Bit of preface here, hi, my name is Crimson. Am stuck playing games in during Covid-19 while out of a job for like, maybe past 4 months now. A lot of stuff I want to talk about are Japanese games, indie games. Maybe talk trash about some mainstream games? Hopefully not.
This one in particular got me interested. Not that I was a fan of its world building or how it weaved a story. But it's a cool game in a sense that playing it was really fun, I got to pull sick combos, it had a lot of visual flairs, and there's tons you can do. I hope you enjoy this read. There's going to be a lot to write here.
Introduction
Scarlet Nexus is, well how should I put it? An interestingly, visually vividly an odd game. Like everything is high concept thanks to how digitalized everything is from the clothing design, orange wires dangling around them, full-on cyberpunk projections on the screen, and creepily cerebral goosebumps? Like their brains are constantly like melting pots of information dosage and fast neural activity. There's also something about the enemies you fight needing to eat human brains to stay alive in the game world. And well, character melodrama in the midst.
When it comes to evoking a sense of spectacle and high fidelity visual concepts, this game doesn't come short. It's one of its key selling points. Just don't get your hopes up about the story, that part leaves a lot to be filled and I will get to that shortly. Rightfully so.
Right, so the game let's you choose between two characters to play with. Kasana or Yuito. Girl or Boy. Now get this. Both of their stories are different. While they intersect with one another in the main plot, each of their storyline is told differently through their respective playthrough. The main story, takes place 2000 years past our current reality. Thanks to the cataclysmic event.
Yuito just joined the OSF, a high-class military group of individuals with special powers at potent levels that combat against the beings known as Others. Yeah, the brain eating monsters similar to the Devil May Cry universe. Kasana is a veteran of the OSF, but her story goes pretty deep, even having past connections to the opposite character, Yuito.
Both characters go on a bit of soul-searching journey that will take them to uncovering deep secrets about their governments, different dimensions, pushing the capacity of a human being in the new age. Oh yeah, there's a lot of political intrigue in this game. But ah, not the good ones, hence why I never mentioned them earlier.
Playing The Game
Now, let's talk about the real meat of the game. Ah yes, the REAL reason why you should play this game. It's the combat. Let's see here, you got two attack actions: one is basic and other is special. Dodge, and jump. You can both attack actions in different combos. Then there's the telekinetic abilities where you hold the right trigger till an object is thrown at an enemy. This staggers some of them, as well. Left trigger pulls a special kinetic ability which prompts QTE button clicks or allowing you to have manual control over the objects. Like this bus am about to hit those Buddy Rummy pack with.
Adding the oyster sauce to the ramen, is the SAS system. Here you activate each of your companion's Kinesis abilities. Sclerokinesis makes you impenetrable and unmovable for awhile. Clairvoyance let's you see invincible units, Pyrokinesis inflames your sword and the objects you throw. Which ones you have readily available depends on what teammates you have.
Mixing and maximizing damage with these mechanics require you to fast on your feet and exploit enemy weaknesses. Sometimes playing it smart counts too. As you progress further, you get into resource gathering, Of which you can exchange in shop for weapon upgrades or buy better ones as well as equipments. You can unlock a lot of new things from your Brain Map.
There's a lot more, but am cutting it short in this section. You unlock Brain Dance mode, which is basically rage mode for these guys. Increasing your bond with teammates gives you new attack abilities and new SAS to use. Brain Crush attacks require you to empty the yellow bar below enemy's health to pull cool execution moves.
Am not done yet, but I want to leave you guys guessing because there's so much gameplay Scarlet offers. Each of the characters you play, they take around 20+ hours or so to complete. Of course, you might stoop into a hole of repetition once you've decided to go for 2 main character's playthroughs. Because they're both psychokinesis and have nearly, virtually the same moves, attacks and abilities.
Ignoring The Story 🤮
Yeah, there's too many weird stuff going on with the main plot and, just doesn't do a good job trying to follow a good pace to reveal what is actually going on. Not only that, but the plotholes and constant surprises the narrative throws at you leaves you only scratching your head. It just feels like a giant sinking hole, nothing much else. Even the ending makes things weirder.
What does work though, are the character dramas. Some of them, to me surely were bit of a miss. But each of them has intriguing backstory, motivations, personalities, and well charm. Because a good isekai type anime based game needs good qualities like these. So that there's something actually worth playing for.
Intermission
If you liked this, do give me a follow. Comment on whether you're really curious to play this or if this reminds you of similar games. Thanks for taking the time 😙