Scar-Lead Salvation Review (PS5) – Not Quite Anime Returnal

Compile Heart and Idea Factory International surprised everyone by revealing a third-person shooter with rogue-lite elements and bullet hell dodging. The game they revealed was Scar-Lead Salvation. It featured a red-haired girl named Willow shooting robots and dodging large incoming projectiles.

Game Name: Scar-Lead Salvation
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PC
Developer(s): Compile Heart, Neilo Inc.
Publisher(s): Idea Factory International
Release Date: May 29th, 2025
Price: $59.99

Willow Martin wakes up in a strange facility, and all she has to go on is an AI named MOG. She has no memories of how she wound up there or even why she is there. Every time she dies, she goes straight back to the beginning of the facility again and has to find her way back through the facility. With each floor she clears, she gains new insight into the world around her and even more possible reasoning as to why a facility like this even exists.

Surviving This Bullet Hell

Scar-Lead Salvation has an easy gameplay loop. Move further and further into the facility and hope you eventually find a way out. Each floor has a randomized, procedurally generated layout with chests, different gear, and enemies appearing in almost every room on the floor. At the end of each floor, you get to an upgrade station that can upgrade the weapons you find throughout the game. When you die, you lose your weapons, but you do get to keep your exo-suit cores.

Each stage comprises multiple floors before you get to the boss of that stage. It is also what makes exo-suit cores so important. Each stage unlocks a new exo-suit core, which is a passive ability or buff for Willow. They can be damage increases, Health buffs, aim help, or even help with your exo-suit activation. When you activate your exo-suit, it makes Willow invulnerable and faster until the gauge depletes. These cores can be leveled up by finding them again in the facility. Boxes or alters can house these cores.

Each floor comprises hallways and rooms. Hallways can be a bit long and drag out the experience of the game. This is slightly mitigated since Willow and the AI will talk during the first time you enter a hallway on a floor about the facility or things that are happening in the outside world. The rooms are great. When you enter a room, you will either see enemies spawn as you enter, or your map will populate with icons that indicate special boxes that can contain weapons or exo-suit cores. Willow begins each run with armor that mitigates damage from enemies. With each hit, a piece of armor can disappear. Once the armor is removed, Willow’s health gauge will start taking hits when she gets hurt by enemies. Her jumpsuit will start to take damage afterward. Pieces of her jumpsuit will start to disappear as she continues to get hurt, It even transitions to cutscenes showing her battle-damaged jumpsuit.

Running Around This Facility

Scar-Lead Salvation has an amazing art style. The design of the armor specifically for Willow looks amazing. I felt bad whenever the armor fell off, and I had Willow in only her jumpsuit. I like the battle damage look, don’t get me wrong, I always appreciate when a character gets battle-damaged during fights. The bosses look amazing and have a lot of different elements in each of their fights. Though you often will have to decide between getting hit by something and dealing damage or not doing damage at all, and waiting for an opening that gives you only a few seconds to shoot. Learning to be mobile and dodging and parrying blasts at the same time is a challenge, but an extremely satisfying one.

Even though the floors and rooms feel a bit long on runs, I do think the textures look nice. Especially when you consider the previous Compile Heart games that have pretty mundane textures. There are reflections on normal metallic rooms, cold rooms, and even hot rooms with lava. There is a good mix of locales in the game. In action and with all the effects, Scar-Lead Salvation has a gorgeous aesthetic. The only thing I would say would take me out is when Willow would run. Her body would become pretty blurry with the motion blur. This is weird because the mirage ability that lets Willow dodge seamlessly doesn’t have this same motion blur effect.

Narrating Salvation

Scar-Lead Salvation takes a rather risky way to tell its story. Rather than cinematics or story-heavy exposition, it gets told to the player in journal reports and conversations in-game as you are fighting these giant robots in the facility. I do think it works out better than I was expecting. I think it helps a lot that Scar-Lead Salvation did get an actual English dub. This way, you can focus on the fight and not have to worry about reading the subtitles alone to figure out the lore surrounding this facility and the world the game takes place in. I don’t think this narrative approach would have worked in a subbed-only experience.

The atmosphere does make you feel very isolated in this facility, and that is very much intentional. Willow is meant to feel like she is stuck in a location and isolated from the world. This is what makes it so motivating for her to just get out of this facility. Each boss encounter also influences her to learn new truths about herself and this facility.

Escaping Solitude

Scar-Lead Salvation controls like a dream, and being able to dodge, shoot, and parry makes it a fun and engaging experience. Even though the halls can get boring, especially once all the dialogue is done for the floor, the game makes up for it in the moments that matter, and the gunplay. I don’t think this is the same experience as those who were hoping to see Returnal as an experience, but in anime form. The gunplay is not as hefty, but this game gives you more of a power fantasy, especially when you have a solid build for Willow.

Scar-Lead Salvation will launch physically and digitally on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Steam on May 29, 2025. Fans can wishlist the game on PSN and Steam today.

Review Disclosure Statement: Scar-Lead Salvation was provided to us by Idea Factory International for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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