So I've never played the 2021 video game Scarlet Nexus myself, but it's a game that I've seen a friend play basically from the beginning to the end. The story itself is pretty great, and I absolutely like the art style, but, as with any game that I talk about in this blog, the monster design is what catches me mostly because of how weird they are. Scarlet Nexus itself is a game that follows a group of characters from the OSF (Others Suppression Force), an organization dedicated to defending the good people of Japan from hideous monstrosities called 'Others', who appeared one day when a mysterious fog-like phenomenon called the Extinction Belt descended and unleashed all these monsters into the world. They go around to kill humans and consume their brains! And in come our heroes, chiefly represented by Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall, the two 'paths' that tell the full picture of the game's full story. Equipped with superpowers, psychic powers, and an array of anime weapons that range from your everyday katanas and batons to chainsaws and gym deadweights, our heroes have to navigate the complex factions and politics and the mysterious power called the Red Strings.
And there are a lot of spoilers and a lot of characters, and honestly Scarlet Nexus is a game that feels more like a visual novel with some combat tossed in here and there. But that's okay! That's fine for a video game to be. It's just that in so much discussion about Scarlet Nexus and its characters, the monsters do kind of fall on by the wayside... when the design of the monsters are so bizarre and so utterly weird. These supposedly inhuman creatures look like the strange paintings of an abstract painter -- something the game itself acknowledges by setting one of the locations in a mansion filled with paintings.
I won't be spoiling anything about the story of the game any more beyond that because we'd go on a full tangent, but Scarlet Nexus does come pretty well recommended from me.
Today, we're going to talk about the 'common' Others!
Scummy Pool
Now Scarlet Nexus enemies groups their enemies in categories, and we'll start with the 'Pool' type enemies, seemingly the weakest ones. And in each enemy group, the 'scummy' variation is always the most basic one. The 'Pools' look rather... stunted? Their silhouettes look more like plants or fungi or, as this enemy's profile informs, coral, compared to the more animalistic stronger Others. The Scummy Pool is noted to have coral organs on top of its upper body that are theorized to hinder the absorption of brains, unlike the other Others. Since most organizations of a 'kill-on-sight' mentality with the Others, there aren't too much research on these things, but I do like that the profiles explain enough to note that when stronger Pools are dehydrated for an extended amount of time, they degenerate into Scummy Pools.
Again, the naming scheme doesn't really make much sense here since the Scummy Pool doesn't really look like any definitions of the word 'pool'. Unless the pool refers to its liquid form? Because the Scummy Pool is basically the equivalent of a weak 'slime' enemy in a video game, being made mostly of a yellow fluid that rises up and bunches up like a mushroom, while the 'coral outgrowths' resemble an eyeless head with some hair. Oh, and there's something like a circus tent or a lampshade below that 'head', and a common motif with the Others is that they incorporate random man-made objects which make them look so much weirder than your regular fantasy game monsters. The resulting appearance give the silhouette and vague resemblance to a man with one of those old-timey traveling cloaks that reach just below your shoulder, and I think this is the crux of the design of the Others in general. They look so vaguely like humans or animals and the like, but everything in its design looks so wrong.
Bile Pool
Next up we have the Bile Pool, and they do have the anatomy of a Scummy Pool for its lower body... which leads credence to the fact that other stronger Pools would be reduced to a Scummy Pool when they 'dehydrate'. Except... the parts that are missing on a Scummy Pool aren't actually the watery, slimy parts, which, again, adds so much to the bizarre biology of these creatures. Instead of a coral growth on top of the wad of slime, the Bile Pool has an entire tree on top of its head... ending with an upside-down lightbulb. So that thing connected to the wad of slime is actually a lampshade, then? The Bile Pool will spray water from its oozy body at enemies, and are vulnerable to electricity.
What I thought to just be detailing on the ooze on the Scummy Pool is actually a consistent detail on all four 'Pools', where from the 'root' of the main fluid-slime-wad body is a smaller stalked orb rising out from a growth. Is this the 'real' body of the Pools, or perhaps how they reproduce?
Fuel Pool
Whereas Bile Pool takes up "relatively clean" water, Fuel Pool stores and consumes oil. Which means that where the Bile Pool is susceptible to electrical attacks, the Fuel Pools are susceptible to fire. The base design between the two are similar enough, but there are certain differences. Instead of a lightbulb, the Fuel Pool has a candle on the center of it's little lightbulb-holder. Oh! I get it! Lightbulbs and candles both provide light! And whereas the tree growing out of a Bile Pool has a lot of leaves presumably because of the aforementioned healthy water, the Fuel Pool's plant are withered and leafless.
