LifeisXbox’s Scarlet Nexus review | Other Suppression Force (OSF) needs you to fight and defeat Others! An Extinction Belt surrounded the planet is spawning weird-looking creatures that are a huge danger for humanity. OSF can forecast Others invasions and that’s why it recruits people based on substances found in their brains. Those fluids give them Marvel-like superpowers like electrokinesis, teleportation and many more. It is clear from the very beginning that Bandai Namco has high hopes for Scarlet Nexus, and justly so but you’ll read that in our review! In addition to the videogame, a critically praised Japanese animation studio called Sunrise created a TV series. Sunrise is known for Gundam and Code Geass so high expectations are only logical. That’s the only thing I will say about the series as we’ll now focus on the Xbox Series X version of Scarlet Nexus.
We played Scarlet Nexus for over 15 hours on Xbox Series X. This game is also available on Playstation and pc.
What we liked!
- Combat system | How fluid can combat be? Well, Scarlet Nexus is a damn fine example of how much! There’s so much impressive stuff going on, I call it John Wick moments. How else would you describe smashing a car into a building high Others. Combat is just really fresh and completely new, the mix between going all-in with attack options and slowing down for dodging and avoiding isn’t something I experienced before. Using the environment to manipulating objects that hurt Others never becomes dull or boring. While it might be a bit much at first it quickly becomes like riding a bike. Meaning you’ll do insane combos with the help of squad members. Everyone has a specific mind-ability that makes it really fun to keep battling Others. Sometimes you’ll have to use specific abilities for defeating them too, making invisible enemies visible for example. Choosing your squad, finding your perfect battle plan and executing some of the advanced attack possibilities are insanely fun and the Brain Crush (finishers) animations are impressive to pull off. At the start of the game you can choose between two playable characters, so you get a boost in replay value too!
- Beautiful visual style and perfect performance | It is very linear so the developer went loco with the visuals and game world. It has a very screaming art style, similar to The Ascent’s neon art style. There’s color and flashy objects everywhere you see, in rock-solid 60FPS and 4K. Crisp looking it is, would Yoda say. What really nails the graphics are the fantastically designed characters and Others, you’re always curious to see what the game has in store. Large Others or funny looking ones are the main attraction and make up for the sometimes empty looking large environments. Cutscenes are another visual attraction, here the game shows anime roots and warm up the player to watch the TV series, absolutely stunning work!
- Japanese and English dialogue | My girlfriend hates when I play games with Japanese voices, I can understand why but I simply prefer playing it with Japanese dubs. It has much more emotion and feels ‘right’ so I was glad to be able to play Scarlet Nexus how I prefer it. You have excellent English voices too if that’s more your thing. So everyone’s happy, especially Anime-fans as I know how important this is.
Somewhere between
- Overwhelming storytelling | In short, there is some kind of belt in the air around the Earth that spawns monsters, called Others and your part of the defence force (OSF) to keep humanity safe. Bit of a Men in Black/Marvel’s Shield kinda thing! You’ll meet lots of characters that all have their own stories and interactions, intertwined with the main story from Scarlet Nexus. As a result, the story is great but really confusing and hard to cope with, you got dimension things going, the special powers from the OSF technology to unlock brain abilities, romances, and humanity struggles. The new information and storytelling never seem to end, I’m pretty sure that most gamers will be lost in the story. On the positive side, it truly is something special and gamers who love a complicated story will love it!
What we disliked
- Frequent backtracking | A big part of levelling up abilities is doing squad member side-quests, they are called bond-missions. I love the idea behind it but that’ vanishes quickly as you’ll be constantly revisiting earlier locations to slay X-amount of enemies or fetch a watch or whatever other useless item. Normally developers make backtracking a bit more interesting by increasing the encounter difficulty but that’s not the case with Scarlet Nexus. While completely optional it still feels forced as you want to unlock cooler and more powerful abilities from your teammates.
How long to beat the story | 25 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 70 hours
Similar with | Bayonetta – Musou games
CONCLUSION
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