History YMMV / CodeVein

** A more conventional example comes when you reach the Cathedral of Sacred Blood. Apart from being [[ThatOneLevel confusingly laid-out and almost impossible to navigate properly]], this is where the enemies stop fucking around. Running down the stairs from the entryway Mistle, you find yourself on a large, circular platform where you're confronted by a tall, slender female lost in shining armour, who will [[LightningBruiser blitz you and beat the crap out of you]] more ferociously than anything you'll have encountered up to now in the Dried-Up Trenches or the Howling Pit. Moving on into the level, your heart will sink when you realise that, despite the presentation of that first encounter, that wasn't a miniboss- it was a ''[[DemonicSpiders common enemy]].'' Depending on which way you go, you may rapidly find yourself getting baited into a Lost Invasion by a Vestige shard where you get ''drowned'' in brutal enemies including at least ''three'' Armored Stone-Crushers. And if you go another way, you'll just end up getting lost.

** Argent Wolf Berserker. Compared to previous examples this boss isn't particularly difficult if you have some good equipment (which is easy since enemies in the Cathedral of Sacred Blood drop Queen Steel) and a decent build. Rather, the main problem is the size of the boss arena. It's a tight space and, if you aren't careful, the boss can easily force you back into a corner. On top of all that, just ''getting'' to the boss requires running a gauntlet of very tough enemies, almost guaranteeing that you'll be going into the fight with kneecapped health reserves.

** A more conventional example comes when you reach the Cathedral of Sacred Blood. Apart from being [[ThatOneLevel confusingly laid-out and almost impossible to navigate properly]], this is where the enemies stop fucking around. Running down the stairs from the entryway Mistle, you find yourself on a large, circular platform where you're confronted by a tall, slender female lost in shining armour, who will [[LightningBruiser blitz you and beat the crap out of you]] more ferociously than anything you'll have encountered up to now in the Dried-Up Trenches or the Howling Pit. Moving on into the level, your heart will sink when you realise that, despite the presentation of that first encounter, that wasn't a miniboss- it was a ''[[DemonicSpiders common enemy]].'' Depending on which way you go, you may rapidly find yourself getting baited into a Lost Invasion by a Vestige shard where you get ''drowned'' in brutal enemies led by an Armored Stone-Crusher with boosted HP. And if you go another way, you'll just end up getting lost.

** Knights in the Cathedral of Sacred Blood. While not as durable, they make up for it with much faster attacks. The halberd ones also have an unblockable attack.

* CriticalDissonance: Despite having only a 70 on metacritic (Good, but not great) from professional reviewers, normal gamers are much kinder, at a 79 Metascore.

** And for the ''truly'' masochistic, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4isWpB0rFw it IS possible]] to beat the game using only Gifts. That means almost everything for attacking, from Companions to Drain Attacks (which you need to use to regain Ichor, which fuels your Gifts) to ''basic attacks'', leaving only Gifts and blocking as your options.

* ShockingMoments: TheReveal. [[spoiler:Turns out the world of ''Code Vein'' is actually part of the ''VideoGame/GodEater'' universe, as Aragami wonder outside the Gaol of the Mist]]. This, plus the implications of the "Dweller in the Dark" ending, suggests that the Revenants may very well be [[spoiler:the very first God Eaters; or perhaps their successors]].

** Attendant of the Relics is a complete pushover compared to any of the bosses leading up to it. The enemies in the preceding level put up more of a fight than her. Her [[BonusLevel Tower of Trials]] counterparts, however, is a [[ThatOneBoss different story]] as you fight ''two'' of her in a claustrophobic space.

** Attendant of the Relics is a complete pushover compared to any of the bosses leading up to it. The enemies in the preceding level put up more of a fight than her. Her [[BonusLevel Tower of Trials]] counterparts, however, is a [[ThatOneBoss different story]] as you fight ''two'' of her.

** Attendant of the Relics is a complete pushover compared to any of the bosses leading up to it. The enemies in the preceding level put up more of a fight than her.

