SCARLET NEXUS
Choose between Yuito and Kasane, elite psionics each armed with a talent in psychokinesis and their own reason to fight. Complete both of their stories to unlock all the mysteries of a Brain Punk future caught between technology and psychic abilities.
SCARLET NEXUS is a anime, action and rpg game
developed by Bandai Namco Studios Inc.
and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Released on June 24th 2021 is available only on Windows
in 12 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Spanish - Latin America, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 16,743 reviews of which 13,635 were positive and 3,108 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.0 out of 10. š
The game is currently priced at 49.99ā¬ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified SCARLET NEXUS into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at SCARLET NEXUS through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 | AMD FX-8350
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760, 2 GB | AMD Radeon HD 7970, 3 GB
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 50 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Estimated performance: 1080p/60fps with graphics settings at "Low". Framerate might drop in graphics-intensive scenes. - 64-bit processor and operating system are required.
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Rating: 7/10 (Recommended) A visually stunning action RPG with fun combat mechanics, but weighed down by repetitive gameplay and uneven storytelling. What I Liked: Combat is the Star of the Show: The combat system is flashy and highly satisfying. Using psychokinesis to fling cars, barrels, and other objects at enemies, while seamlessly chaining melee combos, feels amazing. The SAS system (letting you borrow abilities from your teammates) adds a lot of variety. For example, you can temporarily gain fire attacks, teleport behind enemies, or become invisible for sneak attacks. These mechanics encourage you to experiment, and the game rewards creativity in how you fight. Brain-Punk World & Style: Scarlet Nexus is visually stunning. The neon-lit cityscapes and dystopian atmosphere create a unique "brain-punk" aesthetic that blends futuristic technology with psychic abilities. The enemy designs, especially the "Others," are grotesque, creative, and memorable, like plants and machinery fused together into nightmarish forms. Dual Protagonist Structure: You can play as either Yuito or Kasane, and each has a distinct perspective on the story. Their paths overlap but reveal different details, making it worth playing through twice if youāre invested in the plot. This dual-narrative approach adds replayability and fleshes out the larger picture of the worldās mysteries. What I Didnāt Like: Repetitive Gameplay Loop: While the combat is great, the mission design drags it down. Too many levels feel like rinse-and-repeat tasks: go to a similar-looking area, fight waves of enemies, and move to the next checkpoint. Exploration is minimal, and the environments feel reused and uninspired by the later chapters. Uneven Storytelling: The story has interesting themes (like government conspiracies, memory manipulation, and identity), but the delivery is inconsistent. Cutscenes can feel overly long and filled with unnecessary exposition. The pacing fluctuates between long, drawn-out sections and sudden bursts of action. It sometimes feels like the story is trying too hard to be complex. Character Depth is Lacking: While the bond system (interacting with teammates to strengthen relationships) is a nice idea, most of the characters feel underdeveloped. Their personalities are often reduced to anime archetypes, and the bond episodes donāt add much substance. Youāll likely find a couple of characters you like, but many feel forgettable. Grindy Toward the End: The second half of the game starts to drag as the repetitive gameplay loop becomes more apparent. Enemies get stronger, but the tactics for defeating them donāt change much, leading to a grindy feeling. Overall Thoughts: Scarlet Nexus shines in its combat and visual design, delivering an enjoyable but flawed experience. Itās a solid game for fans of action RPGs and anime-inspired aesthetics, but it doesnāt quite reach its full potential. If youāre okay with some repetition and a story that takes a while to get going, thereās a lot to like here. Pros: Stylish and flashy combat with lots of depth Gorgeous brain-punk aesthetic Dual protagonists add replay value Cons: Repetitive mission design and environments Story pacing is uneven, with underdeveloped characters Gameplay loop can feel grindy by the end Recommendation: Worth picking up, especially on sale. Donāt expect a masterpiece, but if you love stylish combat and a unique sci-fi setting, youāll likely enjoy it.
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A decent cyberpunk anime action game with good combat Pros + The story is decent, with many anime cringe tropes, but still interesting enough with its twists and turns in the plot to keep you engaged. + The game also has two protagonists , each with a different gameplay style and different companions' powers that can be used. It also offers different perspectives on the main story. + The game also has good world-building and lore to back it up. + The combat is the main highlight. I love it; there are a lot of combos with melee attacks, psychokinesis attacks, and also the powers from other companions that you can borrow . + The characters' cast is clichĆ© , just like anime . Thereās the tsundere, childhood friend, shy dere, etc., but I still like it. + The graphics are decent anime style , but I love the art direction of its cyberpunk theme. + The monsters are pretty good, varied enough, and complement the combat by encouraging the use of different powers. Cons - The level design is kinda samey , not really interesting. - The side stories about the companions are hit and miss for me. Some of them are good and give depth to the characters , but some of them also feel like filler and fall flat . - The side quests are flatālike the worst . They should have been called challenges or something because they donāt feel like side missions or quests at all, just tasks to do. - I donāt really like how the storytelling is presented, as itās more like a visual novel for a game of this caliber .
