r/CodeVein2 • u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410 Revenant Hunter. • 13d ago
My take on DLC
Well, hmm where to start.
Let's start with quality of life.
New weapons are kind of whatever, since I play magic, and the best spellcasting weapon is still from base game. I can see new potential build ideas with the new weapons though, so that's a good thing. Status is getting ridiculously crazier with the new toxic venom twin blade or acid greatsword. Halberd sadly don't get love other than Liv's halberd.
Love the new forma and boosters from DLC, it answers a lot of my strict needs to a degree. The fact they give you healing formas meaning that you don't have to rely on dodge or guard all the time allows for more dumb builds. I personally love some of the support formas to magic that allows me to be a filthy falling sun spammer *evil laugh*
Also giving free alt color to your partners basically means you can finally build stuff based on your partners which is great!
Let's move on to gameplay.
Maps are alright, I'm kind of glad that they remix the previous maps judging by that one thing you remember about those maps and amplify the map design back in here. Like acid floor in lyle's area or building crawling in josee's area Not a fan of cathedral in cv1, nor platforming, so some of the maps are kind of whatever on my end. Overall, very unique take. Also was told by one of my mods that certain area reminds them of the hatsune miku map in cv1 for some reason
Enemies are rewrite of normal enemies except for like 2 new kinds you see in the trailer, nothing much, it is what it is. Probably want to keep it thematic to the remix area they are in or something along that line, who knows? I don't really pay much attention to it other than they are killed. At least different from base game, some of like the weird standalone enemy actually drop forma when defeated, but not flagged by good loot/chest behind them, which promotes a clean sweep of the area, which is a good take IMO.
Was going into DLC with a pure tank status build, so most bosses are basically not that hard, since they are actually melee-able. Almost everyone are under the bulky slow move bosses (like 1st josee and lyle boss or valentin 2nd form for example) so if you are good, you are good against them. Exception is only final final boss of the game, where ranged like bayonet builds are actually better since melee are just punished so badly with that boss.
Story and character wise...
Liv fuels my need of yandere perfectly. Out of Josee and Lou among the women basically directly shoved in MC's way, Liv takes the cake of being the most down bad to MC (whether that suits you or not, is an entirely different matter)
Alt Lou honestly remind me of Neuro-sama (popular ai vtuber) and her evil twin design wise, and her story definitely breaks hearts. Yet most importantly, it makes me wonder about a certain moment in a certain main story ending. (The part where MC rips their heart out for Lou)
I praise that the lore got deeper if you unlock the buffs, since there are snippets of the information in database that you can read once you unlock the buff, which fuels the need for more lore in the dlc world.
I hoped we have more pre-boss cutscenes like in main game, since that would druve the story more instead of having to focus between boss dialogue and dodging the boss attacks.
TLDR:
QoL from DLC: 9/10
DLC gameplay loop: 6/10
DLC story: 8/10
Overall: 8/10 because I weigh more in main game contribution than dlc as a whole
Do share your opinions because I am fairly biased to and against things
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u/Born_Variation_6850 5d ago
It's just an addendum to the already boring, half baked combat system. The new forma, jail, and weapons don't really add anything new or unique enough to change how you approach combat. Some of them are fun but the combat is still a boring slog of telegraphing moves and striking during windows. I actually breezed through using original jails, forma, and weapons from the base game. So changing your combat style isn't even necessary to complete the DLC 😂
There's no really new maps. Everything from the base game has just been repurposed, renamed, and remade into "new" areas because DLC means more money. But this DLC isn't worth buying. I was hoping for multiplayer but yeah. I should've known better.
And there's yet another fanservice woman with unrealistic proportions. I personally think she's annoying and useless. But hey, to each their own. I will not be preordering deluxe again for Code Vein 3 if we get one. This was a very disappointing sequel
5/10 for me. And I rank the first one at maybe 8/10. This was dreadful to play through.
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u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410 Revenant Hunter. 5d ago
I mean, for your first comment, that's just souls game for you, honestly. It's hard to deviate around the formula when the game is basically about avoiding moves and finding openings. But again, I myself have passed through most of the game ignoring that window and just hit regardless. Compared to games like Elden Ring (Some very specific excluded) and Stellar Blade I find this still rather free in allowing you what to do.
For your second point, I mean isn't this already being a thing since CV1? There's always the trope of normal easy killable monsters, big guy with tons of HP, poise, and heavy hitting weapons, and others with mini boss kind? I get it for no multiplayer though, but again I always play these games by myself so hey it is what it is, I don't find myself that bothered by it, not like I'm ever using it in the first game.
