Scarlet Nexus

 PC
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 169 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 109 out of 169
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 169
  3. Negative: 21 out of 169

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  1. Salasgz
    Jun 28, 2021
    6
    Si eres otaku te va a mamar.
    Si te gustan los juegos con personajes complejos, historias bien construidas con jiros argumentales únicos e impresionantes es garantizado que este juego no es lo que buscas, aquí te encontraras con personajes planos incapaces de expresar un sentimiento distinto al que tienen por defecto, una trama extremadamente predecible y diálogos tan sosos que solo puedes    Si eres otaku te va a mamar.
    Si te gustan los juegos con personajes complejos, historias bien construidas con jiros argumentales únicos e impresionantes es garantizado que este juego no es lo que buscas, aquí te encontraras con personajes planos incapaces de expresar un sentimiento distinto al que tienen por defecto, una trama extremadamente predecible y diálogos tan sosos que solo puedes pensar en moler a golpes a los personajes, en cuanto a jugabilidad está bien, nada nuevo bajo el sol, combos sencillos y movimientos especiales. En el aspecto grafico se nota mas pulido que otras entregas de bandai.
    La única razón de peso que tengo para terminarlo es que ya lo compre y no lo puedo devolver.    … Expand
  2. LorDofLegEnd
    Sep 9, 2021
    7
    STORY: 5/5 GAMEPLAY : 5/5 EXPLORATION: 3/5

    This is one of the best JRPG of 2021. The combat and gameplay is fun. Story is also nice. The one that disappointed me was the Exploration. The world is not that big and the side quests are not that rewarding. The bond system was nice you can unlock game changing abilities if you manage to go to level 6. Overall great game. Definitely worth playing
  3. eri41205
    Mar 23, 2022
    7
    This game did not get enough love, could be one of the best action game 2021.
    I prefer it better than Tales of Arise.
    Next game please don't spilt the storyline in two parts.
  4. Jeabus
    Jul 14, 2021
    6
    Not that great. Definitely not worth full price and it shocks me how people are rating this. It's honestly one of the most mediocre games I've played in virtually every aspect and it's downright terrible in some ways.

    I think people have lowered their standards for "Anime Games" out of subconscious frustration that "Anime Games" usually end up being substandard or almost outright cashcrabs.
  5. Shingaru
    Jul 6, 2021
    5
    Scarlet Nexus definitely TRIES to give you a unique experience, but it falls short in several areas.

    The gameplay can definitely be fun, chaining together melee hits and throwing cars and all kinds of junk at enemies, while also using your teammates' powers to do all of that more efficiently. However, some of the most basic skills for this type of action game are locked behind skill    Scarlet Nexus definitely TRIES to give you a unique experience, but it falls short in several areas.

    The gameplay can definitely be fun, chaining together melee hits and throwing cars and all kinds of junk at enemies, while also using your teammates' powers to do all of that more efficiently. However, some of the most basic skills for this type of action game are locked behind skill trees, and even with them unlocked the movement still feels stiff and restrictive. The double jump is straight-up ignored as it never helps you out in any way during combat. It's as if Bandai looked at other action-based games and said "well they have double jump, we need double jump too!!". I got SOME use out of the air dash, only to try and dodge an enemy attack, but sometimes miserably fail as after air-dashing you're left vulnerable for WAY too long before hitting the ground. That said, sometimes there's just that magic moment where things DO work out and you get to pull off some genuinely sick moves. But that's only sometimes.

    The music and sound design are.. decent. Don't really have much to say about that since I've only really stopped to hear the soundtrack in-game about... 6 times. It's got some nice tunes for sure, and it gets the job done, same with the sound effects.

    And now, for the characters and story.. THIS is where Bandai seemed to try, but failed almost completely. The voice acting is good, the actors did a good job of expressing emotion and sounding like human beings whenever the characters converse with one another, but when it comes to plot-related dialog, it seems like they've been given bad direction. The story is honestly super generic, and although it feels as if there's a lot at stake when you get to the latter half of the game, it never actually hits you. Because the characters don't act like it much. It's all just "we have to save the world! we have to stop the government!". But my main gripe is the character writing itself. (long pause) What the **** At a certain point in Yuito's story, a seemingly important character dies, but nobody reacts the way you'd expect. They act shocked for a bit, then just start questioning everything. Yuito in particular never gets mad or feels truly emotional about this moment, which feels extremely alien. Besides that, there's Yuito's family, who never.. actually feel like family in dialog. He talks about his dad and brother like they're complete strangers, or just acquaintances. You never have a moment where they actually feel related. If the game hadn't told you like 7 times during the prologue and former half of the story, you would never know that they're actually family. Almost all the other characters' unique traits feel shoehorned in. A childhood friend that wants to grow into a better person and has a crush on the MC, but never confesses, a girl with a generic cold tone and indifference to others that never gets explained before being forgotten, and worst of all, a character that appears to be ****ing deaf to anything anyone else says. Without any spoilers, this person singlehandedly ruined the epilogue for me, as they never listen to the main cast, and go back on their word for no goddamn reason.

