Summary
Overall, I would recommend Scarlet Nexus to players that like fast paced action games and anime. If you can look past linear level design and a story that is a bit long in the tooth I think you will have a great time.
Developer – BANDI NAMCO Studios, Tose
Publisher – BANDI NAMCO, Namco Bandi Games America Inc.
Platform – Playstation 4, Playstation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
Scarlet Nexus is one of the finest examples of how gameplay can carry a game regardless of the story. While I personally enjoyed the story quite a bit, it’s easy to see how it wouldn’t be for everyone. There are long expositions that can drag on and on. Lots of twists and turns that seem to be there just for the sake of keeping you on your toes. Most of the characters are one note archetypes. However, the combat really shines and makes you want to finish the game regardless. I absolutely loved the style and flow of combat outside of a few spots. Being able to combo the attacks on the fly with other members of the party kept combat fresh and Brain Crushing enemies kept it cinematic.
The story is a bit much to explain but I will try and keep it as simple as I can. You can choose to play as either Yuito or Kasane. They are two new recruits of the military force known as the OSF. The OSF is basically like the X-Men, humans with access to super powers that allow them to fight the Others. The Others are basically humanoid monsters that come from what is called The Extinction Belt and they feed on human brains. The Extinction Belt is a strange cloud of particles that covers the sky and anything that comes into contact with it will become an Other. Right after you become a member of the OSF, everything goes completely wrong. You are thrust into a coup and exposed to all sorts of classified information, betrayal, and espionage. There is plenty of death, unexpected twists and turns, and even a sprinkle of time travel.
The gameplay is basically broken up into two modes. You start out with what is called a Phase. These Phases have a brief cutscene or two that is told mainly in a manga-esque form. You have a mostly static picture of the characters in the center of the screen with pop-ups of the characters that are talking with some facial animations. You are then thrust into a fairly linear environment in which you fight groups of enemies and collect loot. After you reach the end of the environment, there is usually a boss fight and then a final cutscene. The design is straightforward and, if you try the demo, this is basically the gameplay of half the game.
The second mode of the game are called Standby Phases. In this mode, you are in a small hideout with the other party members. Here you can proceed to interact with them to increase your bond with them by giving them gifts or watching Bond Episodes. These episodes are more of the static image cutscenes which try to create a deeper relationship between the characters and explain their individual motivations. As you increase your bond with your party, you unlock different bonuses when it comes to using their powers through SAS or provide passive damage reduction and bonus attacks. These bonds are pretty important, as the bonuses they provide can be pretty substantial.
In terms of combat, you have light attacks, strong attacks, and dodges. When you level up and spend points on the skill tree called the Brain Map, you can increase the number of consecutive attacks and even add different moves to your repertoire. Your character also can use the abilities of your other party members through the system called SAS which is basically like a neural network that connects everyone together. Your party members can have powers such as adding fire or electric damage modifiers to your attacks that can add burn or shock status on your enemies. They also can increase your attack and movement speed by making everything else appear slower. There is Teleportation, harden your body against attacks, and a few others. You start out being able to use one of these powers at a time, but can eventually grow to use 4 at once which can lead to some pretty powerful combinations. My favorite combo by far was Hypervelocity, Duplication, Electricity, and Sclerokinesis. What this means is that I would duplicate myself into 3, attack super fast, spam lightning AOE attacks to stun enemies, and block any other damage coming in. It sounds like a lot to take in, but it flows very well after a few fights.
Graphically, the game is beautiful. Some environments can be pretty boring such as city streets, but others are fairly interesting like computer simulations and voids of space and time. The frame rate was flawless during my playthrough even when fights were full of action. Controls are fluid, outside of switching targets when locked on. This required using two commands which was pretty annoying when a simple flick of the stick should switch targets when locked. During the fast paced fights, trying to target the enemies you want wasn’t as easy as it should have been. Character designs are pretty interesting, and you get access to a ton of different attachments that you can add to yourself and your party to make them unique. The music is also really well done. Some of my favorite tracks are “Go, Scarlet Guardians”, “Welcome To Musubi’s”, and the several different boss battle themes.
Overall, I would recommend Scarlet Nexus to players that like fast paced action games and anime. If you can look past linear level design and a story that is a bit long in the tooth I think you will have a great time. Its full of exciting moments that really shine with the excellent combat system.
