Game #1064: Scarlet Nexus

  Low-budget nexus

 I had very high hopes for Scarlet Nexus, ever since I saw the reveal trailer way back then, it looked really cool, so I avoided every and any news about the game. And then it released and... it received very positive press, with comparisons to Devil May Cry. And then I finally played the game and... this is it?

 I've long gone trying to skip talking about a games's plot, but man... it's bad, Firstly, while you'd think this was a high budget game... 90% of the game is told through image stills. Why? How? They look so bland and do little to engage the player. Add to this how uninteresting the story is, it's as anime as anime gets, throwing loads of world-specific terminology you don't care about and characters like behave like anime tropes and cliches that have been running rampant since the late 80's. You can play as either Kasane or Yuito, and both characters get 12 chapters, in-between chapters you can talk with your party members to initiate 'bond scenes', but these were SO boring, after chapter 6 I just started skipping them, as they weren't fun or interesting, plus, the fact that it was told through boring stills only added to the tedium. Oh, if you know anything about anime, you'll figure out which characters will die and which characters you'll end up fighting after the first chapter. It's that predictable.

 Gameplay fares a bit better. As previously stated, you either play as Kasane or Yuito, and you can have up to two other teammates fighting alongside you. They might as well not be there, but hey, sometimes they can distract enemies. What really through me off at first is how floaty moving around feels, it felt kinda wonky until I got used to it. Combat takes place in real time, you use Square and Triangle to attack with your weapons, or R2 to use Telekinesis and attack with objects lying around. As you recruit characters into your team you'll be able to use their skills. For instance, you can set your blade ablaze or electrify it, another character makes you invulnerable, one makes you super fast, one makes it so that you instantly teleport next to an enemy when you attack, etc. These abilities are locked behind their own individual gauges, and by the end of the game you'll have access to 8 different abilities.

 It sounds interesting but it's super basic. Triangle always performs the same spinning attack, and you only get a single square attack combo that can go up to five hits. Interacting with party members during intermissions can upgrade them and give you access to a few new abilities, but nothing game changing. It's flashy, and when you are mixing in telekinetic attacks between sword slashes it's rather fun, plus, there are some special objects that allow for more powerful Telekinetic attacks, such as riding a bus, which was admittedly kinda cool. But there's no denying that it all ends up feeling very repetitive, particularly since stronger enemies can soak up quite a bit of damage, so you'll be relying on the same strategies to bring each type of enemy down. A huge flaw with the combat is how poor the targetting system is, as your character won't automatically direct their attacks toward the target and sometimes the camera pans to slowly towards the targeted enemy. Pathetic. Oh, and there's no dodge cancel and attack animations are a bit too long, so you'll be taking a lot of damage, which felt a bit unfair. Some bosses do take the cake, as it seems they are way too hard being able to murder you way to quickly. I mean, it's an easy game on the default difficulty setting, but there are these three bosses that are just crazy tough for no reason.

 I did enjoy the upgrade system, leveling up nets you Skill points which you can then invest on various new abilities, from passive buffs, to new abilities such as double jumping or aerial dashing. You can buy new weapons that have their own unique 3-D model, and you can customize characters with a few accessories, albeit it's very limited. Most accessories are of the joke variety, and in-game alternate costumes are just white color palettes, if you want the red color palette you better pony up some cash. There's not much in the way of extras, no secret bosses, and the sidequests are boring "Kill X enemy in X way" affairs that have very crummy rewards.

 While Scarlet Nexus is NOT a bad game, it's certainly very disappointing. The presentation is very lackluster, the plot is trite and predictable, with it's only redeeming quality being its combat, which is fun, it really is, but the game is way too long so even the combat loses some of its luster once you are 2/3rds through the game. I think that considering the budget wasn't very big it would've been a better idea to ax one of the playable characters, ax the bond scenes, since characters weren't very interesting and a lot of money probably went into voicing those boring scenes, and with the money they saved up, animate every cutscene and add more combat moves. Those are my two cents anyways.

 7.0