Code Vein II maintains the core elements of its predecessor, but it feels more like a standalone action-RPG than a sequel. That’s because it greatly expands on the series’ combat systems and ideas to offer a huge amount of customization, while telling an all-new story about vampiric characters called Revenants that’s not linked to the original Code Vein.

I recently got a chance to go hands-on with Code Vein II to check out its new systems, its time-traveling story, and its tough-as-nails bosses. Here’s everything I saw along the way.

A host of combat options

At first blush, Code Vein II feels similar to other Souls-like games, as well as to its predecessor. You can fight with a host of weapons ranging from huge greatswords to fast, gun-mounted bayonets and, new to the sequel, dual blades. Hitting Square gives you a fast, weak attack, while Triangle fires off a stronger, slower one. You can also dodge with Circle and block attacks with L1 to lessen the damage you take, or parry blows completely if you hit L1 just as an attack lands.

Where Code Vein II sets itself apart is in all its combat options. For starters, for each weapon, you can equip four special abilities called Formae; one for each of the face buttons. Holding R1 and hitting one of those buttons activates the Forma equipped to it.

Formae come in three different categories — Combat, Magic, and Support — and they all have different uses in battle. One might give you a powerful attack, while another can help you dodge out of the way of an enemy before striking back when there’s an opening, and another might cover a patch of ground with flames.

Draining your foes

Powering your Formae attacks takes Ichor, and like in the first Code Vein, you only have so much. You steal Ichor from enemies by activating slow but powerful Drain Attacks when you hit or hold R2. These strikes use special weapons, Jails, and, like the Formae, each is useful in its own specific way.

Jails can be equipped like other weapons in Code Vein II, and I tried several to see how they mix with different builds and abilities. The Ogre Jail is a huge claw that slashes away at enemies, while the Hound is a pair of dog-headed gauntlets that latch onto and bite enemies.

Another Jail fires off like a scorpion tail, giving you lots of range, while another lets you send a horde of tiny bats to tear at enemies. Each Jail has particular attributes that fit different Blood Codes, the central aspects of a build that determine your character’s fighting style.

Between weapons, Formae, Jails, and Blood Codes, there’s a huge amount of customization in Code Vein II’s combat.

An adventure through time

The world of Code Vein II lies on the brink of destruction. The only way to save it is for you, the protagonist, to team up with a Revenant named Lou with the ability to travel through time. The plan is to head 100 years into the past to just before an event called the Upheaval, where you can hopefully alter history to stop a world-ending force called the Resurgence.

My preview started on MagMell Island in the present, where humans and Revenants were holed up, fighting to survive. But in the past, the place was under attack from bandits, forcing me to fight my way through its corridors and join other characters as they worked to defend it.

The second level, a dungeon called the Sunken Pylon, was ruined, flooded mall into the ground — a place now overrun by Horrors, the corrupted former humans and Revenants created by the Resurgence. In both levels, there are often side paths with tough, optional fights and hidden rewards to find. Often, you’ll loop back to an earlier checkpoint by unlocking shortcuts and elevators in classic Souls-like style.

Gaining Partners

Time travel also lets you meet characters from the past and team up with them. Partners are a major part of the series, but Code Vein II adds new aspects to the system. Your computer-controlled ally will fight by your side, making them great for taking on multiple enemies or distracting a boss so you can heal. But you can also “assimilate” your partner, fusing the two of you together to give yourself a stat boost while your partner is off the field.

You can activate assimilation whenever you want, making it a handy part of your strategy, assimilating to pull off a few high-power moves before releasing your partner back into the fight.

Partners are also something of an extra life. When your health runs out, your partner will revive you and briefly disappear. If you can stay alive long enough, a timer will run down, bringing your partner back into the fight.

Code Vein II’s story hinges on your partners, with the Sunken Pylon focusing on Josée, a Revenant hero wracked with guilt over the death of her twin sister. After channeling Josée’s memories to unlock her past, the dungeon culminated in a battle with the vicious Horror responsible for her sister’s death.

