Note: This will contain Major Spoilers for Kasane Randall’s route in Scarlet Nexus.

Some story segments didn’t really make sense like having “Bonding Episodes” with the other party, especially with the split routes and conflicts within those routes. I think splitting the story like this was a bad decision, honestly. I really loved Takumi Miyajima’s previous stories, Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia, so I was eager for this one, but I’d rate it this game a 7/10 at best and the story as 7/10. I liked it, but I feel like it was lacking in terms of villains. I loved the Togetsu parts and political conflicts, but I just didn’t care for Karen Travers conflict at all, I think it would have been better if Yuito and Kasane’s Mother had been the villain all along or something to that effect. The beginning with Future Yuito’s request, Naomi’s isolation and Kasane doing her damnedest to save her, and Togetsu were definitely the best parts for me. Karen Travers… was boring. I say that as a huge fan of Takumi Miyajima’s works and I mostly liked her characters in this story too.

Some parts are left unexplained in Kasane’s Route:

– Who shot at Kasane in the very beginning of the game, which Naomi foresaw and blocked to protect Kasane?

– What the hell happened with those Twin Septentrions? They just drop out of the story in Kasane’s route.

– How did Kasane as a child get from Togetsu to Suoh and taken in as an adopted child, especially if she was put into Cryosleep? (To be honest, I’m surprised there was no Kagerou revealing he was the one who did it, since he’s the only thing that makes sense as the reason since Kasane’s mother is established to have escaped from Togetsu).

– It feels like they’re setting up Kasane and Yuito as a future ship in a future game, probably through time-travel shenanigans. The verrry end with the redstring connecting them seems to suggest this, even if it’s for thematic reasons regarding friendship.

– Presumably the mystery voice Kasane heard was probably her mother or one of the Design Children trying to get her to use her powers, but this again seems like carefully planted sequel bait due to its vagueness.

Given all this, I think Takumi Miyajima was already well along the ways of planning a sequel. This definitely feels like a complete game, but the parts that don’t make sense seem like they’re left purposefully vague for a sequel. Kasane will be on the moon in any future game, so I guess we’ll finally be going to the moon in any sequel.

Unless I missed some intriguing superboss side quest and battle, that’s my current observations and ideas from finishing Scarlet Nexus.

With respect to positives, I haven’t played his route yet, but I really liked everything regarding the conflicts and characters, including Bonding episodes, of each of them . . . except Yuito. I don’t find Yuito interesting. He feels like a bland, discount Luke fon Fabre; the game tries to make you believe he “changed” and I don’t get it. I really liked all of Kasane’s team and Kasane’s character development. But… I hate whenever the main plot centers around Yuito. It feels like Kasane has great development and character when in isolation, but becomes Yuito’s sidekick during the Yuito scenes. And to be honest, Kasane feels like a much more interesting character. I wish the game focused more on her during the scenes. I couldn’t bring myself to care for Yuito much. I kind of wish the game took a more screwed-up approach with Time Travel for the villains at least; maybe the next game can have you playing a villain and killing Yuito and Kasane or something more interesting than Karen Travers. I really don’t get why he needed to kill Yakumo Sumeragi and had all the time in the world to reset time and protect his previous friend but kept failing over and over until he finally succeeded and why that required erasing his existence. I’m guessing if there ever is a Scarlet Nexus 2, something super fucked-up is gonna happen that’s gonna make our jaws drop… or at least, I wish. Takumi Miyajima’s stories are usually more intriguing than this… Again, I liked everything about Kasane’s side. But wow, is Yuito boring. I hope my opinion changes once I play his route, but so far if he just died randomly in the background of the next game, I wouldn’t care. I’d be very upset if it was Kasane though, since she’s actually a really good character when its just her story and when it has nothing to do with Yuito. The only exception of course is when Future Yuito requested you to kill his past self. That was awesome. Too bad Kasane’s route isn’t her going through with it. I hope she gets a more important role and with more time spent on her, if they ever make a sequel. I really liked her character.

The gameplay was mostly a blast; the way they use QTEs… I am shocked to say this, but they did QTEs right and it fits the gameplay so well. There’s a Defense bar and health bar, when you use strategy like combining your teammates abilities or the surrounding areas items (like dousing enemies with oil or water before burning or electrocuting them) it works really well. But, my main criticisms would be the camera sometimes doesn’t catch certain enemies when they hit you, and one enemy in particular (the aligator thing with light-rays shooting out of its mouth) is too annoying to constantly dodge with its homing attacks that it gets a bit ridiculous. Apart from that, I was mostly having fun all the way through.

However, the dungeon designs got to feel a bit too same-y by the end, so I hope whatever sequel game does it differently. Also, I hope the towns have more to do. I really liked the Seiran town, but the Suoh one was kinda meh. Overall, I hope there is a sequel so we can explore the moon.

🙂