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An innovative and unique, yet greatly flawed anime punk JRPG 7.5/10 Well, Scarlet Nexus is definitely a work that has mixed reviews, polarizing yet uniquely positioned. While it has excellent visual art full of futuristic punk, a brilliant original soundtrack, and an extremely thrilling combat experience, as a JRPG the plot experience it brings to players is truly a disaster, completely different from the traditional JRPGs that have always focused on plot narrative. Coupled with the highly repetitive gameplay, Scarlet Nexus has long been controversial among players. How did Scarlet Nexus go from being highly anticipated to being virtually ignored? Through exquisite anime rendering, Scarlet Nexus presents players with a futuristic and gorgeous holographic world. Prosperous electronic cities, decaying abandoned urban ruins, silent underground railways, solemn central computer, and cold, windy, snow-covered mountains... The outstanding art design is enough for players to enjoy an unprecedented visual feast, and the atmosphere and artistic conception created are unparalleled and unforgettable. Speaking of gameplay, Scarlet Nexus is extremely easy to get started with while remaining innovative and exciting. While using simple hack and slash as its core gameplay, it also incorporates psychokinesis, sclerokinesis, invisibility, teleportation, and other superpowers to assist in combat. Combined with the numerous invincibility frames, the game's combat experience is exhilarating and refreshing while not losing the upper limit of operation, which focuses on testing the player's use of superpowers and mechanisms. The dazzling linkage COMBO, team QTE cooperation, visual image, and avant-garde brain field not only bring players an excellent visual experience but also a full sense of team combat feeling. The male protagonist who focuses on melee slashing and the female protagonist who focuses on long-range psychokinesis allow players to experience different combat experiences in the two playthroughs. In addition, the map design of Scarlet Nexus is also excellent, and the immersive sound effects and excellent music are a highlight of it too. The bond chapters and basements create a sense of character life and the team atmosphere, could also bring players a different immersive gaming experience. If the plot outline of Scarlet Nexus itself could be better developed, its story could actually be far above average. However, the poor narrative technique makes it the biggest flaw of this work. Lack of foreshadowing, far-fetched logic, and improper connections are everywhere in each chapter, especially the first half of the male protagonist's story. It feels as if a team of writers without any communication or collaboration jointly constructed a story, and the result is a fragmented and extremely divided chapter plot. While the few dynamic 3D cutscenes are truly smooth and excellent, most conversations between characters are still presented in a semi-static, PowerPoint-style format, many characters also have exaggerated, rigid, and repetitive animations, and the widespread of bouyomi in full voice acting have contributed to the lack of expressiveness and the bloated and boring plot content of this work. The outstanding visual art of this game is based on the anime style, which makes it have a certain threshold for appreciation. Other inhumane designs such as the consequences of overwriting the completed save files, no dialogue history, forced automatic playback of dialogues, poor camera locking, and cumbersome gift giving further undermine the gaming experience. Though the game content is rich, it becomes extremely monotonous and boring in the late stage. The reuse rate of scenes and enemies has reached a very scary level, the side quests and bond chapters battle design are also repetitive and boring. The plot content of the two protagonists is similar, which is why many players find it difficult to maintain freshness in the second or even first playthrough. The game's unique combat mechanics and logic which is very different from most action games also require a certain amount of time to get started. Scarlet Nexus is indeed a regrettable work. In the first few hours, the stunning visual art, satisfying combat experience, and smooth performance may captivate most players, but as the plot deteriorates, combat becomes more repetitive and the playthrough grows more cumbersome, it becomes difficult to retain players, the seemingly substantial game content ultimately become more bloated and boring. Despite this, Scarlet Nexus manages to achieve a somewhat cohesive plot, which means players are more tolerant of the plot and can endure the monotonous and repetitive game content in the middle and later stages can still get enough fun from this game's unique and exhilarating combat experience. It is worth mentioning that the spin-off story in DLC Brain Eater pack is unexpectedly excellent and should not be missed; while the promotional TV anime of Scarlet Nexus performed relatively poorly and is only recommend for fans who are very interested in the characters and worldview of this game. Find my reviews valuable? [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/justgamecurator]Click here to join my curator group. Your support is my greatest motivation!
