Scarlet Nexus (2021)

Combat is getting even better as I unlock more abilities and get to more involved encounters. That skill tree and some various settings allowed me to quickly address most problems I had with the gameplay, which is great.

The levels you do that combat in are definitely pretty dull, though... Some enemies are a bit annoying to take down as well. And while I am not 100% against the story and characters, they're certainly not pulling me back to the game much.

I'm going to keep poking away at it since it's fun to play and sometimes has a nice aesthetic and vibe, but I'm not optimistic that I'll get truly sucked into this for the long haul in the way I want to be with a sizable RPG.

Despues de jugar 10 horas con Kasane, tengo que dejarlo aquí. Tiene una presentación estética increible, una música de 10, ideas mecánicas ingeniosas y ... no evoluciona nada de lo que presenta en las primeras 2 horas. Tras 10 horas, el combo de ataques es el mismo (añadiendo como mucho 2 ataques más al final, en vez de 3 golpes hace 5!) y los compañeros que tienes siguen siendo los mismos. Una buena evolución del sistema de combate de Tales of pero que todavía queda un poco.

Como detalle, si quieres hacer un sistema de vínculos como persona, perfecto, pero porfavor, que la "intermission" no lleve más tiempo que una misión normal, coño.

Alright, the game wasn't perfect, but I found the game play so extremely good and fun that I am forgiving certain aspects about the game.

Let's get the not so great things about the game out of the way: The story is interesting but it is a mess, I went completely blind and wasn't sure what to expect and it really did a 180 on me which I appreciate. Still, the story is not the strong point, the emotional scenes are not properly delivered. Similarly, they cutscenes are usually screenshots as opposed to animations which I feel for an "anime" game is a missed opportunity

If you are looking for a game with exploration and semi open world, Scarlet Nexus doesn't deliver. It is pretty linear and I am not sure if any side missions have interesting outcomes, because the few I did were pretty run of the mill "go kill stuff until you get X of stuff". The bonds and scenes with other characters is hit and miss, I really enjoyed some of the character stories, while other ones i just skipped most of it if not all of it.

So why I do forgive all this? because I rather prefer linear games, not a big fan of side missions and grinding and the game had amazing gameplay.

While the combat is not as complex or hard as bayonetta or other similar games, it allows you to experiment and try combos of your own. The powers feel very impactful and are super fun to use. And when you find a combo that allows you to eliminate an enemy super quickly it feels extremely satisfying. In simialr vein to bayonetta, it will introduce a mini boss by itself, and you struggle to kill it, then the game decides to up the ante and throw the hard mini boss with more stuff at you at a later stage keeping the pressure up and making you feel like you have been mastering the system.

By the end of the game I felt super powerful and like nothing could stop me. The animations and combat effects are pretty fantastic and really add to the feeling.

The english va are excellent and I recognize a lot of them from some of favourite series which was the cherry on top for this game.

Overall, the game has its flaws and you might not like it as much as I did if you are looking for something else from the game, but if you are looking for an action packed combat, cool powers and flashy animations, you are in for a treat.

Finished Kasane's route last night. I'm going to add this to the end of my review as well, but wanted to post it separately so it would come up on the feed in case anyone had any input on the stuff I'm about to say.

Kasane's Route-Specific Stuff:

-The story was messy, way messier than Yuito's. I knew to expect "big reveal" stuff sooner, but the overall presentation of the story was nooootttt great, missing great chunks of storytelling that was present in Yuito's route, and just overall not a full story. The story is this game already has problems, but it was just terribly executed with her route, and makes it obvious that Yuito is the true protagonist. Definitely do not recommend playing her route first for this reason alone, but also because...

-Playing as Kasane was, for me, mostly miserable. She uses SIX KNIVES CONTROLLED BY HER PSYCHOKINESIS and she STILL MISSES CONSTANTLY. She's more suited for aerial combat for whatever reason (apparently) but fighting flying enemies was a pain in the ass because she missed constantly. Howwwww? I would be right on them doing nothinggg. Her movements are way more fluid and graceful than Yuito, but I hate that her strong attack is a backstep. She's weaker and has less defense, so even though I had already played through the game once at this point and knew how to fight everything, knew which powers were effective, knew how to use combo visions, etc., she was still getting WRECKED by monsters FORTY LEVELS LOWER in the early game (since this was NG+ and I started at level 60), and was barely doing damage to them. It was insanely frustrating. I'm sure there's more of a learning curve with her, and yeah I got more used to using her as I progressed, but it was never as fun or effective as fighting with Yuito. Maybe I just suck, and I admittedly don't play games with this sort of combat often, but honestly, I know I'm not that bad.

If I had chosen to play as Kasane first and had tried to struggle through this game without being overleveled...? I probably would have never finished this game.

Now for all of the questions that I still have because the story did not do a good job of answering them, or just created stupid plot points. I'm just going to put them all in spoiler tags:

1. Why the fuck is Karen--not quite the main antagonist, but eventually kind of is--doing all of this to save Alice, who was FUBUKI'S FIANCE, while Fubuki is like ENTIRELY UNBOTHERED BY IT ALL? This bothered me endlessly through both playthroughs. FUBUKI lost his fiancé, not stupid-ass Karen with his stupid-ass name, and yet Karen is the one off time-traveling a billion times and then erasing himself completely to "save" Alice. This makes no sense and I almost feel like it was a translation error. Sure, he can love his best friend's fiance, I guess, but Fubuki is always otherwise shown as a decent, kind man, and he somehow never acknowledges like any of this situation.