    I put up with this plot for almost the entirety of the game mostly because the flaws didn't seem that important to me. I was focusing more on buying presents, since those decorate your base and after getting basically everything, it's really nice to look at. But that's about all Bandai got right.

    5/10, if you really want to try it, get it on a BIG sale, or straight-up crack it    … Expand
  6. Gaudy
    Oct 13, 2021
    6
    Lo diseños esta bien, como en todos lo JRPGs. La historia es una locura, no hay quien la entienda y se puede hacer pesada. El sistema de lucha esta bastante bien y el crecimiento es rápido aunque se me hace algo complejo con tantisimas opciones y combinaciones. Graficamente esta algo obsoleto y no es nada original. Lo mapas podrian estar mas currados y la variedad de npcs es ridicula. SeLo diseños esta bien, como en todos lo JRPGs. La historia es una locura, no hay quien la entienda y se puede hacer pesada. El sistema de lucha esta bastante bien y el crecimiento es rápido aunque se me hace algo complejo con tantisimas opciones y combinaciones. Graficamente esta algo obsoleto y no es nada original. Lo mapas podrian estar mas currados y la variedad de npcs es ridicula. Se nota que es de bajo presupuesto y de que es para un publico japones. Aun así es entretenido y recomendable para fans del genero. Eso si, no es un triple A y no debería valer lo mismo.… Expand
  7. SuperkenGaming
    Jul 10, 2021
    7
    Scarlet Nexus
    One of the Most Boring good games ive ever played
    Scarlet Nexus is a 16 hour long action JRPG where you play as either Kasane or Yuito, I had to look up their nae before I wrote this review, because that’s how little I cared about this games story. The story seems to be very hit and miss, which isn’t necessarily a good thing considered half of the game is voiced dialog    Scarlet Nexus
    One of the Most Boring good games ive ever played
    Scarlet Nexus is a 16 hour long action JRPG where you play as either Kasane or Yuito, I had to look up their nae before I wrote this review, because that’s how little I cared about this games story.
    The story seems to be very hit and miss, which isn’t necessarily a good thing considered half of the game is voiced dialog comic styled cutscenes… Im not exaggerating, you spend just as much time sitting, waiting for the action to happen as you do actually playing.. some seem to love the story, I however was bored out of my mind, basically youre part of a group of people with special powers, the government is after your brains, youre losing or have lost your memories, something about spaghetti noodles coming from the sky, youre on the governments hitlist and you gotta stop these moon people from destroying earth.. I think.. I think that’s the story… if youre not intogovernemnt conspiracy, half this game.. this is now an 8 hour action jrpg that thankfully is a blast to play though.. you have telekenisis and a sword, you cn slic enemies up as well as throw objects and use the environment to do massive damage, as you progress the game youll unlock new abilities.. which seems to never stop, tutorials will pop up literally the entirety of the games campaign, but as you make it through th story, more charcters will join your party and youre able to borrow their powers as you take on these moon cratures known as others, you can use fire powers, invisiblity, dashing, electric, super speed, dashing, and work up your skill tree to the point that you can stack these abilities, all on cool down.. this is when the game is at its best, taking down enemies and bosses… is the gameplay good enough to justify a purchase on its own though? No.
    Scarelt nexus is insaley repeitve, youre just goin around these very Japanese game styled maps, getting locked ito areas, clearing them and moving on.. youll see a lot of repeat areas, not even counting the optional bonding missions you can do with each of this games characters, so youll rarely come to a cool new area being begged to explore and even if you did there is no exploration incetive, the gear and weapons here are awful, you wont find new wepons, you just by them from a shop that thankfully just shows up in these dungeons, you don’t have to fast travel to a hub or wait until a mission is over to buy consumables, but these 5 weapons for each charcter you buy just will show up the deeper you get into the game, and you buy them and equip them, that sabout as deep as the loot system goes..
    If th sound of a government conspiracy trying to steel the brains of these kidswith crazy powers doesn’t excite you, there is no reason to pick this one up..
    While I found the story to be painfully slow, drawn out, and boring, others are liking it, and for those people, scarlet nexus offers a good package, and a 16 plus hours youll really enjoy, you might even enjoy it enough to play it twice for both sides of the story,
    for me, I could barely manage the story the first time around
    I give Scarlet Nexus
    a 7/10    … Expand
  8. Chnmmr
    Jul 8, 2021
    6
    The game is ALMOST great but it is severely let down by most of its bosses. Bullet sponges with spammy attacks that can easily juggle you to death, hitting you so quickly that even on the opposite side of the map with your allies occupying them, you still get interrupted trying to heal. Every boss ends up the same, spam all light, all light, medium, all medium heals until the boss diesThe game is ALMOST great but it is severely let down by most of its bosses. Bullet sponges with spammy attacks that can easily juggle you to death, hitting you so quickly that even on the opposite side of the map with your allies occupying them, you still get interrupted trying to heal. Every boss ends up the same, spam all light, all light, medium, all medium heals until the boss dies as combos that work against enemies won't work against them. Bosses are immune to just about every CC effect and almost never get staggered by your attacks meaning getting hit constantly is almost unavoidable.

