Well surprise, surprise. It took Microsoft a long while to figure it out but finally they've learnt the value of hosting irregular game shows every now and then outside of E3 just to keep interest alive, in the same vein as PlayStation's State of Play or Nintendo's Direct. Sure, it took a literal global pandemic to shut down all live events and force them to step out of their comfort zone, but at least they've gotten around to it. Some might even say that this entire event was just an attempt to get the Xbox Series X out there and in the mind of gamers before Sony could do the same with their PS5, and if that's true then I'd have to admonish Microsoft for forgetting one key rule, it's always the last laugh that lasts longest.
Of this Inside Xbox event we saw a tantalising glance of a bevy of Next gen titles and even a handful of new announcements, all before a live audience of clueless folk commenting things like "Huh, don't look Next gen to me..." (Of all the many things to complain about regarding this event, they pick the graphics... maybe I'm the idiot here.) Now whilst this wasn't strictly an E3 conference, (which is part of the reason why I completely missed it) I do have a habit of taking an indepth look at every single game I see during such events for sake of... early window shopping, I guess. One such title gained my interest as being both visually arresting and frightfully generic. (What an odd combination.) And this strange little beast went by the name; Scarlet Nexus.
Now when this trailer first hit us all with it's 'World Premier' teaser and tagged Bandi Namco credit there was an infectious excitement about the chat, I could feel it from here. "Oh, so the Souls' people have yet another game up their sleeves now do they? I wonder what that could entail." The trailer itself focused on one of the most cluttered Cyberpunk cities that I have ever seen realised in gaming, honestly, I was getting mild 'Remember Me' flashbacks from looking at that cityscape. (If anyone actually remembers that game.) But what we saw from there was undeniably promising; popping distorted scenes, grossly imaginative fungal enemies and a distinct vibe of desertion across all the urban landscape. Some light horror vibes can never hurt in a Souls'-like game. Then we saw the main character and everything devolved into a Saturday morning cartoon.
I'm not even kidding, it's as though all the tension and drama that was building in the room just got let out like air from a balloon. I went from slowly leaning in to my computer screen to idly browsing Chrome tabs in the space of half a second. Now that isn't to say that the trailer was all bad from that point on or anything, it's just that it's most distinct offering was in it's visuals and the way it presented this brooding mystery to it all, before the rest of the game caught up and said "Oh forget all that stuff, this is a slash 'em up action game with a cool guy protagonist." Again, nothing against you if that's exactly your cup of tea but for me they're a dime a dozen. I wasn't the only one in the chat who seemed confused at this devolution either, folk saw the anime stylings and red-aesthetic before immediately jumping to the logical conclusion; 'Oh, Code: Vein 2 already?'. But no, this isn't Code: Vein 2, it's apparently something completely different and 'unique'. (A word, I fear, that is rapidly draining of meaning.)
But in the effort of remaining vaguely fair to a game I know barely anything about; 'Scarlet Nexus' follows the adventures of Yuito Sumeragi (At least that's a decent name) who is the newest recruit in a special branch of psychic police officers called the OSF. As such, combat consists of using Yuito's blossoming psycho-kinetic powers (That's literally a synonym for 'telekinetic'. The developers are trying to sound cool) and that standard issue katana that the police here seem to use because of course they do. It also seems that the lore enforcement here are the one's in charge of cleaning up the streets from mushroom monsters for some reason, so I assume this city has no national weed-killer service. Although details are scarce, I will take an absolute shot in the dark and predict that the overall plot will have something to do with saving the city of New Himuka from some mega threatening evil monster. (If it's a demon king I will slag this team off for the rest of time.)
The combat of the game looks... fine. It's hard to really convey how fun an action hack-n-slash title can be unless it's particularly exceptionally visual, and this one doesn't really have that going for it. But that being said it does look fast and colourful, and with Bandi Namco behind I'm sure there'll be sufficient depth and range to last the length of the campaign. I just find myself sorely lacking in that special X factor that knocks me off my socks and go "This game! This is the one!" Although skimming through the trailer again I will confess, the enemy designs are undeniably tight. Those are the sorts of monsters that I want to fight, and that is a big part of making a hack-n-slash feel right. I also suppose some of the telekinetic combo moves look pretty visually exciting, so that might make for cool finisher moments for battles. (But I can get that sort of high from the average 'Kingdom Hearts 2' boss fight, so what exactly does this title bring new to the table?)
At the end of the day I suppose my real problem with Scarlet Nexus isn't what it does but what it doesn't, in that it utterly fails to be attention grabbingly unique. It looks like a paint-by-numbers anime hack'n'slash game, and that's no great sin, but it's not exactly a system-seller of a game either. There's even one hilarious moment when the trailer introduces us to the OSF by having them stand all in a line together. I could almost hear the announcer voice in my head saying "Okay ladies and gentleman now let us ask the question of the hour: Which officer is an anime protagonist?" (Yuito is literally the only person not wearing a tactile helmet. Come on.) And I feel like a record on repeat but I will insist that hoaky cliches are not a recipe for disaster, many great games cut their teeth on playing up such cliches, but this doesn't make the greatest first impression when a prospective launch title seems decently devoid of originality.
This didn't start as a bashing against Microsoft, and I don't want it to end like that so I will give them the benefit of the doubt. The purpose of this event was not so much to tell folk what their next obsession would be (that comes in a month) but merely to sell people on the Series X, which Scarlet Nexus is poised to do through it's use of Smart Delivery. Now Smart Delivery is a promise wherein those who buy the Xbox One versions of upcoming games will be able to take advantage of a free upgrade to their Series X versions down the line, something which is a great comfort to folk like me who absolutely will not be bagging a Series X for at least the next 2 years. So whereas Scarlet Nexus has wholly failed to impress me, it served admirably as a example for Microsoft. (And that's a positive I guess.)
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