Scarlet Nexus (2021)

Alright, time for first thoughts now that I've got ~5.5 hours on this! [Yuito Route]

Solid recommend so far.

The battles are fun--more so than the demo. To explain, the demo gave you more abilities and party members than you actually start with, introduced different Others than you see at this point, and, I feel, ramped up the difficulty at least a bit. While you still need to actively pay attention to what you're fighting and how you're fighting it, I'm definitely more comfortable with it as I've been eased into the game than I was being tossed into the demo with so many abilities at my disposal.

The characters are all pretty interesting. You do have your usual cliché characters, but so far they're all pretty standout and I already have a few favorites. The bonding scenes are cool, too. I dunno if there are going to be any actual "choices" in these at some point to affect your bond level, but so far, one was just dialogue and another was going through an area and fighting alongside someone. A higher bond level grants new abilities when you team up with that character. So that's neat.

The voice acting is...okay. I would prefer to be playing in Japanese, but there is WAY too much going on visually with so much digitalization in the backgrounds, the fights, etc., that trying to read the tiny text windows on the screen when your party talks to you is nearly impossible. I learned as much during the demo so I didn't even bother trying to start the full game in Japanese. [But like...there's a character named Wataru and they pronounce it "Wadder-oo" and it's so painful every time, jesus. And Arashi is "Air-uh-she." How is this still happening?]

It is like a Tales game in a number of ways; I will allow that comparison. Part of it is the outfit customization/attachments, part of it is the the characters themselves, and a few other little things. But it's also very much its own style of game; I think it's just safe to say that a Tales fan like myself would likely enjoy it. The music is really solid, too. Some of the tracks give me so many different vibes at once--the main city theme has some record scratching but also has some of the jazzy vibes of FFX-2 tunes and maybe a little FFXIII, Phantasy Star, and Sonic mixed in. I don't even know how to describe it. (It's Suoh City, if you look up the OST.)

I'm honestly enjoying this so much. There hasn't been a ton of story yet, but the way that the OSF organization has been introduced has been pretty seamless, and since you're a new recruit, the way that things are slowly being explained feels pretty organic.

Edit to add: I was debating whether to play through Yuito's route and then Kasane's, or play them concurrently and switch back and forth after each chapter. I decided to just do Yuito's first.

Fiiinally starting this up! Yeeeee!!

(I wasn't feeling great earlier. I finally went to the doctor about my frequent headaches back in May and have been on a preventative medication that has actually done wonders for my sleep--so that I'm not waking up constantly and actually get a restful sleep at night--and has kept me from getting headaches so often; however, I've had a headache on and off for three days now, so this morning I tried the abortive pill that I was prescribed to immediately kill a bad headache, which I haven't had to try so far. It was like I took a pill and got the flu. Felt achey and weak all day, so when I got home I tried to rest but now the headache is back so I give up. I think it's the rain. And Florida. It's hot. I'm pale and like the cold. I need pizza.)

ANYWAY. Some first thoughts probably tomorrow!

I decided to go ahead and preorder the Digital Deluxe yesterday.

Why do I do this to myself?

Honestly, the demo did a fantastic job of showing what the combat will (eventually) look like, but...not much else. I had no idea how story-driven the game was going to be, which is an important factor to me. I also had no idea what the rest of the gameplay was like. This isn't the kind of combat system that I LOVE, but it's not one of the many that I'd hate, if that makes sense. It seems like something I could eventually get the hang of and enjoy. So I was actually curious about the rest of it.

Found a video where a guy had been able to play a few hours into the actual game, and he called it a "mainline Tales game in all but name." That's a preeeetty strong claim, considering that's my favorite series, but it kept me watching. (There were also a number of Tales dev team folks working on this, so.) It looks pretty story-driven, there's a bond system with your party members, there are costumes and attachments (which I'm a sucker for and which is a huge part of why I pre-ordered and got the deluxe version with all the bonuses), and overall, it just looks like something I'm gonna dig.

I do still need to finish DQXI... I finally played this weekend after not playing for like three weeks. I've been teaching summer school and the first week and a half was a nightmare, so I've been too beat to do much else after work other than play some Animal Crossing and read. Gettin' that extra money for gamin', I guess.

[Demo]

I was right: Yuito is easier to use.

That could be because I had already used Kasane yesterday and was a little more familiar with it all (controls and psychokinesis are the same for both--they just use different weapons). However, I felt like maybe he moved a little more fluidly? I dunno.

His team was definitely more useful. The abilities that you can use when you combine with teammates were just overall more effective and efficient. I didn't feel that way with Kasane. I was also getting wrecked by those plant things when I was playing as Kasane and never did beat them (thankfully they were just in a side area). There were a couple of challenging foes in Yuito's route but not so challenging that it was pissing me off like those plants.

Playing in English probably also helped because I wasn't missing half of the dialogue and such. Might give her route another shot and see how it goes a second time around. I'm overall just not great at these kinds of games. But we'll see.

This didn't really tell me much as far as how the story is going to be. So I still have no idea if I want to drop money on it.

I haven't been looking into this game at all for whatever reason (I guess it's mostly that I just expect a lot of these JRPGs to play a certain way, meaning a way I don't like), but decided to download the demo after work. I played through Kasane's route.

I'm reeeeeeeally picky about battle systems. It's 90% of the reason that I'll not pick up a game at all, or why I'll drop one. This is def not my favorite, but I think it might be tolerable once I get used to it. I'll have to try Yuito's route to see for sure, but I have a feeling Kasane's probably the more difficult character to use.

If I do pick up the game, I'll likely have to play it with the English dub, begrudgingly. There was so much shit happening at once that I missed 75% of what the other characters were popping up and saying while I was running around trying to throw trucks at monsters with my mind and not get wrecked by a stupid plant blasting me with water for half my health but closing itself into a box every time I tried to attack it back.

It'll definitely take some more play time to get the controls and such down, but it seems comprehensive enough.

Just got through the demo and thinking this game seems pretty neat. One of those combo-based action games that flows really well when you get the hang of stringing attacks together.

Besides the combat though... I don't know. The cut scenes are these still shots with talking heads that are barely animated. I guess to give it a comic book / manga style or something? It doesn't work for me, maybe other people dig it though.

Anyone else give it a shot yet?