レビュー

• gamedeal user

  Jul 17, 2021

  PLEASE, READ CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU BUY Scarlet Nexus is a weird game to say the least. A lot of reviews on youtube, a lot of "10 tips - read this before you play" videos, and yet this is the first time I've ever felt that reviewers basically missed the point with this game and did not get it at all. I might be wrong, but from my point of view, Scarlet Nexus should not be compared to a Soulslike game, and for sure should NEVER be compared to Code Vein. The only similarities this game shares with them is the isometric third person view and camera control, and the visuals (with Code Vein). That's it. Scarlet Nexus is a lot more similar to JRPG in story telling, meaning that a LOT of time will be spent with dialogues that while looking pointless will allow you to really understand the full story if you pay enough attention to them. It's almost like playing a Visual Novel, where the story is showed between battle segments that have to be completed to access the next part. Battle segments are not too long, and are also quite linear. They try to make them a bit more interesting with a few detours that will award explorers with items (not so useful), crafting material (bit more interesting) and cosmetics (interesting if you're into this kind of stuff), but you will almost never be awarded a weapon or a piece of equipment that is not cosmetic this way, so you could even get along with skipping them entirely I reckon. It's really important to abandon every expectation of a soulslike game if you want to enjoy the combat: it's extremely action oriented, with companions playing mainly a support role and providing variety to your character in terms of powers and "builds" (more on this below), but in pure JRPG style, DO NOT expect to be able to, say, dodge all attacks if you "git gud". While you're performing a combo, you're locked in place and you will take damage. You have no way to avoid this damage, and you cannot expect to defeat enemies without using combos, aside from the very beginning. In pure JRPG style, you just need to manage healing items and powers, and restock them periodically. It's just part of the gameplay. There are no real builds: I'm 10 hours into the game at the moment, and I can already imagine being able to completely unlock the entire skilltree for my character before I finish the storyline, meaning that in pure JRPG style your character will eventually max out everything. The route you choose to take, focusing on something instead of something else, is just temporary and it does not change your gameplay all that much at all, so ignore guides and videos pretending to tell you "the best build" or pointless stuff like that. Replayability relies entirely on players wanting to discover the full story, and at least two playthrough will be required for that. In 10 hours I got halfway through the first playthrough more or less, taking the time to explore and taking it easy, so I would expect the game being at least 30 hours long to complete. If after reading this you think the game might be for you, I'd say go for it. I'm having fun with it, honestly :)
• gamedeal user

