Another year, another Souls-like but with a sprinkle of Japanese anime frosted over. The present day is lost to the Resurgence, a calamity of evil that has destroyed the world for good, filling the streets of crumbling cities with ‘horrors’ hoping to wander over any leftover survivors. Only time travel with the help of Lou, a revenant with the power to travel back to the past, is the solution to bringing back normality to the currently decimated world. Code Vein II’s inspirations are heavily detailed, with FromSoftware’s Elden Ring features plastered all over the game. Side dungeons are abundant with bosses, and a motorbike that acts like Torrent, our trusty steed in Elden Ring, is used to travel long distances in an open-world full of crafting materials and elite enemies.
Code Vein II‘s similarities with its predecessor are pretty far and few in between. The game is introduced with a lore dump that explains the premise of the game, showcasing how the old heroes of the world managed to seal the Resurgence in a giant, floating, spherical shell that hangs above the present day world. These four heroes are very similar to the demigods of Elden Ring and must be slain in order to destroy the Resurgence forever and bring peace to the current world. Its Souls-like roots are cemented throughout its large, open-world, but sadly, it fails to solidify itself as a unique contender in the genre. Everything about the scale and content provided within the world is far too closely inspired by other games, with near identical mechanics that become quite repetitive after a while. Its gameplay utilises the base mechanics of other video games that did it better, alongside a story that pulled me in with its concepts of time travel and how changing the past can alter the present, for good or for worse.
Walking in the shoes of a character-created Revenant, returning players of the original game can re-familiarise themselves with mechanics like Blood Codes and a partner system, offering additional help with strong bosses and enemies. Blood Codes act more like classes, giving different values to skills like Strength, Dexterity, etc. Each code can be mastered to unlock an improved version that is more superior and provides an edge in battle, helping improve attack power, stamina, etc. Players can equip various weapons and tools into offensive or defensive slots, the former being weapons like swords, hammers, etc., and the latter being shields that can be kept held to block attacks, shields that rely on parrying and more. Also introduced are Jails, special attacks that have visually different backstabs and are mainly used to recover Ichor for special attacks called Formae, which can deal immense damage to enemies.
Entering the overworld of Code Vein II, I noticed how most of the environments became less appealing to look at up close, but from afar, things became more beautiful and vivid. Taking the bike for a spin feels sluggish and barely picks up enough speed to even feel remotely fast. Pushing the pedal to the metal feels like going through a school zone, and using the gliding mechanic is similar to a hovering pigeon than a swooping hawk. Code Vein II might have benefited more from a quality over quantity approach as the less refined environments take away the immersive feel of travelling the world, finding more interesting side dungeons and gathering recovery-enhancing Golden Nectar and Blood Beads.
Enemies range from simple foot soldiers to towering, mutated beasts, purposefully looking for survivors to kill on sight. There are some very cool looking designs here, including a giant, female-like monster with two giant arms that can crush the player and also help it to move around, as well as smaller arms to attack at closer range with a mouth that fires heated laser beams. Sadly, some of these encounters become quite repetitive, and some enemies are reskinned as bosses with large health pools but donning the same exact attacks. Side dungeon exploration always ends with a boss fight that contains more or less the same type of enemy we can fight in the outside world but for a longer amount of time due to the increased damage resistance and harder hitting attacks. Alas, the main story bosses have plenty of impressive design choices that help me to forget about the vast array of reused mini-bosses the game insists on throwing at me.
Code Vein II sadly fails to exceed expectations, dimming a light on what could have been a worthy sequel to an enjoyable first title entry. Its inspirations are far too obvious, and sometimes, it can feel like a different game altogether as the original Code Vein‘s linearity helped identify itself as a unique concept. It’s subjectively an anime Elden Ring clone, subtracting all the enjoyment.
Developer: Bandai Namco Studio
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Windows PC
Release Date: 29th January 2026