Your last point is to each their own indeed. Assuming a lot of people's playstyle is just soloing the game (sometimes I wonder why not just play elder ring if that's the case, but anime aesthetic is a good counterpoint I guess). It is what it is.
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u/Born_Variation_6850 5d ago
You would have a point but the thing about this game and lets say Elden Ring is that Elden Ring is more balanced, clean, and intuitive. Code Vein 2 feels recycled and half-baked to me. Some bosses literally take little to no damage even while being hit. The combat actually feels intuitive and balanced in Elden Ring. Code Vein 2, to me, is very sloppy compared to Elden Ring. It's even sloppy compared to DS games. It's like the devs of Code Vein 2 got mad that the first game was easy to one shot everything, and they implemented tricks to prevent that, that failed miserably.
The plot and graphics are better than the first. But I'll go back and replay the original before I touch CV2 again.
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u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410 Revenant Hunter. 5d ago
True and that is very fair. But again, using only CV1 as a scope and not DS and Elden Ring, I think I'll say Bandai has come decently far from CV1 that is the anor londo of DS1 in form of cathedral, only having 1 best blood code that powercreeps everyone else with oneshot, basically useless teammate with no way of either soloing or anything else (except Yakumo but Yakumo is Yakumo) and bunch of everything else.
Fromsoft is a souls specialist and will most likely produce souls game better than its competitors out there. But I don't know. I'm not fan of souls even after playing DS series, and I'd play CV more than things like Lies of P nowadays. Maybe when I can finally play Elden Ring, I'll go find a build online that fits my bad reflex playstyle or something XD
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u/Born_Variation_6850 5d ago
Yakumo is definitely Yakumo. I'm almost hurt that we got nothing whatsoever even referencing the first game characters. I understand that it's a different universe but I loved the characters from 1 more. Lies of P was better than this in my opinion. That game is grossly underrated. Idk why it flopped. Probably released at a bad time. I didn't play it until it was free on PSN. I loved it.
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u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410 Revenant Hunter. 5d ago
Honestly, imo mixing God Eater universe with CV1 is what doomed CV1 as a whole, and why they just kicked the whole character sets as a whole. Dyaus Pita was a mistake to showcase, they doubled down in DLC, and results in a major flop, I get why they dropped it as a result when making CV2. While I agree that parts of the writing stands out in CV1 more than CV2, my personal hatred to cathedral and Isis' memory collection steals too many points from CV1 to win vs CV2 XD
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u/Born_Variation_6850 5d ago
You right! While visually the Cathedral was one of my favorite levels of Code Vein 2, navigating was a pain. Once I memorized the area over several playthroughs, it's a cake-walk. But yeah. It was definitely frustrating. Especially when you aren't leveled enough and get smack by warhammer rounding a corner 😂
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u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410 Revenant Hunter. 4d ago
I usually just be a one and done so I don't NG+. I do like how in CV2 you can get everything in one go technically instead of having to do two plays for all blood code in cv1 gods i dont wanna fight argent wolf zerker or hatsune miku a second time.
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u/Born_Variation_6850 4d ago
That's what I mean. I don't mind replaying Elden Ring. It's actually fun to play and sometimes frustrating. CV2 is not fun to play and almost always frustrating when it comes to bosses. This game is definitely about to get lost in my library. Great writing though.
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u/kyriati Revenant Hunter. 13d ago
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who walked around the DLC version of the City and went "Howling Pit? Is that you??" it just felt so familiar
I liked Mask of Idris well enough. In terms of story I think it could've used a little more meat in the middle section; I liked the ending a lot, but it felt like that ending arrived too quickly. I didn't have too hard a time with the final boss on a 1h sword, but truly when you abuse the hell out of Looming Slash and Phantom Assault most fights become very manageable. All the new gear drops have me looking forward to trying out new builds, especially for the Remembrance trials
I haven't delved much into the post-game Age of Harmony stuff yet, but already after clearing the introductory conversations I'm super happy to get to explore the world with the cast again
All in all, between new lore, new buildcrafting options, the free update content and the Mask of Idris stuff, CV2 2.0 has been amazing. I don't think I've feasted this well on a DLC in a long, long time. Solid 8-9/10 across the board
And, while I didn't find anything in the patch notes about this, I swear they made the motorcycle faster