* {{Narm}}:
** The music that plays during the Vestiges flashbacks is a great song that hits all the good keys to be an emotionally gripping song. The fact it plays ''every time'' you do a Vestige flashback makes it fall here, as it quickly tells the player "Get ready for the sad moments!" and becomes repetitive. Ramped UpToEleven if you decide to have Io restore multiple Vestiges in one go, as the music will keep playing again and again until you finish everything.
** Although the game graphically looks great, the choice to have characters wear gas masks all the time results in serious moments where the game becomes outright hilarious due to the voice acting and expressions not matching. This can include a scene of a {{Mook}} Revenant ranting about the injustice inherent to the whole Revenant system, but because he has a generic gas mask that completely covers his eyes, it just looks like he's overreacting, even if their voice actor tries to sell the scene. The party members don't have this issue thanks to being given masks that allow their eyes to be seen, but for others, it cheapens many moments.
** At least in the English dub, Mido can be hard to take seriously for some as an antagonist because he always sounds ''exactly'' like he's [[Creator/KeithSilverstein just one step away]] [[MemeticMutation from asking if you get to]] [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim the Cloud District very often]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Promotional Trailers from 2018, unused cutscenes and the video game box art suggest that Code Vein was supposed to have a different story flow entirely prior to its delay back in 2018. It is also heavily suggested that Mia originaly had bigger role, and maybe a different kind of relationship with the Protagonist, as opposed to the released version.

** The music that plays during the Vestiges flashbacks is a great song that hits all the good keys to be an emotionally gripping song. The fact is plays ''every time'' you do a Vestige flashback makes it fall here, as it quickly tells the player "Get ready for the sad moments!" and becomes repetitive. Ramped UpToEleven if you decide to have Io restore multiple Vestiges in one go, as the music will keep playing again and again until you finish everything.
** Although the game graphically looks great, the choice to have characters wear gas masks all the time results in serious moments where the game becomes outright hilarious due to the voice acting and expressions not matching. This can include a scene of a {{Mook}} Revenant ranting about the whole Revenant system, but because he has a generic gas mask that covers his eyes, it just looks like he's overreacting, even if their voice actor tries to sell the scene. The party members don't have this issue thanks to being given masks that allow their eyes to be seen, but for others, it cheapens many moments.

** The game's overall aesthetic isn't just aggressively anime; it's unapologetically ''[[{{Chuunibyou}} chuuni]]'' with all of its [[ImpossiblyCoolClothes impractical fashion choices]], [[{{BFS}} over-sized weapons]], familiar story beats, cast of {{Bishonen}} men and [[WorldOfBuxom voluptuous]] women, and usage of vampires when [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampirism]] has lost most horror connotations in popular culture. Besides the fact that a portion of ''Code Vein'''s audience would absolutely eat it up for these factors alone, the combination of solid ''Souls''-like gameplay, good music, and earnest performances from the characters/voice actors loops the clichés back into being genuinely enjoyable and engaging.
** The Successor of the Breath's design is completely over the top even for a game like this, being a top heavy knight with a jetpack booster and antlers. It loops back to being endearing [[spoiler: considering its the kind of thing a young boy would find awesome.]] It helps that the boss is considered rather great itself.

** In order to get the best ending, you need to [[spoiler:save each successor by finding and restoring their vestige cores prior to fighting them. Miss even a single one, or forget to purify them, and the successor will die, locking you out of the best ending. The fact that this is never explained is extra annoying, especially since you could miss out on the GoldenEnding as early as the battle with the Successor of The Ribcage.]]
** Also on that note, to achieve HundredPercentCompletion, one would have to deliberately go out of their way to screw every Successor over to achieve the bad ending, as the Queen relic Blood Codes can only be obtained this way. For players who could not stand the weight of PlayerPunch, it is perhaps the worst possible case of the LastLousyPoint, but ramped UpToEleven.

** Companions are optional and can be left behind by players who want a greater challenge. This actually deserves special mention as bosses become significantly harder as a result without losing any durability.
** [[PipePain Pipe-only runs]] are actually rather popular for many reasons, chief among them being the increased challenge due to the Pipe of Thralldom's pitiful damage output, as well as the sheer hilarity of beating down big bad bosses with a dinky tube of rusted steel. Needless to say, it is a ''lot'' harder to pull off than it sounds.

* ShockingMoments: TheReveal. [[spoiler:Turns out the world of Code Vein is actually part of the ''VideoGame/GodEater'' universe, as Aragami wonder outside the Gaol of the Mist]]. This, plus the implications of the "Dweller in the Dark" ending, suggests that the Revenants may very well be [[spoiler:the very first God Eaters; or perhaps their successors]].
* SpiritualSuccessor: Similar to ''Videogame/{{Bloodborne}}'' being one to ''Dark Souls'', ''Code Vein'' is one towards ''Videogame/GodEater'', both being BloodierAndGorier games with different aesthetics, on top of being NintendoHard. [[spoiler:That is until an Aragami appears, revealing that its actually a StealthSequel.]]

