Welcome to our review of Scarlet Nexus, a game that blew my mind in more than one way…
In the far distant future, a psionic hormone was discovered in the human brain, granting people extra-sensory powers and changed the world as we knew it. As humanity entered this new era, deranged mutants known as Others began to descend from the sky with a hunger for human brains. Highly resistant to conventional attack methods, extreme measures needed to be taken to battle the overwhelming threat and preserve humanity.
Those with acute extra-sensory abilities, known as psionics, were our only chance to fight the onslaught from above. Since then, psionics have been scouted for their talents and recruited to the Other Suppression Force (OSF), humanity’s last line of defense. Featuring a dual story, begin your adventure with either Yuito Sumeragi, an energetic recruit from a prestigious political family or Kasane Randall, the mysterious scout whose power and skill has gained great notoriety among the OSF. As their different experiences interweave with each other, it is only then that you will reveal the full story and unlock all the mysteries of a Brain Punk future caught between technology and psychic abilities in Scarlet Nexus.
When I first saw the footage of what was to be this game, I was mostly curious as to how it would play. Knowing Bandai Namco usually does not disappoint in this genre, Scarlet Nexus piqued my interest a lot. I loved the anime style and the battles seemed well over the top, but not the slow style of games like Monster Hunter, no no, more of a real/fast-paced style, and well, I love those.
Scarlet Nexus is a very violent game, but that is how it was meant to be, the Other, the enemies of this game, eat the brains of their victims. I played as Kasane Randall and I was the sister of Naomi and we were both graduates of the agency in charge of protecting the humans. Obviously, something will happen to the sister, but that is for you to find out while playing the game.
Another thing you will find out is that this game has such a strong backbone when it comes down to its story. There is betrayal, reverse betrayal, intrigues, and a request to kill someone. There is just so much to discover and experience, I want to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum but hot damn, there are times where you have no idea where things are going and I just felt like this game deserved a full-fledged anime to be made, just to tell the backstories of some of the companions you meet along the way. (There is one coming this summer btw).
As Scarlet Nexus is also an RPG, prepare for all the usual, like item management and the likes. It should come as no surprise that this is well developed and a massive skill tree is available. I do wish you’d get more notice when “brain points” become available, those are the ones that really power up your character and make her even more fierce in combat.
Yes, the combat in this game is very high-paced and quite ingenious as you can just borrow the powers of your teammates in the middle of battle. Like how you can use their speeding up powers in order to catch certain flying enemies or use their electrically charged powers to take down water-based enemies. It is all very elaborate and despite its overwhelming nature at first, after a few hours, I was swiping up combos and hitting weak points like I was a pro at my game.
Scarlet Nexus really does a near-perfect job in the battle system, there is a lot of button juggling at first, but you will get used to them. Once you do, you will pull off some of the most impressive combos mid-fight and then, the most impressive finisher, giving your finger muscles a 2 seconds rest, which they will appreciate for real! I just loved how it works so smoothly on my Xbox Series X.
But that is not all I love, the graphics are just plain breathtakingly gorgeous. New Himuka, the place things revolve around, is a gorgeous place to walk around in. Despite a lot of places being revisited, I still kept taking screenshots all over. The drawn backgrounds blend perfectly with the gorgeous character design and even the interludes are well animated, maybe not completely as one would hope, but still such an amount of detail, just look at the red wires when you play and you will know what I mean.
In conclusion, Scarlet Nexus is quite the rollercoaster ride of emotions. So much to do, so many places to explore yet the real beauty is in the fighting, nothing beats that 5 move combo followed up by decapitating an Other like you never did anything else!
