Recently, I tried my best to give Scarlet Nexus a shot. I must’ve played it for at least ten hours before deciding I just couldn’t get into it. The combat was its strongest point; I did enjoy trying to nail perfect dodges and stack up combos to deal more damage. That’s really saying something for me, considering I’m not usually a fan of this type of combat. The combination of those mechanics with the ability to use powers while you’re fighting—such as psychokinesis—elevated Scarlet Nexus above my other experiences with typical action games.
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But other than the combat, the game reminded me a lot of Persona 5 Royal. Aesthetically, Scarlet Nexus taps into a lot of what I loved about Royal with its flashy, comic-like animations and character portraits (though there’s nothing like Persona 5 Royal’s jazz music).They’re both quite dialogue-heavy, too, and the narrative is partially why I wanted to like Scarlet Nexus so much. Sadly, I just wound up with a stronger appreciation for Persona 5 Royal as opposed to being drawn towards Scarlet Nexus.
I previously wrote about some of the ways that Persona 5 Royal drew me into the story and characters much more effectively than Scarlet Nexus, strictly comparing the beginning of both games. In short, Persona 5 Royal’s cast immediately displayed a sense of depth, whereas I couldn’t shake the impression that the characters in Scarlet Nexus were much more cookie cutter. But more importantly, though Persona 5 Royal was quite text-heavy, it kept me consistently engaged through its dialogue choices.
It’s not that every single game needs to include dialogue choices to be fun. Plenty of my old favorites, like The Legend of Dragoon, barely include any options. And when it does include them, they don’t have much of an impact. But because the rest of the story is so interesting and unique, I didn’t feel like it needed an extra level of engagement to encourage me to continue with it.
Scarlet Nexus is heavier on the dialogue, but the story wasn’t drawing me in. The reason I think dialogue options could have gone a long way for Scarlet Nexus is not just to make up for a lack of any exciting hook at the beginning of the game, though. Including them could have been a way to draw out more of the story—or even draw out more depth from the characters, including whichever one you choose to play as.
Part of my problem with Scarlet Nexus is that I couldn’t connect to those characters much at all. Yuito seemed like your very average “good boy,” while Kasane seemed like the stereotypical closed-off, mysterious type. These character tropes have been used far too often for my liking, and I couldn’t find anything in the first ten hours to differentiate Yuito and Kasane from characters I’ve played in other games before. But with the addition of impactful dialogue options, the player would get some control over their personalities, which would make them far more interesting. Yes, Yuito is still going to be the kind-hearted boy he’s been designed to be either way, but whether he’s the kind-hearted boy that chooses sides in an argument or the one who thinks it’s best to stay silent could be up to us.
Dialogue options could also allow for poking and prodding into other characters’ business, potentially opening the door for seeing snippets of more depth in them, too. The way Scarlet Nexus works is that, as the player, you essentially take a back seat to the story and watch as it unfolds over many long stretches of text and dialogue. If we had the ability to go searching for bits of character depth depending on what we decided to say when talking to other characters, I think I would have liked it more. Some of those moments in a game when you discover something new through dialogue exploration make for some of my favorites.
In the end, I was hoping to be more impressed by Scarlet Nexus. Perhaps I’ll eventually give it another go, but I’m not sure if it’ll ever quite sell me. At the end of the day, I at least found something to turn me on to action games, and the concept behind how these characters get their power in the first place seems interesting, so there’s definitely some good to come out of my experience with it.
Next: Will Scarlet Nexus Help Legitimise The Visual Novel?