Doppel Pool
Presumably the strongest of the Pools (I really didn't pay attention when my friend is doing the combat segments of this game and just turn my brain off while the characters do their cool anime attacks), the Doppel Pool is a Bile Pool that has absorbed 'water with many impurities'. Which is where I realized that reproduction is probably where they were going for with the tiny little mushroom stalk on the edge of the three lesser Pools' bases. The Doppel Pool seems to have grown so much from a Bile Pool, with the left body having a tree that has grown five lightbulbs (no holder, though) while the secondary body seems to have grown into a smaller lightbulb-tree of its own.
The profile notes that Doppel Prey will spit out 'something like algae' which creates the doppelgangers, which will continue spitting on you with their ooze attacks. Your characters need to use clairvoyance in order to pinpoint which one is the 'main' body, because damaging it disrupts their ability to maintain their concentration. I really do get the vibe of like, sprouting fungi and plant-based enemies that are growing rapidly, but these things are weird lamp-trees growing out of pus!
Scummy Rummy
Often portrayed as the 'footsoldiers' because these things do fill in the role of simultaneously looking both weak and threatening at the same time, the Scummy Rummy are the first real 'humanoid'-looking Others, and... boy, what a design, huh? It obviously looks like a mannequin, and there's a definite Silent Hill vibe to their design, but... instead of body horror, the Rummy looks very, very wretched! Taking the base mannequin body (and mannequins are already creepy), the Scummy Rummy removes the head and exposes all the innards, which look like frames. There's just something a bit more unsettling about zombie mannequins compared to regular mannequins, yeah? And I'm not sure how real mannequins work, but those legs look like someone grafted on umbrellas to them as legs.
The profile in the game note that Rummies (I can't find a good definition for 'rum' or 'rummy' that even fits anything they do) like to carry tools, and the Scummy Rummy like to carry 'handmade tools' like a hooked rod or a birdcage to beat up prey. And the birdcages are a bit more unsettling, aren't they? There's just no context to why these headless mannequins shamble about with birdcages to beat people up. There is just something so wrong with their anatomy, too, which the profile notes the bizarreness. They don't have knee joints that make them hard to move around, and they don't have a mouth or an organ equivalent to a mouth, so how do they even consume brains?
Buddy Rummy
There are a couple more elite versions of the Rummy enemy, and the first on the codex is the Buddy Rummy. The design still has the same basic anatomy as the Scummy Rummy, but the Buddy Rummy is a bit more 'whole', as much as you can make a headless mannequin 'whole', anyway. The parts that are covered look like they're done with better-looking leather, and those red... flowers? Fungi? Those growths on her chest almost looks like a ribbon. The Buddy Rummy beats people up with the arms of other Rummies, which you'd think is just a generic morbid detail for a 'zombie' or a 'doll' enemy, until you read the profile. When there aren't any prey nearby, the Buddy Rummies like to shake each other's hands (or 'performing a handshake-like action')... but then when they go back to acting on their own, their grip is so tight that they rip off their buddy's arms.
And, of course, I think we are deep enough into this article that you guys probably wouldn't mind spoilers, so here's the big spoiler that you'll probably find out in the first act of the game... the Others are all actually humans transformed by mysterious particles of the Extinction Belt. Yes, even those bizarre Pools. Which makes the fact that they look like they're made out of man-made items like mannequins and lamps and whatnot feel so much more unsettling, yeah? And these lesser Others have completely lost their minds, but I wonder if their 'handshake-like actions' are something that these Rummies remember from their past life as something that they know they should do?
Rainy Rummy
Our next Rummy variant is another one that incorporates another man-made object in an unsettling way, because these guys have upside-down umbrellas for heads. It's like someone stabbed an open umbrella tip-first into the neck-hole, giving the initial impression here of some sort of a fountain or a flower. Except it's an umbrella with the similar coral growths from the Scummy Pool growing out of the tip. It's a bit hard to tell in this image because it blends with the background, but the Rainy Rummy also wields the 'skeleton' of an umbrella as a blunt weapon. The profile note how they explicitly attack and rip off the umbrella-heads of other Rainy Rummies. And instead of the water attack that you think a being called 'Rainy' Rummy would do, these guys attack with electricity.
Again, I do like the fact that the four different Rummies actually do have the same basic body shape, particularly the long, tapering pointy legs and the really wrong-looking mannequin bodies.
Kitchen Rummy
Those backwards-bent legs compared to the conical umbrellas of the Scummy, Buddy and Rainy Rummies give the Kitchen Rummy just such a more distinct look. But everything about this headless mannequin lady is just so weird, isn't it? It's got head on fire, like the light on a gas stove or something, and its right hand is holding a pipe that was warped by heat. The left arm is also red and covered with spikes... or are those fungal growths? Or kitchen knives?
