is this as hard as souls games?

[MaTheMeatloaf!]

I stink at them

[Blazing]

This game is generally considered a souls-like, which means it is rather similar to souls games. It is one of the easier souls-likes, but it may still be rather difficult for you depending on how hard you find souls games. That being said, the game is somewhat easier due to the innate AI companion.

[-Endersoul- (BOMTS)]

Much much easier. For most of the bosses you can let your company distract them while you go for their back and deal the high dmg.

[Xengre]

Technically? This is harder, but there are some caveats.

The core difficulty from souls games comes from not knowing to level your HP and the overwhelming brokedness that is Vigor stacking so you get people who get 1 shot vs people who can screw up 4-5x and still not be dead having a massive difficulty gap due to that one truth. People often think they can put points into offensive stats for gains but the gains are so minimal its like throwing pebbles or getting a slightly thicker twig that is still just a twig. Health is where the real power is at. This can easily drop a souls game from higher difficulty to like a 3/10 just from this one change but it took 4 games before the community started to truly grasp this and even then its still not as well known as it quite should be, but much better than before.

Code Vein compared to souls games...
- Enemies are faster, especially bosses and some unique mobs. Far far faster in some cases.
- Enemies do more dmg here as do bosses.
- You fight more enemies at once on a given regular basis, especially from the ambush things. Souls games almost always have 1-2 enemies and rarely more than that at a given time.
- Enemies have actual varied attacks including even basic mobs while souls enemies are hyper repetitive and very basic patterns.
- You cannot stagger lock most enemies here with nearly any weapon while in souls even light weapons can stagger lock almost 90% of enemies meaning they physically are incapable of fighting back as a punching bag. Elden Ring does change this up, though, unlike other souls games putting it closer to this game.
-NG+ scales much harder here but you can actually stay in NG when going to a new NG+. You are given two options. To +1 difficulty level or retain current thus you can stay at NG difficulty if you want indefinitely while replaying the game and getting anything you missed, stronger, etc.


However, some things to consider that make it more approachable:
- Souls game enemies and bosses tend to have excessively low health while the player has disturbingly high dmg. By default, this is not the case in Code Vein. However, the buffs in this game stack well rather than merely overriding. Thus you can actually, if you know better, produce much higher dmg than even in souls games. Enough damage to even trivialize the bosses and mobs. It is not unusual to consider stacking 2-3 buffs on avg to stomp mobs, and up to 5-6 buffs for tougher enemies like bosses. You can even 1-shot all bosses in the game, even at level 1 (except DLC) with the right buffs about halfway plus through the game when you get Jack so if there is a boss you simply hate you can just bypass it this way (Google if curious or ask in forums how). Buff stacking can be the difference of doign 200 dmg or doing 10,000+ per hit.
- Unlike souls games typically, you get an AI partner here. Unlike Elden Ring where its limited in usage it is a permanent partner for the entirety of the game. You can swap them, too, at base. Two of them are much better than the others (Yakumo, the best by far, and secondly Io who is the only one who gets stronger as she learns new skills due to story reasons as the rest have all skills by default). Io is sometimes better than Yakumo due to AI reasons but usually Yakumo trumps her. Either one is strong enough to carry you most the game as the AI is often good enough to beat the game for you for most content if you utilize these two and just play it safe. The AI and you can revive one another by sacrificing HP which is something Souls games don't allow making it further manageable. You could play solo if you really wanted, though.
- Magic is very strong here as a good option, though it doesn't quite reach the peak OPness of some souls magic extreme builds it is, overall, typically better than typical souls mage builds.
- You can coop with one human player + your AI at same time. Maybe find a friend to play through with. No restrictions on content you can coop in aside from visiting base. Some coop builds are very OP like the one where your coop takes fatal dmg for you (but the hit isn't fatal to them, thus leaving low hp instead of dead).
- Like in souls games blocking is overpowered. You can use the popular Zweihander which can easily get 100% dmg and stamina drain negation quite early-ish into the game. Prior to that there are other options that still block pretty well resulting in chip dmg.

DLC should likely be skipped if you find difficulty of souls games to be in question. DLC difficulty is a massive difficulty spike to the point many users consider it outright unfun. Its not that the bosses are bad as they're the best in the game, imo, but they're clearly more oriented towards challenge oriented players. The bosses make up the bulk of the DLC as they just have 3 maps which are tiny like depth maps which are very basic. The real content is the DLC bosses and some challenges you can do to unlock stuff against them and while the stuff is good its hardly necessary.

[Alex De Bullsta]

Just like what everyone else said, but in my personal opinion, this game is a bit of a joke at the start due to level difficulty but as you get use to the mechanics it becomes easier as you go through.

I found this game to have a hard start level difficulty and a easy end game difficulty, thats not including the dlcs. if you want a mega challenge, get the season pass and give the other 3 dlcs a shot.
To sum um, its harder in the beginning than dark souls.

[Sasha Pines (no brain)]

no the game is far from other souls game if you compare the difficult even without the AI help but we dont speak about the mob rush in this game
co op is very questionable in this game duo to the fact both player cant use the mistles meaning that no refilling healing item not to mention is it limited to 2 player

[Dis Lexic]

The game is both easier and harder in different ways. The bosses in this game are MUCH faster than most Fromsoft bosses and can be extremely hard to pin down and there are a lot of times when you will be bumrushed by enemy hordes. You do have an allay to help, but that doesnt mean you wont get splattered if you arent careful. THat said, I have finished this game, unlike most Fromsoft games, so take from that what you will.

[Dr. Atrocious]

I completed it and I suck at hard games, so I think it's easier.

[Coffee Break Hero]

I died more times, possibly more than double, to sigurn (gmgow and gmgow+ difficulties) in god of war than I have in the entire game.
make of that what you will.

[Prokaizer]

It's all about your build and playstyle.

Be it Mortal Shell, Code Vein or Dark Souls, your build / equipment / playstyle depend how easy your walkthrough will be.

Biggest mistake Soul players do is run throught areas super fast, instead of leveling up and upgrading their equipment and then they cry when enemies overpowering them.

[The Vampire Kain]

This game is nothing like a souls game not even close. The play style and atmosphere are completely different.

[shit owl]

if ur worried purely about the difficulty there is no cause for worry really tbh the companion system can make almost anything a cakewalk to an extent so don't let it discourage you from playing a fun game

[Tregarde]

I found Code Vein a little easier. But I think a lot of it just comes down to pacing, just something about CV moves at a more comfortable pace for me. That's not to say it's easy, just that I was able to overcome CV with less hassle.

[Sigil]

bring the companion as intented. its EZ win if you souls veteran, but probably fairly fun if you stink at souls.

[Lanosa]

This game, going alone, is as hard as Dark Souls. Bring a companion, and it will be izi pizi lemon squizi.