  Jul 24, 2021

  Oh boy, have i waited to review this one. 70 hours in, all achievements. First of all, lets start by clearing up some doubts. No, the game is not a souls-like just because it looks like code vein. In fact, the only similarity are the aesthetics. I say it because I've seen many people confused about this. Also, i don't even know why i should be saying this, but the game does not have any kind of fan service AT ALL. So don't start playing with the wrong ideas. So what kind of game is Scarlet Nexus? Well, it's more of an JRPG. A mix of a Visual novel and an action packed game. It means, you will most of the time learn what the story is about through dialogues. Whereas the combat part, works as an entertaining way of accessing the new dialogue and part of the story. The battle segments are quite linear and straight forward, but you will be able to free roam a bit. Meaning you will be able to go back to places you have already visited, most of the times at least. Also a thing worth mentioning is that, you will have teammates but they serve mostly as support, so don't expect them to do anything besides healing you sometimes. The game also provides you with the so called "Stand by" phases, where you can give gifts, interact and bond with your friends, in order to upgrade their skills and to have character events. Finally, there are two main characters, each with their own perspective of the same story. It does not matter which one you pick first, you will then be able to pick the other and start a new game plus, keeping all objects and levels you earned on the first playtrough. Normally, some cutscenes will be the same, specially when both MCs are together, however you can sometimes hear their thoughts, which will add some difference to it. Now let's break it down a bit. This part will be based purely on my experience with the game. 1) The story. I think it's actually pretty good. Emotional and interesting, one of the best aspects of the game. 2) Combat system. The strongest and greatest side of Scarlet Nexus by far. It's extremely fun. You are able to perform different attack variations combining environmental objects and some really nice skills that your teammates have to offer. Now, you are able to pick up to two companions to have with you, but you are able to use all friend skills, whether they are in the party or not. 3) Side-quests and free roam. As i said before, you will be able to free roam a bit. Now, it is pretty much useless, unless you are going for a 100% completion. Free roam allows you to grind XP and to accept side-quests. Talking of which, they are absolutely trash. SQ are the worst aspect of the game. Many of them are extremely stressful and the rewards are not even worth it, except you want that 100%. 4) Bonding and gifts. In my opinion, this is actually good. It lets you discover some of your friends past in a fun way. And bonding levels don't require too much grinding, so it is not something painful to do. A few gifts will usually do the trick (bonding goes up to level 6). 5) Visuals and soundtracks. You can search for a quick video on how it looks. It's anime themed so don't expect awesome graphics. But it does look good. Soundtracks are quite good, nothing really awesome but all in all good. 6) Customization. Not many different outfits at the moment. But there are a ton of add-ons you can put on all character which actually look pretty nice. 7) Bugs. Honestly i don't remember having any issues with the game. Only one crash. Besides that, no problems at all. 8) Key binding. I played with a controller, i believe it's more comfortable this way. Many games like this usually have trash keyboard binding. But i can't really tell. I think that sums up pretty much everything. Personally i loved the game and i can easily recommend it. But you have to be sure what kind of game you are buying first. P.S.: there are no missable achievements for this one. And also, for those who are interested, there is an anime too. (re-edited for sales badge)
• gamedeal user

  Jun 29, 2021

  Do yourself a favour and play as both characters simultaneously. Set up two save files, play through 2-3 chapters with one, then swap the save file and do that with the other. If you choose to play with just one character, you're missing out on half the story, if you choose to play with one fully then start a new game with the other character, you will already know the end of the story so it's much harder to invest yourself in it. If you've played Yakuza 0, think about how the story of Kiryu and Majima was told, now imagine if it was optional to play as one or the other. Would the story still work? Sure. Would it be as good? Debatable.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 24, 2022

