Approx length: 20-25 hours for the first playthrough, and about 10-15 for the second.
Where to find it: You can buy it on Steam, Playstation and XBox. However, there are also compilations of all cutscenes for each route: Yuito's route, and Kasane's route. The game is set up so that each route is a standalone story that contains what each character knows, but that to understand what's going on, you need to play both.
What is it, in summary? In the future, humanity discovers in pretty short order that a) they have latent psionic abilities and b) said psionic abilities are the only way to kill aliens who have infected almost everything on Earth. 2,000 years later, we have the OSF, a group of elite psionics who undergo a strict hormone regime to keep them physically in their teens, whose ranks are filled with those conscripted because of their powers and a few who volunteer. You play as either Kasane Randall, adopted daughter of the prestigious Randall family who is conscripted due to her powers, or Yuito Sumeragi, the youngest son of the leader of the city they live in who volunteers despite the fact that his powers are a bit rubbish really. They join their platoons and are ready to fight the alien invaders!
...except that this game is actually a sci-fi thriller and they are far more likely to get killed by the conspiracy that they have found themselves tangled up in than by the aliens. The two stories diverge at a critical point, with Kasane trying to find a way to undo the event that caused the divergence and along the way find out her forgotten past, while Yuito's past catches up with him while he desperately tries to find out why everyone is trying to kill him including himself. It's a game about bonds and connections between people in the face of a dystopia, and the idle animations in the base do more for character building than a lot of games I've played this year.
What do you love about it? I love psi-punk, people having fractious relationships but ultimately going ride or die for their team, and sweet sunshine children who push themselves beyond their limits only to pick themselves back up and do it all over again. I also love dystopian settings that aren't obviously so, and New Himuka is so bright and colourful, and just don't look too hard at how there are cameras on every corner and the government can literally project messages into your brain. I also like how grubby the OSF are: the conscriptions that literally no one can get out of, the idea of giving people a hormonal mix to keep them a teenager for as long as possible, the discarding of old OSF soldiers once they start aging (assuming that they're not just experimented on), and that they are completely alien to the society that they live in because of their service.
Underneath its bright graphics and cheerful "friendship is best!" exterior, Scarlet Nexus is a pretty dark story set in an oppressive setting where everyone is pretty morally grey except for Yuito, Nagi, Hanabi, and Naomi who really are as bright and wide-eyed as they appear.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? It's an explicit game mechanic that the system that connects these psychic soldiers together is agonising, and they have to use it a lot. It is also explicitly canonical that Yuito is so exhausted that when he goes "oh yeah, my weird headaches and time-loss are due to fatigue" everyone is like "seems legit!". I also really love the psychological horror that comes with you losing time, your brain betraying you, and that your powers could fail you at a critical moment with the only relief being a medicine that is utterly repugnant to you. So, well, all of that.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Yeah, you could actually get away with just Yuito's storyline for what I'm requesting. If you want to know what Yuito doesn't know in terms of the conspiracy, you'll need Kasane's story.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) Scarlet Nexus contains references to human experimentation, body horror (that is more surreal than horror), mind control, the government being morally dubious, and abusive and/or distant family members.
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Scarlet Nexus
Date: 2021-08-18 11:18 am (UTC)Media: Video game
Approx length: 20-25 hours for the first playthrough, and about 10-15 for the second.
Where to find it: You can buy it on Steam, Playstation and XBox. However, there are also compilations of all cutscenes for each route: Yuito's route, and Kasane's route. The game is set up so that each route is a standalone story that contains what each character knows, but that to understand what's going on, you need to play both.
What is it, in summary? In the future, humanity discovers in pretty short order that a) they have latent psionic abilities and b) said psionic abilities are the only way to kill aliens who have infected almost everything on Earth. 2,000 years later, we have the OSF, a group of elite psionics who undergo a strict hormone regime to keep them physically in their teens, whose ranks are filled with those conscripted because of their powers and a few who volunteer. You play as either Kasane Randall, adopted daughter of the prestigious Randall family who is conscripted due to her powers, or Yuito Sumeragi, the youngest son of the leader of the city they live in who volunteers despite the fact that his powers are a bit rubbish really. They join their platoons and are ready to fight the alien invaders!
...except that this game is actually a sci-fi thriller and they are far more likely to get killed by the conspiracy that they have found themselves tangled up in than by the aliens. The two stories diverge at a critical point, with Kasane trying to find a way to undo the event that caused the divergence and along the way find out her forgotten past, while Yuito's past catches up with him while he desperately tries to find out why everyone is trying to kill him including himself. It's a game about bonds and connections between people in the face of a dystopia, and the idle animations in the base do more for character building than a lot of games I've played this year.
What do you love about it? I love psi-punk, people having fractious relationships but ultimately going ride or die for their team, and sweet sunshine children who push themselves beyond their limits only to pick themselves back up and do it all over again. I also love dystopian settings that aren't obviously so, and New Himuka is so bright and colourful, and just don't look too hard at how there are cameras on every corner and the government can literally project messages into your brain. I also like how grubby the OSF are: the conscriptions that literally no one can get out of, the idea of giving people a hormonal mix to keep them a teenager for as long as possible, the discarding of old OSF soldiers once they start aging (assuming that they're not just experimented on), and that they are completely alien to the society that they live in because of their service.
Underneath its bright graphics and cheerful "friendship is best!" exterior, Scarlet Nexus is a pretty dark story set in an oppressive setting where everyone is pretty morally grey except for Yuito, Nagi, Hanabi, and Naomi who really are as bright and wide-eyed as they appear.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? It's an explicit game mechanic that the system that connects these psychic soldiers together is agonising, and they have to use it a lot. It is also explicitly canonical that Yuito is so exhausted that when he goes "oh yeah, my weird headaches and time-loss are due to fatigue" everyone is like "seems legit!". I also really love the psychological horror that comes with you losing time, your brain betraying you, and that your powers could fail you at a critical moment with the only relief being a medicine that is utterly repugnant to you. So, well, all of that.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Yeah, you could actually get away with just Yuito's storyline for what I'm requesting. If you want to know what Yuito doesn't know in terms of the conspiracy, you'll need Kasane's story.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) Scarlet Nexus contains references to human experimentation, body horror (that is more surreal than horror), mind control, the government being morally dubious, and abusive and/or distant family members.