'Code Vein' Gameplay News: New Drain Attacks, Blood Mechanics Revealed
New gameplay information has been revealed for "Code Vein," an upcoming action role-playing game from Bandai Namco that takes its cues from "Dark Souls." The series looks to separate itself with a bigger-than-life approach with anime influences, as shared by the game's development team in a recent interview.
Even as the game is being compared to From Software's famed "Dark Souls" style of deadly action combat, "Code Vein" is steadily building from this foundation to becoming a twisted, ornate anime-inspired goth series.
Kurumi Kobayashi, character design lead for the upcoming game, shared with IGN in an exclusive interview how their team balances a stylized, anime-inspired design while keeping it somewhat realistic.
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"We wanted to hit the middle ground," the designer said. The design includes plenty of giant swords, spiky attachments and billowing ornate coats set in an impossibly fractured landscape.
Game director Hiroshi Yoshimura channels his experience from his previous "God Eater" series to tackle the task of building something distinct from yet reminiscent of "Dark Souls." At its base, "Code Vein" will have similar mechanics: characters lose experience when they die, and checkpoints are rare and far between.
Roaming monsters, called "The Lost," presents an ever-deadly threat as even the slower ones can take down characters to half health with a single swing. The characters have plenty of ways to deal with the threat, aside from the tried-and-true method of swinging a sword at them.
As vampires, characters can drain the blood of enemies to unlock special skills. These drain moves can range from a simple tap to a flashy, and messy, kill animation. Special garments called "Blood Veils" add to the gore, as these ornate coats and masks transform into mouths, scorpion-like tails, or claws that rend and tearing enemies apart to get to their vital fluids.
The video below shows the announcement trailer for "Code Vein," showing the world and overall style of the upcoming action RPG from Bandai Namco. The game is due to be out next year for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