    Bosses are not hard, just cheap and frustrating.    … Expand
  9. Mandulum
    Dec 10, 2021
    7
    I liked the story but there are a lot of problems. The idea of two separate stories is a bust; everything of importance is answered in the first playthough. The environments are so very boring and linear and they make you repeat them ad nauseam.

    Date Completed: 2021-12-10 Playtime: 36h (22h first playthrough) Enjoyment: 7/10 Recommendation: I'm on the fence. If you do, skip the    I liked the story but there are a lot of problems. The idea of two separate stories is a bust; everything of importance is answered in the first playthough. The environments are so very boring and linear and they make you repeat them ad nauseam.

    Date Completed: 2021-12-10
    Playtime: 36h (22h first playthrough)
    Enjoyment: 7/10
    Recommendation: I'm on the fence. If you do, skip the second playthrough.    … Expand
  10. Ridnir2
    Jul 15, 2021
    7
    Name of the game is the game play.If you want good anime story you won't find it here but man the game play is flashy,awesome and engaging.The combos feels solid and satisfying. I loved yuito game play.The hack n slash felt new and refreshing.Story as you expected from this type of games anime cliché,cringy and borderline boring.
  11. 3t3rnal
    Feb 10, 2022
    6
    An anime game that is more like a mildly interactive visual novel.

    Graphics: - anime styled, overall pretty good quality with some very nice environments - enemy design is very… distinct – but not in a very good way, and they feel very out of place and made so different just to be able to say they are original, but they are weird even by anime standards performance: - overall very    An anime game that is more like a mildly interactive visual novel.

    Graphics:
    - anime styled, overall pretty good quality with some very nice environments
    - enemy design is very… distinct – but not in a very good way, and they feel very out of place and made so different just to be able to say they are original, but they are weird even by anime standards

    performance:
    - overall very good, game feels well enough optimised, no crashing, no stuttering

    gameplay:
    - cutscenes after cutscene after cutscenes, then a short period of running around, even shorter period of fighting, then more cutsceeeeneeees
    - most of the cutscenes are boring AF with very little substance, some of them are fully animated, but most are this weird mix of animated and comics style, not a big fan tbh
    - fighting feels pretty good, landing some combos feels very satisfying
    - the abilities are pretty interesting and useful for the most part
    - target lock on is inconsistent, often it locks at an enemy out of field of view, or not the one you look at
    - would prefer if the HP of the enemies was decreased a bit and instead there was more of them, but overall it’s okay
    - bosses and minibosses are very spongy and the fights with them pretty unimaginative, you lure them into “traps” that damage them / hit their weakspots for more damage, but you still have to do it multiple times, making it repetitive – these fights are more an exercise in patience than in skill
    - forced finisher and ability animations which mostly let remaining enemies closer to get off an attack that you cannot dodge after the animation finishes
    - enemies also have some pretty interesting abilities or attack patterns, but their AI is kinda dum dum
    - companion AI is also dum dum, they are kinda useless other than drawing some attention at times, you can change their “tactics”, but it has very little impact in my experience, they also sometimes bug out and just run into enemies instead of actually attacking them, their pathfinding could also use some work, in some areas they get stuck all the time, constantly teleporting to you as you get too far away from them, teleporting is fine as a fix if it only happens occasionally, but as mentioned, in some maps, it’s near constant, distracting, and makes the AI look as even more of a joke...
    – game has a bunch of rpg elements, miscellaneous item drops that can be traded, etc. and is kinda grindy, there’s no special twist on the formula, it’s run of the mill kind of thing for this genre, but at least it feels mostly well balanced
    - the game is semi open world, the amount of locations is okay, but their size is pretty small and they are all completely linear
    - encounters respawn on re-entering locations, but resources that you have to gather appear to respawn on some sort of timer that’s not entirely clear and I don’t even see the point
    - overall, it’s your average japanese modern day action adventure game / rpg hybrid, and there have been some much better examples of the genre lately, for example the Nier series.

