#code vein playthrough

[milktian]

i have beaten code vein with the good ending yippee!!

i've put my final stuff under the cut. im gonna try and perfect it before starting a new playthrough, but it's gonna be hard letting go of the big bonk build.

i've been really into strength builds recently which is wild cause im usually a dex or magic user dfsglksjdgl once you go bonk you never go back ig

side note: i never got the offhand weapon stuff so i kinda just put a bayonett in there so i could lure enemies away. it's a queenslayer bayonett+7 aside from that, my weapon (was the impulse anchor) felt like such a reward cause I struggled against mido like actually.

the final boss also gave me trouble but thanks to io quick healing me, I got there yippee. Aside from just being a bit awkward to fight in a small space, the camera really was out to get me.

i really liked code vein tho!! i picked it up cause i thought it would help me get over my fear of dark souls (for some reason im so overwhelmed playing them it's wild) and turns out it's one of my favourite games now.

there are some parts that uuuuh definitely bugged me (for some reason there are only like. two mistles max allowed in later sections, and even with shortcuts, made run backs so annoying).

Also knock-off anor londo wasn't bad you guys, I think you just hate mazes. provisional government outskirts + centre sucked way harder /lh

[laputaskies]

[kingmlem]

CODE VEIN 2?!

CODE VEIN 2?!

code vein 2 and Silksong?

.....am I dead? Have I died?

[mysticmistral]

“Oh hey, Bloodborne is on sale for ten bucks on the store! I know it’s a hard game but I love the look of it, I’ve always been curious of it’s story-“

I’ve died sixteen times on that road trying to find a way to not alert the big group of enemies at the burning tree, once more than two of them surround you it’s practically over, I haven’t even found the first boss or leveled up what the heck did I buy myself into-

(Might reblog my progress, as a fun little journal.)

[tigerpriestess]

Replaying Code Vein after a few years...missing my previous saves though and am sad because I had some great created characters 😭

[foxgirltail]

On the one hand it kinda feels like code vein put all their budgeted level layout into a small handful of levels, leaving several levels feeling boring, short, and straightforward

On the other hand, thank God for the changeup. The levels that aren't the aforementioned boring, short, and straightforward ones are way over designed and extremely mazelike, the shitty map possibly doing more harm than good. These are long, laborious, and frustrating

Very few locations feel like a good middle ground between the two

On an unrelated note I also don't like the way that you're locked into endings. You have to scour the map for items in a half-dozen different areas before fighting the boss in that area. Very tedious. If you beat the boss (of these specific areas) before getting the items, you change what ending you get. Also there's a steam achievement for getting "all" endings, which includes 2 endings that are identical except for a single voice line. Kinda silly that they count as separate for this

[ercdouken]

Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe (PC/Steam) - Vein Arcade Playthrough

[vintagerpg]

Most if not all the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have hype copy on the cover that says, “A thrilling fantasy adventure in which YOU are the hero!” Creature of Havoc (1986) has that copy too, but it is the one time (that I can recall, at least) where it is fibbing. You are not a hero. You are a horrible creature, mutated, without identity and driven only by instinct (though, honestly, I am not 100% sure you’re the titular creature). This makes Havoc pretty unique in the series (only the time loop of Black Vein Prophecy exhibits a similar mechanical boldness) and makes for a complex and difficult playthrough.

So, monster that is constantly changing and evolving. Initially, you are driven by instinct, which means you make rolls to determine where you go. Once reason takes hold, you need to figure out language, which involved breaking a code (and kind of reminds me of The 13th Warrior in the way speech slowly becomes comprehensible). Then you need to escape. That involves secret passages, which can be discovered by adding 20 to the paragraph number when you’re in the right spot. You kill some adventurers along the way (combat in this book, with your claws and bulk and spines and, uh, appetite for flesh, is both bracing and gruesome). Eventually, you confront the sorcerer who made you this way — Zharradan Marr, the handsome gent on Ian Miller’s fantastic cover — find out the truth about your identity and, presumably, kick his ass into the netherworld (where he continues to make trouble for the world, as detailed in The Trolltooth Wars novel). Alan Langford delivers art and it is fine, but this is maybe the only time I will ever say this: the art is secondary to the experience of playing through this book.