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A masterpiece I don't even know where to begin with this game. It's been almost 3 years now since it was released and I've genuinely not gone a single week of my life since without thinking about it. The story, the characters, the gameplay, every single one of them are all incredibly enjoyable and have managed to keep my attention throughout these 3 years. Not to mention the incredibly underrated soundtrack and visuals, both of which helped me in my initial decision to purchase the game. I'll be completely honest, it's not perfect by any means(not by a long shot). In fact, I feel as though I have more complaints than the biggest hater of this game. The voice acting for some characters is below average at best(specifically a lack of enthusiasm from english VAs), the predictability and almost forced nature of some gameplay(it seems like they want to tell an amazing story, but sometimes abruptly remember its supposed to be an interactive game), and even the lack of extra cosmetics(there are quite a few but only if the dlc is purchased, and even then its less than 8 outfits each with no sort of customizability), all contribute to the list of issuesI have. I only have so many complaints though, simply because I know exactly what this game has to offer, and I want nothing more for it to be shown in its absolute purest form. The story of this game. is. without exaggeration. one of the greatest pieces of fiction i've ever experienced. I will admit that when I first played through it, I felt as though the story was poorly paced and too complex to be anything special. That isn't to say I disliked it at all, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, but it kind of felt like āJust another jrpg '' that I was almost forcing myself to like. However, when I finished my first playthrough and moved onto the second route(which was Kasane's story for me) I felt as though everything fell into place. Some may argue that having to play through a story multiple times for it to resonate is poor game design, but I disagree. Without spoiling too much of the game, Knowing the ending and the choices it took to get there is absolutely essential to understanding how unique this game really is. Not to mention, as I said before, I really did not give the game the attention it deserved in respect to the story. Missing out on any element of this story will cause the entire experience to dwindle. Everything, EVERYTHING is important in this game. Too many times in my first playthrough I found myself going āIs thisā¦..supposed to make me feel something?ā all because I hadn't been actively understanding the elements that were supposed to be forming connections for me. There's so so much I want to explain about this story but I canāt in good conscience simply because Iād end up spoiling everything. All I can say Is that as you play through this game, never once should you feel as though you can judge a character. The amount of layers and layers and layers each character has, especially HIM(you know who Iām talking about if you've played the game) is astounding, and something I hope is being watched by other game developers. I was heading into my junior year of high school when this game came out, now Iām heading into my sophomore year of college. Iāve had a lot of time to change and mature as a person, and knowing that I decided I wanted to play through this game again. Everything about it was just as perfect as I had remembered. The characterās routes and bond episodes were wonderfully constructed; the story is the most elaborate and heart-wrenching spectre Iāve ever had the pleasure of witnessing, and most importantly the gameplay itself was still incredibly fun. The ending made me cry, and while I wish the dlc wasn't hidden behind a paywall, It's absolutely essential to experiencing all the story has to offer. It's important to note that this game did not have a high budget, not by a long shot, and yet it still sold remarkably well. That low budget definitely contributed to why a few of the gameās most riveting and important moments were reserved to DLC instead of being put out initially. Iām sure if it was even given half the budget a game like nier or FF7 had, it would have been a top seller(especially considering it nearly outsold Tales of arise, the game for which its leftover budget was taken from). I can't really fault it for leaving certain parts out due to budget constraints because of this, but again this story NEEDS the dlc to feel absolutely complete. I know this has been a long review(the only review Iāve ever written in fact) but it really exhibits just how passionate I am about this game. Just give it a chance, it's regularly on sale and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Also Hanabi best girlā I called dibs 3 years ago.