  Playing Scarlet Nexus was a bit of a rollercoaster. It looks great, it has nice tunes and its combat system looks stylish and fun. But then, the more of it I’ve played, the more I grew frustrated and bored. And in the end, even though I’m a huge fan of games where you have two playable characters going through two parallel storylines, I couldn’t keep on playing with the second character. I just didn’t have it in me to play more of it. Yet, what a fascinating project this is. At the first glance, you might think that Scarlet Nexus is the kind of a Japanese action RPG that leans heavily into fun hack and slash mechanics, like what you’d get in recent (and highly enjoyable) Ys titles. We get all of the recognizable elements of a game like that – a perfect dodge that slows time and gives you a chance to counter, two types of attack, combos, special attacks. And on top of that, you throw things around with your playable character, which is incredibly fun and can enhance the flow of the fight. Then you also get the cool finishers and additional movement abilities and as your party grows, the special abilities that are tied to the party members get even more fun and creative. And yet, if you try to play this game as a fast paced hack and slash, you will die a lot. The thing is – this game isn’t actually an Ys type of game, or even a Final Fantasy VII Remake type of game. It’s far closer to Final Fantasy XV or “Lightning Returns” in terms of how it plays. Meaning that while you input typical hack and slash combos, they work more like traditional jRPG menu commands that cannot be interrupted. Started a combo? Can’t move or dodge until the animation finishes. Started any special animation? Locked into it until it’s done. Or you get hit. To be fair, if you decide to start with Kasane as your first character, her fighting style is more in line with what the game wants to be, but even there it feels flawed. While Yuito controls just like your typical hack and slash anime swordsman, except really unresponsive when it matters. The approach to the combat the game has isn’t bad, when you play it “as intended” and you can still pull some fun combinations, all while looking cool af. Problem is – the way the game wants to be paced is slow and tedious. Its main gameplay is basically divided into two main parts – the cutscenes that are presented in a nice stop-frame style (mixed with realtime from time to time), and the fights. Sure, there are bits of exploration as well and even the social element, but both elements are very simplified and are nothing but lead-ins into the two main parts. And since there’s so much fighting going on all the time, you really want to speed it up and play fast, like one would in a hack and slash. And it actually can work in many spots. But not everywhere and most certainly not during boss fights. Which require you to just stop attacking and run away (or wait for the perfect dodge moment) as soon as the enemy is preparing the attack. This could be more fun if this slower, more methodical pace, gelled well with the music, the animations, the “coolness” and the damage output of your party, but it’s not. In fact, boss fights often take a lot of time to get through, all while you can die almost randomly. No joke – you can go the entire boss fight without getting damaged, at full health, and then attack at a bad time or not dodge correctly and then get stuck in a failure state until your health is at zero. Dying before you even get the control over your character back. And needing to replay this otherwise very simple and samey fight again. It’s genuinely strange how much better the game is when it allows you to just go fast and destroy enemies with quick and precise combos and yet, that’s not how it’s intended to be played. And the game would eventually punish you for that approach. Similar confusion is caused by the story. Scarlet Nexus has a really cool (both visually and conceptually) world and there are many points in the story where you catch glimpses of what amazing themes could be explored. But then the game goes for a basic trope instead. The characters have interesting traits, but are instead treated as predictable anime stereotypes. The storytelling suffers from the typical “overexplain things to the players as often as you can” issue lots of Japanese RPGs have, where you learn one simple fact during a story chapter and then this fact gets regurgitated for the next 10 minutes, adding nothing to the story or the characters. And in the end, the story is far less exciting than what it could be. Though, damn if it isn’t stylish and accompanied by some great memorable tunes. I wish I could straight up recommend Scarlet Nexus, because I feel like it does have some cool concepts. I just don’t think they were developed the way they should’ve been. Maybe the dev team couldn’t decide upon the direction they wanted. Maybe they couldn’t nail the gameplay. Or maybe they got exactly what they wanted and I just didn’t find it fun enough. There’s a chance you will enjoy the gameplay much more than I did. Scarlet Nexus is definitely worth checking out, just keep your expectations right and don’t try to play it as a fast paced Ys-like game. Because it isn’t.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 20, 2022

