An enjoyable game, although “experience” might be more appropriate, since half the playtime consists of fully animated, visual novel-style cutscenes. The main highlight is the fluid combat system—you control either Kasane or Yuito, who can temporarily activate their team members’ abilities (invincibility, teleportation, duplication, etc.) or string together special attacks based on a series of constantly refilling SAS gauges for each character (controlled via the left/ right shoulder buttons). This might seem complicated, but isn’t thanks to the intuitive controls. More importantly, it feels great to obliterate a horde of monstrous Others using your diverse set of powers, despite the game requiring careful resource management during prolonged boss fights. The crew is fun as well, with strong characterization via optional “bond episodes” that delve into their individual motivations, fears, interests, etc. Although text heavy, “bond episodes” are typically cutscenes, these stories were some of my favorite in the game, especially since the main story feels overly complex and contrived at times—time travel stories are really hard to get right! The “Normal” difficulty wasn’t too punishing (I died a handful of times), but eventually I equipped a plug-in that prevented wiping—I love this option (and used it for Nier Automata as well), since I wasn’t interested in repeating tricky enemies multiple times because I missed a dodge roll. The music is good too and complements the fast pace action. Overall, Scarlet Nexus was a fun experience and, time permitting, I’ll likely play Yuito’s story in NG+, which carriers over all of your progress.