Scarlet Nexus is now less than two months away from its launch. The anime action RPG from Bandai Namco has a big opportunity, launching during a summer that's been thinned of new releases due to pandemic delays. Despite its quickly approaching launch, Bandai Namco's shared relatively little of the game. Perhaps in a sign that it's building up a big push for Scarlet Nexus, Bandai Namco has now released the game's opening animation.
The shared video is just under two minutes long and is exactly what anime fans would expect from an opening sequence. With a pop-rock song layered over it, the trailer features an animation showcasing some of Scarlet Nexus' themes and action. The first half of the trailer features some stylized depictions of Scarlet Nexus' cast of colorful characters. The second half features a handful of animated battles and interactions between characters, as well as a closer look at Scarlet Nexus' setting.
Perhaps the most intriguing portion of the trailer is toward the end, as is fitting for an anime opening. There are several jump cuts only briefly showing what appears to be several monsters. Each Scarlet Nexus enemy looks like they're pieced together from objects, whether it's flowers, a mannequin, an alligator machine gun, or a terrifying two-headed dollhouse. Odds are, these are opponents that players will face in Scarlet Nexus. Removed from context, they're very unsettling.
The game-opening animation, for those unfamiliar, is a video that will play ahead of the game starting. Players will start their games and this will be what they first see, either prior to the main menu appearing or directly after starting a new game. Games do it both ways. This is more of a common practice with Japanese games, particularly ones that use anime-inspired visuals. That's in part because they take influence from anime television shows, which feature an opening sequence for every episode.
Obviously, there's no Scarlet Nexus gameplay featured in the new video. It's only supposed to be a teaser for what the full Scarlet Nexus game will feature, as well as the game's animated cinematics. Interested anime or action game fans will have to wait for Bandai Namco to share more gameplay closer to launch.
As for when Bandai Namco could be sharing more information about Scarlet Nexus, fans likely won't have to wait too long. Bandai Namco is already confirmed to be presenting at E3 as an exhibitor this year. While Scarlet Nexus isn't confirmed to be featured, it seems like a certainty considering it launches just after the event ends.
Scarlet Nexus releases June 25 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.