Scar-Lead Salvation
Developers: Neilo, Compile Heart
Publisher: Idea Factory International
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release Date: Available Now (PS5, PS4, PC) September 2, 2025 (Xbox Series X/S)
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Not too long ago we mentioned in another review of a Compile Heart developed game that players never quite know what to expect from the developer and while in this instance it happened to be about a spin-off to a charming but gore-filled RPG, this time around it’s the fact that the developer, alongside Neilo, have made a third-person shooter/roguelike of all things with Scar-Lead Salvation. Designed with a sci-fi anime aesthetic and offering fast movement with a variety of weapons, few could have expected that this would be the latest title to arrive from the developer and with Idea Factory International bringing it worldwide, is Scar-Lead Salvation a pleasant surprise or a dreadful one?
Story
Players awaken as an amnesiac woman with a mysterious glowing line of numbers on her cheek saying “00001” as well as a bountiful set of sci-fi armor and a laser shooting assault rifle. Willow, as her name appears to be through all of the marketing though players will take quite some time before they find out her name themselves without this, has no idea where she is or why she is even so skilled at moving in this suit of powered armor and firing a gun but when she starts to explore the strange facility she’s found herself in only to find that the only other thing occupying it are murderous robots. Despite Willow’s best efforts she is slain (via tutorial death) only to re-awaken right from the same pod she did before, only this time the number on her cheek reads “00002.”
When an unhelpful AI starts to chime in and talk with Willow, she learns a little bit about the location she has found herself in but neither can figure out how or why she is there let alone why the robots want her dead. This leaves Willow’s only option being to fight her way through the robotic menaces while ascending the floors of the military testing facility in hopes of being rescued in some way, all while occasionally chatting with the AI as players blast away at enemies, be it philosophical musings, struggles with lost memory, and even the state that the rest of the world might be in all while Willow is fighting through similar looking halls looking for the next teleporter.
Scar-Lead Salvation has a story to tell, but it does so in such a poorly drawn out manner and lackluster way that players will find themselves struggling to really care most of the time, especially since it is almost entirely doled out through side-conversations between Willow and the AI as players travel between rooms and occasionally even in the middle of a battle. There are a few cutcenes here and there though these tend to be limited to boss fights and victories, where more limited exposition arises and even then so much is left vague that players will end up feeling just as frustrated as Willow is when the AI vaguely responds to her answers or says it cannot access databases it clearly does have access to.
It is interesting to note that there is a semblance of an interesting story here, mostly involving the fact that humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction in a losing war against a multi-dimensional force, but this once again mostly serves as framing and vague mentions. There are certain developments that we won’t spoil here, especially regarding the latter half of the story, but it is rather disappointing to hear how much potential for plot there was that just wasn’t taken advantage of. It is also worth noting that players can find notes left behind in the research facility but thanks to the game’s roguelike nature the appearances of these notes are random and inconsistent. Sometimes portals to the rooms they are in only spawn after a room has been cleared of enemies multiple times and even then on a delay, let alone the fact that some won’t spawn at all unless the player has died and that is in and of itself something of an issue.
Gameplay
Scar-Lead Salvation starts out on the right foot by making it feel absolutely great to control Willow while exploring and fighting. Willow controls tightly when moving and sprinting around, can perform a dodge that can give herself temporary invincibility and dodge through attacks and projectiles, a “photon strike” melee that is punishing and can parry projectiles while absorbing their energy to boost her Exo Phase gauge, and of course jump, though it always sort of feels like a double-jump should have been added or unlockable at some point. Willow can carry two weapons at a time and swap between them on the fly, reloading them as needed with an infinite amount of ammo. Once she has filled up her Exo Phase gauge at least to one full portion players can even enter “Onslaught” mode that makes her temporarily invincible and boosts the damage her weapons deal, though she will still have to reload.
Unfortunately, other than the damage mechanic to Willow’s armor that we will discuss in a bit and some satisfying weapons that make up a somewhat lackluster armory with some weapons feeling downright awful to wield and underpowered compared to others, even at the same level, Scar-Lead Salvation’s gameplay fails to deliver in almost any satisfactory way. Almost every single room plays out the exact same way, with Willow entering a room, finding a number of robotic enemies inside that tend to always look and attack the same with only slight change-ups in later stages, who will ignore her until she starts shooting at them. Then as players take advantage of Willow’s speedy dashing and dodges to avoid their mostly predictable firing angles and attacks and destroy them all, either a new wave will spawn in or players can simply gather up the “Elm Chips” they drop that serve as the in-game currency and head on out through the door. These chips can be used to purchase health refills at shops or items or increase the levels of equipped weaponry between floors. Ironically, the player can actually just run through the door to the next area anytime they want strangely enough, something discovered after having had multiple waves spawn in during the second stage including a late-wave of suicide-bombing bots that we found out could simply just, leave. Ironically, the fact that players have the option to just run straight through any combat arena outside of “Hardcore” rooms that players need to take a teleporter into anyways, is rather funny considering just how monotonous things can become.
