Scarlet Nexus Is a Deluge of Mind Crushing Blood Pumping Anime Action
Bandai Namco Studios anime ARPG’s in the last 5 years have been equatable to a hearty soup in the middle of a cold winter. They are by no means a feast, but they keep you warm and fill your belly satisfyingly enough. Yet, Scarlet Nexus, is better described as a turbo mega ultra heart-clogging additive-filled burger. As you consume it, your pupils widen and your palms sweat as your heart-rate skyrockets.
I get that feeling every time I teleport around the stage, slashing a knock-off version of a Silent Hill monster with blindingly fast sword attacks, swallowing it in a vortex of flames and finishing it off by telekinetically throwing a bulldozer at it; It certainly isn’t healthy, but god damn it feels so good.
Unfortunately, as with most things, the game is not perfect. Alongside its absolutely blindingly stunning and flashy combat, Scarlet Nexus‘ story is difficult to get through.
The story of Scarlet Nexus on its surface seems original and interesting. You play as either Kasane or Yuito, a rookie member of the OSF (Others Suppression Force), an elite psychic military force.
Members of The OSF are all able to use supernatural powers, to search and destroy evil brain-eating monsters called ‘Others’ that plague the world of Scarlet Nexus. Each power is distinct and their users invoke them by having the ‘sci-fi internet’ plugged directly into their brain.
Certainly, the story tries to convey political messages about the danger of constant surveillance by the state. This falls flat in its delivery, simply because it barely ever tells the player anything significant for the majority of the story. Every time you think you are about to learn something interesting, the plot cuts it off with little or no reason given to the player.
Scarlet Nexus opens pretty weakly, you could not count the amount of ‘anime game story tropes’ in the first 10 minutes, even if you had 6 hands worth of fingers to count on. This is rather accurate to the story as a whole.
Scarlet Nexus is mired with tropes and for the sake of extending the story, flat out refuses to give you any information of what the hell is going on in the world of Scarlet Nexus at any given time. A great example of this is in the early hours of the game. A black hole – end of the world-looking thing appears and half a game later, one of the characters mentions it saying “with everything going on, I forgot about that”; yeah I forgot about it too, even though nothing else is going on.
Neither Yuito’s nor Kasane’s story is particularly engrossing, but the latter is arguably better. Both stories are ruined by the constant blindfolding of the plot. Both stories, which take about 25-40 hours to complete combined, could have been told comfortably in a quarter of that time.
To prolong the story as much as it does, the writers make strong use of the ‘I know what’s going on and I am telling you that, yet I am not going to tell you what’s going on just because you don’t need to know or now is not the time… Even though there is every reason to tell you what’s going on’ trope. This is much more apparent in Yuito’s story, but it is seen in both stories quite a bit.
This excuse for poor pacing is used by basically every supporting character, which really impedes any narrative progression in the story. While the story does pick up in the latter half of both sides, delivering a satisfying enough conclusion. The journey to get there feels too long to be worth it.
Not to mention the ‘bond episodes’ with other characters. These small character bonding stories evolve throughout the story, increasing skills with certain characters; Due to major plot points, they make no sense whatsoever. Most of the time, these bond episodes are about having a friendly chat over a drink with multiple different characters… Who just tried to kill you and continue trying to do so between each bond episode. It feels extremely tacked on at the last minute to gatekeep power-ups and filler dialogue.
This makes the story at all times, just feel like an obstacle to the real meat and potatoes of the game, which is its absolutely stellar combat.
When starting Scarlet Nexus out, I thought the combat to be repetitive and boring which to an extent, was for the first hour or so. Once you get some skill points, access to SAS abilities where you channel your allies abilities together and your ”ultimate’ Brain Field power-up, things get… Unbelievably awesome.
The basic combat loop is to dive in with some sword attacks, throw something heavy at the enemy with telekinesis, follow up with more sword attacks and repeat. As you level up, gain skill points, the combos you can dish out and the speed of performing those combo strings is absolutely exhilarating.
The incredible effects and the amazing ally SAS powers do a lot of the legwork to make this simple loop extremely fun. With four allies on your team at once to give you powers, you can mix and match their abilities to what the situation in a specific moment calls for. Using Luka’s teleport to be able to blink around the stage while at the same time using Hanabi’s flame attacks, proves to be an absolute power trip.
There are also supportive SAS ally abilities such as clairvoyance, which increases your perfect dodge window or invisibility to deliver a powerful backstab or grant a moment of respite to heal. There are a lot more abilities, such as time slowing and lighting attacks. Each power does make the player feel more powerful and their lack of presence due to the story or party swapping is felt heavily. You also have a Brain Drive that over time and through battle, activates automatically, increasing your damage, healing you and making your attacks even faster.
To top off all these abilities, ‘Brain Field’ is the definition of risk vs reward and puts many other games ‘ultimate powered up states’ to shame. When activating the Brain Field, you gain the power of cybernetic psychic Hercules, but you also have a timer that ticks away. If you forget to manually disengage Brain Field before the timer ends, it is an instant game over. This ability is so well designed, it forces the player every second to consider ‘shall I deal damage for another second or disengage’. This really lends gravity to the ability when it’s available, making it not just another ultimate power bar available intermittently but an actual risk to use.
Scarlet Nexus absolutely delivers the power fantasy it is trying to deliver. The amount of different strategies players can use and the sheer number of SAS combinations is brilliant. You can even put skill points into your skill tree or ‘brain map’ to activate 4 SAS abilities at the same time. Feel like teleporting, having an unbreakable shield, clairvoyance for extra visibility and flame attacks for AOE damage? It just comes together perfectly.
Everything is an absolute feast to look at when fighting, even some of the environments are rather interesting even if a bit uninspired. Using a special environmental telekinetic interactable, creates some great moments. Grab some flame barrels, hit the QTE (Quick Time Event) that appears and douse the enemy with oil – then follow up with flame attacks to light your enemy up like a bonfire. You can grab cargo containers and repeatedly bash enemies into the ground, crushing them underneath through QTE inputs.
There are a healthy amount of these interactable’s in nearly every fight and using them at the right time is key to dealing massive damage to the right enemy. While many may be worried at the mention of QTE’s, rest assured, not only are they extremely simple and lenient with input timing, but they also are supremely satisfying.
All these separate systems synergise together to create an absolutely outstanding combat system, one that has outshined any anime ARPG in recent memory. The combat is truly the crux of what helps Scarlet Nexus succeed. The game is also backed by a satisfying soundtrack. While most of the social hub music is pretty bog-standard yet reminiscent of games like Jet Set Radio, the combat soundtrack is superb and really compliments the adrenaline rush that the game aims for.
Scarlet Nexus may not be perfect, it may not be a great story, but what it achieves at its very core is delivering an absolutely amazing visual package of high-paced intense action. The game can also be challenging but not insurmountable to a newcomer of the hack-and-slash genre.
The game is most certainly worth your time, if you are a fan of anime-themed games and sci-fi, this will most certainly whet your appetite. If you are not partial to ARPG’s or anime-styled games in general, Scarlet Nexus is still able to offer a more than solid enough package for newcomers to give the genre and style a try. The game has certainly got an offering for anyone looking for high-octane sci-fi action.
That’s it for our Scarlet Nexus Review. Check out our 2021 Game Awards selection, where we voted by majority Scarlet Nexus as our GOTY.
You can also check out our latest game news to be up to date on the latest indie and AAA gaming news. Scarlet Nexus is available on PC, PS4/5 and Xbox One/Series X|S.
