I pre-ordered this game, having only played the publisher's more Monster Hunter-esque God Eater games prior (which were fine), knowing next to nothing about what I was getting into besides "anime Dark Souls". Having now played the story to completion, and almost 100% achievements minus a bit of coop grind, it was well worth the time and price!

Building a character is your typical Dark Souls affair, weapons and techniques scale off particular stats better than others, so you can always build around whatever stat or magic type you like best. Both physical and magical builds all seem viable, though I will note that the game has some fierce difficulty spikes when you get to the end-game, so you better know how to play your particular playstyle by then (though nothing a little swap around in skills and gear couldn't fix). There's also a new game plus feature, much like Dark Souls, beat the game and start from the beginning, though Code Vein does give you the option to either keep the difficulty the same or move up to a harder version (the former is great for fast replays for achievements and alternate endings).

However, one of the most impressive features, and one I had not expected at all, is the insane levels of customization available for your character. Beyond your typical facial features, skin color, hair, etcetera, you have free reign to pick from a selection of hundreds of accessories to place around your character wherever you please, resize them as needed, just go absolutely wild! Elaborate floating, glowing halos around your character, turn them into a porcupine with spikes poking out every which way, the options are vast and nigh-limitless, as long as you have the imagination to apply it!

On a final note, the deluxe edition is good, though waiting on a sale to bring the price down certainly doesn't hurt. It'll get you the incoming DLC for free, which, I had honestly been enjoying everything the game already had to offer that I almost completely forgot there was even more on the way, so that was a delightful little extra surprise. The extra accessories were neat (very glowy), and just added to the plethora of items I could deck out my custom character with, which was a plus in my book.