SCARLET NEXUS

Imagine yourself being kidnapped by US Forces and being sent off to Guantanamo Bay. A soldier decides to torture you by stripping you of any food or water. Instead he takes a rag, douses it in water, and rings it out over your head. You’re really thirsty, but you are forced to drink the water from the rag as it drips into your mouth. This is what the story telling is like in this game.

Pacing is an extremely key issue here. After every 30-40 minutes of gameplay you have to sit through what seems like an eternity’s worth of “cutscenes” and dialogues. I put cutscenes in quotations because they are literally just slideshows with voice acting layered on top of them. The story telling would have been somewhat bearable had the cutscenes actually been rendered in-game cutscenes and not whatever the heck the developers of this game were made to create instead.

The side quests are useless. The team-bonding episodes which are meant to increase the productivity of your team mates in battle are unbearable.

It’s unfortunate since the combat in this game is actually fun. It’s frantic, fast paced, and sometimes challenging on higher difficulties. The team mate system is cool as it allows you to tap into your team members powers and use them in battle for a few seconds. The executions are beautiful. The progression system is actually layered. It’s all there in terms of an ARPG - just buried under a steaming pile of s**t.

TL/DR: this game is what happens when you have a good idea and you let it rot.

The best action rpg on the market today, IF you can ignore the obvious flaws in gameplay and design. The combat is some of the most exciting and intense combat I have ever experienced when you get the hang of it and use your powers all at once. Yes, you should be using your powers all the time. Anyway, if you don’t like dialogue between characters, you will hate this game, because there’s ALOT. Thankfully, voice acting and i don’t know what it is about Namco and creating decent characters themselves (Tales). Sword art is trash btw. I don’t like anime too much myself but this game captured me with its story. It’s very sci-if and exciting! It’s a shame that people won’t play this very much. Right off the bat, the game does feel awkward in movement. You’ll either hate it or love it. You can’t dodge while comboing so, avoid using the girl if you want melee. She is power heavy and the boy is melee. I played as the girl and loved the combos between powers that I made. It feels so free and satisfying. The game is also mini boss heavy, so if you don’t learn the tricks, you’ll suffer greatly. There is no open world. It’s a set of areas you run around in. The side quests suck, straight up, but you can turn them in anytime, so that’s good. There is a gift system for team mates and you won’t care about some of them (Luka and Kagero for me). Again, if you hate the social aspect of games, don’t buy this. I loved this game for its story, characters, and combat. The lamest thing about the game is that it’s one of those games where you will focus on one enemy and another will snipe you from off screen, and the game will load a bunch of them too. So sometimes, it’s more annoying than fun. Shortcomings aside, if you love ARPGs and want something that feels like Nier, with Ys sort of combat, with Tekken music (it’s pretty good), and some short social link features like fire emblem, you’ll love this. Also, no dating and marriage options for you hardcore anime lovers. Not that kind of game. For me personally, the game is a 7.8, great at best, good at worst. I’m giving it an objective 6.8 for some clunky ideas in gameplay and game design. Honestly, I had lots of fun, but sometimes it just felt like the game didn’t know what to do, so it just shoved a bunch of mini bosses in your way. That’s exactly how it feels sometimes, and the enemies are recycled so that’s kind of lame. Great art design, but hey, the alligator enemy is the same just with more steps till the end. Also the boss at the research facility was awful but that final boss was epic!

I really like how most the scene vibrate the controller, same as fighting. The vibration will let you know if you did your skill right. The scene looks awesome on PS5. I just finished chapters 1 (or prologue) for now. it is an exciting beginning for now. Will see if I like it as the time pass.