    Sound:
    - very good japanese voiceacting
    - very little ambience in most maps
    - music kinda forgettable, also not mixed correctly – some songs are really quiet

    story:
    - your average sci-fantasy anime, a lot of cliches and tropes, cringy “jokes” and a barage of badly explained pseudo scientific gibberish as a replacement for actual lore, and a crapton of cliché side characters that feel like the writers had a checklist of anime character tropes and did their damned best to have not one, but at least 2-3 meaningless characters for every category
    - neither the “lore” that’s not directly tied to the main story nor the side characters are worth caring about, they come and go without any serious impact, there’s no real depth to any of it
    - main story, told from the perspective of two characters, is pretty interesting and has some intriguing parts of it, but it’s still quite far from a masterpiece, mainly the crap characters drag it down
    - the main characters are also cliché AF, a lot of cringy behavior, retarded decisions, and so on

    Overall, what could be an interesting, if at times cliché filled anime (actually there is a SN anime now I think), got turned into a serviceable, but otherwise pretty indistinct game with some serious pacing issues and lack of actual gameplay time where you do stuff. I’d lie if I said there are no fun parts in this game, but unfortunately, they get pretty much evenly matched with the tedious or boring parts. With a 70 EUR price tag, I expected a lot more – a lot more game, especially. If I want to watch an anime, I go watch an anime.    … Expand
  12. D3jaVu
    Jul 19, 2021
    7
    I think the game is serviceable but it does have flaws. The combat is great and fluid. Voice acting seemed pretty good. My biggest issue is with the story. Most of it is played to you after each area using still pictures. Some of the immersion gets lost and I felt kind of bored as the game went on. There's a lot to soak in at least it's all explained to you. Second it seems yourI think the game is serviceable but it does have flaws. The combat is great and fluid. Voice acting seemed pretty good. My biggest issue is with the story. Most of it is played to you after each area using still pictures. Some of the immersion gets lost and I felt kind of bored as the game went on. There's a lot to soak in at least it's all explained to you. Second it seems your character wants to kill the other team. You have this big battle where you're flinging concrete blocks and telephone poles at them. In the next cutscene they're trying to have lunch with you talking about what you do after work, makes no sense. Lastly you have to revisit a lot of the previous maps I'm assuming this is a money saving thing so they can reuse the maps, but damn it get repetitive.… Expand
  13. Snjake
    Mar 18, 2023
    7
    Its not the best game but not the worst either it has its moments but got boring pretty fast
  14. TitaniumDragon
    Jan 30, 2023
    5
    Scarlet Nexus is an anime-styled action game with limited RPG elements. You control a character who is a member of the OSF (Other Suppression Forces), who uses weapons plus psychic powers to fight the Others, horrible otherworldly monsters who have come to Earth to eat the brains of people.

    The core gameplay is decent enough. It starts out pretty simple – you have a basic melee or short    Scarlet Nexus is an anime-styled action game with limited RPG elements. You control a character who is a member of the OSF (Other Suppression Forces), who uses weapons plus psychic powers to fight the Others, horrible otherworldly monsters who have come to Earth to eat the brains of people.

    The core gameplay is decent enough. It starts out pretty simple – you have a basic melee or short ranged combo attack, a dash ability (that can also be used to dodge), and a jump ability, along with your psychokinesis power, which lets you pick up (select) objects from the environment to hurl at your enemies. Some of these objects are special interactive objects and will hit the enemy multiple times – like something that breaks in half and then you smash the two halves together on the enemy, or a telephone pole you can make sweeping attacks with.

