The new action RPG from Bandai Namco Studios, Scarlet Nexus, sure looks interesting. Now that there’s a demo out on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, we gave it a spin and see what the fuss is all about.
If you’re not sold yet on Scarlet Nexus, there’s something special from the slice of gameplay presented in the demo. But it comes with a very big caveat: do you like anime?
The Brainy Bunch
Because Scarlet Nexus is unabashedly an anime game. A lot of its appeal (and quirks) can easily be explained by the word “anime”, and depending on who you are it’s either a big selling point or a big turn-off.
There’s a lot of talking scenes where the quality is heavily carried by the voice actors, because there’s very minimal animation being displayed- explained as they group of psychic soldiers communicate via “Brain Talk”.
As a matter of fact, the talky cinematics is basically your usual visual novel texts and portraits, but the text boxes and portraits are displayed in a cool way. The stills are not just stock jpegs, it’s a freeze-frame from in-game footage. You can see the character’s cosmetics displayed.
The plot of the two portions of the demo is intriguingly similar, but with a different cast of characters (with some appearing on both campaigns). One has a sweet duo while the other has a cold rivalry brewing- you know, your typical anime tropes. The demo defaults to Japanese voice-overs, but there is an English dub that’s also pretty decent.
JRPG-Style Think-ering
But when you see the combat animations and the cutscenes that do get animated, you’ll definitely see where the big money is spent. Characters slice, dice and telekinetically grab and pull items with aplomb. It’s definitely a spectacle. And can be a bit overwhelming at first, especially when there’s so many button prompts appearing on screen and huge portraits of your teammates flash in full-screen.
It’s a lot to take in, but the good thing about Scarlet Nexus’s demo is how much of the systems and mechanics are unlocked. You can form your party of three characters (probably more than what the main game will provide in the same segment), customise equipment loadouts, and even put in points in the talent tree, the Brain Tree.
In demo, you get access to four party members, two fight alongside you with the other two on reserve. You can equip items (accessible on the d-pad), weapons, cosmetics and even pick an AI behaviour for the teammates.
The game has all the systems you would expect from a JRPG in these menus, that’s for sure.
So This Is “Brain Punk”
Combat, however, is more direct, and sort of like a character action game. You have a basic attack button and a special attack button. You can do combo strings. You have a launcher attack to bring enemies airborne (and juggle them with more combo attacks). Basic attacks and movement are all on the face buttons, whereas the game’s main draw, the psychic powers, are accessible via the shoulder buttons.
The two playable characters, Yuito and Kasane, have access to psychokinesis, which allows them to gran and throw items. Don’t expect psychic power shenanigans like Psi-Ops or Control, however. The button is held down and it immediately hits a locked-on enemy, no aiming required.
There are also contextual items you can grab, which includes a follow-up attack via quick-time events. It can come as an extra button prompt, or some analog stick motions.
SAS-uga
Either protagonist can also borrow their teammate’s psychic powers via “SAS”. Holding R1/right bumper and a face button will have a teammate lend you that power (with a flash of said teammate’s portrait flashing full-screen).
Yuito’s segment has him face enemies that are invisible enemies, but he can borrow Clairvoyance to spot them. Meanwhile, Kasane can borrow Invisibility allows her to do sneak attacks. Interesting contrast between the two.
The psychic powers can be combo-ed together with your bread-and-butter attacks, which is really awesome once you get the hang of it. But until then, it’s going to be an overwhelming experience, especially since your teammates keep on nagging and instructing what power you should borrow via SAS at the moment.
Psychokinesis uses up meter, and so are your SAS assist powers, so meter management is integral to mastering the combat in Scarlet Nexus. Normal attacks charge up your brain juice, and you also build up another meter, Brain Drive, that gives you a boost in power (and XP drop).
Points Of Concern
While the combat seems character action-y, it doesn’t feel as tight. Normal attack don’t home-in directly to the locked-on enemy, so it’s easy for attacks to not connect despite having locked on. The camera isn’t that good at keeping up with the action either.
However, I believe that this feels like what you would expect from the usual anime games, so it’s something fans can just brush over (and newcomers need some time adjusting to).
There are other more worrying points in regards to the psychic powers. Some enemies require you to use specific psychic powers to effectively deal damage. Like the enemies that can hide in an invulnerable box when playing as Kasane. If the power to counter them (Invisibility, in this case) is on cooldown, you’re a sitting duck.
The game didn’t tell that there is another way to counter them- rushing them with Hypervelocity before they can hide in those boxes also works.
I hope combat in Scarlet Nexus is more free-form, as in not having to memorise which exact power counters what and every other method of attack won’t work. That would suck.
Also, a quick positve note: I’ve played the demo on a base PS4 and Scarlet Nexus runs at a very solid 30fps. Outside of the intentionally designed hit stops, there’s no framerate chugging that I can notice.
Closing Thoughts
When Scarlet Nexus clicks, it does feel like a potentially great action RPG. Once you’re used to the loosey-goosey controls and get the hang of the SAS power-borrowing system, it’s quite a different experience from your usual Japanese action RPGs.
As long as you can roll with what can be politely described as “anime nonsense”, you’re in for a good time. It’s certainly a very different game compared to Bandai Namco Studios’ past work, and it’s exciting to see them going for something different with Scarlet Nexus.
Impressions based on PS4 version