This game is fantastic. I don't care what anyone says, this a 10/10 game for me. I feel like a lot of people are undermining the shit this game achieves. Firstly, I want to start with the story. I think the story is great. There are various key turning points and generally alot going on but I never felt particularly overwhelmed when processing all of the information. I think the pacing is also good. The only inconsistent pacing I recall was the whole bit with Togetsu, but it wasn't bad at all. The story also deals with time traveling which is always a heavily discussed topic in the way how it would or should work but I think this game does it fine. There were some things that didn't make sense to me, but looking back it's honestly convenient for the player and doesn't really feel like an asspull necessarily. Secondly, I want to discuss the characters. I see this part being underappreciated the most, so I'll try to explain what makes them great. I want to first get out of the way that Yuito (Male protagonist) is pretty cliche as a character. There's nothing wrong with being kind, forgiving, understanding, etc. I just feel like he could've had more of a personality. He's not bad, just somewhat stereotypical. The female protagonist on the other hand i do think is more interesting and more well constructed (though i still reccomend to go with the male MC for a first playthrough). The other characters, however, I think are great. I'm not gonna go into detail for each character cause that would simply make this way longer than it already is so I'm going to make a general summary of the character writing here. I'll admit, when it comes to building personality or the building of a character, the story mode doesn't prioritize that too much. That said, The squadron has a ton of personality and distinguishing character traits for example; Shiden being a conceited tsundere, Kagero being a carefree adult, Gemma being an old boomer, Arashi being lazy af etc. There are 2 routes though where you can see the stories from 2 different characters perspective. You can view many changes and observe new story events with the already established characters, and i think that's a good way of creating a more complex narrative, as well as providing deeper insight on the situation and person. The story is still mostly well, story driven and focused however that's where the bond episodes come in. I'm sure we've played games where there exists bond episodes, friendship stories or whatever, but I think this game does them particularly well. There are 6(?) episodes for each character in the squadron and all of them follow an important rule when it comes to making a great character. That rule is character development (duh). These bond episodes build upon the relationship you have with a character, but also talks about their struggles, their lives, the people they want to be, the things they want to achieve, their hobbies, etc. There are also episodes where certain events will occur and you and (insert character you're trying to bond level up) try to overcome said event. You can see the way they act during different situations and how they adapt to it. Their strength comes from you, and makes them want to do what's right, even if it's a risk. The game really hammers home the value of friendship and how much of a positive effect it can have in a person's life. We as humans are social creatures by nature, so growing up and becoming better than our yesterday selves due to the bonds we have and the efforts we put in is a product of companionship. It's honestly one of the things I can praise this game for because I've played multiple other games with this same concept, but fail to grasp it correctly. I might be looking to deep into it, but that's the message I got when maxing out each bond story. I really do adore everyone in the squad. Finally, the combat. The combat is what most people can agree on is the best part of the game. It's got a very deep combat system but the best part for me is abusing the SAS abilities. You can use a total of 9 different types of abilities which are fire, teleportation, defense, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, electric, superspeed, duplication and invisibility. All skills you can use and incorporate into your combo attacks. There's also brain drive, the brain field, the follow up attacks, etc. There's just so much to the combat I love it. I've had a blast with it the entire playthrough and I think it might just be my favorite combat system I've experienced in a game. There's a spreadsheet of skills you can unlock throughout the game and unlocking these skills grant you more power, new skills, new attacks, new mechanics, etc. One more thing before I finish here is that I want to mention that this company is the same one that created the more famous Tales of Arise. I've made a separate review for that game but one things for sure, both games do their characters right. My only issue with ToA is that the story is not as good as Scarlet Nexus which is kinda disappointing since it is a newer release.

There aren't many anime-ish games out there that are of this quality so if you enjoy anime games, this game certainly delivers. Definitely gonna remember this game fondly and the shit this game gets is so undeserved.