Humanity’s Last Hope

In a distant future, humanity is on its last line of defense due to a new emergent threat known as the “Others” which are grotesque beasts that seek out humans to devour their brains. Much of humanity is left in shambles, that was until a discovery was made of a new hormone found in the human brain, granting some unique powers known as psionics. In an effort to combat the Others, humanity formed the OSF, otherwise known as the Other Suppression Force. These highly trained soldiers, coupled with their incredibly unique abilities have given the human race a fighting chance. However, all is not as it seems as the mystery behind the Others slowly begins to unravel, revealing a more sinister threat.

This is the premise of Scarlet Nexus, with you taking on the role of two newly recruited cadets known as Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall. While both are known as psychokinetic, people with the abilities to move objects freely with their minds, both characters could not be any more different from one another, which plays deeply into the game’s narrative as each offer their own unique storyline that eventually intertwine for the grand finale.

As far as story goes, I think fans of graphic novels and anime in general are going to absolutely love what Scarlet Nexus has to offer. The main plot is filled to the brim with details, offering a very lengthy, if not too long of a campaign that surely won’t disappoint. While presented in the form that you would expect from a graphic novel, meaning still shots are shown with characters narrating over them, I think this ends up working for the best due to just how much of it there is to tell. This does go without saying that there are still standard in-game cutscenes, and when they do show up, nothing is held back as the action, and visual effects go all out, which act as enjoyable rewards for reaching massive milestones.

Further, Nexus also has a wide variety of side missions that players can undergo while they are on breaks from the main central story. These serve as a great way to rack up additional EXP, as with earning new gear, and learning more about the world of Scarlet Nexus. Some are basic fetch quests, while others can be a bit more complicated, either way if your are looking for replay-ability, it’s all there, although the bonding system also provides quite a bit of side content to explore.

Taking a page out of the Persona franchise (well, it existed before, but it’s a good comparison,) players will meet other OSF members who will fight alongside them during combat. When a main phase (mission) is completed, players will travel back to their safe house, allowing them to freely leave and explore the world of Scarlet Nexus. This is known as the standby phase, and one of the best aspects of this is that you’ll have the opportunity to chat up with all the other characters, and even witness something called a “bond” episode. 

Bond episodes are non-playable moments that allow you to sit back and enjoy some deep character building scenes. Like I said, think Persona, minus the time restraints associated as you can perform multiple bond episodes during the standby phase. I enjoyed all of these thoroughly, as not only did it give a good break from all the action, but it allowed the Nexus to take itself less serious, as Bond Moments certainly offer some wackier moments. And like Persona, there are some benefits to bonding and gifting NPCs, as the more you bond the more abilities you unlock with that specific character. 

I’ll admit, some users may find that the story does drag on a bit, to the point you may forget important plot details, but for me personally I welcomed the lengthy dialogue as it was meet with equally satisfying combat.

Punches, Slashes, and Telekinesis 

Without a doubt, the big highlight of Scarlet Nexus is the combat. While I initially thought it would play more like a Soul-likes game, or even along the lines of Code Vein, I was actually surprise to see more of a resemblance to the incredibly well designed Nier franchise by Square Enix. 

The combat is super fluid, with your main attacks being slashes and of course the psychokinetic abilities that mostly revolves around throwing objects. However, a unique ability that both main characters have is that they’re able to sync up with their teammates, who also happen to have psionics powers. These range from granting elemental slashes, time alteration, invisibility, teleportation, and some much more.

The coolest part is that some of these attacks can be combined with one another, which creates an interesting dynamic during combat. You can even chain into different abilities! So, say you want to sneak up behind an Other for a stealth attack, you can and then follow it up with a fiery slash to deal massive damage, and even break some of the armor they’re wearing. 

Further, there are two special overdrives systems, them being the Brain Drive and Brain Field. For Brain Drive, I’m not too big of a fan because it triggers automatically. In this state, everything gets heightened as attacks, movement, Psychokinesis powers are all amplified with decreased cooldowns. I’ve had this activate when there was only a single enemy left with a few strikes from death, and in other instances where it could have been extremely useful to make a fight easier. 

As for the Brian field, this is also a heightened mode, though more along the lines of a berserk one. You have full control on when you want to activate this, and when you do a special space is created, transferring you and the enemies to it. Here, your psychokinetic attacks are at their all time strongest, though they are they only form of attacks that you have. However, there’s not limit to how frequently you can perform them, and they hit extremely hard, dealing massive damage. There is a time limit to how long you can stay in this mode, but it’s more than likely that you’ll end up finishing the fight within it, even if it’s short span. This is definitely a moment where you truly feel overpowered.