    As the game goes on, you gain allied characters, who themselves have special powers which you can “borrow”. These range from the ability to set things on fire, to making you temporarily immune to damage, to turning you invisible, to letting you see invisible or hidden enemies, to teleportation (which can also be used to navigate through the environment by teleporting through certain barriers).

    The core gameplay is decent but not amazing; there’s a decent variety of enemies, though most of them basically boil down to “use the correct power and use your basic combo attacks on them”. Still, they have different attack routines, have pretty wildly varied appearances, and manage to put up a decent challenge. Some of the boss encounters are more challenging, and while I only had a couple game overs, they definitely pushed you at times, especially if you weren’t using your abilities wisely.

    As you play through the game, you gain levels and you become more powerful by unlocking abilities from a skill tree, which lets you gain additional moves, improve your combos, use multiple borrowed powers at once, and just get straight up statistical boosts.

    The biggest flaw with the game in terms of its gameplay is that it can get a bit repetitive, especially in the side missions; the side missions basically are composed of backtracking through areas to complete kill quests, where you have to kill specific Others in specific ways to complete the quest. As this is all rehashed content, it is not particularly interesting. But even the main story suffers a bit fom throwing a bunch of encounters between you and your goal, where many of the encounters are basically the same thing over and over again; while these segments aren’t overly long, they can at times feel like they’re padding, especially when nothing significant story-wise happens.

    The real problem with the game, though, is that it is a pretty heavily story-focused game, and the story is not written very well. You will spend a lot of time on the story, but the story was written by people who end up making everyone act unnaturally to preserve the “mystery” of what is going on.

    At the start of the game, you choose one of two characters (a male character, Yuuito, or a female character, Kasane); while you might think this is just a minor aesthetic choice, this is, in fact, a choice between entirely different storylines – the characters not only fight differently (Yuuito being a melee character while Kasane has short-to-mid-ranged attacks) but they experience entirely different storylines and have different personalities. The storylines are in fact the same storyline, but told from different perspectives, so you will see one set of events with Yuuito, and then a second set of events with Kasane, as for the majority of the game the characters are off doing different things in different groups, so rather than doing the same missions with different characters you’re actually playing through the other “half” of the story line, where you get to see a different perspective on things.

    Unfortunately, the result of this is that not only do you often not know what is going on, with important events happening “offscreen” with the other set of characters, only to have those events intersect with what you’re doing, but you have little idea that making the choice you do affects who your supporting cast will be for most of the game (though eventually you do gain access to both squads of characters).

    The biggest problem, however, is that this is one of those games where weird stuff is going on, events are crazy, and people refuse to explain anything to anyone, even when it makes no sense whatsoever for them to refuse to explain thigs. This is extremely annoying as the “mystery” is really “when will someone tell me what is going on” rather than “there is this mysterious thing going on that I need to investigate.” Indeed, on at least one occasion, you will “investigate” something only for the person who was with you all along to explain it after the fact. Why? No reason.    … Expand
  15. muzmuz
    May 24, 2023
    5
    Despite the lack of enemy types, weapon types or combos, Scarlet Nexus' combat manages to be satisfying enough with its synergies and special effects when paired with other characters, which properly distracts me from its terrible writing, boring manga panel presentation, laughable plot twists and shallow characters.

    Not representative of its full AAA price.
  16. pmasterfunk
    Oct 7, 2022
    7
    Scarlet Nexus should be so much worse than it is. But incredibly, against all odds, Bandai Namco has actually made a game I don't intensely hate.

    MY WORLDVIEW IS CRUMBLING Scarlet Nexus is basically an action game with possibly the most ridiculous high-concept universe ever made into a game. The mechanics are overly complicated, the story is full of dumb twists, characters are    Scarlet Nexus should be so much worse than it is. But incredibly, against all odds, Bandai Namco has actually made a game I don't intensely hate.

    MY WORLDVIEW IS CRUMBLING

    Scarlet Nexus is basically an action game with possibly the most ridiculous high-concept universe ever made into a game. The mechanics are overly complicated, the story is full of dumb twists, characters are walking tropes, and yet - AND YET - I kept playing to see what happened next. I don't hate it, so it can't be that bad right? So what does it do well?

    ...

    I'm not sure, really.