All in all, conceptually and mechanically, a performance that is difficult to impossible to top. Clearly, since it is the last FF book that Steve Jackson wrote.

[raisengen]

Nightreign's quick and varied replay scratches at something I've been thinking about for a while. A stereotypical RPG looks like the following:

You are given a number of ways to build your character,

You have to lock into that build style, preventing you from using every option,

You have multiple story branches, even if only at the quest level,

Playthroughs are very long (maybe 50-100 hours).

This means that the developers produce a lot of content that only a minority of players will experience. There's more nuance to unpack here, but at a first glance it does suggest you could make hay by resolving that tension.

There are plenty of examples you can find of games dropping different elements of that list to various degrees of success. Bravely Default and Code Vein drop point 2, various JRPGs drop 1 and 3, Armored Core (not really an RPG but hey) drops 2 and trims down 3 & 4 just enough to work out.

For this post, it's the idea of dropping point 4 that I'm interested in. The poster child for that approach is the roguelike genre, but they typically lean heavy on randomness and light on narrative. Nightreign's arcade style gives you more control over how things shake out, so you can choose how to explore build options, making it a great mechanical demonstration of the idea; you can experience more playstyles in 10 hours of Nightreign than you would in 100 hours of Elden Ring.

Again, though, you've lost the narrative side of things. I feel like there's space to lean into the storytelling at the same time, let the player explore different narrative possibilities while exploring the different gameplay possibilities, though I can't say any good examples come to mind.

[gear-project]

. . .

To give people some idea as to what I do outside of Guilty Gear Lore Discourse:

—I’m actually a rather big Comic Book and Manga fan, so I read a lot in my spare time, Korean Manhwa too.

—I collect and reforge weapons in Libra of Souls in Soul Calibur 6. Each weapon style has fun nuances to them, so I try to optimize my weapons to suit my characters. I’ve posted a few videos already.

—In addition to the above, while grinding games, I listen to various music from other games, like Code Vein, GodEater, and Metaphor, also score soundtracks from older films and movies.

—Lately I’ve been playing Metroidvania style games, preferably something that makes characters overpowered. I actually enjoy powertrip fantasy build games and like to see how far I can break them. I’m big on Immortality builds.

—I like to do research on Voice Actors and Music Composers from old Anime and American Cartoons.

—For those who didn’t know I’m pretty active on TwitterX and BlueSky for various discussions. When my PC is working I’m also chatting away on Discord.

—While I’m somewhat limited to PS4 games lately, I still try to watch silent playthroughs of more recent game releases, as well as game lore videos.

—While I used to be something of a Graphic Artist in the past, I spend more of my creative energies in character creation games these days. So, every once in a while I like to share some of the stuff I come up with. Don’t worry, I still draw once in a while, I’m just busy with other stuff a lot.

—I still post videos on YouTube of my gaming exploits, though as of now I’m trying to think of new stuff to add to my channel.

—Also, I’m on Patreon and GameFaqs, though I frequent the latter more.

[reflectionsofacreator]

About

Creator | Neeb | Azlykumos

30 | they/them

FFXIV Blog: @thecat-inthehat Writing blog (under construction): @azlykumos

Currently playing: Elden Ring Randomizer, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I do not have a que tag, but I make liberal use of the queue.

Writing

I don't post my fic to my blog (save for XIV write in September), but my #creator writes tag has updates, all around writing woes, and memes. Each fic has its own tag as well, which can have anything from updates, woes, to aesthetics/moodboards.

All of my fic on ao3 is currently under lockdown -- only able to be seen by registered users. I have invitations if you need.

