Scarlet Nexus

 PlayStation 5
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 290 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 208 out of 290
  2. Mixed: 53 out of 290
  3. Negative: 29 out of 290
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  1. sandora85
    Jun 29, 2021
    7
    Medicacore game a good potential wasted.Level desing bad,side quests s.hitty,customizetion is not enought only good sides combat is fun and soundtracks really good.

    Gameplay :8
    Level Desing:3
    Music :8
    Story :6
    Graphics :7
  2. deplorable
    Jul 11, 2021
    5
    First Plot - it's terrible, the longer you play it the more absurd and stupid the plot becomes, i mean sure once you get all the pieces together you just end up with a pretty bad overall story but since it drip feeds you throughout it just becomes stupid. (half of which you've already figured out).

    Let's not get into the usual tropes of the main characters. if they all just sat down at    First Plot - it's terrible, the longer you play it the more absurd and stupid the plot becomes, i mean sure once you get all the pieces together you just end up with a pretty bad overall story but since it drip feeds you throughout it just becomes stupid. (half of which you've already figured out).

    Let's not get into the usual tropes of the main characters. if they all just sat down at the beginning and talked we'd have avoided half of the game.

    Oh yeah the game, if you like repetition and doing the same map parts again and again. You will LOVE this game. Honestly I've never seen a game so plot and cut scene heavy but lack of actual gameplay since metal gear solid 2. The combat is so so, it'd be more enjoyable with a better targeting and camera system. It'll tell you things you need to know and things you don't need to know... pay attention to the dreadful quests some of them can only be completed if you unlock parts of the brain map - but the game doesn't tell you this.

    It's a chore to play, and we won't talk about the bits between story missions when you "bond" with your team mates and give them gifts over and over. Or the poster that refuses to give you a trophy. damn you poster. Or the annoying message system. or the fact you have to watch the anime to unlock useless accessories so your team mates can wear posters, literal posters on their person.
    The worst bond mission involves doing an entire mission again collecting keycards for luka, i mean the design and repetition is astounding but this is brain numbing.

    If you love accessorising your characters you'll love this, it's like they saw the idea from the "tales of" games and thought ... let's do that, it adds nothing to the game. Just a filler for the lack of content and story the game has... but hey to get the full enjoyment out of it.......

    You gotta play it twice, with both characters through the same repetitive levels you've already played. Sounds like fun, sign yourself up.. to another PS5 game that offers very little difference to the PS4 version.. adding to the overall disappointment.

    Go team Yuito, a character that never listens and adds stupid conversation even once he's been given the answer. "we shouldn't talk here yuito". His response "maybe we should talk about that". It's just terrible.

    It's average, but in 2021 when all we've been given is rubbish - biomutant, necromunda; hired gun, dark alliance.

    You'll be glad of average, at least for the first 10 hours of repetition.    … Expand
  3. kylemccoy131
    Jan 26, 2023
    7
    It's gets kinda "anime cringe" at times, but it's fun if you like action-rpg's. I found the QTE's overbearing at times, and most of the side characters to be lackluster. But the world itself is well realized and the combat is fun, though it does outstay its welcome.
  4. Masa102
    Nov 17, 2021
    6
    In short, this is a game with a great combat system, that is dragged down by nearly every other aspect.

    This game has some fairly unique concepts when it comes to combat, and the combat plays smoothly and feels polished once you get used to it. The progression system is decent, you spend points to unlock abilities and they do open up some doors in combat and in some cases give you    In short, this is a game with a great combat system, that is dragged down by nearly every other aspect.

    This game has some fairly unique concepts when it comes to combat, and the combat plays smoothly and feels polished once you get used to it.

    The progression system is decent, you spend points to unlock abilities and they do open up some doors in combat and in some cases give you really useful abilities.

    The combat abilities that you can use after they "charge up" were kind of neat but were so infrequent that I pretty much forgot they were even there for the majority of the game.

    The combat really shines in the ability to borrow abilities from your teammates, but when you get good at it the game becomes super easy.