    Visuals are a bit of a mixed bag. It's not that they're bad, but the mismatch between the very stylized anime characters and everything else doesn't work for me. Environments and enemies are realistically modeled, coloured and shaded soberly. Characters on the other hand have extreme proportions, are super colorful, and are cell-shaded. It's not that I don't like the designs; overall, I actually like how the characters look, and the enemies are pretty disturbing. Individually, designs work, but as a whole I think it produces an incoherent look.

    Characterisation isn't too bad. The main male character (Yuito) is the generic oblivious anime teenager, and his teammates are mostly a collection of tropes, but some of their early interactions aren't too bad. Later on, the supporting cast doubles in size, and the numerous supporting characters don't really get a chance to do anything other than stand in the background and yell "Yuitoooooo!" during cutscenes. We then spend lots of time with the MC, but he's kinda boring. I haven't played through the female's story.

    While we're talking narrative, the game is littered with massive info dumps. These dumps can be so dense and hard to follow that the game actually has its characters text message each other the plot, because the devs knew players would be lost. So yeah, the story is a mess. After finishing the game, I'm hard pressed to understand how any individual event really affected the ultimate fate of the planet. Imagine man A buys a lighter for man B, which helped B save himself from a zombie apocalypse, and B's survival would later make it possible for him to go back in time to make sure A met his future wife, because A would not have had kids otherwise, and the kids picked the the lighter, and later A's wife disappears to go into the future to save the world, which she accomplished by bringing that same lighter onto the alien mothership that allowed her to set up a chain reaction - powered by the power of friendship no less - that destroys the invading alien horde that initially caused the zombie apocalypse. Which was the instigating event?

    I haven't spoiled the story for you, but I kinda feel like I did.

    I don't mind the general gameplay, but it's clear that to really master/exploit the mechanics one has to really commit to its more esoteric elements. Slashing and dodging is not going to cut it; heavy use of secondary abilities is paramount to success, especially later in the game. Ultimately it's not really my bag, and I can nitpick all day. Stealth is kinda OP but doesn't work against bosses, there aren't many options for long range or AOE attacks, I suck at swapping between items or skill sets in battle, there are 3 meters and 3 HP bars to keep an eye on... it feels finicky to me. During most of the game 4 alternate skills are available, which I found fine, but when the team doubles in size the skills shoot up to 9, I never really got proficient with those. If you really like this kind of complexity, Scarlet Nexus has you covered. I prefer simpler things.

    The game also has Persona-style social stuff, but it doesn't work nearly as well. It works in Persona because there's pacing, there's buildup. Here they're all lumped together at the end of a chapter. After a 30-minute dungeon, there will be the opportunity to hang with your homies. At first, it's not too bad, but with the large cast, tons of items to give, long "bond episodes", it just gets very tedious. After 40 minutes of bonding and gifting, I want to move on, not ask Luka about his protein shakes. The supporting cast doesn't really get any interesting development in these events, either. I know not every side character can be Akinari from P3, but I want a bit more than "I want to work out and get big muscles because I'm insecure".

    Still, with all that being said, it's a decent game. I like that it's unique in its action, general aesthetic, and overall concept. It doesn't feel like a ripoff (except for the social part), and I feel like it was crafted with care and passion. So yeah, not bad, Bandai Namco.    … Expand
  17. phoebused
    Dec 20, 2022
    6
    Pros:
    • Great combat system
    • Convincing sci-fi plot • Good enemy design Cons: • Bad side quests • Force grind in the last few missions ** Scarlet Nexus is an action RPG. You will be choosing between two protagonists, similar to Persona 3 Portable options, with different teams and gameplay, at least for majority of the game until the end missions. Eventually, even if you choose    Pros:
    • Great combat system
    • Convincing sci-fi plot
    • Good enemy design
    Cons:
    • Bad side quests
    • Force grind in the last few missions

    **

    Scarlet Nexus is an action RPG. You will be choosing between two protagonists, similar to Persona 3 Portable options, with different teams and gameplay, at least for majority of the game until the end missions. Eventually, even if you choose Kasane or Yuito, both stories will be laid out and no missing points to sought over again after finishing the game.

    As someone who recently played Bandai’s Tales of Arise, I thought that the dialogue, visual novel scenes were rehashed. These may have been good during the light, candid moments throughout the game but when it was used to skip action scenes, the adventure of the climax felt lacking because it felt like reading a manga when I was holding a controller ready to enjoy the action.

