Scarlet Nexus

[Kruno]

Why is no one talking about this game?

It looks good.

 

[Puukko]

So I assume this is the next game by the God Eater/Code Vein devs?

 

[Abu Antar]

I'll try the demo. It had a timed Xbox exclusive demo, then I forgot that it also came to PS5.

It seems to be getting decent reviews, but I'll have to check for myself.

 

[ExposedBrainMatter]

I already promised myself I will never play another anime game and listen to a 16 year old protagonist's voice acting.

 

[Kruno]

I'm too scared to play it without people reviewing it for 10+ hours.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I'll let you know tomorrow.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

It seems okay. I wouldn't buy a next gen console for it.

I heard this was like a Tales game but it feels a bit more like Nier Automata to me. I played as the guy, he has a basic set of attacks and the ability to throw stuff with his mind, you can mix telekinesis attacks into your combos. There's not much else to it, no other 'special moves' or techniques I could see. There's a skill tree to unlock some upgrades that all seemed pretty standard. The only other gimmick is you can combine powers with your party members, so the fire girl can give you fire attacks, and this effect can level up the more she *luuuurvs* you or whatever. power of friendship.

I didn't see any of the other party powers so I don't know if they get more interesting. There are also environmental moves that lead to quicktime events (ugh) that are very strong, mainly for boss fights.

There's a dodge that seemed kind of crappy, you are rewarded with a strong counter for dodging right but the enemy attacks aren't telegraphed well. I mostly just spammed the buttons.

No idea wtf is going on with the story. Flower pot monsters with goat legs and high heels (really) fall from the sky and eat people's brains. This seems to be a common enough occurrence no one freaks out about it that much. The rest is standard anime drama, you are the FNG in the noob squad, there is a Cool Dood Squad who is like, way more better than you at everything. Your other squadmates are wacky one-note stereotypes. So, Attack on Titan.

I'm probably going to wait for Tales of Arise. Got enough JRPG in the backlog already.

 

[Mojobeard]

It's kind of like Force Unleashed, but good, but with shonen anime plot. You throw things around and hack and slash, and then your onee-chan who kept triggering hilarious amounts of death flags is in trouble.
The controls get better after a few levels, you're basically missing all the basic moves at the start.
Fighting basic enemies is button spammy, but actual bosses are engaging and tough. With some jank.
Lots of cutscenes, no dialogue options. And characters and story are extremely generic.
Graphics options fucking suck, not helped by the visual style that doesn't translate well to a video game, just looks like some filter isn't working. Google Engine.ini edits people have done, what works for you.

But I still enjoy it? It's better than I'd thought it was going to be, had very bad expectations. It's fun-ish. If you can tolerate anime shit and don't have any vidya right now, it most definitely is one.

 

[RegionalHobo]

probably because it s a action game, not a rpg. zero choice and consequence, barely any character building, ok plot, ok characters and amazing combat.

i'm having fun but the game is really from a different kind than what you see in the codex, even in the jrpg section

 

[Kruno]

I have 2 hours on the game now. I really like it, just make sure to play it on Hard because it is more strategic. You have to pick your fights well.

 

[Rean]

I've sunk a few hours into it.

Not an RPG, but it's alright.

Graphics are mediocre, it has some very nice looking environments, which you can't always appreciate fully because full vertical camera movement is restricted. TXAA is a smeary mess, FXAA barely does anything. There's pop-in of enemies and objects, shouldn't happen in a 2021 game.
Story is Nier Automata meets Remnant From the Ashes, minus the depression and loneliness those games exude. It's not good, but it's obvious they at least put a minimal amount of effort into worldbuilding, which I would never say for trash like Remnant.
The characters are a bit bland. They could have done more with them if the game spent more on actually building tension and proper character development instead of rushing through things at lightspeed. The said extremely fast pacing of the game also ruins some interesting plot and character twists.
Combat is where Scarlet Nexus shines. It's nothing complicated, and sometimes you can just get away with button mashing, but movement is very fluid and responsive. It's very flashy and over-the-top, smacking enemies around and using psychokinesis and all the different SAS abilities is very satisfying. Extremely easy even on hard thus far.

 

[Lutte]

There's pop-in of enemies and objects, shouldn't happen in a 2021 game.

Scarlet Nexus is a singleplayer third-person ARPG game developed by Tose and Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game uses Unreal Engine 4.

It was predictable before you even installed and ran the thing.

