What I've Been Playing Vol. 35

Scarlet Nexus (PS4)

Brimming with style.

 In a world where the vast population possesses unique powers, mysterious creatures known as "Others" start to terrorise the world, ravaging cities and threatening the peace. Scarlet Nexus follows the optimistic and cheerful Yuito and cold, level-headed Kasane as both must eradicate the other threat from the world by joining the Other Suppression Force. Both characters have their reasons for fighting as well as different sides to the story. Also, Yuito and Kasane lead their respective platoon that's packed with a bunch of supporting characters to meet and the story does a good job of giving them solid backstories. 

 That said, the writing was convoluted as some things won't make sense in your first playthrough with heavy-handed exposition, constant new factions showing up, and plot-twists that are hard to wrap your head around being thrown all at once. You'll have to start another run of the game with the other character to try and piece the full story, though some get put-off by the repetition. 

The game is an action hack-and-slash where you control either Yuito or Kasane as you battle others using their own special powers. Yuito and Kasane have a psychokinesis ability where they can throw objects onto enemies and side characters also pack unique powers like invisibility, pyrokneisys, teleportation that you can borrow. You can't block attacks, so you'll rely on dodging and parrying to evade damage. The game's levels will take you through urban areas like subway stations and cities, which were filled with secrets to find and enemies to pummel down. The gameplay itself was solid as you controlling the characters and performing finishers was satisfying and responsive. However, the game tends to go overboard with tutorials and new mechanics which can make things feel overwhelming at times. 

 Fighting aside, you can freely explore the world between chapters as you can take on side quests or bond with characters via their bond episodes, which detail their past and goals. Maxing out a character's bond will unlock perks for their ability like it lasting longer and them learning a new move. I enjoyed these segments as it gets you closer to the characters and understand them a bit better. The opposite can be said about the side-quests that were just plain boring fetch-quests with nothing interesting about them. It took me around 60 hours to beat the game while also diving into the extras, so it's definitely not short on content.

 Presentation-wise it's looks great with detailed and flashy backgrounds, character models, and effects. I've played the PS4 version, which ran decently at 30FPS with a few stutters. I wished that the cut-scenes were fully animated rather than being still images with voiceovers, which felt cheap. The soundtrack was good with a fine selection of tracks, even though nothing stood out. Scarlet Nexus was a good game that I ended up liking. It has some neat ideas with the setting and gameplay, but parts of it felt needlessly repetitive by the second playthrough. The production values were great with the graphics taking the credit. Overall, if you're a fan of Bandai Namco's action games with an anime twist, then Scarlet Nexus is worth a look.

Katamari Damacy Reroll (PS4)

Roll, roll, and roll some more!

 One of the weirdest games that I constantly hear about but didn't check out till recently is cult-classic. Katamari Damacy from Bandai Namco or just Namco back during the PS2 days. With its signature oddball humor and larger-than-life characters, it's unlike many games out there. Starring a young prince whose been tasked by his father, the "King of All Cosmos" to roll up various objects from planet Earth to make stars out of them after the King accidentally destroyed all of the galaxy's stars. Yeah, if that sounds doesn't make any sense then don't worry, the game doesn't take itself too seriously.

 Gameplay has you controlling the prince as he aims to roll up everything in each level using a "Katamari", a strange ball-like object that sticks to anything it touches. The king will task you with meeting a certain height limit for your katamari within a certain time frame, so you'll be racing against time rolling up matches, chairs, tables, cars, people, and just about everything else. 

 You always start small but will quickly increase the more you roll up things, which was always amusing to see. Though you'll need to be careful from stage hazards that'll knock you back and reduce your katamari's size. Like the premise, the controls are unusual with you using both analog sticks to move your katamari in various directions. It takes a while to get accustomed to though it wasn't as frustrating as the awful camera system, which was an agonising pain, needing to be constantly adjusted.

 Katamari Damacy's filled with bright colors that compliments the zany and outlandish atmosphere. It held up surprisingly well for a PS2 game and the remaster does a good of cleaning things up. The voicework and soundtrack are in Japanese, both of which were nice. The latter memorable with catchy tracks gracing the stages. All in all, Katamari Damacy was fun, charming game and was worth experiencing despite its clunky parts.