* ThatOneAchievement: Exalted Reputation. Barring Revenant Preeminent, which is HundredPercentCompletion, it is ''the'' least-earned achievement across all platforms for ''Code Vein'', with global percentages somewhere along the low single digits owing to its very grindy nature. To elaborate, Exalted Reputation requires the player to reach an online companion rank of 30, which translates into about ''400'' Marks of Honor, that could only really be obtained by beating bosses with another player while playing online. All of this adds up to ''400'' boss fights, which aren't so much hard as they are mind-numbing and boring to do. Even by farming in the Depths, which typically have about three to five bosses, this could still take up half a day of nothing but constant boss grinding. While these Marks could also be found in the world, they only spawn in select locations per playthrough, so it's far from being an efficient farming method. If one has to pin down an achievement for being that LastLousyPoint, Exalted Reputation would certainly be it.

** The City of the Falling Flame is a different kind of frustration. It's relatively straight forward, having few branching paths and being rather easy to explore if you just glance at the map. What makes it a test of your temper is that ''nearly every single wall is on fire'' meaning that if you so much as brush up against them you flinch and take damage. Worse if you get smacked into them by an enemy you not only take an extra chunk of damage ''you get staggered leaving you open to yet another attack!'' Some enemies can loop this infinitely if you're unlucky enough quickly juggling you to death. There are also areas where the floor is burning hot and damages you if you walk on it. This wouldn't be too bad except ''there are many places in which you have no choice except to walk on the burning floor'' meaning just traversing the zone eats up your limited healing. There are also several '''extremely''' powerful minibosses scattered throughout the zone, each of them just as dangerous (possible more so) then the level boss.

** Crown of Sand, for mostly one reason: It's ManaBurn to the extreme. Not only are the enemies in Crown of Sand quite powerful regardless of playthrough, they also apply Leak with each hit. Getting hit enough will cause you to steadily lose Ichor, making it insanely annoying to keep having to spend Coagulants to alleviate, and it crimps the utility of most builds, as even the most melee-centric Blood Codes rely on Gifts to increase their mileage. And if that's not irritating enough, the very grounds you step on can do this, and unlike being hit by enemies, not even Ichor Coagulants could protect you from being sapped dry by the sand, and they are absolutely ''everywhere''. Quite possibly the only silver lining in this place is that it's rather small and short, but have fun wading knee-deep through the sand without a drop of Ichor for the entire duration of that.
* ThatOneSidequest: Well, sidequest is a bit of a stretch, but Lost Invasion events can be nightmarish if the player is ill-prepared; they typically involve a horde of Lost appearing out of thin air to ZergRush the player. This horde can consist of any enemy type found in the respective areas, up to and including any DemonicSpiders, and will pursue the player no matter how far they run. They are usually guarding Vestiges or rare items, and although the events are scripted, there is almost no way to predict when they will be triggered.

** The Gilded Hunter. While the first phase isn't so bad, in the second it will cast a buff on itself that will render it [[LightningBruiser disgustingly fast, hit like a truck]] [[AttackAttackAttack and become relentlessly aggressive]]. He leaves next to no window to attack and it will be pretty much a race to take him down in the few windows of opening it gives. Alleviated by the fact that the buff eventually runs out, leading to a lengthy stun followed by about fifteen seconds of phase one before he buffs again. Several of his attacks also are very hard to dodge, such as his charging spear attack, which can still hit even if you dodge before due to the buff giving it extra range. Many players have outright declared it the hardest boss in the game because of all these factors, and its a very popular location for Co-Op play.

** The two Boreal Brutes in the Depths Map ''Silent White''. A single Boreal Brute is already a horrifying enemy, thanks to their near-instant Sonic-style spin attack that can one-shot even the tankiest characters and their ability to armor themselves in ice, which will reduce damage by about 90% until you break it with fire. But in this map, the game pits you against two of them. As a mini-boss. Some people are calling them the hardest boss in the game.