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Scarlet Nexus PROS CONS Characters were well fleshed out with varying motivations Story is convoluted Flashy combat was fun and fast (towards the end) Too much ātrustā Actual cutscenes were well animated and made me feel like I was watching an anime Slideshow story progression slowed the pacing Active combat keeps you engaged Frustrating halts in combat flow by enemies Lots of ways to mix and match powers Tutorials all the way to the end of the game Bugs and Issues Specs [*]Hit a couple stuck in place glitches that made me have to reload, but nothing off one hand [*]AMD Ryzen 9 3900X [*]ASUS TUF RTX 4070Ti [*]32 GB 3600MHz RAM [*]2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD [*]1440p Settings Content and Replay Value Plenty of side missions to do albeit theyāre of the āGo here kill thisā variety. The main replay value comes in playing the game twice. Scarlet Nexus has you play as protagonist Yuito and Kasane so that you see their differing adventures and perspectives. Each character will have interactions with a different cast of team members for a portion of the game until everyone meets up in the later chapters Should you get it? Scarlet Nexus to me is a mid-high game. Its walks the line of those who like stylish action games with RPG elements, but also caters to those who enjoy the tropes of animes. So if thatās your jam, I still believe that this is a āsaleā game. Overall Verdict 7.5/10. This game does a good job of making you feel like an anime. The problem with this anime though is the convoluted story and pacing. Other minor technical issues included tutorials all throughout the game. There were so many systems embedded in the game that it never felt like I got a chance to fully open my stride. Then the game has the audacity to go over them again when you do the second player playthrough! This game honestly had no business being as long as it did (complete playthrough ~65hrs)! But within that time the gameplay is fun and fast paced, and if youāre into the anime tropes then this game will be completely FINE. FINE. Not great. Setting & Writing: Set in alternate future, Scarlet Nexus takes place on a version of Earth that has advanced technologically and physiologically concerning the human brain. This physiological advancement has given way to humans with superpowers. Yuito and Kasane are the two protagonists within the game recruited into the āOthers Suppression Forceā or OSF. The OSF is a defense branch made up of people with supernatural abilities. Others are cruel brain-craving monsters that appeared on Earth prior to the current events of the game. Although there seems to be a common enemy perceived by the citizens, shadowy behavior goes on within the separate factions of Earth. New Himuka where the game initially takes place has an Orwell-ian state going on while the sister city of Seiran continues to āadvanceā medical technologies, and then thereās the mysterious religious state of Togetsu in the snowy mountains. Each state has conflicting views on how the safety of the Earth is handled. Discrepancies lead to an intersecting threat placing all of humanity in harms way. For all the players in the game, you would think that this would make some solid intrigue, but in the end it tasted like a flat soda. Flavor with no bite. What Scarlet Nexus excels at is team building and intrapersonal relationships. Some of the best and most heartfelt writing is in the pieces shared in-between missions. Each playable character has a different relation with the team. Once both characters are played it feels as though the whole story of the teammates come together. Stories vary from learning how to convey feelings to finding meaning in life after OSF. This game is a solid example of how to build up a cast that you can get behind and care about. Gameplay system & Bosses: The action combat is easily one of the strengths of Scarlet Nexus. The action mixes RPG elements (i.e. skill trees, combat enhancement powers, upgradeable gear) with stylish combat. Combat is typically fast paced and frantic. Enemies have their health bars as well as ācrushā bars. The crush bar is essentially a stagger meter with the added ability of rewarding you with OHKO opportunities no matter where the enemy health gauge is. The exception is only bosses. Typically, the crush gauge is tough to burn, but with abilities granted by teammates you can exploit weaknesses that melt the crush gauge. Learning the weakness of your enemies rewards you with the satisfaction of slicing through them at accelerated speeds. Bosses, although unique in move sets, are just enemies with a larger health bar. Here the game ask you to exploit the weakness pointed out during the battle so that you can take a large chunk of health off using āBrain Crushā (the OHKO move used on regular enemies). More times than not, the rule of 3s apply here and now the boss is dead. What the bosses have going for them is some truly creepy designs, akin to Del Toro and Junji Ito. Its just disappointing that once you understand how to make the most out of either Yuito or Kasane even bosses are light work on harder difficulties. Quest, Mini-games & Challenges: Being straight forward with you, there are 26 across both characters (13 each), with a handful of side quest that are of the āgo here and kill the thingā variety. The most frustrating thing is that half of them are the same just with the POV of a different character. You would think that seeing the different POV for the separate character would be reason enough to play those missions over again, I assure you they are not. I couldāve lived with doing the alternate missions only on the second playthrough. What is worth it though is what I mentioned above, the ābond episodesā. The bond episodes see you forging relationships with your team and connecting on a personal level. These bonds are progressed normally throughout the game and accelerated by giving them gifts you can make within a crafting menu or get during side missions. Challenge missions are offered, but I did not partake in them because my interest with the game was wanning Miscellaneous (art, music, etc.): Scarlet Nexus boast tunes that had me think back to the days of SEGA Dreamcast techno-anime tracks. Most were catchy! Most importantly, it captured the feeling of the game. Scarlet Nexus has a busy futuristic setting, and when youāre in those areas, It captures that. Other times it has you going to quiet, slow peaceful areas had matching music that felt in line with the game. The art is standard anime cell shaded art. A tried-and-true style also reflected in performance of my game that never saw it dip below 144FPS. What was different was the way Scarlet Nexus did its cut scenes. They opted for a comic book style telling which had me wanting more of the real time cut scenes they had sprinkled in throughout the game. The real time cutscenes were high action anime in the vein of the average shonen.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 18 November 2024 05:18 |
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| SteamSpy data | 19 January 2025 10:27 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:41 |
| Steam reviews | 22 January 2025 11:52 |
Online players
75
Developer
Bandai Namco Studios Inc.
Publisher
Bandai Namco Entertainment
Release
24 Jun 2021
Platforms
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