The development team behind God Eater gives a sneak peek at the development of their newest IP Code Vein in this first of several dev interviews, which you can view above.
“We started developing Code Vein in order to do something new,” says Associate Director/Content Director Yuta Yamamoto of Shift. “Having made God Eater for so long, we really wanted to create a new property that felt different but shared the same kind of game world.”
“When I’m exchanging ideas with Shift, we really don’t hold back when it comes to putting our ideas on the table, telling each other just what we think of the other’s thoughts,” says Director Hiroshi Yoshimura of Bandai Namco Studio. “In this sense I think we make a pretty good team.”
Code Vein takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where “Thorns of Judgement” dot the landscape and even grow out of skyscrapers. It’s in this world where the surviving humans have become vampiric creatures known as Revenants. The story focuses on a group of Revenants known as Vein. Vein exists in order to fight the Lost, which are Revenants who have given into their bloodlust.
One of the features the developers wanted to capture in this post-apocalyptic world was the strength of enemies. “Players are expected to give a strong performance when fighting against powerful foes,” says Yoshimura.
Associate Director/Action Director Yuichi Yoda of Bandai Namco Studio notes that the dungeon crawler genre calls for a harsh game world with strong enemies, dramatic tension, and thrilling dungeon crawling. “Thinking of these elements as key features we wanted to include, we did attempt to make the difficulty level somewhat on the high side” while ensuring player ease with the game, he says.
Another key element the developers considered was the types of actions and abilities vampires would have while exploring the world and fighting enemies, says Producer Keita Iizuka of Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Player repetition, unique gameplay features, combat style, and even shape-changing capes are some of the other concepts the developers explore in the interview. If you’re a fan of God Eater, dungeon crawlers, or have been looking forward to Code Vein itself, it’s a fun, informative watch.
Code Vein is scheduled to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PCs later this year.