Again, the profile notes about how these Kitchen Rummies display behaviour that's almost human-like, where it's theorized that these Kitchen Rummies look like they're making tools with the pipes... but there's no rhyme or reason on how they 'craft' these weapons, all they're observed to do with the pipes is just beat the shit out of enemies as crude blunt-force weapons. Again, are these something that was left behind from their time as humans?
Scummy Pendu
Next up is a group of flying creatures called the 'Pendu', which... presumably comes from 'pendulum'? Or le pendu, the tarot card representing the Hanged Man? These things fly around and look more like hideous, mutated fly-zombie-things, though. What we're looking at only really gets a bit clearer when we look at the more complete variations of the Pendu, but it's basically similar concept to the Rummy... except instead of being headless mannequins, the Scummy Pendu is missing its head, arms and legs. Instead, it's got a bunch of bug wings sprouting out of its back, and the legs end in those ball-joints you would see in wooden toys. And sprouting from its head, without any real rhyme or reason other than being creepy, is... a coat-hanger? I think? The top of one, anyway.
The profile notes that this Pendu doesn't have an observable mouth, is likely that it can't consume brains... but yearns for it and continues attacking humans from the sky. Sometimes it gets so frustrated that the Scummy Pendu would even attack things that have no brains, or even other Others.
Bandeau Pendu
The three Pendu variations have an upside-down mannequin torso, but while these have heads (unlike the Rummies!) They always never have eyes. It's got the upside-down torso and head, but the upper half (or lower half, in this case?) of the head explodes in a weird mass of metallic crowns. And there's a lot going here and I'm not sure how to explain. The 'humanoid' torso, arms and head are always on the bottom of these Pendus, making them somewhat akin to a wasp's abdomen and stinger, I guess? Sprouting from the top of this being is presumably its actual 'head', which is some sort of... uh... featureless shoe on a stalk. A little bizarre is the titular 'bandeau' -- a word that refers to a type of a strapless top for women, which opens up like some sort of screen door to reveal four cacti or something strapped to the Bandeau Pendu's chest.
There's not much in the Bandeau Pendu's description that explains any of what its bizarre anatomical features are, mostly focusing on its fierceness in hunting when anything with brains gets into its territory. So yeah. Those panel-shaped bandeaus, or the weird cactus on its chest, or whatever its almost bird-like 'head' is supposed to be... we have no real idea.
Marabou Pendu
The 'marabou' is a kind of a stork, and the Marabou Pendu is fancy-looking! It's purple, and shares a lot of the same anatomy with the Bandeau, but makes it look a bit more organic-looking by removing the weird paper panels or whatever they are. The wings are more bird-like, and you can see the mass of growths on its wings that it uses to shoot its fireball attacks. The mass of these wings causes it to stay on ground more often than other Pendus, making it vulnerable in that way -- a very nice little 'biological' detail! The profile describes how the Marabou Pendu does a similar tactic that certain birds like shrikes do, where it skewers and impales its prey on electric poles or tree branches to save for later.
But the Marabou Pendu and the Plateau Pendu below really does make these Pendu kinda-sorta vaguely resemble birds of prey, right? The anatomy is obviously all wrong, but from a silhouette standpoint it looks like someone heard a description of a bird without ever seeing one himself, then tried to use a bunch of mannequin parts to make one. You can kinda almost see it, right? The weird shoe-thing is the 'beak', the wings are the wings, the mannequin arms are the 'talons', and the mannequin head is a 'tail'? I actually think that might be why the mannequin arms are covered in that weird quilt-like fabric, too. It makes them look more distinct as limbs.
Plateau Pendu
Probably the simplest-looking of the non-Scummy Pendu, the Plateau Pendu is the electrical-themed version of it, sharing the bizarre metallic wings with the Marabou Pendu. The 'bird body' of this Pendu looks a lot less mannequin-like, looking more like a bunch of random metal parts grafted together. The Plateau Pendu's also gotten rid of the weird shoe-thing for a... I'm not sure what it is, some sort of a sink or a shower head or something related to plumbing?
Again, the bird-esque silhouette is there, and the anime adaptation had a creepy scene where one of these Pendus swoop down and carry a person up with its 'talons'... except instead of a giant bird's talons, it's a giant scrapyard creature and the talons are the arms of a dead-faced eyeless upside-down mannequin. The profile notes how the Plateau Pendu likes to stack rubble, but really isn't concerned when other Others destroy them since they do not have any goal to stack them to begin with.
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So yeah. Despite having a pretty standard character design for its human characters, Scarlet Nexus's enemies are really, really fucking weird! And the Rummys, Pools and Pendus are the weakest of the bunch! Tune in next time for the 'lesser' and 'greater' Others, where I hopefully will go through a bit faster!
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