** The Cathedral of Sacred Blood. From the outset you can see your final destination, and yet surrounding it is an absolute labyrinth of identical towers, hallways, and suspended paths. The early areas have nasty pitfalls without much warning if you're not paying attention, and the later areas start throwing out some ''seriously'' tough foes for that part of the game to the point that the Queen Steel second tier of item upgrades start dropping to say "get your gear in check". Between this, the fact that there's next to no stand-out landmarks and that your status map does ''not'' differentiate between the heights of the numerous floors and pathways, it can take you hours to get through this location. Never mind revisiting it for side quests. Even worse, [[spoiler:this is the first area where finding all the Vestiges becomes essential to working your way to the GoldenEnding, with only a single Vestige-restoration NPC right before the boss fight serving as a loose warning to the fact and one of them being [[GuideDangIt well-hidden]] in an easy-to-miss platforming pit.]]

* ThatOneSidequest: Well, sidequest is a bit of a stretch, but Lost Invasion events can be nightmarish if the player is ill-prepared: They typically involve a horde of Lost appearing out of thin air to ZergRush the player. This horde can consist of any enemy type found in the respective areas, up to and including any DemonicSpiders, and will pursue the player no matter how far they run. They are usually guarding Vestiges or rare items, and although the events are scripted, there is almost no way to predict when they will be triggered.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The game's network test was met with some mixed reactions due to various factors, mostly in regards to how combat felt, which led to a certain portion of the potential fanbase becoming much more on the fence about the game, especially since the game's scheduled launch was only months away. The director of Code Vein would then release a blog post [[https://www.bandainamcoent.com/news/updates-from-the-network-test listing a fairly comprehensive number of improvements to the game based on the feedback from the network test]].

** The 1.04 update slated for October 2019 includes many QOL changes, such as halving or outright removing the cost of accessories to free up more room for character creation, the option to turn off [[WelcomeToCorneria AI chatter]], the ability to switch partners at Mistles from the very first playthrough, an alert system for status ailments, the option to lower NewGamePlus difficulty, and making the Home Base's punching bag provide ichor to streamline character build testing.

* BreatherLevel: The Ridge of Frozen Souls. Compared to the massive slough just prior to it that was the Cathedral of the Sacred Blood, the Ridge is comparatively tiny, with very straightforward paths and the Vestige fragments are easily found. The enemy population on the Ridge are also much easier to deal with compared to those in the Cathedral. That being said, it is also one of the few levels where deaths by pitfall are ''much'' more common due to the lack of guard rails along many ledges, and the fact that many enemies could knock the player backwards.

** The fat noblewomen lost are honestly boss-level durable and hit like airplanes. The only saving grace is that they can be back-stabbed quite easily.

** Io. [[JustHereForGodzilla She elicited quite a few players to play the game, if only just to see her]]. Her gentle demeanor and UndyingLoyalty to the protagonist only continues to endear people. The fact she's pretty easy on the eyes herself also helps.

** Whenever the playable character sits in the chair and couch for too long, they would then feel tired and fall asleep.
*** With the patch that allows the player to sit at (and play) the piano in the hideout, waiting around long enough results in the above-mentioned happening...only for the character's fingers to press the keys in a loud chord that makes them jump and wake back up.

* HilariousInHindsight: In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13165382/7/Urban-Legends Chapter 7]] of a Persona 5/Code Vein crossover called Urban Legends that was written before the game's release, Io cosplayed as Rei Ayanami. Io's English voice actor reveals to be Creator/BrinaPalencia, the voice of that character from Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion.

* LesYay: Aurora's devotion to Karen runs pretty deep[[spoiler:, to the point that she's willing to become a Successor and risk losing her sanity all for her sake. When she finally frenzies, it's implied that her memories of Karen are the one thing she hasn't lost.]]

** "The Character Creator will be the hardest boss in the game"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Due to the games very in-depth character creator, especially for an anime style game, it has lead quite a few people to label it as one of the games greatest challenges to overcome just to get ones player character absolutely right. Humorously, its [[Videogame/DarkSouls senior]] [[Videogame/{{Bloodborne}} games]] had this same joke.[[/labelnote]]

** Although the game graphically looks great, the choice to have characters wear gas masks all the time results in serious moments where the game becomes outright hilarious due to the voice acting and expressions not matching. This can include a scene of a {{Mook}} Revenant ranting about the whole Revenant system, but because they have generic gas masks that cover their eyes, it just looks like their overreacting, even if their voice actor tries to sell the scene. The party members don't have this issue thanks to being given masks that allow their eyes to be seen, but for others, it cheapens many moments.

