TL;DR Overall I really like the game, it has some things I'm abit mixed on but I still think it was a very enjoyable experience for me. I really do hope we get a sequel to see what more they can do with this IP.

When I first started playing Scarlet Nexus I wasn't really that interested, but still saw some potential in it. As the game went on though I appreciate it much more now.

I was not expecting the game to have stuff like time travel, using human brains and even talk about a civilisation on the moon. I think some people are rather mixed on the story but I for one thought it was really cool. It's very anime so I can understand why people didn't connect with that part of the game, but I thought all the different twists and stuff it talked about had enough to interest me. If I was ever confused about something I could always read the brief description of each of the phases in the menu aswell.

Karen was someone I was neutral on for majority of the game, but the sacrifice he makes at the end to bring back Alice was not something I was expecting and it made me really like his character. Considering we don't know how many times Karen tries to save Alice, the fact that he was willing to do that on top of going back in time over and over just shows his dedication. Because of that I see him as more of an antagonist rather than a villain, he had his reasons for using the kunad gate. I do wish we had abit more screen time with Alice though, only seeing her in the final phase was abit unfortunate but at least she was mentioned earlier so we knew Karen's motivation.

As far as the other characters are concerned I really warmed up to them as the game went on. Shiden, Kyoka, Kagero and Arashi especially, but that's mostly because you spend more time with them in this route. My favourite of the 4 though was probably Kagero, or should I say Shin Daniel, because of how he misses his wife and daughter that he used to have on the moon. Most of the time kagero is someone who is abit more laid back, often cracks jokes or is sarcastic, I found it funny when he occasionally picked on shiden. But behind all that is someone who is really sad they will never get to see their family again. Because of that I see the way kagero acts to be a way of trying to move on to keep himself happy and to try forget about what he lost and focus on what's important now and I really respect that.

I really liked the hideout stuff where you would give gifts to everyone and spend time with them on various bond episodes to find out more about the characters. I liked how by the end of the game the hideout was really decorated and you had photos together with various characters. I also really liked how giving gifts made each of them react in a certain way to the thing you give them, or sometimes you would see 2 people interact a little, it was a nice detail they put in.

I really enjoyed the music, specifically the dungeon music like the kunad highway, hieno mountain, BABE and the final dungeon. Really stood out to me, and I would say the music overall really elevated the experience aswell.

Lastly I want to talk about the combat, early on I thought it was cool but it was rather limited and it wasn't until around the halfway point, or more specifically the last few phases, where you have everyone and the SAS leveled up that I found that I really enjoyed the combat more. In the last few phases using everyone on the fly was so much fun and ended up being my favourite part of the experience, but I didn't like that I had to play majority of the game to get there and the game did have alot of scripted fights which were abit off putting, but overall it's fine, it more than made up for it by the end. This is especially true with the final boss, fighting Karen was so good and probably one of the best final bosses I've had the pleasure of experiencing. It really felt like it put alot of the SAS to the test and Karen using them all against you aswell was just sick as hell.

As for the things I was rather mixed on it was stuff like the level design, enemy variety and the side quests. Alot of levels were pretty cool but some weren't all that interesting, it still didn't ruin my experience or anything though. There is actually alot of enemies in the game but most of them are similar types with different names and I did feel like by the end of the game it did get a little repetitive, but the combat was just so good that I can look past it still. The side quests however are definitely something I can't defend and they are rather boring, I still did them since you get a trophy for completing 30, but the rewards are useless except for the phantom arts I guess and the requirements are kind of tedious for some. Those are the only things I had issues with really.

I think Scarlet Nexus is a pretty good game overall, I'd say a top 5 based on games that have come out this year. It doesn't seem to be doing too good currently but considering the type of game this is I can't say I'm surprised, it's very possible it'll get more exposure over time though. I played on hard mode and completed everything it had to offer like getting all characters to level 6, the team bond to level 6, completing all 34 quests and clocked in at about 40 hours. I'm most likely going to take a short break before I do Yuitos route but I'm looking forward to it, I might also check out the anime at some point aswell. I really do hope we get a sequel though because I want to see a continuation of the story and these characters again and see what else they can do with the combat. I have a feeling we might considering satori does mention in the description of phase 12 that it's the end of kasanes story but might just be the beginning, I really hope it's not just a tease but I guess we will have to wait and see.