  To start, I mostly play JRPG and RPG titles, as well as any FromSoft games I can get my hands on. I thoroughly enjoyed this game from start to finish, and even liked it more than other similar titles that are more souls-like (i.e. Code Vein). I've decided to write a thorough review because I was on the fence about buying this for a while, but am glad I did. The Story: I thought the main plots of the game were both interesting and full of emotional twists and turns, and I found that every time I expected some big issue or character motivation to be glossed over, it was subsequently addressed in dialogue or through other means. I also really hate plot contrivances in games like this, as these types of game plots start out solid but as the game progresses, there are many things that are added just for the sake of plot to progress. While it isn't free of them entirely, there were no "plot sins" that were too hard to overlook for me, or tarnished the feel of the game. There are a few instances where fights are added in very obviously for the sake of leveling, progressing, etc. but those are to be expected and it actually didn't detract from the story much at all, because the environments and combat kept it feeling fresh. The Combat: The combat in this game is so fun. I loved the fights in this game so much. The guard break system and kill animations thereafter are sick and feel great with the sound effects, without disrupting the flow of combat too much. The rush combos keep combat constantly flowing if you so wish. The SAS connections feature allows new powerful combos and as more and more characters are added to the party, the options increase exponentially. Even though these types of games are very grindy, I hardly even noticed because figuring out new combos and trying new characters and powers that are added as you go was so intriguing. The brain point system of upgrades allows you to upgrade specific areas of combat you choose or enjoy, and by the end of the game I was specced into most of them. I could go on and on, and there is more that I haven't even mentioned. Anyway, super fun. Other things: I thought the dialogue "box" system was weird and maybe annoying at first, but as I progressed it kinda grew on me. It also makes you appreciate the stuff that is fully animated, and they always animate the really important parts as well, so I found it endearing, as the pictures they show in the background reminded me of a visual novel style. The soundtrack to this game was phenomenal. Lots of future sounding stuff, mixed with a lot of funky beats and basslines. The emotional parts had many beautiful and swelling songs behind them as well. I don't have thoughts on any specific tracks yet, but I will definitely be listening to this OST at work and for leisure. I could see how the bond system might upset some people, as it makes you do side missions with the characters on your team to upgrade their in-combat abilities. However, if you really dislike the idea of this, you can always just skip the scenes. Since I am a sucker for music/storylines and character development, I loved it. You can also give gifts to your teammates that appear in their specific "corners" of the hideout you use, which i thought was very cute and really tied into the whole "teamwork makes the dream work" theme of the game. Conclusion: All in all, I found this game very fun, refreshing, and not bogged down with a lot of the typical issues you see in games of the same genre. It still has it's issues, but they are overshadowed by how solid the entire experience was. If I had to rate it, I would say it's a personal 8.0-8.5. For reference, my first playthrough (Yuito) took me about 43 hours. I didn't do a ton of the side quests besides the character ones though. If you've read this far, thank you, and hopefully this helped you in your considering of purchasing this game. <3
• gamedeal user

