Death's Door

Verdict: Recommended

I went into this expecting something like Code Vein. The only things Scarlet Nexus has in common with Code Vein is the art style, fridging a LOT of female characters, and plot, in that you really shouldn't think about the story too hard or you'll start drowning in plot holes.

That being said: wow. This was an unexpected experience that caught me entirely by surprise. Two protagonists with their own independent stories is wild enough for a game like this, but they really didn't mess around:

• The female protagonist is strong and cool as hell. She's also portrayed as having a lot of autistic traits with social situations, most notably represented by her failure to read and understand how people interpret her words other than what they are at face value. Other characters view her as "blunt" or "honest," sometimes to her detriment, but these traits are never used to characterize her as a bad person.


• The male protagonist is the opposite of edgy. He collects dolls and keychains. He's literally just a guy trying his best. They could have very easily swapped his and the female protagonist's personalities and gotten the usual anime game experience, but they did not, and the game really benefits from that.


• The game does not force the protagonists into a relationship, despite the fact that they are linked together in a lot of very concrete ways.


• The character who has the appearance of a ten year old kid but is actually decades old is never treated like a child. Usually you'd see a girl and be told she's a thousand years old or something, but this was a decades-old man in the body of a child who is regarded in high respect for his wisdom and guidance. He's treated as such, too. It would've been a stupid gag that fits in with these kinds of narratives, but they didn't go for it once.


• Very little fanservice. I cannot state how refreshing this was. No boob physics, no weird camera angles, no side episodes featuring swimsuits or whatever, nothing. (The outfits are far more revealing for the women than the men, but for a game like this, I was surprised at how tame they were.) The one character who's the designated flirt - and an adult by a good margin - even acknowledges how creepy it could be if he actually was hitting on a teenager.


• The characters are not only written consistently but actually grow and change throughout the game. Not only that, but the way they interact is written consistently and grows and changes over time. This shocked me the most. The story is really not that good, but the characters are so well designed and voice acted that I felt invested in learning more about them, and that meant progressing.


• So many flavor interactions when you're running around on the maps. It's really fun.


• The voice acting (at least in English) is really good. Arashi's VA knocked it out of the park. I can't emphasize how good it is.


• You give gifts to people and they decorate with them. By the end of the game, your little home base is a colorful mess of stuff for each character. There is such a good eye for detail, too, because characters interact with your gifts and other things in the home base independently of you.


• This is more of a sidenote, but: the character who has a crush on the male protagonist gets along really well with the female protagonist. There isn't any weird catty rivalry or anything. They're just friends and it's really cutely written.

Beyond all of that, the combat is stupid fun, or at least it was for me. Combining powers and finding out what works best against what enemies was a steep learning curve, but once you understand it and get better at dodging, it feels so fluid and fun and awesome. I really had a good time with the fighting portions, which could be tough but not unforgiving. The DLC adds an item that also keeps you at 1HP minimum in case you want to just cheese through the game, which I think is a great touch.

All that to say: I liked this game a lot and I didn't expect to. You might also like this game a lot if anything here resonates with you. Either way, it's worth giving this game a shot when you have the time. It might just surprise you.