*** To put things into perspective, the player is allowed 12 accessory points, and while glasses and earrings take up one each, more appealing items such as pouches, gloves, headbands, and some hats could claim upwards of four points per item. The pre-order bonus items are particularly expensive, with the arms occuping ''five'' each, ensuring that very few slots remain for anything else, none if you decide to put any two of them together. Generally, however, this cap puts a low limit on the amount of small piecemeal items such as badges or stars, that players could cobble together to form creative patterns.

** [[PipePain Pipe-only runs]] are actually rather popular for many reasons, chief of them are the increased challenge due to the Pipe of Thralldom's pitiful damage output, as well as the sheer hilarity of beating down big bad bosses with a dinky tube of rusted steel. Needless to say, it is a ''lot'' harder to pull off than it sounds.

** The female knights in the Cathedral of the Sacred Blood have an annoying habit of teleporting. Normally, this isn't so bad but depending on how they engage you, they'll either teleport from above and stab at you, or teleport in front of you and do a dash attack. Both of these are very tricky to avoid because you have to guess based on where they aggro from. Once you nail the timing down you can even use the teleport to backstab them. However, if there are ''any'' other enemies around, the knights can and will teleport on top of you while you are distracted. And if not dodged, these attacks shear enormous amounts of health off.
** Invading Executioner is actually not that bad a boss. Most of her attacks can be avoided fairly easily. But she has one sliding tackle that, unless you are over leveled and using the most defensive setup you possibly can, will one-shot you. And even if you survive, your healing at that point is so weak that it will take three healing items to bring you back to the point where you can survive another. Which wouldn't be so bad if this attack wouldn't come out so fast.

** The Dried-up Trenches, while not entirely too difficult to navigate, is an absolute nightmare for any player who worries about their surroundings. Save for a few areas, most of the map is quite literally you walking on ledges, making you take careful consideration about what you're fighting and how you'll deal with them while also trying to avoid accidentally rolling off the edge. To make matters worse, a good majority of the enemies in the Trenches can knock you back. If you're too close to the edge, which you will be, they can knock you right over. The sheer amount of hidden paths concealed by ledge drops doesn't help either, as often times the only way to spot one is to inch right up to the edge itself and tilting the camera downwards. At that close of a distance you might as well jump right off.

** The character customization is another reason that many players are invested in this game due to creating a lot of fictional characters. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRy2seV0MRU This person in particular had a field day as they recreated characters from]] {{WebAnimation/RWBY}}.

* FandomHeresy: None of the post-release DLC packs were well-received at all. All three of them, instead of providing meaningful post-game content for players to enjoy, are merely grindy Depth-type dungeons with reskinned base-game enemies put in haphazardly here and there, with ''Hellfire Knight'' being generally considered to be the best of the bunch and even then it still sits at a "Mostly Negative" overall review on Steam. In fact, having ''Frozen Empress'' and ''Lord of Thunder'' installed will introduce significant performance issues that make the base-game experience ''worse'', and the latter DLC is bugged so that the final boss cannot be fought, or doesn't drop a Vestige when he can be. Keep in mind, all three DLC costs $10 a pop, and only have enough content to occupy the player for maybe an hour or two. Needless to say, saying that the entire playerbase collectively despised all three [=DLCs=] would be a major {{Understatement}}.

* FandomHeresy: None of the post-release DLC packs were well-received at all. All three of them, instead of providing meaningful post-game content for players to enjoy, are merely grindy Depth-type dungeons with reskinned base-game enemies put in haphazardly here and there, with ''Hellfire Knight'' being generally considered to be the best of the bunch and even then it still sits at a "Mostly Negative" overall review on Steam. In fact, having ''Frozen Empress'' and ''Lord of Thunder'' installed will introduce significant performance issues that make the base-game experience ''worse'', and the latter DLC is bugged so that the final boss cannot be fought. Keep in mind, all three DLC costs $10 a pop, and only have enough content to occupy the player for maybe an hour or two.

** "Everyone, everywhere, is thirsty." Said by Io very early in the game, which, out of context, is a massive {{Narm}} due to how well-built she is for a "thirsty" girl.

** Despite claiming not to be a good fighter, Io is very effective partner. While she is meant to be a support caster, her abilities make her more of a JackOfAllTrades. She does a fair amount of damage in melee, shes quite good at tanking, possess useful support gifts, and can use fast single target spells to finish off wounded enemies at range. While she isn't the best at anything, her versatility makes her a useful and effective companion no matter what approach the player chooses.