  Jul 4, 2021

  Ho boy, here we go. Scarlet Nexus, didn't have the slightest clue about the game, saw it on Steam when it released, deemed it nice, bought it. Binged it really hard, took me about 50h to finish the game on both characters.All in all I had a blast, great fun. So, let's divide this review into a topics, shall we? Overall design: -Scarlet Nexus is looking good, reminds me of a Cell shade and anime mixture. -Performance is solid. No crashes, twice some very minor lag. -Even though it says particial controller capability, it worked perfectly fine in every aspect. -The menus you have are pretty vast but well enough divided not to confuse. -Difficulties can be changed on the fly. -What I find very well thought out is the fact that in New game + (Ex new game as they say) you can replay with the other character and decide to keep your progress, or start anew. Once finished with two stories, you can freely switch. Well done. Gameplay: - Firstoff, the game has a lot of Visual novel esque Cutscenes. By that I mean: Fucktonns of Dialogue. Which I personally appreciate, but it might not be for everyone. - Levels are usually, areas with diffirent subsections. Relatively straight forward in design, some optional areas with extra items. While progressing, certain areas will lock you in untill you killed all enemies. Depending on what enemies it spawns. That can become annoying. Though to be fair, it's still perfectly fine in my opinion. Theres a nice variety in design, you come across diffirent areas, mostly urban, but not repetetive in looks. The enemies that spawn depend on the character you're playing, reasons below. - Combat is relatively simple. You have the same button layout for both characters, each one has their Unique fighting style however. Close range with Yuito, and Kasane with some wider midrange attacks. Where they come together is that both can or rather should chain their attacks into Psychokinesis follow up combos. Timign seems to be a bit odd sometimes, but hell does it look cool, prolonging and extending my ass kicking of the enemies. Additionally there is mechanics like the S.A.S where you can borrow powers from companion characters like Superspeed, electrokinesis and much more, which you will need to kill certain enemies in reasonable amounts of time. Additionally you can call those characters in for one attack. Other mechanics include a power up mode and the brainfield, where you go beserk basically. - Each character has their own Skilltree too. The so called Brain Map. The contents are pretty similar, you have the same branches. Diffirences for example are that Kasame gets more air-combo attacks, while Yuito has the longer ground combo. Some of the same skills are placed at diffirent spots in the trees too. Some things are harder to obtain for one, or the other. Here comes my first gripe. Some essentials like recovering from getting hit, or dashing mid air is something you need to skill, because otherwise the flow of the game is attrocious. Getting hit happens, taking 5 seconds to stand up is, annoying to say the least. Luckily, all those things can be skilled early on. And the skills overall feel all usefull. -Sidequests.. were there, gave some more or less usefull stuff. On paper they were easy to do. You just have to kill some enemies, nothing else provided. However, you need to kill them specifically. And that is where I gave up on them, because the game did not tell you how it defines some things. For example. Psychokinesis finish. Whats that? Killing an enemy by throwing an object? Nope. First you need to skill it. Then you need to knock down the enemy onto the floor, then it will play an extra animation, which must kill the enemy. Nothing else counts. Which especially with harder enemies, and some types. Is..not worth the effort. Enemies: - The enemy library in this game is relatively long. Don't be fooled however it ismostly the same enemies, with diffirent "elements" Some are oil, some are water for example, which makes certain S.A.S skills more efficient against them, or which can give you a negative condition. Some of the more "Armored" enemies can become quite the sponges though and with some of their moves, they managed to rise my pulse admittedly. Still, nothing overly hard or gameplay worsening. I probably also sucked pretty hard at points. There are a few bossfights though they feel rather specifically designed and the AI really likes running away and beeing hard to hit. Once again, no major hassle. One last note, enemies drop items, which are used to purchase goods. The grind is kept relatively low however. Characters: - The characters are for the majority divided by the character you choose, ending later on in the game. In the standby phase of each chapter, (aka breaks) you can have some dialogue, give them gifts and increase your bond level, which enhances their SAS abilities. Theres also bond episodes, in which heart felt conversations take place in the quest to understand each other better. (Apologies for the trace of sarcasm here) The diffirent characters are all quite unique, have their own personailities and stories and during the course of the game there is some really well displayed character development and humor. The banter and talk they have is quite well written. HOWEVER be warned. Those characters contain an immense level of anime tropes, stereotypes and the genereal disease of: "No I cannot tell you this for reasons, even though it would be logical because it would probably shorten the story by 50% if we talked like adults." Theres also a few very stupid or illogical choices. *cough BBEG, cough* (Sorry must 've been the cold weather) World & Story: - In sooth? The world is in a ll God Eater, or Code Vein fashion with bits of humanity beeing advanced, but diffirent governments, trouble and most of all monsters threatening them, so we need the super natural defense force. While it might not be the most unique overall setting, the Brain punk stuff is great and the world has a really intrieguing portrait too. Things throughout the story are well established and explained, it seems sensible enough and makes a good impression. I'll keep it vague here to avoid spoilers. -Story itself is interesting. It is large diffirent, depending on which character you play, it intertwines and becomes more aligned later in the game, shared cutscenes exist. It is well made and kept me really hooked to find out more about the individuals. Sure, you could probably classify it as some teenager drama to some degree, which probably isn't a wrong way to see it. Fun nontheless. Resumee: - All in all I think Scarlet Nexus is a very good game. Gameplay feels good. Fighting feels fun and efficient, story is interesting and keeps one going, despite of the downsides. Difficulty is adustable and sometimes even on normal challening. If you can live with the very stereotypical tropes and anime storytelling, you're gonna have a blast. But I can very well understand if you do not aswell. Personnal raiting, I'd give this game a solid, 8.5 Trying to see it more objectively, with all that it has, it's probably a solid 7, depending on prefference. I hope this was enjoyable / helpfull to read. Have a nice day. https://store.steampowered.com/app/775500/SCARLET_NEXUS/#
• gamedeal user

