Prepare to Dine with Code Vein

Bandai Namco made it difficult to decipher what they were previewing when they posted a peculiar video teaser last week. It was evident this project would have a unique, dark fantasy-esque art style and would be pretty violent, but it said nothing about what kind of game it could be. The combination of the style and aesthetics were reminiscent of Soul Sacrifice, a Monster-Hunter alike published by Sony for Vita. But this title was seemingly inspired by a different source, as the “Prepare to Dine” tagline was intentionally close to the “Prepare to Die” one used for Dark Souls.

This was also going to be a worldwide release, since the YouTube and Twitter accounts for every major Bandai Namco district promoted it simultaneously. Given how few worldwide titles they’ve released in the last half-decade, this was shaping up to be something special.

The project has been revealed as Code Vein, an action game for currently-unspecified consoles. Now that we’ve received an adequate look at the title through screenshots and information, we can see how accurate those guesses above were. It turns out some were off the mark, but that’s not the fault of the guessers.

Code Vein is being helmed by production team heads responsible for the God Eater series, another Monster Hunter-alike initially released for PSP that eventually made it to Vita, PS4, and PC. But no one guessed it would bear such a strong visual resemblance to those titles in terms of art style and aesthetics, especially after the dark western-style animation from the teaser. It’s quite a bait and switch despite how it’s not using the same graphics engine as the GE games (it’s being made with Unreal Engine 4), and its left the audience divided over how it looks, depending on how much they like GE or its style. Not to say that games with anime aesthetics can’t have worldwide appeal, as recently proven with the successes of NieR: Automata and especially Persona 5.

The game takes place in a ruined world, where a society known as “Vein” was the only colony to survive the apocalypse…mostly. It’s dominated by beings called “Revenants,” who sacrificed most of their memories for supernatural powers, and cling to their remaining humanity by dining on the blood of other Revenants or creatures like vampires. If they fail to procure enough blood, they’ll turn into monsters known as “Lost.” Plenty of Revenants have already become Lost due to their lack of sustenance, and will be the creatures playable Revenants will encounter over the course of the game.

The backstory made the already-strong comparisons to God Eater even stronger, as games in that franchise also take place in a ruined world, though the apocalypse doesn’t happen in the same way.

To procure blood, Revenants will use Blood Veils. When inactive, these will take the form of various pieces of clothing or armor, and transform into snazzy-looking masks during the blood-sucking process. Blood is pumped into their mouths through a weapon that takes the form of a pipe. That sounds disgusting, but none of the screenshots precisely show how the process looks. Sucking in enough blood will give characters a special ability in the form of a Gift, which will provide effects including strengthening physical attacks and defense.

In addition to those powers, characters can use various weapons for more traditional melee attacks, including swords, spears, and halberds. Some can be combined with the aforementioned Blood Veils for unique touches, which will be shown sometime before release. As seen in the screenshots, some of the weapons are gigantic, in yet another similarity to…well, take a guess.

In fairness, it doesn’t look entirely comparable to the God Eater games. While the art style, character designs, and big weapons (likely intentionally) invoke that franchise, the dark and atmospheric environments with harrowing enemies lurking about gives it commonalities with From Software’s Souls series. It could also be compared to Bloodborne depending on how fast-paced its combat is, and if the blood-sucking mechanic is also used for health recovery. Code Vein, of course, will contain its own unique features, like how players can take an AI-controlled partner with them throughout most of the quest. But Bandai Namco clearly invited comparisons to the Souls series with this and the above-mentioned promotional tagline.

Perhaps this will replace the Dark Souls series for Bandai Namco. It’s been stated multiple times that Dark Souls III was the last game in the series, and the franchise’s developer is moving on to other works. It’s possible those subsequent titles may not be published by Bandai Namco, and could be handled by another publishing partner or From themselves if they plan to establish houses outside Japan. The end of the Dark Souls series means Bandai Namco is losing one of their most reliable worldwide franchises, and they want a series they can call their own to replace it. Nioh showed that Souls-like titles not developed by From Software can also do well, so this could be a successful venture with the right amount of promotion, assuming the development team is talented enough to pull it off.

Code Vein is due for a release sometime next year on unspecified “major home consoles.” A gameplay trailer will arrive early next month, so expect more info about its gameplay and intended platforms around then.