There are some combat woes that I did have. For starters, the enemies that clearly outclass you as you do minuscule amount of damage to them. This by no means is a complaint that the game is hard, but more along the lines of how these fights are presented, because a lot of them you are supposed to lose at, and you simply can’t die within the first minute of them otherwise it’s game over. However, I felt that they’re a waste of healing potions, though those are found abundantly throughout levels and of course shops. Even then, it’s just annoying have to spend 5-8 potions just to stay alive long enough to be “killed.’

Another issue I had were how executions are handled. You see, the game allows you to kill Others in two different ways, one is by depleting their entire life,  and the other by depleting the stamina bar, which in turns allow you to perform an execution-style finisher. They’re meant to be a quicker way to deal with enemies, and in a lot of cases they are. However, you’ll often find that as you deplete the stamina bar, the enemies health is also depleting. By the time the stamina bar is fully gone, a few slashes to their life would be enough to kill them, which is bar far quicker than a full animation. However, it seems it takes even longer, even if their life is at none to finish them off that way. This makes fights drag on a bit longer than they should, and eventually gets repetitive as you watch the same animations over and over.

There is an upgrade system known as Brain Map, which houses a number of different skills. These vary from increase effects, to longer chained combos. For the most, it does its job, and offers some unique paths that players can have fun with. Additionally, this also applies to weapons, though I’ll say it’s the weakest here, at least in my 40-hour plus campaign as I only found a few weapons worth upgrading. Maybe I’m missing something there, but I would say don’t expect much one the weapon side of things as character abilities are more of the focal point.

These are all pretty minor complaints, as the combat is certainly good enough to hold you well throughout both character campaigns. I can’t say I ever felt bored with it, and upon my second playthrough I was discovering new and incredibly fun combos. It has depth that will certainly satisfy the masses, and it definitely hits big in it’s beautiful stylish visuals.

Great Looks, Great Performance

From jammed packed cities, to lush forests, and cold and haunting tundra’s, Scarlet Nexus certainly has a lot of variety when it comes to its environments. There is a lot of locations that players will visit, and while the whole cel-shaded look is by far nothing new, Scarlet Nexus does hold itself very well at creating some gorgeous scenes.

For a game that wants to basically be an anime, it does an amazing job with it’s world and well animated scenes. Everything looks like it could be coming directly out of some sort of anime, as the world is beautifully drawn with rich details. 3D backdrops are some of the best I’ve seen for game though, as often these will be structured as 2D assets. Not in Scarlet Nexus case, or at least for the majority of objects and environments as it all pops beautifully. Not a single thing looked flat to us. 

This of course translated into the combat as all those abilities you gain have spectacular animations, are are quite flashy to stare at.

I really don’t have much of a complaint here, outside of maybe wanting a photo-mode to better capture some amazing scenes.

As for performance? Well, I played the game on all console platforms and they all hold a locked frame-rate. I will mention that last-gen versions (PS4 and Xbox One) are capped off at 30fps (frames-per-second0, while the current-gens (PS5 and Xbox Series) both run at a full 60fps. Dropping back down from 60 to 30 was pretty jarring, but regardless everyone will be happy to know that Scarlet Nexus performs excellent across all platforms. Players on the PS5 and XSX will also be delighted to see the reduced load screens, which Scarlet Nexus has plenty of. 

The only “big” difference is on the PS5 as the developers have implemented some haptic feedback. It’s not the most use you’ll see in a game, but it is noticeable as you can feel the different weight of objects. For example a small barrel will have quick, but light vibration, whereas a heavy object like a car will have a slower, but stronger vibration. It’s a nice and a welcomed touch if I say so.

Verdict

Scarlet Nexus is an excellent new IP, one that feels fresh and invigorating in not only in it’s story, but also it’s high exhilarating fast paced combat. I am pleasantly surprised, as while I went into this review with little-to no expectations, this title has certainly left a lasting impression on me. There’s a bright future for Scarlet Nexus that we cannot wait to see unravel. 

Score: 9/10

Pros:

• Gameplay is fun and engaging, with depth to be found in it’s ability mixing.
• The story, while long, was very entertaining with the bond episodes being big highlights.
• Gorgeous locations to explore, and incredible detailed back drops. Performs great on all platforms.
• Plenty of replay value.
• Didn’t talk music, but overall it’s very good and fits the punk theme of the game.

Cons:

• Some annoying combat mechanics, execution animations get very repetitive.
• More diverse weapons and better upgrade options are needed.

A review code for Scarlet Nexus was provided by the publisher and played on PS5, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PS4 . You can read SP1st and MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.