2. Karen "sacrificing himself" by erasing his existence is what brings Alice back, and everyone else in the world forgets him except the main party and Fubuki because they were there and attached via SAS for the time-travelling. This is just so stupid. It makes no sense. Why would that even need to be what has to happen? Why were all of his attempts to save her even failures? How hard was it to go back to the mission she got turned into an Other on, NOT do that mission, and be fucking done with it? Fuck. Bamco is becoming obsessed with someone sacrificing themselves for no reason and that's becoming one of the weakest parts about Tales games. I'm getting sick of those endings.

3. The endings. They're basically the same, which is fine. Kasane wants to go to the moon to help the people there now that the Extinction Belt is gone, and see how they've been faring for the past 2000 years. This is true in both endings. In Yuito's ending, he's going to retire soon because he's "going to lose his powers eventually." This goes against everything Yuito. It makes no sense. Also, Yuito 50 years in the future still had powers, so why the hell is he even stressing? In Kasane's route, he does NOT mention retiring; he just says he thinks he'll stick around the OSF for a while since he plans to straighten out the world while she works on the moon.

4. Yakumo Sumeragi. Okay, so Karen went back in time, killed Yakumo and took his place. Yakumo is Yuito's ancestor. After the final fight, Yuito thinks, "Does that make Karen my ancestor?" Unlikely, BUT, it does make one wonder, where the fuck was Yakumo's family? He obviously had one to begin the whole Sumeragi line on Earth. There was mention of his "personality changing" which we know is when Karen replaced him, but did his family never see his face again at that point? Was he already old, wife dead, kids grown? Like, how did any of that work out?

5. Karen meeting Yakumo-Karen. That scene still just...what? Shiden said, "None of this makes sense to me." Same.

I think there were other things that I can't remember now, and I think it's safe to say the story was fine overall, but there were definitely unanswered questions that should not be left to the anime (if that's what's happening, because I dunno, I haven't watched any of it) or something else, and could have been addressed organically in the game. It was poorly executed at times and I think they were trying too hard to include some things that did not need to be included, but the ideas themselves were good.

I would play a sequel, but after I go do some grinding to get the last trophy for finishing the Brain Map, I don't think I'll be revisiting this game. There's not really any post game and I don't see any replay value in it.

Done with 9/12 Phases in Kasane's route now. This isn't really a spoiler, but just in case:

I just got my full party and it's really cool how, since everyone is now in the same hideout and it's a NG+, all of the gifts that Yuito gave the team in the first playthrough are there. So you get to see all of the gifts from both routes in everyone's little areas. Super cute. Wish more games had these hideouts with this kind of bond system.

I got about halfway through the final phase/area last night before I had to get some sleep. I'm around 53 hours. Review probably coming tomorrow.

Even with summer school finally being over, I still have barely had time to play much, because as soon as that ended, we had to rip up 16 tiles in the living room that popped up into a bubble because they weren't placed correctly apparently and one loosened, and they're 14x14in tiles which NO ONE MAKES OR CARRIES. I'm not even trying to match my current tile, but just find something to make a pattern in part of the giant hole currently in my living room. We thought we'd be able to just pull them up and re-lay them, but nooooope, the mortar/thinset/whatever on the backs of the old tile is impossible to remove and I don't have enough replacement new tiles scrounged up from around the house (I didn't put this tile down; it was here when I bought the house), so I have to find something to fill in 9 of the spots.

Then, before heading to Orlando yesterday to visit a closing Barnes&Noble ( :( ) and try to hit up some floor stores, I checked my tire pressure and saw one had a nice lump in it and sat in a tire place for THREE HOURS replacing that, AND when I asked the guy if they would just replace two on that axel, they only did the one. And then we didn't go to B&N or floor places. Did that today and found nothingggg.

None of this is relevant to anything but jesus I just want to finally start my summer and play games and not have all of this shit to deal with.

I'm about 24 hours/6 chapters (out of 12) into Yuito's route now, and it's finally the last day of summer school (!!!!!!) so I can devote more time to gaaaames. (Made some sick extra money, though, so can't complain too much.)

I'm loving pretty much everything about this.

["Spoilers" (??) about outfits:] The bond system and the way that it ties into the combat system is really cool. In your "hideout," everyone gets their own little desk and rug, and when you give your party members gifts, they put them up in their area. So cuuuute. <3__<3 I finally unlocked new white outfits for everyone yesterday. I've been making attachments like crazy, but there have only been the standard black outfits, and then the red versions and "rock band" versions that are still pretty much just red and black from the pre-order. Most of the attachments focus on red, black, or white with a bright blue, so I've been waiting for some outfits to actually match with those white attachments.

Combat is still fun and feels fressshhh. Bond levels unlock new abilities with each character, and you're also unlocking abilities/moves on your brain map as you level up, so there's always new stuff to try out.

The story has been hella dark. I was expecting it to be somewhat, but damn. I cried like three times before I was even 15 hours in. Please, game, you know I'm a baby. I've gotten pretty attached to several characters. I LOVE LUKA, PRECIOUS TINY BOI. Do not have everyone yet at this point, so even more to look forward to.

Recommend so hard. I'm having such a blast and I honestly wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the combat for an extended amount of time, but it's great.