Is the game hard?

[Pebble]

I've watched a number of videos about Code Vein and I noticed that everyone everywhere is having a hard time with exploration, and even harder time with the bosses. The fact that some of them are Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro/all of the listed veterans are even more strange. Being someone who beat every boss in 1-3 runs I find this very confusing. Is it just my muscle memory from Dark Souls that prevented me form a grim fate or is it the youtubers are not very good at the game? Please leave your opinon down below if you have it.

[Artorian]

It can depend on how you play. Such as weapons and Blood Codes. But the biggest determiner of difficulty is if you play with companions. The hardest is without an AI companion, mid/easy is with an AI (Depends on the AI), and the easiest is with an AI and a player. The game is challenging and similar to the Soulsborne games, but I wouldn't say it's as difficult as them. The biggest killer is often underestimating the enemy damage, as most bosses can 2 shot you if you aren't careful. Regular enemies can also be pretty overwhelming if you let them since they do decent damage too, it depends on your ability to crowd control and pattern recognition of the attacks some enemies share.

Not the biggest expert, but this is my main experience with Code Vein and the three playthroughs I've done. I've played Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 and I have to say they were more difficult, but Code Vein is much more punishing if you let your guard down or go unprepared/underleveled in an area or boss fight.

[SunfireKnight86]

I stand back and fling spells and I've had a pretty easy time with it thus far. Several bosses in and I haven't died once.

EDIT: Ive now died twice, but once was to falling off something.

[Lorska]

The things I struggled with personally were the butterfly and water pole dancer. Every other boss has been fairly easy imo. I think it comes down to consistency. In these other games you generally lack the burst to kill bosses/enemies quickly so you are somewhat forced to learn patterns and pull things off reliably. Here you are always having at least 4 staggers and a knockdown as well as a transform phase that lets you heal to full.

This means that provided you have a corresponding build you get a lot of damage in for "free".

But having a companion makes things a lot easier. There seems to be a small design flaw as certain areas and mechanics (like the waves of enemies) are making it really obvious this was designed with a companion in mind, but others (notably the spire) were clearly designed for a single character. Considering there are more areas like the former I'd say it flows better with a companion but it does make the game considerably easier at times, mostly due to the revive mechanic.

I'd just suggest you go for playstyles that suit you and your expectations of difficulty. For example I'm running a drain weapon attack focused light gift burst build. Fast squishy, no blocking or parry and very positioning reliant. If things get too easy, just try something else.

[pcdeltalink]

Combat can vary between easy and hard at the drop of a hat though usually it's not too difficult, especially with an AI companion. Enemies in this game I've found sometimes have a tendency to oscillate between standing there and letting you hit them and other times they all seem to get a huge burst of aggression and speed to the point where you're suddenly dead and not even 100% sure how it happened so fast.

[Pistol Packin' Mama]

Yes, it's hard. The A.I. only goes so far; even Yakumo dies on me. I think a lot of people judge the challenge level on this game based on its first act as opposed to the whole package. There's plenty of difficulty spikes beyond that.

[APN34Z]

Once u beat Sekiro u can beat any game lol
Im not that far in but as of now its ez for me

Ive played pretty much all the HC games out there

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by Tay Bae:

Yes, it's hard. The A.I. only goes so far; even Yakumo dies on me. I think a lot of people judge the challenge level on this game based on its first act as opposed to the whole package. There's plenty of difficulty spikes beyond that.

Depends on what you're fighting too. A few of the invasion challenges are insanely tough. A couple bosses come to mind like the fire and ice duo. But otherwise Yakumo is insanely OP. I can almost count on one hand the number of times he actually died in a fight he just has such good defenses.

[SQUIGLONKER99]

Its difficulty is more variable than most normal Souls games. Grinding and selecting the right abilities for a build makes a much bigger difference in how difficult a fight is. Personally where I am in the game (midway through Crypt Spire) most stuff I've run through combat-wise have been fairly easy, mostly from stacking Light Active buffs like Iron Will, Somatic Zeal, and Adrenaline on top of some passive stat buffs for A/S rankings on Strength and Dex.

The fighting style's also way more offense-oriented than Souls, since it's generally more difficult to escape being staggered and most difficult enemies have attacks that let them close distance rapidly, or shoot projectiles. Inversely enemies are also vulnerable to stunlock so usually it's best not to overthink a battle and just charge in and rip them to shreds.

[Pistol Packin' Mama]

I wouldn't say its necessarily more offense-oriented, it's just that you can't turtle up indefinitely without modifying one of your weapons. There's plenty of encounters in Code Vein where you WILL be punished for rushing in. The twiggy female knights in the Cathedral and Memories, or the giant spiked monsters in the mountains for instance: both are incredibly fast, unpredictable, and difficult to stagger without getting hit.

[SunfireKnight86]

I switched to a two handed sword and have managed to face tank all the bosses up through the ice cave. Not sure how far along I am. Maybe it's because I've played all the Souls/Souls Clones that ever were, but I'm not finding this game difficult at all.

[WhiteLezard]

I'm near the end of the Crypt Spire and I'm not finding the game particularly challenging, even when I haven't used the companions. There were some rough spots (Butterfly, Hatsune Miku and Eva but overall has been easier than the Souls games and Nioh.

[Not Ela]

This game is not hard unless you play solo without AI. Everything drop tons of souls you will be over level af super fast and rape boss in less than 1 min.
Tip: Use Final Journey to fight boss. It gives massive damage buff, don't worry about dying after 3 min part, boss wont last more than 2 min

[Not Ela]

Parry timing in this game is super relaxed and there are tons of bonefire and shortcut. explore carefully and you wont have any trouble.

[Dark]

For me it is a middle ground. The Successors were far too easy compared to the rest. Though I cant master the parry options with your blood veil.

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by Dark:

For me it is a middle ground. The Successors were far too easy compared to the rest. Though I cant master the parry options with your blood veil.

Doesn't help that the parry timing is different for each type of veil. All I've really gotten so far from parrying is usually "earlier than you think you need to."