    As far as equipment and crafting, its all very basic and not interesting (you get items that are literally called like "A material" and "B material"). The customization options for appearance all looked terrible.

    The music and art style are both decent, seems like they were both inspired by the Persona series.

    All of the above is not nearly enough to get through the DULL dialogue and Cut scenes. The game starts out throwing way too many one-note boring characters at you that its hard to keep track of whose who, or to find the will to care, and by the time I do have them all sorted out, I find myself not caring about any of them and their (mostly) lifeless dialog

    By the end I was skipping most of the cutscenes to just get the game over with, I didn't care anymore and the dialogue was too painfully boring to slog through any further. The different "zones" were all very linear and boring also.

    The cherry on top is that the side quests are among the worst I've ever seen.    … Expand
  5. kirkender
    Jan 6, 2022
    6
    The visuals are the best part. The enemy designs are fantastic. The story is run-of-the-mill nonsensical anime, and the characters are shallow. The gameplay is frenetic and unbalanced. The level design is uninspired made up of hallways with limited opportunities for engagement, that you have to do over and over and over again, and that's just in the first playthrough. I can see this seriesThe visuals are the best part. The enemy designs are fantastic. The story is run-of-the-mill nonsensical anime, and the characters are shallow. The gameplay is frenetic and unbalanced. The level design is uninspired made up of hallways with limited opportunities for engagement, that you have to do over and over and over again, and that's just in the first playthrough. I can see this series improving considerably with sequels, but this one is average at its best, and frustrating and boring at its worst.… Expand
  6. Sumbyv1
    Sep 16, 2021
    5
    Loved the combat and general gameplay but the story and side storys were such a slog for me that i was glad when i finished it. which is a shame.
  7. iKickBullies
    Mar 25, 2022
    7
    I really wanted to love this game soooo bad. I preordered and almost never do digital preorders so that was something. The game really could have been alot better. But alot of the execution was questionable at best. The combat requires tooo much investment to start enjoying and feels lazy until your like 15 hours in and got your skill tree up. No reason you shouldn't be able to do thingsI really wanted to love this game soooo bad. I preordered and almost never do digital preorders so that was something. The game really could have been alot better. But alot of the execution was questionable at best. The combat requires tooo much investment to start enjoying and feels lazy until your like 15 hours in and got your skill tree up. No reason you shouldn't be able to do things like air dodging and vital normal maneuvers from the start. I can understand the ESP or whatever stuff, but that was very questionable and I think allowing for full control of AI partners would have made this soo much better. Allowing the combat to be a little more RPG in that element, a good example of what I mean is say FFVIIR where your AI can be switched to mid combat if you need there skills or want to use them. The story is okay and the characters are pretty generic run of the mill animesh characters. Some likable and some loveable but nothing unique or standout. I think not hating any is its accomplishment in that department lol. Either way, I will eventually get back to the game but it's not an amazing game by any feat. Just good… Expand
  8. soki98
    Jul 6, 2021
    6
    bad plot bad character **** world decent enough combat not worth full price wait for sale
  9. DreamCore
    Jun 27, 2021
    7
    Very mediocre game. Basically the only gameplay is running through linear levels killing groups of enemies with "cut-scenes" in between. You also re-visit each location multiple times which is really tedious. The so called "side quests" are the worst of their kind as well, involving killing some enemies in some specific way to get some items as a reward. I'm not a big fan of the cut-sceneVery mediocre game. Basically the only gameplay is running through linear levels killing groups of enemies with "cut-scenes" in between. You also re-visit each location multiple times which is really tedious. The so called "side quests" are the worst of their kind as well, involving killing some enemies in some specific way to get some items as a reward. I'm not a big fan of the cut-scene design either, with them being just static images. It feels a bit cheap.

    The combat system also has deep flaws. The main one being the worst targeting system to date. It doesn't actually target the enemy but just locks the camera in the enemy direction, the character doesn't attack in the correct direction so you will still miss your attacks which is insanely frustrating. Throwing objects is also extremely glitchy as half of the time they get stuck in the environment and end up not being thrown, especially in tight areas like the hospital.

