I loved Hyper Light Drifter and was really anticipating this game. Kind of a bummer its not on Xbox since thats my primary console now but I guess you gotta sign deals to pay the bills. From other outlets I've heard that as the game goes on it's very much style over substance so I'll just wait until it goes on sale later on.
I've finished the Kasane playthrough and it took around 25 hours and while I was fairly underwhelmed and actively annoyed by some of the systems in the game, I did decide to see the Yuito side. After having made it halfway through the game as Yuito I can safely say that anyone who would want to see this game through but doesn't have time to play it twice should definitely choose Kasane. Comparatively Yuito and his entire squad is in the dark much longer as to what is happening in the game, and as per anime standards the story gets ridiculous later on with it's twists and reveals. Also while this might be just because I'm on NG+ but Yuitos chapters seem to be a lot shorter and a lot easier than Kasane's were, even though you are for the most part going through the exact same levels. For instance at one point Kasane enters a facility with her team and after a boss fight she bumps into Yuito's group exploring the same compound - but in both playthroughs you enter this compound from the same direction and collect the same keycards to open the same doors. For a game that tasks you with replaying the same bits in order to get "the full story" Scarlet Nexus fails to really justify this design decision, or at least make it more worthwhile for the player.
Although it's a different team I constantly got really strong Code Vein vibes from this. Both games have a really strong look and seem to have fairly robust systems that get lost in clunky execution. Both games also have very weak level design that ultimately just boils down to square hallways with some funky textures on them. Scarlet Nexus feels clunky as an action game and it really makes me wonder if at some point during development it wasn't something other than real-time combat. For an action game it tries it's hardest to mask the limited moveset by flashy effects but there really isn't all that much to it. The different elements and weak spots suggest a more tactical approach but in reality you can stick to one strategy throughout just fine while occasionally tagging in the right team member for that one unique enemy variant.
Still Scarlet Nexus has become junk food for me. The combat is mindless enough where I can let my eyes glaze over as I put the game on to kill some time as I await bigger releases down the road. It's another one of those games where I think wow theres a lot of potential here but as is everything seems to fall just short and the whole thing seems like a really highly produced budget title.
@fear_the_booboo: Here is another hot take: a lot of movies that people proclaim to be terrible are actually pretty decent, it’s just the internet happened at some point.
More than anything the problem with this QL is that a majority of it is taking place during a walk-and-talk cinematic part of the game instead of the actual gameplay elements. Unless the entire game is evenly paced between short combat arena and then lengthy talky/scripted sections.
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