Scarlet Nexus Review

As far as Anime RPGs go, Scarlet Nexus is definitely one that will get the attention of most gamers interested in the genre. What Scarlet Nexus brings to the table is a creative combat mechanic, a diverse cast of characters – even though they’re rather a cliché -, and a story and skill development tree that isn’t too hard to follow.

Scarlet Nexus has dual protagonists to choose from; sword-wielding Yuito and dagger-thrower Kasane, with both also wielding the power of psychokinesis. A nice touch to this feature is that each character takes an alternative path down in the story. Squamate’s and certain cutscenes will be different so this encourages a separate playthrough with each of our main characters. Aside from our main protagonists, you’ll have a varied cast of characters who, although again are rather cliché, all play their roles perfectly.

In battle your party member can lend you a hand through the Struggle Arms System, better known as the SAS. In the SAS, Yuito or Kasane can borrow the powers of their teammates and pull off slick and flashy combos. This is what made Scarlet Nexus stand out to me. The different combos I could pull off all felt so smooth and just looked so cool. For instance, I would borrow the Clairvoyance ability from a team member which lets me easily read and dodge enemy attacks then I would immediately call on the power of pyrokinesis and set the area ablaze (I approve of this tactic – ed).

You can learn new combos and skills for your teammates by going through bond episodes. The issue that I have with bonding is that you never know how much progress you’re making. There’s no indicator that lets you know how close or how far you are to increasing your bond with a character.  The skill tree for your character changes depending on who you play as. Within this tree, you can unlock new combos, upgrades, and abilities. 

Graphically the game is very pretty and aesthetically pleasing living up to the term “brain punk”, from its desolate caves and ruins to the bustling city of a futuristic Japan. Scarlet Nexus is a beautiful game overall. Even the quick time events are enjoyable to see. Even though it’s often repetitive in battle I always found it to be enjoyable to watch the action unfold in front of you.

As mentioned, the story of Scarlet Nexus is fairly easy to follow. Both Yuito and Kasane are recruited into the OSF and mutants are known as Others descend from the sky with a hunger for human brains, so it’s your job to save humanity. There are cutscenes in the game but most of the story is sadly told through panels. What I found odd was panels in the game would sometimes freeze up and lag but the cutscenes would play out just fine and this happened on multiple occasions within the story which of course killed the mood. 

As the game goes on the charm that Scarlet Nexus presents to you fades away, but it takes until you’re near the endgame for this to really affect the experience. There are side quests and dungeon-like areas you can participate in but once you finish the main story you’ve already seen everything. It’s best you switch protagonists to get somewhat of a different experience but not by much.

Conclusion

I love Scarlet Nexus. Its technological post-apocalyptic environment, smooth and flashy combat mechanic combined with its genre of an anime RPG, was just executed so well. Sure the game towards the end might seem a little bit tedious but you just can’t help but focus on the good things that made this game such an enjoyable experience. This game is to not be ignored. 

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.