    Comparing this game to similar games like Astral Chain, this game falls really short. It's an okay game, but not more than that.    … Expand
  10. Rusty1984
    Aug 27, 2021
    5
    More than half way in the game so will edit the post if opinion changes.

    Bought it for ~23 euros. felt like it was a really nice deal with 40% off of new game. IF you are a HC Scarlet Nexus or Anime fan in general, You just might like this game. I have no clue why it got 8/10...but each their own. Main story> probably the only thing which is making me not send an angry letter to    More than half way in the game so will edit the post if opinion changes.

    Bought it for ~23 euros. felt like it was a really nice deal with 40% off of new game.
    IF you are a HC Scarlet Nexus or Anime fan in general, You just might like this game.
    I have no clue why it got 8/10...but each their own.

    Main story> probably the only thing which is making me not send an angry letter to Sony and asking for refund. Its reasonable story and voice acting (jap) and characters are decent, considering its from Anime.
    Side+extra> does not exist, its not even fetch and kill this quests. its just nothing.

    Gameplay: No gameplay, You will find 10 "wish they did not do it like this" in first 10 mins of combat gameplay. Progression of skills and items is so dim and moronic, it makes this game non RPG.
    its a story driven>non choice based (other than you choosing main char) non open world, no side quests anime based sloppy content.

    Heed from my mistake> do not buy it.

    have a nice day    … Expand
  11. SuperkenGaming
    Jul 10, 2021
    7
    Scarlet Nexus
    One of the Most Boring good games ive ever played
    Scarlet Nexus is a 16 hour long action JRPG where you play as either Kasane or Yuito, I had to look up their nae before I wrote this review, because that’s how little I cared about this games story. The story seems to be very hit and miss, which isn’t necessarily a good thing considered half of the game is voiced dialog    Scarlet Nexus
    One of the Most Boring good games ive ever played
    Scarlet Nexus is a 16 hour long action JRPG where you play as either Kasane or Yuito, I had to look up their nae before I wrote this review, because that’s how little I cared about this games story.
    The story seems to be very hit and miss, which isn’t necessarily a good thing considered half of the game is voiced dialog comic styled cutscenes… Im not exaggerating, you spend just as much time sitting, waiting for the action to happen as you do actually playing.. some seem to love the story, I however was bored out of my mind, basically youre part of a group of people with special powers, the government is after your brains, youre losing or have lost your memories, something about spaghetti noodles coming from the sky, youre on the governments hitlist and you gotta stop these moon people from destroying earth.. I think.. I think that’s the story… if youre not intogovernemnt conspiracy, half this game.. this is now an 8 hour action jrpg that thankfully is a blast to play though.. you have telekenisis and a sword, you cn slic enemies up as well as throw objects and use the environment to do massive damage, as you progress the game youll unlock new abilities.. which seems to never stop, tutorials will pop up literally the entirety of the games campaign, but as you make it through th story, more charcters will join your party and youre able to borrow their powers as you take on these moon cratures known as others, you can use fire powers, invisiblity, dashing, electric, super speed, dashing, and work up your skill tree to the point that you can stack these abilities, all on cool down.. this is when the game is at its best, taking down enemies and bosses… is the gameplay good enough to justify a purchase on its own though? No.
    Scarelt nexus is insaley repeitve, youre just goin around these very Japanese game styled maps, getting locked ito areas, clearing them and moving on.. youll see a lot of repeat areas, not even counting the optional bonding missions you can do with each of this games characters, so youll rarely come to a cool new area being begged to explore and even if you did there is no exploration incetive, the gear and weapons here are awful, you wont find new wepons, you just by them from a shop that thankfully just shows up in these dungeons, you don’t have to fast travel to a hub or wait until a mission is over to buy consumables, but these 5 weapons for each charcter you buy just will show up the deeper you get into the game, and you buy them and equip them, that sabout as deep as the loot system goes..
    If th sound of a government conspiracy trying to steel the brains of these kidswith crazy powers doesn’t excite you, there is no reason to pick this one up..
    While I found the story to be painfully slow, drawn out, and boring, others are liking it, and for those people, scarlet nexus offers a good package, and a 16 plus hours youll really enjoy, you might even enjoy it enough to play it twice for both sides of the story,
    for me, I could barely manage the story the first time around
    I give Scarlet Nexus
    a 7/10    … Expand
  12. Sty1eBender
    Jul 27, 2021
    7
    Through my first play through I would have given it an 8/8.5. The story is great and the combat is mostly smooth with some odd glaring discrepancies. There was a lot of reading an excessive release with little cut scenes felt cheap to me. But the exp cap to get the last trophy was excessive - only levelling a few times throughout the ENTIRE second play through made grinding one area forThrough my first play through I would have given it an 8/8.5. The story is great and the combat is mostly smooth with some odd glaring discrepancies. There was a lot of reading an excessive release with little cut scenes felt cheap to me. But the exp cap to get the last trophy was excessive - only levelling a few times throughout the ENTIRE second play through made grinding one area for four hours the only way to get all the skills. This comes with players being able to pay more and get an item that increases exp gains. If there had been a horde mode or more respectable effort to appreciate the players I would have kept my ordinal impression but the game deserves to be knocked for it.… Expand
  13. Psychroclasm
    Jul 7, 2022
    5
    It's like concept artists took assets to a video game company and said "Do something with this." and they got story writers who thought the "Two Brothers" bit from Rick and Morty was revolutionary. The combat system feels so underdeveloped, given that it's nothing new to the genre, and it aches for a MUCH longer list of combos. The windowed style of conversation vs actually animatingIt's like concept artists took assets to a video game company and said "Do something with this." and they got story writers who thought the "Two Brothers" bit from Rick and Morty was revolutionary. The combat system feels so underdeveloped, given that it's nothing new to the genre, and it aches for a MUCH longer list of combos. The windowed style of conversation vs actually animating cutscenes still doesn't make sense to me, and I can't tell if it was a very poor stylistic choice or a budget measure.

