One such occurence places a save point right before a transition to a new area, where you’ll then have to move forward a bit to fight off a boss. It’s at moments like that where some of Scarlet Nexus‘ silly design flaws come into play. In fact, regular battles will lull you into a rut and that’ll get you in trouble when you head into mini- or boss battles there, the difficulty seems ratcheted way up and you’ll certainly fail if you don’t snap out of it. While you admittedly feel ultra slick and cool inside battles, things get repetitive quite quickly. Most battles with Yuito mean a quick X, X, Y combo followed by a depresssion of RT to launch a car or whatnot at your target from there, it’s simply a matter of rinse and repeat. While combat looks stylish as hell, there’s not an actual lot to it. On top of all this, Yuito and Kasane can call upon the powers of their teammates to help in battles - one will allow you to see cloaked enemies, another will let you cloak, and others still include the likes of pyrokinesis, increased speed and more. While the RT attack can be built up and used quite frequently, players also have access to a limited LT attack which deals far greater damage and can also be used against multiple enemies at once.
While I’ve spoken about combos numerous times, Scarlet Nexus doesn’t throw up a hit counter to reflect your actions rather, successful chained attacks build up the special meters required to use telekinesis powers. As you progress, you’ll continue to unlock upgraded powers through the Brain Tree and even an overdrive called (you guessed it) Brain Drive. A dodge button is also on offer, though is pretty useless when first starting it can be upgraded as you level your character, providing a way to recover from a hit that’s more useful than the ability to dodge itself. Facing off against the Persona-like Others, entities seemingly cobbled together from one’s nightmares, Yuito can get up close and personal with a quick and heavy melee attack alongside combo-keeping telekinesis attacks powered by a well-timed hold of the RT on Xbox. I chose Yuito, armed with a sword and backed by a bloodline tremendously revered in this alternate history. Pages of tutorials follow in the same fashion, though a majority can honestly be ignored and even revisited after you’re feeling settled in.
There’s a lot of world building front-loaded into the game, and frankly most of it went over my head maybe the anime series launching ahead of the game would have been useful to help with this. While Yuito is better at close-range combat and Kasane excels at ranged attacks, both employ a type of telekinesis that bolster their own combos.Īs soon as you decide upon which combat style suits you the best, you’re thrown into an opening that’s best described as all style and little structure, with a seemingly endless array of names, titles, and exposition being relentlessly thrown at you.
Players can fill the shoes of one of two main characters - Yuito Sumeragi or Kasane Randall – both of whom begin as new recruits of the Other Suppression Force (OSF), an organisation meant to protect regular citizens from the incursions of brain-eating beings from another plane.
Described by its developers as a title in the “brainpunk” genre, I’ve come to think of it as a mixture of the likes of Bayonetta, Code Vein and Persona, at some times deliciously chaotic and at others frustratingly so. Scarlet Nexus is the latest from Bandai Namco, an action RPG that has also spawned an anime series that will more or less debut on the very same day (technically the anime will livestream a little earlier than planned its actual debut is pencilled in for 1 July).