u/Lord_Nightraven

You don't get to keep the Customer Tokens that expand Jadwiga's shop going into NG+.

I get that they're key items, but come on! They're not story related and in NG+ everything is expected to be top of the line too! PLEASE patch the game so that this is fixed! Okay, I still had mine from the first run. Still, we don't need another, right? So maybe disable purchasing them again?

Also, the bequeathed formae should probably be replaced by big haze items since there's literally no reason to have a secondary one (can't be modified outside of increased damage). Just a thing I'd like after having it happen in Wuchang Fallen Feathers.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, having the database reset going into NG+ is also quite annoying. Already saw the story, right? No reason to lose that unless you're streaming a NG+ run and hiding spoilers.

Anything else that should be included in the list?

I know it's been a bit of a hot topic for some people, and outright a deal breaker for a portion of them. But I think we should consider a few things as well.

Pros:

• CV2 involves Time Travel. This one alone makes me glad this isn't a direct sequel. Time travel, and its implications, make a lot of things more complicated. And it can even make things extremely confusing as well if everything isn't accounted for in the plan for the final result. Especially since our Hunter is one such case in the 3rd ending.
• New ideas and concepts can be implemented with less explanation. Time Travel is one such thing, but so too are "Bloodlines" and their specialties like we have in CV2. Weapons appearing out of nowhere? Well, in CV2 it's a singular explanation that doesn't need additional information. To have that happen in CV1 needs extra lore on top of "how does it work?"
• Themes can be expanded into more lore. Similar to the above, a couple of names were shifted around but still keep the same themes and overall gameplay like the first game. "Jail" retains its definition for Revenants, but rather than being a giant prison, it's now singular.
• Code Vein as a series is not forcibly connected to God Eater. Okay, trust me on this, it's better this way overall. It means the devs have WAY more freedom with the IP. Because now we don't have to stick to other lore that already exists and need to fit everything around it. This also applies to other entries going forward.
• Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana already prove that this format can work. People forget that these series have existed since the SNES (NES for Final Fantasy) and each game is its own self-contained story. We may live in a day and age where it's not as common, but even the Bloodstained games are showing that this format is still viable.

Cons:

• We don't get to continue our adventures with the original crew. Granted, I still don't believe Io, Jack or Eva get to come with us out of the Red Mist in the good/good+ ending. And arguably the other two endings leave nothing to jump off of, resulting in not being viable or reasonable to account for. Especially when the bad ending involves the MC getting killed and sealed away. The excuse of "not being able to account for all endings" was pretty terrible.
• Code Vein is not connected to God Eater. A lot of people want this to be true, so I'm throwing them a bone by adding this here.
• We don't get to see what else existed beyond the Red Mist. God Eater aside, this is a mystery and may result in other problems as well. For example, is there any place we can respawn as a Revenant? We need Mistle and those might be restricted to the Red Mist given a number of spoiler factors. So we kind of fall back into "we need more lore to explain why this does/n't happen". And that can get even more messy.

While I do wish we had gotten a direct sequel (and preferred Code Vein was forcibly disconnected from God Eater), I'm not entirely mad that they made Code Vein 2 its own self-contained story. I'm willing to let Shift continue with Code Vein as its own IP, and create multiple new stories around new crews.