Battling the Metagen Remnant

At the bottom of the Pylon was the Metagen Remnant, a colossal creature that showed how brutally tough Code Vein II’s massive bosses can be. The trick to the fight was to get in close, dodging the Remnant’s enormous, burly arms, and then hitting it in the face whenever there was an opening — while also being careful not to over-commit and get pummeled.

Even once I had the hang of what the Metagen Remnant could throw at me, it was an arduous battle. Bosses have huge health pools and lots of deadly tricks up their sleeves. But if you can hammer them hard enough, you can stagger bosses just like other enemies, allowing you to perform Special Drain Attacks to do massive damage.

Taking on Josée

The last part of the preview, and the final boss fight, saw Lou and me returning to the present to complete our true goal. During the Upheaval, several heroic Revenants used their life force to seal the Resurgence, but the calamity facing the world is a result of those seals weakening. In order to stop it, we need to release the heroes — now corrupted into horrible monsters — and defeat them.

Josée wasn’t exactly as we remembered her; she was now a towering, katana-wielding, armored warrior. Her fighting style is all about fast, sweeping attacks, and using a status effect that can root you to the ground and leave you open to strikes. I had the most success battling Josée with speed, pummeling her with fast attacks and staying light on our feet to dodge her strikes. But like the Metagen Remnant, Josée puts up a serious fight, making it clear that Souls-like fans are going to need to hone their skills to defeat Code Vein II’s toughest challenges.

Altering history

The boss fight is a tragic addendum to Josée’s tale. But as Director Hiroshi Yoshimura mentioned during the event, after beating Josée, you’ll potentially have the option to return to the past and change her fate. That might give you the chance to save her, but it could put your overall mission at risk, too. While I didn’t get to see how the timeline might change in Code Vein II, it’s clear time travel is a big part of how its deep story will unfold.

Code Vein II has added a lot to its predecessor’s foundations, offering versatility in playstyles and plenty of options with your partner, your weapons, and your Formae. But the most interesting part might be its time-hopping story, with the chance to get close to Code Vein II’s characters and, ultimately, change history.

You can see how it all comes together when Code Vein II launches for PS5 on January 30. 

A Code Vein II Character Creator Demo will be available January 23 on PlayStation Store, letting you explore the game’s central hub, MagMell Institute, experiment with Photo Mode and try the game’s character customization options. Your custom character can be transferred to the full game.

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

The striking thing about Nioh 3, even compared to the first two games, is how many options you have in any given fight. A huge number of weapons, stances, and abilities to create a vast array of fast-paced attacks, and help you survive against devastating, powerful opponents.

Publisher Koei Tecmo recently gave me a chance to go hands-on and explore a new area of Nioh 3, complete with a pair of tough bosses to battle. Here’s everything I found, saw, and fought along the way.

Venturing through a corrupted city and a new time period

Nioh 3 puts you in the role of a Tokugawa Takechiyo, who’s on the precipice of becoming the next shogun of the Sengoku era, before their brother, Tokugawa Kunimatsu, kicks off a civil war to try to take over with an army of soldiers and strange yokai spirits. But Nioh 3 won’t just take you through different physical locations — you’ll travel to different time periods as you explore its expansive “open field” levels, as well. My preview took place in an occupied, corrupted Kyoto in the Bakumatsu period.

Like a lot of things in Nioh 3, the open field approach to its levels feels like a natural expansion of the series’ past ideas. You’ll still often fight and explore your way down paths that loop back on themselves with shortcuts, but levels are much larger, with side paths, hidden areas, and additional objectives — some of which are only accessible with the new jump ability. All that exploration provides players with options; if you run up against a battle that’s too tough, you can try somewhere else, often discovering opportunities to power up your character and earn additional rewards. 

Fluid fighting with two styles

With each new Nioh game, developer Team Ninja builds on a foundation of fast-paced action-RPG combat, but Nioh 3 turns a stable structure of cool combat abilities into a glittering tower of options.

