Scarlet Nexus’ Routes Were Inspired by Tales of Xillia’s Double Protagonists
The director of the Bandai Namco action JRPG Scarlet Nexus, Kenji Anabuki, was recently interviewed by the Japanese outlet denfaminicogamer about the title and tangentially related facets. This interview is lengthy, lasting a whopping two pages of in-depth answers.
Some of the questions had to do with the Tales of franchise, with one, in particular, asking what elements from those games found their way into Scarlet Nexus.
You can read the full question and response below, translated by our team’s Ryuji:
Interviewer: Speaking of, you were involved in the Tales of series for a number of years, weren’t you? Are there any elements in Scarlet Nexus that you would say resulted from your experience and involvement with the series?
Anabuki: Many aspects of Scarlet Nexus fit that criteria, but the most noticeable part is the two main characters, Yuito and Kasane, and how the game is structured in such a way that the story can be enjoyed while complementing each other’s perspectives.
We were inspired by the double protagonist style of Tales of Xillia with Milla and Jude.
However, although Xillia is called a double protagonist game, Milla and Jude act together. Therefore, there was an aspect that no matter which protagonist you chose to start with, the story ended up being similar, and there were several comments from players that there was little point in playing both routes.
In Scarlet Nexus, the two main characters basically move separately, and many adjustments were made so that even after completing one route, the story would look different when restarted and viewed from the other’s point of view.
Tales of Xillia is one of the most beloved entries in the series, yet a common critique many players shared was the lack of distinction between Jude and Milla’s chooseable routes. While there were a couple of route-specific sequences dependent on perspective, each experience’s narrative was almost entirely identical. It made the feature feel like an oversight or like it missed out on development time. So, to see it adopted into Scarlet Nexus and refined is pretty cool.
You can view the full interview here.
Scarlet Nexus is set in the distant future, where a psionic hormone has been discovered in the human brain. This leads to people gaining extra-sensory powers and thus changing the world. Humanity entered a new era, but deranged mutants known as Others began to descend from the sky with a hunger for human brains.
These enemies aren’t affected by mortal weapons, and so humanity is forced to rely on those with abilities to save the world. Players take on the role of Yuito Sumeragi or Kasane Randall to uncover the mysteries of a Brain Punk future that is caught between technology and psychic abilities.
Scarlet Nexus is currently available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
In case you missed it, check out our review.
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