    Overall, it's an average game that's really disappointing with all the tools they could've used. I haven't seen the anime, but it has to be better than this.    … Expand
  14. songforyou0313
    Oct 6, 2021
    7
    This game is lesser known but surprised me.
    From the PS5 games I've played, adaptive triggers work best in this one. Combat is so amazing.

    However, what happened to the story? I chose Yuito and 50% of the game time I had no idea about the story and why people try to kill me. Really should start with Kasane...
  15. Flounder
    Mar 29, 2022
    7
    Es ist ein lustiges Spiel mit lustigem Gameplay und einer ziemlich guten Geschichte, obwohl die Geschichte sehr, sehr unnötig in die Länge gezogen wird.
  16. JackMcloed
    Mar 16, 2022
    6
    Combat is not great but Babylon's Fall has an average of 4. Yeah, that makes sense.
  17. Siyld
    Jun 17, 2022
    6
    I dig anime games but the combat itself got old pretty fast. Wish the characters got more different kind of unique outfits to be honest.

Awards & Rankings

38
#38 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2021
32
#32 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 68 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 68
  3. Negative: 0 out of 68
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Sep 9, 2021
    80
    Scarlet Nexus is a fun action RPG-lite that has a complex story and a bunch of unnecessary gaming mechanics that somehow work. If you like games like Astral Chain, you will not go wrong with Scarlet Nexus, especially as it’s being set up as a potential future franchise. The combination of telekinesis and action elements are nothing new, but SN does it beautifully by combining it with other different skills and magics. If you like Anime and brainpunk themes, Scarlet Nexus is for you.
    Read full review
  2. PlaySense
    Aug 5, 2021
    85
    An interesting story with well-developed characters and expert enemy design, that - however - does take a while to really get going. On top of that, not every sidequest is worth your attention. Don't let that stop you, though. Scarlet Nexus is a great game.
    Read full review
  3. PLAY
    Jul 28, 2021
    70
    This psychically gifted title has a killer look and telekinetically wielded right hook. Unfortunately, it fails to read our mind and outstays its welcome. [Issue#4, p.75]
See all critic reviews »