Enemy territories and hub worlds are huge and players that go wandering will be rewarded with a few additional goodies (and some insipid side missions), but mostly I ignored this aspect. A battle of witsĪnother area where Scarlet Nexus defies its JRPG overlords is in the mission structures since they unfold in a highly linear fashion. Time travel, dramatic losses, unlikely bonds forming between characters, jaw-dropping betrayals – you will find them all here. You’ll definitely want to play this at least twice.Īnime fans will notice immediately that this game borrows enthusiastically from shows such as Bleach or Attack on Titan, and yet Bandai Namco’s writers still created several gripping twists and turns in this narrative. However, Scarlet Nexus has rather excellent replay value because Yuito and Kasane are nothing alike, and they both experience events in a highly unique way. Their lives are deeply interconnected, they share the same environments, and they even encounter one another in numerous moments throughout the story. Rather than an epic sixty or eighty hour marathon, choosing either Yuito or Kasane will result in a shorter but distinct play-through of a mere thirty or so hours. Spoiler : It’s win-win.Īs such, Scarlet Nexus defines itself as a game where character selection has a significant influence on the player’ s story perspective. Bandai Namco have trimmed the genre’s storytelling format down to its essence so that the player moves more briskly from one key narrative moment to the next. Whereas JRPG’s are notorious for protracted gameplay and story, Scarlet Nexus generally plays out as a more compact and streamlined package. The OSF have therefore represent humanity’s protectors and the last line of defense against having their brains devoured. Normal varieties of firepower are useless against the Others but psychic attacks, on the other hand, work just fine. ‘Other’ in this case refers to the bizarre-looking antagonists of this game which are essentially zombies that plummet from a mysterious entity hanging in the sky. I can only assume that something was lost in translation, or that Dr Seuss was passed around during concept design meetings. The only thing weirder than their looks are their names: Kitchen Rummys, Slippy Chinerys, and Barrista Santas among others. Both Yuito and Kasane’s psychic abilities show potential use in combat scenarios, and the game begins when they enroll to a special division known as the OSF – the Other Suppression Force. This is the immersive backdrop that Bandai Namco have set for their game’s ‘teen recruits’ anime drama starring two playable characters, Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall. Humanity has been reduced to living in isolated hub worlds. In this cutting edge civilisation text messages are sent with telepathy, while billboards and street signs are projected into the population’s internal heads up display. Scarlet Nexus introduces the player to the idea of a ‘brainpunk’ universe in which human beings have found a way to awaken dormant psychic abilities with technology. The development team have mixed up an interesting cocktail that blends JRPG narrative design with well-loved mechanics from fast-paced action games, and the result almost feels like playing two complimentary genres at once. Whatever the case may be, Scarlet Nexus still comes together as a remarkable, anime-infused, action-packed romp. In fact, it tries so hard to pass as a third-person action game that I wondered if the developers were making a subtle anti-JRPG statement. While Bandai Namco’s June 2021 release may present itself as another run-of-the-mill JRPG, this game is quite eager to bend the rules of this genre.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |