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Discover a Brain Punk future.

Scarlet Nexus is an Action RPG developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. It was released on June 25th, 2021.

In the far future, a psionic hormone that grants Psychic Powers to humans is discovered, changing society in the process. However, at the same time, humanity suddenly comes under attack by extradimensional monstrosities known as Others, who thirst for human brains. Humans granted powers, known as psionics, quickly became the last line of defense against the otherworldly foes, and to this day are scouted as recruits into the Other Suppression Force, or OSF.

Players assume the role of OSF members Yuito Sumeragi or Kasane Randall, as they explore the futuristic region of New Himuka, which is under attack by the Others.

An anime adaptation animated by Sunrise followed in July 2021.


This game provides examples of:

  • Abusive Precursors: The Moon Colony. Due to overpopulation, they decided to rehabilitate the earth and send down colonists to repopulate it. An unexpected catastrophe happens with the Other Particles suddenly coming in from space and transforming humans and other living creatures into mutated Others upon contact, and to save themselves, the Moon Colony planned to doom the earth by sabotaging its infrastructure and causing all the Other Particles to go there than to the Moon Colony. Kagero was explicitly supposed to be part of the saboteurs until the plan fell apart, the Extinction Belt formed and trapped the earth repopulators like Yakumo Sumeragi, and even the Moon Colony wasn't safe from the threat of Others as they started appearing there, too.
  • Action Commands: Certain moves can be further augmented with unique button and analog motion prompts.
  • After the End: Most of the human race evacuated to the Moon due to changes in the environment that made living on Earth next to impossible before the game started. Long long before.
  • All the Worlds Are a Stage: The final Phase of the game has you enter Karen's Brain Field, which incorporates pieces of all previous levels you have visited.
  • Alternate Reality Game: Of a sort. Some unlockables are locked behind codes that can only be found hidden in the anime.
  • Ambiguous Situation:
    • The true origin of the Other Particles remains unknown by the end of the game, though Yuito does resolve to find a way to permanently cure them. The only real hint we have is that they were first discovered on a meteor in space.
    • It's unsure if the Sumeragi lineage were following Yakumo's will or Karen's, given that Karen traveled into the past to Kill and Replace Yakumo Sumeragi. However, Karen's final act of saving the timeline had him also right that wrong, saving the real Yakumo while also erasing himself from existence. In spite of this, it's mentioned that historical records were roughly the same, meaning that either Yakumo's will was made before Karen killed him in the old timeline, or somebody else killed and replaced him in the new timeline.
  • And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Giving new gifts to party members, increasing their bond level, or the team's as a whole, has said gifts and other commemorative items physically fill up the Hideout over time, turning a sterile, though furnished, emergency bunker into a decorated living space.
  • Animalistic Abomination: Several Others appear to be part-organic-part-mechanical horrors that vaguely resemble animals, such as Pendus appearing to be birds, Santas appearing to be octopi, Yawns appearing to be crocodiles, and Sabbats appearing to be based on sheep/goats/horses. Many of these were actual animals being exposed to Other Particles from the Extinction Belt.
  • Another Side, Another Story: The main protagonists Yuito and Kasane both follow the same story, but from different perspectives. For the most part, their initial chapters are similar enough but start diverging a lot, leaving most plot points unclear until both campaigns are finished. This does also overlap with Dueling Player Characters, as Yuito and Kasane fight each other several times throughout the story.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: A batch of free DLC gives out some items for people who might be struggling with the game. One gives double EXP to cut down on grinding, and another prevents your HP from going down to zero if you're having too much trouble with the battle system.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only have two other party members accompany you out of the nine possible characters your main character fights with. This is partly rectified with the SAS mechanic, which allows you to borrow any of your allies' powers in battle. Once all 10 characters join together, however, you only have enough SAS slots to use 8 of the 9 characters' powers available.
  • Arc Symbol: Red spider lilies. In-game, they are the representation of the Red Strings mentioned throughout the game. In hanakotobanote , they symbolize final goodbyes and never being able to meet someone again; during the story, Yuito and Kasane are able to meet their biological and adoptive mother respectively and say goodbye, while Karen, despite his efforts never sees Alice again, even after saving her.
    • The game also incorporates generous use of triangles, especially when it comes to anything relating to the Moon Colony, like Togetsu and Arahabaki, which was designed by colonist Yakumo Sumeragi.
    • Baki, the cutesy mascot, is also frequently seen. Baki is short for Arahabaki, the supercomputer that the Sumeragi family has control over. It's also a symbol for Yuito's optimism in the face of blatant government corruption.
  • Armored But Frail:
    • Rut-type Others have a hard outer shell that needs to be taken down in order to deal any meaningful damage to them, allowing them to spam projectiles from relative safety. Once that shell is broken they fall over, unable to get up for a good while and taking huge amounts of regular and Crush Bar damage when hit.
    • Base Paws and Saliva Santas can withdraw into their armor to protect from all damage but are easily knocked down when damaged and have a Crush Bar that depletes very quickly. The trick is to use an SAS that allows Yuito or Kasane to close the gap and strike before they withdraw, deplete their Crush Bar, then Brain Crush them for an instant kill.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Hands down the largest Other fought in the game is Court Mort, encountered in Togetsu's BABE area. Lampshaded by Hanabi, who is in disbelief by the sheer size of it.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Several Others have a weak spot that looks like an orange glowing bulb (or multiple clusters of orange glowing bulbs). Attacking them there deals extra damage while also depleting their crush bar faster.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The true villains of the game are the New Himuka government, Seiran government, and Togetsu, all three of which committed horrifying atrocities that drive the plot and cause hardships for the heroes, but have goals that oppose each others' motives. Rather unusually for a video game, none of them have specific boss representatives that need to be taken down in a fight in order to defeat each organization. The closest is Karen, who is aligned with Seiran, but the final fight with him has nothing to do with Seiran but rather his independent goals.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Thanks to Karen's help, the protagonists managed to close the Kunad Gate without having to sacrifice Yuito. But Karen realized that he has sacrificed so much to bring Alice back that he just can't give up. Sacrificing himself, he managed to not only revive Alice but also cleanse the Extinction Belt from Earth's stratosphere. But sadly, his sacrifice also meant that his existence was erased from the public's mind, including Alice's, with only the protagonists and Fubuki remembering him. Seto, Nagi, and Naomi's deaths are also sadly unreversed. On the bright side, Kaito was ousted from the New Himuka government, meaning that the corrupt Sumeragi government lineage could be replaced with a better one. The epilogue 3 months after the final battle shows each of the protagonists carrying on with their life, confident in being able to move forward. Yuito might be losing his powers due to the tremendous strain placed on his brain throughout the game, but has made peace with that possibility.
  • Break Meter: Most Others except the weakest ones have a Crush Meter under their health bar, which depletes when they're damaged. Once this is emptied, Yuito or Kasane can perform a Brain Crush on them, which will instantly kill non-bosses regardless of health and heavily damage bosses.
  • Car Fu: Abandoned cars are some of the background objects that Yuito or Kasane can pick up with their Psychokinesis to throw at Others.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Seiran National Defense Force soldiers wear pale green armor while Suoh NDF soldiers wear dark red armor.
  • Critical Annoyance: A siren sounds whenever you or one of your partners is low on health.
  • Custom Uniform: Despite the military stylings of the OSF, all the named characters get to wear outfits unique to each of them, with the only common elements being the colors, fabric, and certain details; meanwhile, NPC OSF members all wear the same face-concealing outfits. It's partially justified in that the OSF seems to have inherently lax standards, valuing strength over regulations, and the sheer variety of powers members can have means their uniforms have to accommodate them.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Brain Field. Using it massively boosts the user's psionic power. But it also overtaxes their brain. As such, it can only be used for a short time (30-40 seconds) and failing to manually turn it off will overload their brain, causing an instant death. Kasane and Yuito both unlock it at the same point in their stories because the rewards outweigh the risks at the moment: Kasane is convinced it's the only quick way to kill Yuito but shorts out and has to abort before she can overwhelm him fully; and the story makes no bones about Kasane being the better psychic if not also the better combatant in each route, so when Yuito has to fight his way through her quickly to reach his father, he has no choice but to use Brain Field to even the playing field briefly.
  • Double Take: Kasane and Yuito end up doing this briefly with each other after they both see BABE projecting itself as Wakana and they both call out to it as their mom.
  • Dueling Player Characters: Yuito and Kasane battle each other and their respective party members at several points in the story. Kasane takes this a step further by fighting a future incarnation of Yuito in her campaign.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Others, creatures of an unknown origin that are unsettling combinations of organic and inorganic aspects.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Oil-based Others are weak to Fire, while Water-based Others are vulnerable to electricity.
  • End Game Plus: Completing the game and loading the cleared save data will return players to the point just before the final boss fight, allowing them to complete any sidequest that they might have missed.
  • End of an Age: Following Joe Sumeragi's death, his successor and son Kaito ousted from the government after his motives were leaked to the populace, and Yuito unlikely to become the new chairman in the short run, it's safe to say that New Himuka's Sumeragi lineage of chairmen has finally come to an end. It's much better that way, considering the atrocities they were responsible for.
  • Everyone Is a Super: Most people in the setting have some form and degree of psionic power. The few who don't tend to be discriminated against and derogatorily called "duds". However, not all of them are at the level of OSF, as exemplified by the NDF's which comprise either weaker psionics or "duds".
  • Face–Monster Turn: Two major characters get turned into monsters, one physically and the other mentally, thanks to the New Himuka government.
    • Naomi gets turned into an Other after taking the hit from a metamorphosis bullet meant for Kasane. She does regain her human mind and emotions thanks to Seiran's experimentation, and while it is implied a cure for her transformation exists, she dies sacrificing herself to save Kasane's team from the Design Children before it can be found.
    • Nagi gets his personality rehabilitated by New Himuka into becoming loyal to their cause, with his attempts to resist it driving him Brainwashed and Crazy. He comes to his senses in the end, but thanks to his mental rewiring also including a killswitch if he defied his orders, he dies shortly after.
  • Fighting Your Friend: Yuito and Kasane fight each other four times over the course of the story, with their final two encounters bringing in other party members from the other route. Yuito is also the only one who fights Naomi and Nagi as bosses following their respective Face Monster Turns.
  • Final Boss Preview: Karen actually has two of these, with the fights ending before his health bar is close to completely drained. Also overlaps with Hopeless Boss Fight, as the player is expected to lose these fights.
  • Finishing Move: Certain enemies can be defeated with a special context-sensitive attack once they've been weakened enough. If you deplete all but the weakest Other's Crush Bars, they'll be stunned and can be instantly defeated with a Brain Crush. This also guarantees an item drop.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning:
    • Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, and Electrokinesis are three of the psionic powers that humans can develop, with Hanabi, Fubuki, and both Shiden and Seto having those powers respectively. Only fire and electricity are available to the player, however, as Fubuki does not become playable at any point of the game.
    • Fire, Water, and Electricity are among the elements that Others can have, with Oil as another one.
  • Foreshadowing: The title screen shows Kasane and Yuito together at the top of a building, Yuito looking down at the city, Kasane staring up at the sky. This is their last (non-DLC) Bond Episode and their poses reflect the futures they discuss during it, with Yuito looking at the society he intends to reform and Kasane at the Moon she plans to explore.
  • Friendly Enemy: During the mid-game when the main cast of 10 characters split into two groups, Yuito and Kasane can still interact with the members outside their platoon for Bonding Episodes. Even though it's made clear that Kasane's group is trying to kill Yuito, they reassure each other that they only want to talk in these episodes and have no intention of fighting.
  • Gambit Pileup: The poor protagonists are stuck dealing with the fallout of six different factions, all with different, often conflicting, agendas. There's the Suoh and Seiran governments with their separate awful experiments with Others and human brains. Then there's Togetsu attempting to undo the last 2,000 years of human history. All three are reacting to the Moon civilisation's attempt to push the Other problem onto their colonists on Earth. As a Wild Card there's Karen Travers, willing to burn down the timeline over and over to prevent Alice Ichijo from dying. And underlying it all are the Others and their Horror Hunger for Brain Food.
  • Game-Favored Gender: Akin to some Resident Evil games, Yuito and Kasane's different combat styles and campaign progressions means that there will be instances where one will specialize in specific areas that will make advancing through the story easier, while the other protagonist may encounter a few difficulties. In general, Yuito's more mobile combat and faster start-up and recovery of psychokinesis make moment-to-moment combat with enemies easier; however, bosses are significantly tougher for him to deal with, since their larger size and lack of flinching means Yuito's reliance on close-quarters combat can work against him. Conversely, Kasane excels at fighting bosses due to her ranged attacks and stronger use of psychokinesis, but her weaker mobility and slower build-up of energy make crowded fights against normal enemies trickier to deal with.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: During the fight where Yuito is suffering from schizophasia (or word salad) his battle taunts and chatter play as normal.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Arashi (a girl) has a tradionally female name and Karen and Gemma are men.
  • Gender-Equal Ensemble: The ten playable characters are divided into five males (Yuito, Gemma, Kagero, Luka, Shiden) and five females (Kasane, Arashi, Hanabi, Kyoka, Tsugumi).
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: The top-tier Named Weapons and Infinity Plus One Swords are all elaborately decorated with white bodies and golden accents, oftentimes molded into small, animal-themed sculptures.
  • The Goomba: The NDF Soldiers which are only encountered on certain missions, have the lowest HP, even lower than the most basic of Others, and can be taken down with only a few hits. To compensate, they always come in groups of 6-12.
  • Government Conspiracy: The New Himuka government is revealed to have been conducting experiments on Others as well as turning humans into Others in order to test their potential as a controllable army. They also have access to the thoughts of everyone in New Himuka, which they can manipulate and control for their own purposes. Needless to say, the protagonists go AWOL after finding out.
  • Guns Are Worthless: Played with, though it's mostly a straight example. Guns are still hazardous to a human's health, but it's impossible to harm Others, the major threats to society, with regular weapons. The only things that can harm Others are additional Others or psychics. National Defense Forces generally use missiles to push Others out of cities so the OSF can deal with them. However, against the party, guns are still more or less nuisances at best. Psychics like Kasane are naturally able to take far more punishment than the average human, meaning National Defense Forces hunting rogue psychics down need vastly superior numbers to have any chance of causing significant damage to even a single psychic. Among OSF members themselves, guns have a place, but weapons are mostly decided based on the psychic using them; Tsuguimi is given a revolver because it works best with her Clairvoyance, but she's an outlier in the party, since everyone else is given a weapon that serves to compliment their psychic abilities, not the other way around. Even crossbows have a place in the arms of a psychic over guns when put in the hand of a Duplicist like Kyoka, likely because she can actually see the ammunition she intends to duplicate before firing it.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: There are only two blond characters in the plot, Naomi and Alice, and both are utter sweethearts without a bad bone in their bodies. Both also come to very unpleasant ends.
  • Humans Are Psychic in the Future: The central premise of the setting, where humanity has learned to activate psychic powers in themselves.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: After clearing the game once, you are rewarded with an upgrade material for your protagonist's top-tier weapon upgrade and four of the platoon members that have accompanied them for most of the game. While very powerful, they're also of very limited use as the second-highest upgrades are already pretty good in their own right and these take a lot of work and frustration in getting the kill conditions exactly right.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Despite the alterations to the timeline Karen made in his final jump into the past to save Alice and cleanse the Extinction Belt, Arashi's calculations with Wataru and Haruka show that most of the new timeline coincided with the history they knew. It's likely that even though Karen undid his act of killing and replacing Yakumo Sumeragi in the past, the will was still unchanged. Seto, Nagi, and Naomi are not present in the epilogue, indicating that they still died in the new timeline. The Extinction Belt also turned to not be a lynchpin to the Other's existence, as it's mentioned in the epilogue that Others that already manifested on Earth still need to be dealt with, meaning the OSF has plenty of work to come yet.
  • Inspired by…: The production crew said that the idea of the game came from how humanity has learned to cope with natural disasters.
  • Interface Spoiler: Despite being built up as important members of Yuito and Kasane's parties, Nagi and Naomi never get to actually join them in gameplay, hinting at their eventual departures - Nagi due to his brainwashing driving him mad, and Naomi due to her transformation into an Other. Not only is this hinted at in the menus, neither of them show up in person during the game's animated intro apart from a quick glimpse at an Other which the story later reveals to be Naomi herself.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Played with. The use of age-suppressing drugs on members of the OSF means that most of the characters don't physically look older than mid-20s but their actual ages range from Yuito's age who is roughly in his late teens to Gemma who's in his 50s and near retirement. Through Bonding Episodes, the main character can become friends with the group.
  • Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Certain Other enemy types resist normal attacks until the player activates the right power to counter them. Saws Paws, for instance, can become invisible and untargetable until Tsugumi Nazar's Clairvoyance is used to make it visible.
  • Level-Up at Intimacy 5: The player can increase the "bond" level between the character they're play as an any of their comrades (including the other playable character) by spending time with them and giving them gifts. This doesn't make either directly more powerful but does increase the effectiveness of the SAS system that allows the player to borrow their powers. This is an in-universe effect, as the SAS system is a direct connection between minds and is thus more effective on those with a closer emotional bond.
  • Longevity Treatment: The OSF mixes age-suppressing drugs into their rations to give their soldiers longevity. This makes several characters appear Older Than They Look; Arashi for example looks like she's still in her late teens despite her service record putting her actual age at around her early forties.
  • Meaningful Name: Location examples. Although written in katakana, there are certain kanji that can be used to write the location names that can be rather eye-opening once you figure out the whole plot of the story.
    • Himuka can be read with these characters (日向) which can be roughly translated as "facing the sun". Fitting for a government that wants to take revenge on the Moon Colony.
      • New Himuka's central computer system, Arahabaki, is named after a Japanese god that is apocryphally associated with rebellion and treachery. Which fits the millennia-long conspiracy to eventually rebel against the Moon Colony.
    • Togetsu can be read as "渡月" meaning "in transit" and "moon" reflecting their wish to prevent the colonization of Earth from ever happening and ultimately return to the Moon Colony.
  • MegaCorp: Considering how relatively small and centralized earth society has gotten due to the threat of Others and the cost of defending against them, it seemed inevitable that single companies and families would take control of huge chunks of the market. Of the two most notable ones are,
    • Randall Heavy Industries, which Naomi and Kasane's parents own. They manufacture most of the equipment and machines that are in constant demand due to Other attacks causing damages and attempts to build new, massive mega-cities to try and fit the ever-growing populations.
    • Spring Pharmaceuticals, which Arashi and Fubuki's parents own. They manufacture everything from medical pharmaceuticals, to dietary supplements like protein powder, and illegal, inhumane chemicals derived from human brains, for use in Other research.
  • Metal Slime: Jewel Pool. This enemy can only be found exclusively in Vision Simulator Arena and only when you're doing particularly well in the challenge. It has very high amount of HP, Crush Gauge, moves ridiculously fast to the point SAS Hypervelocity is required to keep up with it, and only stays in the arena for a short time before escaping for good. But it also drops huge amount of EXP if you manage to kill it.
  • Militaries Are Useless: When the Others first showed up, the various militaries sustained casualties because they couldn't be killed by conventional means.
    • The non-rogue OSF forces later confront Seiran-based National Defense Force soldiers when Karen deserts the OSF as they're in league with his faction. Averted in the case of Suoh-based NDF troops because the government declared Yuito, Kasane and company as rogue OSF agents.
  • Muggle Born of Mages: In a setting where the majority of people have some kind of psionic power, the few who are born without psionics are discriminated against and derogatorily called "duds". Worse still, as the accessibility of the city's functions is based around having psionics, the lack of powers makes life very inconvenient for them. It is however possible for duds to obtain psionic powers via experimentation or other methods, as shown by Yuito, Karen, and Luka.
  • Mundane Utility: Though its primary purpose is to help her fight Others, Arashi's Hypervelocity makes her a human TAS when gaming, allowing her to pull off tricks that simply aren't possible for other players both in a Mario Kart stand-in and a fighting game. Additionally, at the base, it's possible to see other characters use their abilities for mundane activities like gardening, cleaning, and exercising.
  • Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Yuito and Kasane each have four party members that are exclusive to their routes. Yuito gets Hanabi, Tsugumi, Gemma, and Luka while Kasane gets Shiden, Kyoka, Arashi, and Kagero. Members from the other routes do still show up on occasion, but only temporarily; this even includes the other protagonist not chosen for that route. This only applies until the end of Phase 9, at which point Yuito and Kasane's teams permanently merge.
  • Never Smile at a Crocodile: Yawn-type Others are crocodilian-looking Animalistic Abominations, and all of them have a Breath Weapon as well as the ability to submerge into the ground and pop up in another spot.
  • New Game Plus: Completing the game once as either protagonist unlocks EX New Game, where players have the option to carry over their levels and items for their next paythrough, even if they choose the other protagonist.
  • Non-Player Companion: During battle, the player can bring other OSF soldiers with them, who act on their own. Besides being combatants in the field, they also serve as additional attack options for the player via the SAS system.
  • Older Than They Look: Actually a frequent occurrence among the OSF members, as they are all given age-halting drugs so that their brains, and consequently their powers, don't decay.
  • One True Sequence: Lampshaded during a "Capture the Flag" competition between Yuito and Kasane.
    Shiden: Keep your eyes open up ahead. If I were the leader, I would be waiting in the blind spot near the finish line.
    Yuito: What do you mean?
    Kagero: In other words, instead of looking around for the flag, it would be more efficient to steal the flag right near the finish line.
  • Open-Ended Boss Battle: The first battle against the other player character takes place in a training exercise between multiple teams, with Yuito's and Kasane's team fighting each other. Winning or losing will carry the game forwards, with different cutscenes depending on Yuito or Kasane winning, although Kagero will also give your player character an item if you win.
  • Player Headquarters: Part of the way into the game, players get access to the Hideout, a spare emergency bunker belonging to either Yuito or Kasane's families, which is then used as the characters' safehouse. Here, players can watch the various party members relax, engage in Bond Episodes, give gifts, buy items and save, and start the next chapter when they chose to.
  • Plot Tailored to the Party: The allies and respective SAS abilities that Yuito and Kasane get for their first and second missions just so happen to be effective against the Others they encounter:
    • For their first missions, Yuito is paired up with pyrokinetic Hanabi while Kasane is paired up with electrokinetic Shiden. They respectively encounter oil-based Others that are weak to fire and water-based Others that are weak to electricity.
    • For his second mission, Yuito partners up with Arashi while facing against fast-moving flying Others, and her SAS allows Yuito to catch up with them. He's then joined by Gemma against an Other that casts a massive hard-to-avoid Area of Effect, and his SAS gives Yuito temporary invulnerability.
    • For her second mission, Kasane partners up with Kyoka, facing off against large groups of Others that can be killed faster with her SAS. She's joined by Kagero against an Other that frequently dives and pops up while having a tricky-to-hit weak spot, and his SAS allows Kasane to sneak up on it without getting detected.
    • In the cross-team Capture The Flag training exercise, this is invoked by the exercise simulation. Yuito/Kagero/Shiden face water-based Others and Others that are easier to dispatch with stealth, while Kasane/Hanabi/Tsugumi face oil-based Others as well as fog-creating and fake clone-creating Others that Tsugumi's SAS allows Kasane to see through.
    • After the Seiran Rebellion fractures the OSF in two, Yuito and Kasane will almost never find Others that need an SAS ability to counter that isn't readily available to the player. For example, Missin Pounds that produce vision-obscuring fog never appear for Kasane if Tsugumi is not available to her and neither do Saws Paws or Slippy Chinerys, which go invisible and need to be attacked to reveal them for a time.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Damn near constantly with many characters in the story, often at the expense of poor Yuito, who is the only one that never has an ulterior motive beyond just trying to help people, and is often attacked by his OSF allies for reasons that they refuse to explain. Kasane is motivated to constantly attack him by meeting his Future Badass self and being told Yuito is an Apocalypse Maiden, Nagi is Brainwashed and Crazy and forced to attack him, Karen has his own plans that involve Yuito's powers and attacks him several times throughout the story, Kagero murders his father for his own reasons, prompting a fight between them, and at one point during a fight with Kasane and her party, they're literally monitored to make sure they don't explain what's going on to Yuito and his allies. It's to the point that playing Kasane's route is necessary simply because there's so much context behind her actions that goes unsaid, with Yuito being left in the dark as to why so many of his allies are turning on him. When Shiden confronts Kasane about this after the third fight with Yuito Platoon, she admits that the main reason she doesn't want to explain things to them is because she doesn't know how to, since all she has to go on by this point is circumstantial evidence and she wasn't sure anyone, not even her own platoon, would believe her.
  • The Power of Friendship: Enforced in-game by the SAS system, which grants the player access to additional attack options depending on which partners they bring with them. More attacks also can only be unlocked by bonding with teammates. It's also a central focus of the narrative. After Karen inadvertently made the world worse by attempting to right the wrongs of the past single-handedly, the world is ultimately saved by the combined efforts of everyone.
  • Punk Punk: Scarlet Nexus is described as being the first "Brain Punk" story, where all major functions of future society depend on psychic powers and a brain-based communications network.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: All of the Design Children seem to have red eyes underneath their masks, though it's subverted with Kasane, Wakana, and Kyoka, who are all unambiguously heroic.
  • Red String of Fate: A non-romantic version. Both Yuito's and Kasane's actual powers are Gravikinesis and involve red strings, and the two have intertwined fates thanks to Kasane using said power with Yuito's help to travel through time, meeting him in the past. The very end of the epilogue even shows a metaphorical red string tied to both their hands.
  • Relationship Values: Part of the "RPG" aspect is taking the opportunity to talk with your party members. Increasing your standing with them then unlocks more powers you can select for Power Copying.
  • Retro Universe: The setting explicitly evokes the 90s, at least architecturally, with the heavy use of steel and concrete, with the 90s influence being explicitly referenced by the developers during the Xbox Launch Celebration trailer video. Digital technology seems to have been completely skipped thanks to the arrival of psychic powers, granting everyone Augmented Reality that is beamed directly into their brains.
  • Revenge Before Reason: The New Himuka government's true motivation is to erase the Extinction Belt in order to clear a way to the Moon Colony in order to wage war with it for sealing Earth away. As Yuito points out, it's incredibly unreasonable to hold a grudge for centuries when all guilty parties are long dead, especially when it comes at the expense of many innocent people.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Seiran's means of revolting against the authoritarian New Himuka government involves unleashing Others upon the public as well as implanting Others with human brains to turn them into controllable weapons.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: Many Others tend to have odd rhyming names to them, some of which can fall into Painful Rhyme. We get names like Scummy Rummy, Fuel Pool, Bandeau Pendu, Brawn Yawn, Saws Paws, Cut Rut, Winery Chinery... Even boss Others aren't exempt, as shown by Rotunda Pagoda, Coil Moil, Court Mort, and Dominus Circus.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: After Karen's Heroic Sacrifice to fix the timeline, he becomes erased from history with not even Alice remembering him. The only people who know he existed are those who helped him to close the Kunad Gate.
  • Run or Die: The battle against Court Mort in BABE is an Advancing Boss of Doom which you can't fight back, as it causes the bridge behind you to rapidly break down while it mostly stays far in the background. Falling off the bridge is an instant game over, so the player has to keep running while avoiding flying Pendus and the boss' attacks themselves. Once the player manages to outrun Court Mort, it gets killed in a cutscene.
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains:
    • Kodama Melone and her sister are OSF soldiers who follow the corrupt New Himuka government and have psychopathic/lustful tendencies. Their OSF outfits show lots of skin compared to any of the female party members.
    • Togetsu's Design Children plan to wipe the Earth population from existence, and their units wear Latex Space Suits that emphasize their proportions, especially the buxom ones based on Hitoyo Pope. While both Kasane and Kyoka are Design Children on the side of good (with the latter also based on Dr. Pope), their OSF outfits are less skintight compared to Togetsu's.
  • Sequel Hook: The ending still leaves a few unresolved plot points:
    • While the Extinction Belt has been cleansed, the Others that have already appeared on Earth do not disappear and the OSF must still deal with them.
    • The actual state of the Moon is still unknown. With the New Himuka government deciding to send a Moon survey unit, Kasane, Tsugumi and Kagero have decided to go with them to find out for themselves, with Kyoka also trying her luck if her being a former Togetsu spy doesn't disqualify her.
    • The main cause of the Others phenomenon itself, the Other particles, is still mostly unknown. Yuito even admits that unless they find a permanent cure for it, another catastrophe like the Extinction Belt might happen again and resolves to find one.
    • Only four members of the Septenterions have been revealed in the game, leaving three unrevealed.
      • A Brain Talk conversation in Kasane's route revealed that it's rumored that one of the unknown Septentrions has a shapeshifting power like Yuta's, though it was ultimately never confirmed to be her as she and her younger twin Kodama disappeared from the story entirely after the boss battle against them.
  • So Much for Stealth: During the combined teams' infiltration of Togetsu, Kagero uses his invisibility to cloak the group to avoid notice. The plan appears to go well but gets foiled when a Design Child sees through their invisibility, attacks them, and attracts reinforcements, necessitating a change in plans.
  • Stable Time Loop: Thanks to the power of the Red Strings, several of these occur:
    • Kasane traveling into the past to retrieve Wakana while saving Yuito from an Other was the reason why Yuito had memories of her face when he was younger. This also inspired him to join the OSF and have an interest in Baki dolls.
    • When the group confronts BABE's main systems in 2020, it sends its database storage back in time to Wakana in 2009. This was why Togetsu had her killed to retrieve the information via Brain Uploading — although Wakana managed to erase the important data by then. When she's pulled into the present by Yuito and Kasane, she has a chance to break the loop, but chooses to preserve it by going back in time, knowing full well she has to die.
    • Karen travels to the past in order to Kill and Replace Yakumo Sumeragi in his hopes of finding a way to save Alice. As Yakumo Sumeragi was put in cryosleep in the Sumeragi Tomb, the protagonists rely on this trope to find him there. This, however, does get undone when Karen sacrifices his own existence to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
  • Status Effects:
    • Burn is inflicted by Fire attacks and it causes the afflicted to take constant Damage Over Time until it wears off.
    • Shock is inflicted by Electric attacks and it temporarily prevents a target from moving.
    • Oil causes a target to take more damage from fire-based attacks, while also making them more susceptible to Burn. This is normally only usable by Others, but using Psychokinesis on oil barrels or oil projectiles allows the player to inflict this against them, and Oil-based Others constantly have this status.
    • Wet causes a target to take more damage from electricity-based attacks, while also making them more susceptible to Shock. This is normally only usable by Others, but using Psychokinesis on water barrels or water projectiles allows the player to inflict this against them, and Water-based Others constantly have this status.
    • Confused is inflicted by Booger Sabbats' green goop attacks, which makes an afflicted player temporarily unable to lock onto enemies or use SAS abilities.
    • It is worth noting that when the ability to have two SAS abilities active at the same time is unlocked, the player cannot activate Hanabi and Shiden's powers at the same time to gain both fire and electric attacks simultaneously.
  • Stealthy Mook: Saws Paws are Others that turn invisible and untargetable until attacked. Tsugumi's Clairvoyance SAS power is needed to reveal their location. Slippy Chinerys are Mini-Boss Others that also use a similar method of stealth.
  • Story Branch Favoritism: Almost all of the major lore reveals, including Kasane's reasoning for turning on Team Yuuto for the first half of the game and Karen's goals and motivations, are exclusively in Kasane's route. Virtually nothing about the main plot and character motivations beyond the bare essentials are shown in Yuuto's route, presumably to make the player just as in the dark about what's going on as he is.
  • Super Mode: Drive Mode, ostensibly, which, when activated, causes the characters' appearance to change and for their attacks to become more damaging.
  • Superhero Speciation: Averted. Both player characters have the same power and while all the nonplayable party members have unique powers others within the supporting cast have the same powers, with Captain Seto having Electrokinesis the same as Shiden; Wataru, Haruka and Satori all having telepathy; and Wakana having the Red Strings along with Kasane and Yuito. Beyond the featured characters several unnamed OSF members are seen using the same powers as party members in the background of news reports. This is played straight, however, for Karen, and to potent effect; he's considered the most powerful man in the world because Brain Eater is unique to him, though his considerable talent using each power he taps into effectively also plays a part in his status. It's then played with in his final battle, in that, aside from Psychokinesis/Gravikinesis and Pyrokinesis, he uses all the powers the cast has - including Cyrokinesis.
  • Tech Tree: The game's skill tree, known as the Brain Map, displays a series of branching unlockable nodes and video previews of the skills tied to each one. Skills are unlocked with "BP" along five interlocked categories, including abilities such as air dashes, Double Jumps and Perfect Dodge Attacks.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: If the player equips the Audio Battle Attire (obtained by pre-ordering the game), the game's theme song, "Dream In Drive" will play when the player activates Brain Field.
  • Time Crash: The Kunad Gate, a Negative Space Wedgie that's slowly swallowing up the Earth. It's caused by an interaction between Yuito and Kasane's Red Strings powers, creating Entanglements in the timeline. The two manage to fix their entanglements, but the Kunad Gate still persists because Karen created another Entanglement when he traveled to the past to Kill and Replace Yakumo Sumeragi, and only by reversing this does the Kunad Gate close.
  • Truce Zone: When the OSF is split into two following Karen's rebellion, Musubi's serves as a neutral zone for Yuito and Kasane's parties to interact with each other without engaging with hostilities. This continues until Phase 9, where both teams merge together and share the hideout.
  • True Companions: The main protagonists slowly, but surely becomes this as the game progresses. Most obvious in the final battle against Karen, where it took the combined effort of everyone to finally defeat him.
  • Urban Warfare: Some of the stages involve fighting through deserted city streets that are abandoned because of sustained presence from the Others.
  • Variable Mix: A distorted version of the battle themes plays whenever you're in Drive Mode. The battle themes themselves are also remixes of the Background Music of each location.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: All playable characters and companions can be dressed up in alternate costumes and accessories. It even averts No Cutscene Inventory Inertia, as the playable characters' attached cosmetic accessories are rendered in real-time in both animated and even still-frame cutscenes.
  • Was Once a Man: At least a portion of the Others turn out to be humans who came into contact with the Extinction Belt or were converted through experimentation by the New Himuka government. Naomi leads a group of such Others (including Alice) to defend Kasane's group, but all of them die in the process.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Togetsu attempted to harness the power of the Red Strings in order to free the people of the moon from the threat of the Others. Unfortunately, they were willing to risk destroying New Himuka and all of Earth's other governments in order to do it.
  • Wham Episode: The plot takes many twists and turns over the course of the game (and through both routes), but special mention goes to the end of Phase 2 in which Kasane's sister is forcibly turned into an Other. An Other Appeared: Naomi Randall.
  • Word-Salad Horror: Around Phase 6 of Yuito's story, he suffers such mental strain that he can only speak in word salad like a stroke victim could. This is played for all the drama such an event would warrant.
  • World-Healing Wave: Shortly after Karen borrows the power of the Red Strings and leaves the timeline to resolve the entanglement he caused, glowing red strings start to appear around them and gradually envelop the landscape and, eventually, the planet. This results in his dead love Alice being brought back as if nothing happened, but nobody outside the main cast remembers Karen.
  • Wutai: The city of Seiran provides the 90s-themed equivalent, with its narrow alleys, cheap open-air restaurants, and neon billboards making it resemble cities in China, such as Hong Kong.

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