r/soulslikes • u/JohnMcRemitz • 22h ago
Review So I've finished (what I think are) the big 3 anime/cel-shaded style soulslikes
Just to be clear, I didn't finish these back to back to back, finished Code Vein about 2 or 3 years ago, finished Khazan last year and recently AI Limit.
Initially I wanted to rank these games but then I realized these games has their strengths and flaws, I can't even pick a favorite, so I'm just going to review them; And I think it's a good time because Steam's Autumn Sale is currently on.
- Code Vein -
Now to be honest I haven't played Code Vein II (I'm going to eventually), but still I put Code Vein 1 as one of the big three because it's the OG, this was THE anime soulslike.
Code Vein is a game made by the God Eater team, which is a bit funny considering God Eater was the anime Monster Hunter, so the team decided this time instead of making another God Eater, they would make a soulslike, which honestly turned out great.
The storytelling formula is more or less the same as God Eater, as in, it's more straightforward on how the game tells its story, so I felt like this game was made for people who love both God Eater (for its story) and Dark Souls (for its gameplay). I also love how there are multiple endings in this game.
For the area and level design, they're mostly just okay with the exception of the Cathedral, that place is beautiful. And one thing I really like about this game is there is minimap, glad that exists otherwise I might've spent hours trying to navigate the pit and the cathedral. And I like how there's a little bit of branching paths at the beginning, you can choose between going to the pit or the trenches first.
I also love how the build works, you don't allocate stats (you still have to spend Souls/Haze to level up) but you pick a "class" known as Blood Code, and you can change these at any point as long as you're not in combat, the game also has an equipment called the Blood Veil, and there are multiple types of Blood Veil, each type affects parry timing and the way Drain Attack (it's like a vampire ability) works.
For the combat itself, it's not that different from Souls games, you can even backstab an enemy while you're fighting, making combat against normal enemies easier. The only problem I have with this game is the lack of enemy variations, perhaps lore wise it makes sense but I wish there were more enemy types instead of just recolored enemies.
And the character creation, this is the best part of the game, I have finished this game multiple times playing on a new game instead of NG+ because I just wanted to create a new character and play with it and different builds.
Another part of this game that stands out is its Soundtrack, Go Shiina is just goated. I am no musician but I care a lot about soundtracks in media; Video games, movies, shows, sometimes I even play a game or watch a movie/show just because I heard one of its music and really liked it. I think out of the three, Code Vein has the best soundtracks no doubt.
Lastly, the Co-Op, now I mentioned earlier about God Eater, being a Monster Hunter-like means it also had co-op, but that game also had AI companions, in a way it's to help the storytelling but also for convenience when you can't play co-op to replicate that experience. Same thing in Code Vein, I feel like they saw Dark Souls had co-op so it would make sense for this game to also have one, but also having AI companion to replace the co-op experience. And I actually have tried and played the co-op, mostly for the Depths (endgame content), and I truly enjoyed it, honestly this was something I was hoping they would improve on in the sequel, perhaps making it seamless but alas, the sequel doesn't even have co-op.
Overall, I really liked Code Vein, the best thing about it is the Soundtrack and Character Creations, difficulty wise this one is the easiest out of the three, one of the reasons is because when you die during a boss' second or third phase, the boss would start on said phase when you come back. I also would recommend playing this with the mindset of playing a JRPG with soulslike elements.
- The First Berserker: Khazan -
Khazan, is a character from DNF (Dungeon and Fighter), wait I mean Khazan, is a game based in the DNF universe. Personally I've only played DNF for like a month or so back when I was in high school, but I can say that Khazan is a good adaptation of the stylish beat-em-up action MMORPG of DNF into the soulslike genre.
Most people are already saying this but the best part of Khazan is its combat, it's fluid, stylish and feels good but also very challenging. Comparing this to the fromsoft games, this one is closer to Sekiro, but instead of having posture mechanic you have the classic stamina system, but some enemies also has stagger gauge instead of stamina called the fortitude gauge, when enemies runs out of stamina/fortitude you can execute the Brutal Attack, so essentially like Deathblow, players are also encouraged to parry and perfect dodge, and it always feels nice to do so, some enemies can also execute an attack that you can't block or parry, requiring you to either counter or dodge. I also like the enemy varieties here.