    During standby phases, the main characters form bonds and relationships with the platoon members by talking to them or giving them gifts (which weirdly you can buy from the store, removing the thrill of hunting for these specific novelties). This relationship system is similar to Persona’s sim situation, albeit less enthusiastic and dramatic. As they reveal each other’s stories and motives, they level up until 5 with new abilities and passive support systems unlocked. However, this could have been a good reliever from all the stress but it felt like a chore at some point because of poorly written and uninvested squad members' backgrounds. Side quests also felt empty, introduced during the beginning of the game, then disappears almost lazily.

    The combat system is where the game shines. Unlike typical JRPG styles of slow ATB systems and turn-based strategic moves (which I'm not complaining on), this game will appeal to a Western gamer because of its hack-and-slash fast-paced, Devil May Cry-styled attacking and dodging.

    The main character employs the skill of telekinesis, flinging lampposts and cars toward the enemy, who are beautifully designed by the way in the cirque de soleil rhythm of Persona’s Shadows. Squad members are uncontrollable, however you can equip their skills and mix them together with your telekinesis abilties. This is where strategy will be employed as eventually the four squad members will become nine by the end of the game. I found it struggling to shift between double-tapping R1 (to switch UI) and clicking each of the buttons just to activate all maximum four skills at the same time just to defeat the large bosses.

    This game, however promising and full of potential, felt short of the gameplay time. 19 hours felt short if there were more side quests and the sim system was perfected and invested on. The story, however a good unfolding and world building, was cheesy in the sort of [I could’ve removed some filler OVA episodes out and focused on the main ones] kind of way. Other parts of the main story could have been a DLC or side quest. I was convinced however in the brain technology system and time travel initiative explained in the game – something this game could have used as a strong suit and focused the story more, in retrospect.

    All in all, this game is a good and refreshing one from Bandai; a good rest from all the repetitive franchise of JRPGs in the market. I will definitely play another one of something similar to these, when they make better and complete ones in the future.

    ***

    Gameplay Time: 19 hours    … Expand
  18. AgentLvi
    Jan 1, 2023
    7
    Decent game. The story is so --so, scoring is great, visual is decent, and the voice is also great
  19. Harmid
    Aug 10, 2023
    5
    Interesting story that is delivered in a lazy manner (mostly still images of people talking). CInematics are cool, but there's far too few of them. Combat is interesting when it works, but getting stun-locked by most attacks sucks for a system that tries to be fluid and fast-paced. Not being able to animation-cancel for dodges is also a huge detriment. Only managed to get through 7 hoursInteresting story that is delivered in a lazy manner (mostly still images of people talking). CInematics are cool, but there's far too few of them. Combat is interesting when it works, but getting stun-locked by most attacks sucks for a system that tries to be fluid and fast-paced. Not being able to animation-cancel for dodges is also a huge detriment. Only managed to get through 7 hours before uninstalling from how bored and frustrated I was. Will probably watch a youtube playthrough to see the story though.… Expand
  20. Theanbushinobi
    Sep 3, 2022
    7
    Super super solid story, and really fun combat you'd think this game would be a 10/10 but linear and boring level design, extreme repetitiveness, and non stop cutscenes make this game one that by the halfway mark you just want it to be over
  21. Drapaa
    Apr 23, 2023
    7
    Sensational combat, beautiful graphicks, comrades are a big helps but repetitive locations and you can't play without a gamepad.

Awards & Rankings

43
#43 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 17, 2022
    60
    Scarlet Nexus is its own worse enemy. Bandai Namco is trying to fill game's own shoes with engaging fights and JRPG style story narative, but fails to deliver them in a proper way and especially with consistency. And don't try to play the game with keyboard, you do need a controller.
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Sep 3, 2021
    78
    They tried to tell a very epic story on a very limited budget. A contrast like this sometimes really grates on my nerves, but, paradoxically, it’s also a part of Scarlet Nexus’ charm. [Issue#254, p.40]
  3. CD-Action
    Sep 1, 2021
    80
    Scarlet Nexus is all about combat. The fights are spectacular thanks to vibrant cel-shaded graphics, but primarily because the developers skillfully combined a couple of truly explosive ingredients: agile protagonists with psychokinetic talents, well-designed enemies, and the ability to unleash hell using the powers of your AI-controlled companions. As for the game’s downsides, the environments are repetitive and the writers failed to tie up all the loose ends and left some plot holes. [09/2021, p.54]
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