Scarlet nexus is a narrative driven, action focused JRPG set in a “Brain Punk” setting. Befriend a large cast of characters and fight together to uncover conspiracies and save the world in this stylishly action packed adventure. Featuring two playable characters and a lovable cast, can this shape up to be a truly memorable experience?

Developer: Bandai Namco Studios

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

RRP: £49.99

Story

Without going into spoiler territory the story is phenomenal, with so many different plot twists and character arcs adding to the deep character development you can really tell a lot of care went into creating a cohesive world full of unique lore. At first you might feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of different names and terminology that’s thrown at you but as you progress the game does a good job at explaining everything and by the end I felt like I had a firm grasp on everything that’d happened. The character development is amazingly crafted with each character feeling unique, watching their respective arcs unfold over the course of the game was very satisfying and really complimented the progression of the story keeping me invested in not only the world but the bonds that I had created.

I really enjoyed the “Slice of life” or social aspect of the game, receiving texts from friends or allies within the game really helped immerse me into the world by humanising the whole experience by offering a familiar format of communication. Watching my allies use the gifts I had given them as they added to what felt like an empty hideout was a really nice touch, each corner of the hideout ends up being filled with so much personality it was a joy to just hang out and observe my friends and allies lazy about the place filling their time with mundane hobbies and activities. With such an intriguingly unique world I couldn’t help but want to learn as much as possible. You have a choice to play as two characters, to get the most of the game and story it’s advised to play both sides of the story as there are significant differences but you could also be left completely satisfied just playing one side.

Gameplay

The battle system is very unique, often it feels like you’ll be punished if you don’t play the way the game is intended to be played so pay attention to the tutorials or you will struggle eventually. Using multiple abilities to attack an enemies weakness while using your psionic abilities was unbelievably addictive, I got so much enjoyment out of combining different variations of the “SAS” abilities. The game plays out as a pretty standard narrative focused JRPG, going from point A to point B on the map to progress with story but personally I think the game benefited from its linearity, you never feel lost in the environments, you’re always fully engaged pushing forward in anticipation of more story.

Need more power? There’s an abundance of active and passive skills to unlock that greatly affect the gameplay, from adding a double jump for better traversal of the environment to a mid-air dash for aerial evasion during combat. There’s 5 different skill segments on the “Brain Map” for you to invest all your Brain Points into, I’d highly suggest not neglecting the passive skills even as tempting as it is to unlock all of the active skills and abilities as fast as possible. The enemy design is where this game truly shows off it’s individuality with each monster looking like it had just fallen out of a fever dream. Warped and twisted environments complimented by the disturbing body horror I never felt like I was tired of revisiting the areas, instead it gives the game a more grounded approach feeling more familiar and plausible as a world or place of existence separate to our own.

Audio and Performance

To no surprise the soundtrack keeps a very consistent futuristic theme, from upbeat Glitch hop in the residential districts to Electro Swing in a certain boss fight there really was a plethora of different styles to fit the different moods and settings. Even the more emotionally driven scenes were carried by soft sombre music while still fitting the overall setting. The Sound Design for the different abilities and attacks felt incredibly unique and nuanced while the audio levels remained at a comfortable volume, I never felt like any sound effect was fighting for dominance. The voice acting was at such a high quality I never questioned the authenticity of a character’s personality even once, they convey emotions very thoroughly with a lot of weight especially in the more emotionally intense conversations. Each character felt uniquely voiced and portrayed their respective personalities so well, I feel as if they were real people I once knew. As far as performance goes I played on PS5 which runs at 60fps, I never noticed a dip in the frame rate. I was pleasantly surprised at how polished the game was on release, I think it sets the bar pretty high for future releases.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Scarlet Nexus and I hope that the Bandai Namco development team get the praise they deserve for a well polished and unique action JRPG.

This is a MUST BUY for any Anime or JRPG fan.

8/10

Pros

Amazing Story

Deep character development

Enjoyable combat system

Cons

Linear areas

Occasional low res textures

Author: Gabriel Sewell