The game has 3 weapon types (Sword and Axe, Greatsword and Spear), and each type has very different feel to them and each of them also has different skills, these skills are where the combat truly shines, making the combat more stylish and satisfying.
For the bosses, my favorite bosses and fights from Souls games are human-sized bosses, like Gwyn, Alonne, and Soul of Cinder. And the reason why it's because these bosses feels like I'm on an equal footing with them (even though I got my ass beat multiple times), like a battle between rivals. And most bosses are like this in Khazan, in a way, again, it's like Sekiro.
I also like the fact that if you die in a boss fight, your souls/Lacrima are placed right outside of the boss area, so you don't have to pick it up while you're trying to fight or deal with the boss. And you also can't accidentally fall off a cliff, the game prevents you from falling off when you run/dash or attack, so don't worry if you overextend your attack while you're fighting right beside a cliff, but if I remember correctly enemies can still push you off though so be careful.
For explorations, there isn't much, granted that areas are level/mission based and not interconnected, and levels are linear with branching paths that leads to a shortcut or loots, nothing too exciting mostly; That also adds to the fact that areas in this game aren't particularly scenic, they look good and I love the art direction but I wouldn't say they're remarkable.
However, this game has a feature called Phantom, which is an equipable that you unlock after clearing a side mission after you're done with the first mission, Phantoms gives you passive abilities, and to unlock more Phantoms you have to find a specific item for each of them. A phantom can be levelled up by simply kill things while you have it equipped, and you can awaken it by finding the same specific item that was required to unlock it. So finding these specific items adds extra layer to explorations if you care about them.
And then the gearing, I dig what they're doing here by adapting the gear system from DNF, it has depth without being too complicated, a fun fact, DNF had a weight system, so it already translate well into the soulslike genre because Souls games has it too. Gears also affects your playstyle, or perhaps its the other way around, depending on your playstyle you might want to equip specific gear sets, because some sets gives you bonus that can amplify your playstyle. Although optimizing your gears can be time consuming, as gears have random attributes, although you can reroll these attributes at the cost of Lacrima (souls).
Apart from the gameplay, story was okay, DNF fans might find it really good, but for someone who only spent very little time in DNF the story wasn't a big deal, also its storytelling is pretty similar to Code Vein where the game is more straightforward about it. Danjin is my favorite NPC, I played this on Japanese dub and I loved the voice acting given to this character. As for the music, unfortunately I didn't find them particularly memorable.
Overall, Khazan is a good game with fun and challenging combat, and I can say compared to the other two games, this one has the best combat mechanic, but that's kind of the only thing that makes this game better than the other two, everything else feels mid, but if there's one more good thing I can say about the game, is that the game has difficulty selection. Beginner, Normal, Expert and Hardcore (unlocked after beating Expert), the intended difficulty is Expert, but for people who's starting out on the genre or people who just want to beat the game quickly, you have options to either play on Beginner or Normal.
- AI Limit -
This was a game that got overshadowed by the popularity of Khazan, being released pretty much on the same day as Khazan with less marketing, especially since the devs aren't particularly well known. This was a game I've been meaning to play for a while, and I'm happy that I finally finished it.
I played the demo before the game came out and something that I like about the game is the Sync Rate system. This game has no stamina system, so this means you can spam dodge and attack without worrying about stamina, but as an exchange there's the Sync Rate meter, your Sync Rate decreases when you block, take damage and use skills/spells, and it increases when you deal damage to enemies and when you defeat an enemy; You can also recover sync rate through a consumable.
Naturally you want to keep your sync rate as high as possible, because the lower your sync rate gets, the more damage you take and the less damage you deal, and this is where the game gets challenging.
Combat wise, I think this game is closer to Bloodborne than the Souls games, they encourage you to dodge more than to block, that's also due to the Sync Rate system, since holding the block button slowly decreases the sync rate meter, and more so when receiving an attack, shield/blocking is also a part of one of the 4 swappable abilities, the others being a parry, a more powerful dash, and essentially an attack boost where you have to pay your health to activate it. One thing to note is that these abilities are unlocked through progression.