Ao3 | [main blog] | [ffxiv blog]

My Fic:

Raven Feathers [ao3] [tag] - Code Vein Astralfire Credence [ao3] [tag] - Code Vein & Final Fantasy XV Queen Malapropos [ao3] [tag] - Code Vein & Elden Ring Immanent Apotheosis [ao3] [tag] - Batman & Final Fantasy XIV dry wine rebirth [ao3] [tag] - DP x DC

Video Games

Assassin’s Creed Playthrough Masterpost [currently on hiatus]

Creator plays Code Vein Creator plays Final Fantasy XV Creator plays Elden Ring

Creator's FFXV Meta

Video Game Caps

[apathmakerstale]

Lies of P Ending Spoilers

I’ve beat Lies of P twice, and got Rise of P & Free From the Puppet Strings for the endings and I have to say it’s a fun game. I just need the Real Boy to get platinum so I have one more playthrough to go through.

By no means do I think it’s anywhere near Bloodborne and honestly for the studios first game I can’t expect that but it’s a solid 7/10 game for me.

I loved the weapon dissembling system so much! I played around with it a lot, even though I ended up using the Puppet Ripper for most of the game. Booster Glaive Blade/Exploding Pickaxe Handle was my second however.

The Gold Coin tree was a fun experiment and never had any trouble with it. I forgot to use it a lot but the wishcube was cool. P-Organ was a cool skill tree too. Love the Legion Arm system, even though Puppet String lvl3 is op and so are Falcon Eyes. Which I used for most of the game.

The combat is a clunky in some areas like the parries and the delayed attacks that aren’t very intuitive. It felt like almost every enemy had to capacity to stunlock me which was very irritating. It just felt like everything was a second too laggy. It also felt like I was made of glass the entire time as enemies could always just take out half my health. Though apparently I beat the game with low Vitality, it was 17 or 18 I think.

The thing I had the most gripe with was the weight system. I never liked them in games, that's probably why I liked Bloodborne so much after it got rid of it. I played the entire game on Slightly Heavy. I didn't even know there was a 'Light' classification.

I beat all bosses with the specter which I felt made it more fairer as it tended to die during their Phase 2 opening. Which is another issue, almost all of them having Phase 2s really made it feel unspecial. I legitimately was surprised during Victor’s fight that his happened at half health and as a result kinda enjoyed it. I also kept the Dancing One's amulet on the entire game and that was a lifesaver!

Nameless Puppet 1st phase is really fun. Didn’t like the second so much, had to resort to the Dragon Blade to parry stagger him a lot. On NG+ I found him much easier.

As for the story… it was kinda okay. I really liked the the whole Ergo being souls and all the sidequests, King of Puppets/Romeo was probably my fav boss. However Simon left no impression on me and him being a generic ‘I will become god’ villain was so boring and disappointing. Gepetto being the villian was actually something I really liked, as I got kinda of a skeevy vibe from him after the Romeo fight. I actually liked the side quests kinda more. I did like the reveal it Sophia was a projection and her VA work when you meet her is amazing. The whole puppets becoming human really spoke to me and it felt really sad at the end of Antonia’s quest.

The end credits with the two characters however got me hyped, and I kinda hope that after that we get an Alice In Wonderland game. I really liked the American Mcgee's Alice games.

Overall definitely worth the price and it joins Code Vein as another favorite action rpg. If it had blood as currency then it'd be a 8/10.

What can I say I like the aesthetic.

[wifflum]

Code Vein boss: Invading Executioner (the pole dancer lady)

This boss makes her entrance by raising her leg above the (actually very shallow) water (but I guess it isn't for this moment) like it's a shark fin and swims around beneath your group menacingly. She leaps over top of all of you and showers you with water before landing on her sickle provocatively.

