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Geek Culture
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
'Code Vein 2': Exploring The Past, Present And Human Connection Through Time Travel
This interview has been edited for clarity. What happens when you take the soul-crushing difficulty of a FromSoftware title and imbue it with a healthy dose of anime inspiration and fan service? The folks at Bandai Namco Studios must have had this thought front and centre while developing 2019's Code Vein , a hardcore action RPG Souls -like, which juxtaposed its grim, post-apocalyptic world and vampire themes with charming anime character designs and in-depth customisation features. Six years on and after much fan speculation, the team is ready to unveil the next chapter in the series, aptly titled Code Vein 2 , with lofty ambitions to not only innovate on what made the first so special to begin with, but to also introduce something fresh to the table with a storyline that crosses time itself. 'We are so happy to be able to finally announce this game after six long years, reconnecting with our fans and offering them something that can meet their expectations,' exclaims game producer Keita Iizuka in an interview with Geek Culture and other Southeast Asia media, who also worked on the original Code Vein and the 2021 anime RPG Scarlett Nexus . 'It's also great to be able to work again with the previous staff from Code Vein, like director Hiroshi Yoshimura and some staff from the previous team, to give all of our fans an exciting next chapter.' Game Producer Keita Iizuka To achieve this, the team looked towards two major touchpoints: introducing a new dual world mechanic and improving upon the original game's most innovative and beloved feature, the Buddy System. Following the original title's core narrative foundations, Code Vein 2 once again centres on a world ravaged by a phenomenon known as the Resurgence, which wiped out almost all of humanity if not for the power of immortal beings known as Revenants, who appear after long existing in the shadows of civilisation. Despite enjoying a brief period of relative calm, the world was once again driven to the brink of ruin by the Luna Rapacis, a sudden threat which drove some Revenants to madness, transforming them into mindless Horrors. Featuring an original standalone storyline, players will take on the role of a Revenant Hunter. Mortally wounded while on a mission, the protagonist is saved by a mysterious Revenant girl, who gives them half of her heart and brings them back to life. Together, they form a bond and set out to save the world. It's not just one world the duo has to save, either, as with the Revenant girl's unique power to travel to the past, the pair must now fix two timelines: the present, a land destroyed by the influence of the Luna Rapacis, and 100 years in the past, a world just recovering from the Resurgence and where the Revenants govern human society. 'A key motive for both Code Vein titles was the dramatic stories of the Revenants and their relationships with humans,' explains Iizuka. 'To this end, one of the main points of Code Vein 2 is to bring across the story of the two species' relationship in relation to the Revenant's immortality, and by adding on the time travel mechanic, we can further explore a land where Revenants are in power and how they interact with the humans.' That's where the past comes in, as it occurs at the peak of the Revenant's power after saving the world from the Resurgence. According to Iizuka, the team wanted to explore a different kind of story compared to the original, delving deeper into the background of the Revenants and how they went from being the world's salvation to the cause of its destruction. While the team were understandably tight-lipped about the game's plot points to prevent spoilers, they were eager to point out how they evolved its gameplay mechanics, specifically one of the original's most innovative systems: the Buddy System. Unlike most Souls -like titles, where co-op requires inviting a second player, Code Vein featured an offline offering as well, with the protagonist accompanied by an AI-controlled companion for the vast majority of the game. Players had access to a wide variety of Buddies, each providing their own set of unique skills and combat styles to complement a player's build, balancing out the game's punishing difficulty while providing an additional tactical layer to combat. 'We have taken into consideration the feedback on the Buddy System, and we understood that even though it was very well received in Code Vein , there was still something missing,' notes Iizuka. 'In Code Vein 2 , we've levelled up the Buddy System, including not only more interactions and ways to bond with your Buddy, but also building enemy and level design around the system, giving Buddies a renewed focus in terms of exploration and combat.' With his statement, fans can expect their Buddies to take centre stage in the game, potentially hinting at not only more Buddy options to choose from, but a wider range of support abilities for that added utility to suit more playstyles. As far as exploration is concerned, it's currently unclear how the Buddy System would come into play, although the game could very well take inspiration from Metroidvania titles in this regard, making it so that only certain Buddies can access special areas, encouraging players to plan ahead before embarking on one of the game's many dungeons. 'Also, it's optional, just like last time, and you can turn off the Buddy System to challenge the game solo, but please be warned that it will be very difficult,' Iizuka adds. Besides the improved Buddy System and the new time-travel-based narrative, players can expect more of what was introduced in the first title, now expanded and enhanced. Blood Codes, the game's version of a class system, is set to receive an upgrade that allows players more freedom to create their own character builds, supplemented with new combat tools like Jails, powerful equipment offering both offensive and defensive abilities, Formae, supernatural powers that transform a player's weapon attacks, and Bequeathed Formae, devastating weapons that channels all the powers of a Revenant. Despite all these improvements and additions, Iizuka remains adamant that Code Vein 2 will provide a familiar experience that fans of the original will know and love, just now wrapped up in a fresh new package. 'Underneath the unique setting of Code Vein 2 and its time travel aspect, it still retains the essence of what made the series so great. There might be new things you can discover, but its core elements like character design, combat, and general gameplay will still immediately feel familiar to returning fans.' Code Vein 2 is due out in 2026 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Bandai Namco Code Vein Code Vein 2 Geek Interview Souls-like