  Feb 11, 2022

  I have a lot of thoughts on Scarlet Nexus. Many good, some not-so-good, but overall I had a lot more fun with this game than I thought I would and I would love to see more people try it out. This game is gorgeous; it's probably my favorite anime-styled game from a graphical standpoint. It's a shame that the fully animated cutscenes are so few and far in-between. I don't mind the cut-in comic/visual novel style that the cutscenes are primarily presented with, but the scenes with full animation are so mindblowing and fun to watch that it just makes me wish they invested more resources in having more of them. The gameplay is fluid and very satisfying to play. I never turned off the animations for the Brain Crushes because I loved watching them so much. The game gets even better once you unlock more abilities through the Brain Map, especially the ones that allow you to activate more SAS powers at once. There is some repetition with the way you need to handle certain types of enemies, especially towards the end of the game where it seems to throw the really meaty, high-HP ones at you nonstop, but it never felt like too much of a drag to me. Both Yuito and Kasane felt good to play as and, by the end of the game, I didn't have a preference over who I liked to play more. I do think that the game could've benefited from having more varied enemy types, or enemies that can be taken down in several different ways (rather than just defaulting to 1 or 2 SAS powers.) The game's side quests are also pretty weak and aren't well-integrated into the main game, as they require the player to go out their way to deliberately kill certain enemies in specific ways that I wouldn't exactly consider rewarding or fun. However, the addition of Challenges in a previous patch makes these quests a little more worth doing. I do also applaud them for adding in an extra layer of difficulty in both the new difficulty mode added in with the last patch and the Missions mode, it's good news for those who wanted to play the game in a more advanced way. The story certainly isn't perfect, and this is the area of the game I have more mixed opinions on. I felt that certain plot twists towards the end of the game put a damper on what it has going on earlier on, but I wouldn't say that it straight up ruins it. And due to the nature of the split-routes between the protagonists, the story is told in a somewhat disjointed way and its presentation between routes is not equal. The developers swear that you can start the game with whoever you prefer, but I strongly disagree. Yuito's route feels almost deliberately tailored towards people who are starting the game for the first time, while Kasane's route feels like it was meant for people who have cleared the game already. This is because Kasane's route rids itself of any plot intrigue almost immediately; plot twists that felt like a big deal in Yuito's route are just dropped onto your lap with little fanfare in Kasane's route, almost as if the game expects you to know them already. People who start the game with Kasane with no knowledge of the events in Yuito's route will have a very different experience with the story that might be less than satisfactory. There are also issues with the late-game in both routes having very little differences between each other once they "merge." This is why I recommend starting with Yuito first over Kasane if you care about the story, but I feel that I shouldn't have to say something like this for a game that boasts this type of feature. The game's "rest periods" -- interludes that take place between every chapter -- also happen too often and can break the pacing of the game. I felt that they should've been spread further apart to allow for more smooth storytelling and to make the tasks during these interludes (such as viewing Bond Episodes and doing quests) feel more worthwhile and less like a chore. Now, about the characters: they are fairly charming on their own. There are many reviews that claim they're "trope-y," and while I agree to some extent, I don't think it's a bad thing. It's very easy for me to grow exhausted with tropes and cliches that are ever-present in most JRPGs, but I feel that this game avoids the worst of those tropes. The characters easy to grow attached to and fun to watch, especially during Bond Episodes or when they're interacting with each other in the field. The Bond Episodes that are included in the DLC packs are especially entertaining! If you want really nuanced characters with deep storylines backing them, you probably won't find it here, but they do their job as a supporting cast more than well enough. I also wanted to include a little section dedicated to talking about the Season Pass and whether or not one should purchase it, and my answer is Yes. The DLC packs include Bond Episodes and abilities that enhance the gameplay (not by a substantial amount, but they're extremely useful if you want to tackle the hardest Missions the game has to offer.) The cosmetics are a little sub-par; I like the "casual" set from the second pack, but I wish that the outfits were more unique and individualized rather than being copypastes of each other or recolors of the default outfits. And finally, the Karen-centric story episodes added in with the final pack are an absolute treat to watch if you were invested in the story and/or had issues with certain plot holes. They will take a long time to fully unlock if you haven't yet cleared the game, and the Mission that goes with it is easily the hardest fight in the entire game, but they're very much worth spending the time to watch. With the release of the final DLC pack, I can finally say with confidence that Scarlet Nexus is pretty great. I played this game on Day 1, and the content they've added in since then definitely make it worth the price now. My best advice is to buy the game on sale along with the Season Pass for the best possible value, as I do recommend getting the Season Pass if you want a more worthwhile experience.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 12, 2022

  ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10
• gamedeal user

  Jun 26, 2021

  Story and Presentation: (7/10) - The game would feel 50% watching an anime | 50% actually playing - 90% of cut scenes are digital graphic novel/manga style cut scene, pre-rendered in-engine, visual equipment changes shows | 10% actual cinematic cut scenes - The first few hours are mostly introducing the world and an a array of characters - Story picks up after 3.5 hrs - Roughly 12 chapters per character which is basically over an hour anime episode - Story length some say would be 15-20 hours - Edit: Verified, 29 hours, watched all cut scenes, no skips, watched almost all Bond Episodes with 3 at L6 including Kasane and the rest at L5) - A lot of differences in the 2nd play through, and not a NierA 2B to 9S situation - Edit: My guess, it's about than 50% different - Plot is your typically enjoyable anime fare with twists, turns, hero moments, WTH is going on and WTF sci-fi stuff - Don't expect some elitist, pretentious, philosophical plot tackling existentialism, racism, gender, or whatever woke social issues that will make you feel big-brain. - Edit: After finishing 1 play through for 29 hours, I don't think I'll go and play the 2nd time. The last encounter leading up to and including the final boss was a long but satisfying run. The overall conclusion to the story, albeit all questions answered (may or may not have plot holes), had become extremely cheesy at the end like your typical Shounen anime, though a wild ride nonetheless. Felt like watching an entire 64-episode FMA Brotherhood Sound Music and Voice: (8/10) - Mashing cars and random objects to enemies, execution all sounds so impactful, satisfying and never gets old - 99% voice acted, 1% would be reading text from all other random NPC scattered throughout the world - Music, nothing that stands out Graphics and Visuals: (9/10) - Playing 144p at unlocked, 8700k/1080ti - Cell shaded anime style graphics - Solid framerate at 60fps or unlocked - No screen tearing or weird texture/asset pop-ins - Textures not ultra-realistic, just matches art style - My issue only issue here is the Borderless Window not working, game crashing whenever I stream to Discord Structure and Gameplay Loop: (7/10) - The game is structured into chapters or "Phases" - Watch anime for minutes at a time > Play the game, either roam around to different areas unlocked, look for/do side quests, grind for levels or proceed to next the objective and fight enemies in a dungeon like sequence > Go back to watching anime - At certain points, you would go into a "Stand By Phase" where you are in your hideout and have opportunity to engage with individual companions (8) and increase your "Bond" - Companions available at a given time would be different per main character selected and story progression - Don't bother with side quests Character Progression: (8/10) - Has skill tree called Brain Map where you can spend points - Yourself and 8 companions: Can equip 1 unique weapon, 3 unique plug-ins (ATK, DEF, HP boosts, etc), alternate costumes and 3 cosmetic accessories - Weapon progress can only be upgraded to the next level available and so on - No weapon variety - Increase companion bonds (up to Level 6) by doing their "Bond Episodes" (more cut scenes), can also be increased by gifting items of their interest, and replying to brain messages - Increasing companion bonds would result to increased SAS effects from different companions that you can activate at the same time even without having them equipped in your party which allows for many different synergies. Your heart won't melt or anything but you'll gain interesting character backstories, you will learn that other members still care for other members even though they are now enemies, you will learn that this chick is the daughter of this family and her aunt is a deceased girlfriend of this "main villain" at the time, you'll also learn that the silent/shy clairvoyant chick can actually see through how big your "organs" are, so on Combat: (9/10) - Combat opens up after 7 hrs - Has lock-on, can enable auto lock-on to whichever you are currently attacking - Basic 3 hit combo, 1 AOE attack and dodge, succeeding combo strings can be learned via brain map - Dodging will limited at first, will feel clunky with no animation cancel, not a lot of iframes, this is because you'll get a companion around 7+ hrs in I think who has a teleport skill. Upon activating a companion skill, you are 100% iframed, then dodge teleport > deactivate the skill again > continue the combo - The basic string would 3 hit combo + 1 AOE > To Telekinesis > To rush back in > To 3 hit combo > To Aerial > To 3 hit Combo + AOE > To another Telekinesis while in the air - In between, you'll be activating 1 or multiple Companion abilities at a given time depending on the situation. You can activate invulnerability+poise to continue to stringing your combo, you can activate teleportation to clutch a dodge, you can activate weapon effects like fire/electricity, you activate duplication so your combo string hits 3 times every single hit - The depth of the combat is with the companion SAS combination and activation in-between your basic combo which greatly makes up for the lack of weapon variety and moves - Think DMC light meets Genshin Impact but with having 4 other party members without the tedious swapping of characters and having all 4 special effects on at the same time - Edit: Companion abilities have 2 types, passive effects and active skills for each. It really opens up around 15-18 hours once you have all 9 companions including Kasane and can equip 8. From the 8 equipped, you can activate 4 passive skill effects at the same time (i.e electric/fire sword+duplication (3)+slowdown time+teleportation), on top of that you can string any of the equipped active skills seamlessly to your own combo - Brain Drive basically is just an automatic gauge that automatically fills up and activates which enhances combat efficiency - While Brain Drive state is active, Brain Field can be used, which is just a super of sorts Edit: By the end of it, random characters would show up and increase your Brain Field timer before it runs out which could effectively go on almost infinitely until the encounter is done Difficulty: (9/10) - Highly suggest doing Hard (nothing Harder than Hard) - Difficulty scaling is good, no one-shotting of any sort here but you can still die if not careful - Will constantly be using healing potions, party heal items or reviving companions - Will be pressed to utilize all companion skills on every situation specially boss fights Encountered Glitches and Bugs: (9/10) - 1 crash in 11+ hours - Encountered numerous crashes after 1.02, resolved by completely removing MSI afterburner Fun: (9/10) - Anime, check - Waifus, check - Combat and Story will really open up after a few hours, if you refunded in less than 2 hours, you are definitely missing out - Not every new game release needs to be genre defining, mind blowing game mechanics, deep big-brain story and be over 100 hours of play to have any perceived value - I would personally give it plus points for trying different things, new enough to keep it fresh - Combat is exceedingly fun at the later half to the end game juggling all 8 companion passive and active skills Total: 83% (Edited Final)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 19, 2021

  The game was alright. Combat was repetitive, skill tree didn't offer anything particularly exciting. Story was REALLY drawn out. The character bond episodes were neat, and the gifts were interesting, if somewhat tedious if you had multiple. Writing this review @ 29 hours played and I just finished the Yuito story. Equipment visuals & upgrades were very boring. I was hoping I could get new outfits instead of just accessories. And upgrade equipment were just stat boosters with no appearance. There appears to be a "EX New Game" feature after beating the story once, and you can play that EX New Game on the character you didn't play through the story the first time. New content seems to unlock after you load a save where you completed the game, but I can't be bothered to go do it because i'm pretty burnt out of the game. The Art style & the soundtrack are honestly the best part of the game for me. The soundtrack has a lot of variety and I highly recommend you listen to it. Would I recommend you buy this game full price? Absolutely not. Would I recommend it if it was $20 or less? Yes I would. 7/10