![]() There are two ways you can defeat Others: 1.) by reducing their health to zero or 2.) by reducing their “stamina” to zero and attacking them with a Brain Crush. So many little moments of repetition add up and dilute the brilliant combat system that exists at its core. The problem is that no matter how high quality these two aspects are in a vacuum, my appreciation could only wane the more I saw them reused again and again. They stand out immediately and stick with you after you hit credits. The Others that populate these spaces are designed to look truly grotesque and off-putting. They’re all distinct and a wonder to explore, despite some falling back on being a bit too linear as you traverse through them. Every area you explore has striking visual design, some of the best I’ve ever seen in an action game. However, calling the dungeons and enemy design superb would be an understatement. Enemy variety is also especially weak, having you frequently deal with several of the same, most-annoying monsters at you in droves in the final chapters. The reason for doing so never really felt justified, as much as the narrative tries to. Throughout a 25 hour playthrough, I found myself having to revisit many dungeons several times over. I would have preferred a more concise experience than one that stretched itself out so thin. Scarlet Nexus is a new IP, and as much as Bandai seems to be giving it their all with promotion, it was certainly a risk. We also are still living through a truly horrible global pandemic. I’m no stranger to the difficulties of game design. The biggest flaw is easily how frequently it reuses content. The failures do not lie entirely with the combat system itself, but with many of the aspects surrounding it. Frantic yet strategic, Scarlet Nexus in a nutshell. The flow of battles was really unlike anything I’ve played. You dash and weave through enemies, needing to make split second decisions to handle every foe. While your swings can feel as if they lack weight and attacks seem to whiff more often than I hoped, the focus on pure speed makes up for this. It rides the line between style and function successfully, and every time it clicked I found myself having immense amounts of fun. When you fully assemble your party and have all of your abilities unlocked, Scarlet Nexus’ combat was some of the most enjoyable I’ve seen in recent years. Each of them have their own unique power, and if you strengthen your bonds with them, you can use their powers in battle even if you don’t control these characters directly. As the narrative goes on, you’ll slowly recruit other characters to your team. You are not left to fend for yourself on this dangerous world a main theme of Scarlet Nexus that trickles down to the gameplay. ![]() Scarlet Nexus wants so desperately to make you feel like you’re a kid in a playground, and it mostly succeeds. Grabbing a train and slamming it into monsters lined up on the tracks, or getting on top of a bus and driving it down a street to kill anything in my path never failed to fill me with bliss. They take longer to activate and leave you vulnerable, but are much more effective at taking down the Others. ![]() ![]() There’s a good variety of objects you can throw with your mind, yet the large objects tended to be where most of my fun with the psychokinesis came from. Right trigger for normal and small sized ones, left for the large ones. Spread around the world are a plethora of objects that can be picked up by pressing one of the two triggers on the controller. Yuito and Kasane both have the power of Psychokinesis, which shows in the main gameplay gimmick. Almost every human is born with special powers, such as pyrokinesis or teleportation, and the OSF recruits the best of the best to serve as defenders against the Others. ‘Others’ are the mysterious monsters that threaten the inhabitants of earth in this brain-punk alternate reality. They both are residents in the city of Suoh, and new recruits of the OSF (Other Suppression Force). To understand the whole story, you’ll need to play both routes. While they share some similarities in their personality, how they approach the main conflict differs greatly. There are two protagonists: Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall. I have issues with Scarlet Nexus, the ones in question make themselves rather obvious after only a few hours of play, but this is truly greater than the sum of its parts.įrom the moment you start, you’re given a choice on which side you wish to experience the narrative. As much as we tend to boil video game criticism down to extremes, I think that mindset poisons the well of discussion. This is not an entirely bad thing, however.
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