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Hiroshi Yoshimura's Environmental Music Is Enchanting a New Generation
When listeners discover the Japanese musician and visual artist Hiroshi Yoshimura for the first time, the experience is often a revelation. 'I noticed how it activated everything,' said Dustin Wong, the experimental guitarist. 'It was extremely generous.' Patrick Shiroishi, the inventive Los Angeles-based instrumentalist, called Yoshimura a 'god-level composer and musician who sits with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Vander and John Coltrane and Bela Bartok for me. They are so themselves.' Yoshimura released most of his gentle and reflective albums of kankyō ongaku, or environmental music, during the 1980s and '90s. A descendant of Erik Satie's furniture music and a cousin to Brian Eno's ambient explorations, Yoshimura's work put more of an emphasis on melody and warmth than its Western contemporaries. His compositions are often grounded by a soothing, vibrating hum underscoring largely electronic notes that fall like a pleasant weekend rainstorm. The spaces he created in his minimal, synthesizer-laden compositions allowed sounds from the outside world to exist harmoniously within the pieces. It's music that doesn't demand too much of your attention, but rewards close listening. During his lifetime, Yoshimura remained a relatively obscure figure to those outside Japan. In recent years, his global audience has grown significantly, thanks in part to a series of reissues that have brought his music to streaming platforms for the first time. The latest, 'Flora,' arrived on Thursday, the first day of spring, in a fitting tribute to how devotion to Yoshimura's music and philosophy continues to bloom. Many of Yoshimura's recordings were created to be played at specific sites, like the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, or inside a range of prefabricated homes. 'Flora' is a bit of mystery within his catalog. It was released only on CD in 2006, three years after his death at 63, from skin cancer. The scant information Yoshimura left behind about it included only its title, the song names and that it was from 1987 — the year after he released two of his most beloved collections, 'Surround' and 'Green.' 'It's really interesting to have a discovery like this album, where we truly don't know what the intention was,' said Patrick McCarthy, a founder of Temporal Drift, the label releasing it. 'Was it written for a theater piece that never happened? For a brand partnership that never happened? Just for fun? Were they odds and ends from 'Green' and 'Surround'? No one really knows, but it's clear that it was a statement as a piece of work.' A sense of wonder pervades 'Flora.' In the 1980s, Japan's economic bubble and cities kept growing, but Yoshimura remained focused on the magnificence of our planet. 'Flora' is imbued with a comfort in how familiar cycles return each year, along with an astonishment of Earth's unexpected developments. When 'Green' was originally brought to the United States in the 1980s, the record label Sona Gaia Productions added unnecessary nature sounds in hopes of capitalizing on the growing market for new age music. But you can feel the natural world in every note on 'Flora.' For the album opener, 'Over the Clover,' Yoshimura included flittering runs on an acoustic piano, adding rare exclamation points to an approach built on ellipses. The atmospheric 'Adelaide,' the LP's central and longest song, features synth washes that pull listeners in like a gentle tide before ascending beyond the clouds. McCarthy and his Temporal Drift partner, Yosuke Kitazawa, have been part of four of the five Yoshimura reissues that have been released by multiple record labels since 2017. The pair met at the indie imprint Light in the Attic, where they built a relationship with the Yoshimura estate while preparing to resurface his debut, 'Music for Nine Postcards.' McCarthy and Kitazawa started Temporal Drift in 2021, partly to keep releasing Yoshimura's albums. 'We loved the music so much, and we wanted to continue that relationship because it did take years to develop that trust,' McCarthy said. During the '80s, Yoshimura was influenced by Eno's ambient music, R. Murray Schafer's concept of soundscapes and the sound installations of Max Neuhaus. In his lifetime, he did not enjoy widespread recognition. 'This does not belong to the mainstream of the art world, this does not belong to the mainstream of contemporary music,' said Katsushi Nakagawa, an associate professor of sound art and sound studies at Yokohama National University, Institute of Urban Innovation. 'It belongs to the margins.' But as contemporary listeners seek relaxing or meditative sounds, YouTube's algorithm has turned unofficial uploads of Yoshimura albums like 'Wet Land' and 'Green' into favorites with millions of plays. His track 'Blink' was featured on the Grammy-nominated 2019 compilation 'Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990,' put together by the musician Spencer Doran. In 2023, the Museum of Modern Art's Kamakura Annex hosted a Yoshimura retrospective, which Temporal Drift is planning to bring to Los Angeles. That same year, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles hosted an event celebrating kankyō ongaku. Hundreds of attendees floated around the venue, experiencing performances in its theater, plaza and Japanese garden. 'At J.A.C.C.C., a concept that we generally try to explore with all our presentations is to blur the lines between the performer and the audience,' said Rani de Leon, its executive creative director. 'This music naturally fit into that sort of approach.' Many of ambient music's landmark recordings have a connection to disaster or death, reflecting on what has been lost: Eno was inspired to make 'Ambient 1: Music for Airports' while hospitalized after an automobile accident, and William Basinski's 'The Disintegration Loops' became a Sept. 11 memorial. But Yoshimura's work provides an appreciation of what we still have. 'It's just about the moment, where you're at, wherever you are,' the guitarist Wong said. 'It reminds me of everything that's free, like the air and the sun and the wind.'