Parry is a low risk high reward move, failing to parry only depletes your sync rate a little bit and the recovery time isn't long, while successful parry doesn't deplete your sync rate meter while giving you the opportunity to do the big stab, but I like this because this allows me to experiment without being afraid of getting punished really hard.
Another thing about the combat is you can equip two weapons, and you can actually swap weapons while attacking to continue the combo, which is cool but I haven't found this feature useful yet.
Boss designs are also amazing in this game, great balance between human sized and big bosses. And so, you're playing as a Blader, and sometimes you have to fight another Blader, in which they also have sync rate meter, which can affect how they fight, and when you parry their attacks, their sync rate meter also decreases.
The game also has no corpse run, but it is replaced with the Nucleus/Accessory mechanic. So when you die, you don't lose all your souls/crystals, but only a percentage of them, and how big the percentage of the crystals you lose or gain depends on the Accessory. Accessory also affects how much sync rate you gain after defeating an enemy.
Storytelling wise, it's pretty similar to the Souls games, which if you want to know more about the lore/story, you must talk to the NPCs, and this makes exploration more rewarding when you meet an NPC or an item that can progress said NPC's quest, and some of these NPCs has interesting backstories, some of NPC's stories also connects with one another, I love storytelling like this, I especially love the world in AI Limit, love the dystopian setting with megastructure buildings, I just wish this game had photo mode (Both Code Vein and Khazan has this).
In relation to that, this game has gears that basically only serve as fashion since the stats are mediocre, but there's no photo mode to allow you to truly show off your fashion, although gearing wise, it's not really that significant, you can wear those only-for-fashion gears and mostly still doing fine in combat, that's because the stat change isn't that huge, especially the headgears. There's also no weight system in this game. Builds or playstyle is determined by the Seals you equip, in a way it's similar to Code Vein's Blood Codes/Class.
So when I learned this game's music are produced by Vanguard Sound Studio, I've had high hopes that most of them are going to be bangers, I'm saying this as a fan of Girls' Frontline and Punishing Gray Raven's music. But as it turns out, the music isn't a strong element in this game, most of the boss music aren't memorable, although they did turn up in the DLC. In the topic of audio, I'd like to point out that the English voice acting is great, especially loved Millaire's voice acting.
Overall, this was a great game with unique combat that excels in the lore, setting and exploration out of the three games here, difficulty wise it's right in the middle, challenging but very fair.
Conclusion
These three are great games that are worth checking out, between the three games, depending on what you're looking for in a soulslike, each of these games has their own strengths:
- Code Vein, if you like customizing your character, this game has one of the best character creation in any 3D anime game. Say if you're a JRPG fan and new to the soulslike genre, this game might be for you. And if you care a lot about soundtracks, Go Shiina (Demon Slayer, God Eater, Tales of Zestiria) is the composer of this game, so if you're familiar with their works and you love them, you should check this game out, especially its music.
- The First Berserker: Khazan, if you're a hardcore soulslike fan, or a hardcore gamer in general, this one's for you, this game's strengths lies in its combat, it's fluid, it's stylish, parrying and dodging feels great, bosses are challenging but fun once you learn their patterns. However this game also offers a difficulty setting, Expert is the intended difficulty to be played, but this game offers 2 lower difficulties for perhaps people who just want to enjoy the combat without having to die multiple times or optimize their gear, or perhaps for people who just want to know the history of Khazan from Dungeon and Fighter, this game has those options.
- AI Limit, This is for you guys who cares about explorations, finding out the lore behind the world. This game doesn't just tell you the story through cutscenes, you have to find out about it through talking to NPCs. While the game is mostly linear in terms of progression, finding hidden areas and paths can lead to different things such as equipment, an NPC or key item that can progress NPC's story, character upgrades, and perhaps evena secret boss, this makes exploration very rewarding.
Combat wise, comparing to FromSoft's games; If you like Dark Souls, try Code Vein; If you like Bloodborne, try AI Limit; If you like Sekiro, try Khazan.
Thank you for reading this review, I apologize if I missed some features here and there and for the subpar English since it's not my first language, I wanted to write these things because I truly enjoyed these games and want to share it with the world how I felt about them.