 

[Kruno]

[SystemSettings]
r.ScreenPercentage=200 ; resolution scale, game default = 100
r.Filter.SizeScale=2 ; double sample count for bloom/DoF, game default = 1
r.LightFunctionQuality=3 ; use highest light function quality, game default = 1
r.MaxAnisotropy=16 ; use 16x AF, game default = 8
r.Streaming.MipBias=-3 ; always use best mips, default = 0
r.MipMapLodBias=-3 ; always use best mips, default = 0
r.SSS.HalfRes=0 ; use full resolution for SSS, default = 1
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=2 ; increase emitter (fog/smoke) spawn rate, default = 1
r.ViewDistanceScale=2 ; makes viewable & LOD distance of objects 3x, less pop-in of things, game default = 1
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.3 ; increase static mesh LOD distances, lower = larger distance. game default = 1
foliage.LODDistanceScale=5 ; increase grass LOD distance, not much perf impact. game default = 1
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2 ; increase character LOD distances. game default = 0
r.MinScreenRadiusForLights=0.015 ; game culls lights based on their size on the screen, lower the culling size so that more lights can stay onscreen. game default = 0.03
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6
r.TemporalAASamples=32
r.TemporalAAPauseCorrect=1
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.08
r.TemporalAAFilterSize=0.6

Add that to the:
C:\Users\%USER%\AppData\Local\ScarletNexus\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Engine.ini

Fixes pop-in and other things. You can also increase values as your system allows. I copied this from a thread on the Steam forums.

 

[Rean]

The Research Lab area looks really really good. Very nice level design.

Fixes pop-in and other things. You can also increase values as your system allows. I copied this from a thread on the Steam forums.

Thanks. Does seem to make a difference.

 

[warpig]

steam says that it's a brainpunk setting...BRAINPUNK XDDD

 

[Nirvash]

This thing even got a anime this summer, is pushed pretty hard.

 

[Malamert]

It was predictable before you even installed and ran the thing.

God, I wish Japanese developers would just forget about Unreal Engine. Anime games and Unreal Engine just don't mix that well. They look rather off. Peak soullessness.

 

[Daidre]

It was predictable before you even installed and ran the thing.

God, I wish Japanese developers would just forget about Unreal Engine. Anime games and Unreal Engine just don't mix that well. They look rather off. Peak soullessness.

I kinda like that they use UE. Games look from ok to good, performance is always top notch, hardware stays cold and you can freely edit a ton of obscure options in Engine.ini. And it was pretty good for years - I remember Mass Effects running smooth even on potato PCs.

Huge difference comparing to results that western devs get with Unity, when some super niche indies still look like shit but run at 30-40 fps, overheat GPU and have 30+s loading times even on nvme SSD. Like in most recent examples for me: Solasta and The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk.

I still hate Epic, their shop and politics with passion, but UE is probably an only truly good thing they brought into the world.

PS on topic: 16 hours into the game and like it lot. Not a RPG with any stretch of imagination but combat is really, really fun.

 

[Rean]

Yes, it does get better as you play, glad I stuck with it.
And I'm still a big fan of the game's enviroments.

Spoiler

 

[tet666]

So I assume this is the next game by the God Eater/Code Vein devs?

Nope it's by the Tales of Berseria team.

[SystemSettings]
r.ScreenPercentage=200 ; resolution scale, game default = 100
r.Filter.SizeScale=2 ; double sample count for bloom/DoF, game default = 1
r.LightFunctionQuality=3 ; use highest light function quality, game default = 1
r.MaxAnisotropy=16 ; use 16x AF, game default = 8
r.Streaming.MipBias=-3 ; always use best mips, default = 0
r.MipMapLodBias=-3 ; always use best mips, default = 0
r.SSS.HalfRes=0 ; use full resolution for SSS, default = 1
r.EmitterSpawnRateScale=2 ; increase emitter (fog/smoke) spawn rate, default = 1
r.ViewDistanceScale=2 ; makes viewable & LOD distance of objects 3x, less pop-in of things, game default = 1
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.3 ; increase static mesh LOD distances, lower = larger distance. game default = 1
foliage.LODDistanceScale=5 ; increase grass LOD distance, not much perf impact. game default = 1
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2 ; increase character LOD distances. game default = 0
r.MinScreenRadiusForLights=0.015 ; game culls lights based on their size on the screen, lower the culling size so that more lights can stay onscreen. game default = 0.03
r.PostProcessAAQuality=6
r.TemporalAASamples=32
r.TemporalAAPauseCorrect=1
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.08
r.TemporalAAFilterSize=0.6

You forgot the most important settings:
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0

They disable the chromatic aberration which is almost unbearable strong in this game

 

[Rean]

Being in the endgame with about 30 hours played I can state the following with confidence:

Scarlet Nexus is a good game.
It seemed like the style was going to be trash resembling Caligula Effect, but, bless their hearts, it's obvious they're trying. Storyfag game 100%, even if said story is shallow and basic as fuck, it's at least fairly extensive. The twists and development are very interesting to examine and it has some nice fresh ideas, with the only weak point being the characters.

 

[deama]

I gave up after about 6 hours in, I just didn't like where the story was going and the characters were annoying.