The leg as a shark fin thing, is stupid, but her being sexual when she's a serious threat is very antagonizing and she seems to be especially dangerous, by this show of sexuality. It hits pretty well, just how she is as a person, being like a battle stripper, but delicate sensibilities mixing with misandry had everyone complaining-- I think especially at this point-- that there's too much tits in this game. Which with Io, your character's caretaker, I can see it since you fall asleep in her lap right after meeting her, and she seriously dresses like a prostitute. The deal with Io is that she probably only has a tenuous grasp on what clothes even are, so just overall it's not as big a deal as people love to make of it. But yes, in this case the sexuality is menacing and it serves the fight well, and the boss is kind of juxtaposed with how modest the other sexualized female characters are.

(By the way, a lot of the people complaining about this boss were men. That's a misandry thing too-- it doesn't become something else just because the unchecked infection has spread to new hosts. And you'll notice how the whole thing hurts women too; just as toxic masculinity hurts men.)

------------------------

Let's get to the actual fight. So, I fought this boss over the last 3 days and that was the only gaming I did-- I only fought this boss.

She, Invading Executioner, is a melee threat with the occasional ranged attack, and then in her second phase she has a vicious and abrupt rushing attack that can kill you in one shot and has a lot of reach. Luckily she does a spin into this attack, and doesn't just do it, so there's a small window where you see her lithely go into it that gives you a chance at survival. Identifying this window is a point that is certain to deliver you a few grievous wounds on the first playthrough, because it comes quick as fuck, but it's a great attack and it gives every moment a threat because she can just turn and do it out of nowhere.

So the main threat is that rush attack, which you actually get to have yourself, from her weapon, when you defeat her, and everything else is long reaching vertical strikes and sweeps from her sickle. Which come after a delay, usually, and feeling her movement as she readies for each strike feels good. It feels like she puts a lot of power in and dodging early is set up so that it leads straight into getting hit, so her attacks are well timed with when players might typically screw up their dodges. There is one other part though that makes every hit from Invading Executioner especially deadly.

All of her attacks cause Slow buildup. Any hit on you takes a chunk out of you beyond the health, because if you get hit a few more times you've got one foot in the grave from Slow. And Slow is devastating. It's probably among the worst status effects to get in soulslikes, and you can narrowly survive with it on you but you might as well go for the Anti-Slow use, hope to get it, and be fine with dying if you can't get it off.

But the fight is definitely one of the more fun fights in the game. As is an issue with Code Vein though, the fights lean to the easy side in the first playthrough and sparkle much more in new game plus. And then having a partner makes the fight easier as well, and I beat her playing solo. The fight feels much more like a well-crafted experience by yourself, you actually have to learn everything the boss does in depth, and it feels fair too-- not misbalanced because it's designed for the player to have an A.I. partner. I really loved this fight and I can't wait to get to do it some more in the Depths.

[self-loving-vampire]

Why are there surprisingly few good vampire RPGs? What are the good ones?

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is the one everyone knows about but when you think about it more there's probably less of them than you might expect.

There's some other games where you can optionally do a decently in-depth vampire playthrough, like Skyrim with mods, Erannorh Chronicles, or Wrath of the Righteous as a dhampir with the right character choices, but even taking these into account vampires are not really a common player option by any means, much less one that whole games are primarily built around.

Tales of Maj'Eyal is also going to add vampire PCs in its next expansion if I recall.

Other than the VTM computer games, I can also think of V Rising (which is kind of a base-building survival action game with a multiplayer focus), Code Vein (which plays a lot like Dark Souls), and a few others.

It's not that there aren't any good vampire RPGs, there's just disproportionately few for how much people seem to like vampires.

Feels like there's a lot of untapped potential there, especially for sandbox RPGs.

[mismatchedmimic]

In this weeks schedule we're coninuing our playthroughs of Prey, Code Vein, and Xcom 2. We're also introucing a new Tuesday slot I dub Tryout Tuesdays, where I play a new game each week to see how it feels to stream. This week will be Tekken 7.