As we saw in our Tokyo Games Show hands-on report, at the heart of Nioh 3’s combat is the returning Samurai style and the new Ninja style. The Samurai style is more stalwart and defensive, while the Ninja style is fast and highly agile. You can switch between styles in an instant by hitting R2, making use of each one’s strengths depending on the situation. Using the swap mid-battle, you can quickly and fluidly chain together attacks and abilities from both styles. Executed at the right moment, you’ll feel like a skillful wrecking ball as you pummel an opponent.

The two stances further expand on Nioh’s Guardian Spirit abilities, Soul Cores, and heap of weapons — the number of combat options you have in any given fight is almost overwhelming. Once you get the hang of it all, though, the freedom makes you feel like a ridiculously fast, deadly warrior, chaining all sorts of attacks together in a torrent of blades and blasts of magic.

Deflect blows to gain an advantage

My favorite new addition to Nioh 3’s combat is Deflect, a parry mechanic that charges your Ki and Arts meters when you perfectly time a block by hitting the guard button, L1, as an attack lands. The parry allows you to use quick reflexes to maintain your aggression even against huge bosses and tough foes. With all the other options you have available in combat, it’s a natural addition that rewards you for skillful play.

Helpful haptics

Team Ninja adds to the feel of combat with the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback, emphasizing a lot of its elements. You’ll feel strikes and attack as you deflect or land them, while the adaptive triggers channel elements like drawing back a bow string. However, the developers said they were careful not to overdo it and make haptics distracting, since the game focuses on quick reactions and speedy inputs.

Taking down Takasugi Shinsaku

The tutorial section of the preview culminated in a boss fight against samurai Takasugi Shinsaku. A quick, agile fighter, he frequently switched between powerful, fast sword blows and quickly firing bullets from a revolver. Those shots were matched by projectile attacks from his Guardian Spirit, who fought alongside him throughout the battle. 

Agility was the name of the game against Takasugi, whose speed and relentless grab attacks could make it tough to Deflect his strikes. But once I finally overwhelmed him, we became allies, working together to clear the corruption from Kyoto.

Battling through the Crucible

The second half of the level I played emphasized the “open” part of the open field. More paths led me to tough battles against powerful Formidable Foes, enemy bases I could capture if I cleared out all the enemies inside, and hidden areas with additional loot.

My objective was to reach a large central area called a Crucible. These are challenging areas filled with tough yokai, but with a twist: when you take damage while fighting them, you’ll be afflicted with Life Corrosion, which reduces your total health. Defeating enemies can reduce the corrosion, but as I fought through the area to the final boss of the location, I had to fight carefully and manage my health to make sure I wasn’t overwhelmed.

Battling Noribotoke, an enormous yokai boss

The Crucible’s climax was a fight against Noribotoke, a towering statue brought to life by twisting black tendrils. Like in past entries in the series, as I dealt damage to the boss, it would periodically transform and take on new attack patterns and abilities. In Noribotoke’s case, that means splitting the stone statue pieces so that the tendrils can stretch out, expanding the boss’s range and making it much faster and more dangerous. 

This battle really highlighted how all the weapons in your arsenal can come together. I spent a lot of time in Samurai form, deflecting attacks and getting in hits to lower Noribotoke’s Ki. Whenever I could deplete it or land a Burst Break counter, I laid into the boss with the Ninja style to deal as much damage as possible before getting clear to avoid the boss’s sweeping attacks. That approach, combined with powerful Guardian Spirit abilities and Soul Core summons I found along the way, eventually brought Noribotoke down and dispelled the Crucible once and for all.

Nioh 3 presents you with a whole lot of combat options to keep track of, and at first, it can be a lot to manage. But by the end of my three-hour preview, all those abilities had come together to make combat in Nioh 3 feel fast, fluid, and powerful, even as I took on some very challenging enemies. Having all those abilities gives you the opportunity to create a fighting style that works for you from a host of options, and constantly rewards you for building up your skills and exploring its larger open world to find ways to enhance them even more.

You can see how Nioh 3’s fighting styles, combat abilities, and open field levels come together for yourself when the game launches on February 6, 2026 for PS5.

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾

💾