Every stage will see players battling through the same looking rooms fighting against the same looking combinations of robots with often the incredibly limited or no real reward for beating them only to venture into the next hallway and into the next room and have to repeat the exact same thing and this is rather dreadful considering how long some stages can be, with floors feeling like they never end. Occasionally things will change-up and players will find a room only filled with laser traps and boxes filled with health items, Exo Gauge boosts, weapons, or Exo skills. The only real reward for often cleaning out an entire wave of a room will occasionally be the appearance of a portal but players are given no indication of what is actually on the other side. Sometimes it is as simple as a reward room filled with boxes of potential buffs or an aforementioned note, a shop where items and weapons can be purchased, or a locked down challenge room.
Exo Skills are little buffs that players can pick up as they fight through the facility and range from increasing player’s defense, their dodge–window, aiming reticle, and more. The further players progress through the game the more slots they unlock for skills but skills are locked to specific slots, meaning players cannot simply pick up a health boosting skill and slot it into slot two, it will instead replace their high level defensive boost option instead. Oh, picking up a duplicate skill will level up the one player’s already have equipped, giving players little reason to want to reset their skill levels especially since Exo Skills are the one thing that players can retain if they are killed in combat, though this, as mentioned before, will happen rarely until late into the game and potentially against a boss battle since at least the boss fights feel like proper bullet-hell style fights that take proper dodges, parrying, and timed shots to defeat the boss by the skin of Willow’s teeth.
One aspect that does make Scar-Lead Salvation a bit unique as a roguelike is the way that well, barely anything worthwhile is carried over or improved over the aforementioned Exo Skills which is disappointing, but the real unique aspect happens to be Willow’s armor. Every time that Willow respawns she will come out with her full set of armor on and players will notice that they actually will receive no damage as long as Willow’s armor is still intact. As she is hit with projectiles or incoming attacks though her armor will slowly start visually breaking and disappearing until she is only down to her under-suit and it is here that players will need to then be careful because at this point Willow will be vulnerable to taking damage. Having an armor mechanic like this that is portrayed visually is an interesting idea and one that isn’t even explained to players so they may feel like they are doing far better than they are only to start getting pulverized once Willow is stripped of her armor. That being said, the game is still incredibly easy for a roguelike and players will most likely find themselves rarely struggling to defeat enemies and only rarely having to put everything on the line against a boss. This lack of challenge is an issue in and of itself for a roguelike hoping to give players reasons to play through it multiple times, because otherwise the game’s frankly short running time for a roguelike quickly reveals itself, even when going for the true ending.
Audio & Visuals
As mentioned earlier, Scar-Lead Salvation puts a strong foot forward when it introduces Willow with her sci-fi anime aesthetic appearance but it quickly falls flat on its face from then on. While Willow may look and move impressively and there are some fancy looking weapons available, the whole thing quickly becomes a bore once players realize they are fighting through the exact same metallic rooms and hallways with slight variations here and there in the randomly generated floors and each stage offering only minimal visual differences. The real standout aspect of the game, visually at least, is that there is almost no slowdown outside of some intense boss fights that feature an intense amount of projectiles being launched at the player and Willow’s armor system. You see, this wouldn’t be a Compile Heart game if there wasn’t some type of fan-service but players need to survive quite a bit to see it here. While there is no cutesy charm or fourth wall-breaking, once Willow’s armor is fully broken and she is down to only her combat suit, the suit will slowly start to be damaged as players take damage themselves. Slowly shredding off parts of it to the point of baring large portions of Willow’s body and simple underwear, providing some level of fan-service but nothing too drastic and to get to this point players need to survive quite a while by healing and surviving encounters or even making use of purchasable revival gems.
The voice work for the game is handled solidly enough with the English voice actors for the amnesiac and confused Willow being handled wonderfully, especially when she is taking an angry or sarcastic tone with the sardonic AI in conversation.. The soundtrack is largely forgettable to the point that it barely serves as background noise to the action and while it does seem like it may differ between stages, the difference is minimal once again.
Overall
Scar-Lead Salvation almost feels like the type of game that is still in its development stages rather than an actually fully published game. Between a story that is far from satisfactory, boring enemies and generic locations to explore, the only real enticing elements happen to be how quickly Willow moves and the way combat works most of the time, including the way Willow’s armor is chipped away for fan-service’s sake. Barely there roguelike elements make this often bland feeling third-person shooter a hard sell, even if it were sold at a discount, but to ask full price for Scar-Lead Salvation is downright the most shocking aspect of the game.
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