Early Script Access: Code Vein and "Anime Dark Souls" (Patreon)

Was I the only one super hyped for Code Vein? I was in the moment that early game footage started airing like two or three years ago. I mean I was working at Gamestop when that happened, so it had to have been a good while, right? Seems like a long time between announcement and release.

Anyway, I wrote a script about it. I found the whole "anime Dark Souls" thing to be interesting in light of all the weird "like Dark Souls" comparisons we've seen over the years, so I wanted to dissect the idea and really dig into what makes a game "anime" or "Dark Souls," and whether Code Vein really earned that title, or whether it's just a game that plays like Dark Souls and looks like anime.

This one feels a little rough to me, and I'm not entirely sure why yet. I think part of it is that I actually have a LOT of thoughts about Code Vein, and since not all of them are relevant to the whole "anime Dark Souls" thing, I wasn't able to talk about everything I wanted to talk about without going into a full-on literary analysis (which is not what I should be doing right now). In fact you can see my notes and a lot of alternative writing further down the document, after the script proper. So I look forward to your feedback on this one.

As promised, this script and the one about worldbuilding in Trails of Cold Steel are both available to all patrons, rather than being restricted to $10+ contributors. Comments are enabled in the document, so if you have any thoughts while reading, good or bad, feel free to leave them there and I promise I'll take them into consideration before filming this video.

Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy it!