemy attacks), and two passive Gifts: one to increase damage done and the other to reduce damage taken. Depending on which Blood Code you equip, you may be limited in the amount of Gifts you can equip at a time, as well as the Ichor available to cast those Gifts (in addition to actual defensive stats). Another perk to sticking with a Blood Code for a while is that with enough mastery, players can speak with a particular NPC once proficiency is maxed out with that Blood Code and unlock a new passive boost to bring along on the adventure. Think of these like accessories that provide stat boosts or passive effects. Players can don up to four at a time, although there might be a secret way to unlock a fifth slot if players are truly dedicated. 

Stats are divided up across six core attributes based on the player’s current Blood Code and passive Boosters. Each equipped weapon and Gift takes stock of the player’s attributes, and this is where the Burden system comes into play in Code Vein II. Rather than assigning a weight to your rolls based on how much encumbrance the character is undergoing, it’s about the total cost of abilities equipped versus the attributes of a given Blood Code. If players can keep all of their burden costs under half of each particular stat, that unlocks what would typically be the Light rolls in a Soulslike. Going over half in a given attribute reduces the player to a Normal roll, and going over a particular stat burdens the player with the Slow roll.

On top of that, each Blood Code has unique Trait perks depending on the Margin (unused amount) or Overburden (going over the cap) of a particular Attribute. Take Josèe’s various Blood Codes: on one, having a Margin of 8 in both Strength and Mind lets players gain Ichor from regular weapon attacks, while one of her other Blood Codes gives players an attack boost for pulling off a Perfect Dodge, but only if at least one of their stats is Overburdened. The mixture of available Attributes and Traits is something I found to be far more interesting as a system when it came to building a character than just looking at the defense stats. 

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Much like the first Code Vein, players can jump into New Game Plus once they finish the main campaign by way of a special green portal located back at Magmell Island. This is a one-way trip and puts players right at the beginning of the game, following where the character creator would typically be. This means every cutscene, every choice, and every collectible are left in the world to explore and acquire once more. The main differences this time around are in the amount of damage the enemies both endure and dish out to the player. During my second playthrough, I was at least level 170 and still dying in roughly three or four hits from everyday fodder enemies. By skipping cutscenes and rushing through the story with character levels intact and only aiming for the main objectives, Code Vein II can be finished in six to seven hours if you really push yourself and take advantage of fast travel and the motorcycle to get around.

My first playthrough was a bit less than forty hours to complete every quest I could find (opting *NOT* to restore bonds of the four heroes to get the bad and normal endings), followed by another ten hours of grinding to max out every Blood Code and pick up every health collectible around the world. There’s at least one that’s locked behind a quest that takes players into a specific dungeon as one of those bond quests, so don’t expect to get everything in one run unless you’re trying to aim for the best ending. That being said, since players carry everything over, including those precious health upgrades, players can just as easily pick up a few early health upgrades and use those to max out their recovery items.

Where Code Vein II falls short of its lofty ambitions is in its open world. There are clear inspirations from Elden Ring in how players approach the open world, with only major points of interest marked on the map and side diversions scattered throughout. And yes, there are a great number of abandoned buildings and secret tunnels scattered throughout Magmell, so if players take the time to go off the beaten path once in a while, they’re sure to find some new dungeon or collectible scattered throughout. The issue is that in the downtime between these small dungeons, there’s an endless amount of repeated content with small enemies littered throughout, or gathering items that players will have piles and piles of if they stop to pick up every little shiny object on the ground. There’s a growing trend of Soulslikes hopping onto the Open-World train (Rise of the Ronin and Nioh 3 are recent examples) and while it doesn’t suffer from the lack of interesting dungeons of the former, Code Vein II bloats what would otherwise be some solid world design with a large map that doesn’t really justify the scope and scale with meaningful and interesting content.

By and large, Code Vein II is certainly an improvement over the original game in all but level design (only in part due to the open world focus here, versus the tightly designed corridors and interconnected maps of the first game). The lack of co-op is also a sore spot here, but your AI companions can hold their own in a fight, so I don’t really lament the loss of summoning another player just for a single boss fight. If you have a masochistic streak and don’t mind facing off against fodder enemies that can slay you in a couple of hits, Code Vein II is the bloody hardcore action RPG worth starting your 2026 off.

If you plan to play this game on PC, check out our detailed performance analysis and graphics settings guide here.

[Editor's Note: Code Vein II was reviewed on the PlayStation 5 Pro. Review code was provided by the publisher.]

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