Neon White (PS5)
Neon White may look like a first-person shooter, but actually shooting the guns you grab is perhaps their least useful function. Rather than focusing so much on enemies as targets, you’ll be aiming primarily for target times in a game that plays out more like a fast-paced platformer than something built around shooting accuracy.
In Neon White you’ll be thrown into a level with just your katana and told to wipe out all the demons who have infected Heaven before reaching the end goal. Your katana isn’t particularly strong though, but most of the demons aren’t too dangerous either. If you linger in place they’ll start firing at you, and even the most dangerous ones, disembodied heads that lock on and eventually fire an instant death laser, are usually more about keeping you moving rather than putting up a fight. Your katana can at least deflect energy bullets back at the demons if you do want to get some use out of that sword, but really the katana is mostly a back-up option since most of Neon White is going to be about not just grabbing new guns within the level, but using them to both navigate and eliminate.
When you grab a gun card for something like a handgun or shotgun, they can be used to blast a demon, but their main use will be what happens when you choose to discard them. A handgun actually gives you a double jump, opening up additional midair opportunities. The shotgun launches you like a fireball in the direction you’re facing, while an uzi instead lets you slam down and send out a shockwave. These weapons, called Soul Cards, will be used up when you discard them to activate their special ability, but quickly you’ll realize levels are about identifying how to grab the Soul Cards and discard them at the right time to blitz through the level at a breakneck pace. There is still some focus on accuracy in aiming, some demons are best shot and guns like the machine gun have their alternate fire be a sticky grenade you will want to place just right so it can kill some baddies while launching you off into the air, but lining up shots isn’t too difficult compared to honing your precision when it comes to the platforming.
Neon White’s levels are exceptionally well crafted to help you hone your navigation of them through mostly intuitive layouts, only a few lategame levels and some of the sidequest stages having moments where you might be a little confused on where to head. Most of the time, the path before you is pretty apparent, the player guided by the demon and Soul Card placement to travel the right path at a naturally rapid pace, it not hard to notice points for improvement as you pursue the level’s target times. Clearing Neon White will require you to earn at least gold medals across many of its over 90 main levels, which isn’t too tall of an ask because of the conducive level designs where beating them once usually will already give you enough information to refine the time into something cleaner. However, because Neon White’s levels are so well structured to guide your eyes and keep you moving well, you can also start to spot the areas where you can save time without the game having to nudge you too hard. You’ll realize that maybe holding onto a Soul Card for later use can let you skip past a section, you’ll spot the corners that can be cut, and even if you can’t, beating a level will earn you Insight. Insight for a level will unlock things like a hint marker for a potential shortcut spot that might open your eyes to a clever new way to move, and while there are advanced techniques like slashing one of your machine gun bombs to activate it immediately, you won’t need such options to get a passing time.
In fact, the Ace medals that reward you for clearing a level at incredible speeds with smooth and skillful movement aren’t too far out of reach either. Often they just require understanding the expected route and realizing a way to go faster by going a bit off the beaten path, and with levels having economical designs without too much wasted space, you won’t have to hunt for long to find such routes. Getting Ace medals on most stages feels just as feasible as getting the gold, especially with many levels not even hitting a minute to clear and with quick restart options to make refining your movement even easier. Some late game stages do push the length a bit, Neon White has a few boss battles as well as a last big platforming gauntlet before the finale, but even the boss fights are built around smart movement and starting to realize you could do things better without training up to hit those target times being some grueling process.
Despite having a lot of practical geometry in their design, levels in Neon White aren’t barren or soulless. Neon White taking place in Heaven is immediately nailed in well with the opening area having bright blue skies, glittering water, and white architecture inspired by ancient Greek and Roman styles. The coloration manages its contrasts well without distracting the eye and floating structures suit an ethereal space like the afterlife well, but you’ll also later head to spaces with far different looks like large purple skyscrapers that are still just as easy to navigate thanks to color choices and marking important areas well. Each level in Neon White also has a hidden gift you can find after beating it once, these often finding a secondary use for these spaces as you no longer need to focus on fast movement and instead need to use your available tools to go against the obvious pathing that suits the speed-focused play so well. You can only carry two different types of Soul Cards at once and only three of each, meaning discarding at just the right time and not exhausting its ammunition that forces a discard can be the difference between reaching a deviously placed gift or falling to your doom, but the gifts also mostly follow the game’s commitment to communicating through level design what it takes to get somewhere with execution being the more important factor. There are a few times it isn’t so clean, the early levels that are teaching you the basics will have gifts out of reach until you know all your movement techniques and those skyscraper levels sometimes are so tall it can be hard to find where a gift was squirreled away, but these little speed bumps still can’t slow enthusiasm thanks to how well the levels are designed to encourage accessible speedrunning and fast exploration.
Sidequest levels even give the game room to get a bit experimental beyond the main adventure’s over 90 levels. Sidequest stages often restrict you in some way or greatly change the focus, like specific levels where you have to stay airborne quite a while as most every surface is coated in lethal spikes or areas you have to navigate without being able to discard cards, and perhaps wisely, these levels focused more on figuring things out don’t have time requirements, medals, or leaderboards so you can take your time to puzzle out how to play in a different manner. Neon White’s main levels can require a lot of focus and timing even though they’re not daunting because of how smooth and responsive your abilities are, but having areas you can decompress between trying to hit medal times like the less demanding but still engaging sidequests does prevent the player from wearing themselves down. However, sidequests are earned by giving those gifts you find in level replays to specific characters, and Neon White’s story can feel like a somewhat odd fit with its kinetic fast-paced gameplay.
Neon White is actually the name of the game’s protagonist, a sinner who was pulled up to Heaven to participate in the Ten Days of Judgement. Demons have managed to infest certain reaches of Heaven and the Believers elect to solve this problem by recruiting violent souls to weed them out, these people called Neons promised a chance at having a year of bliss in Heaven if they can outperform the other Neons. Our main Neon, Neon White, is entering the contest for the first time and finding out very quickly a few other competitors have a shared history with him, but he has no memories of his time alive while they all remember him too well. This can lead to some strong character intrigue, White has a clearly deep personal connection with the femme fatale Neon Red but she’s not forthcoming with details on it despite clearly showing some lingering interest in him, and the previous winner of the Ten Days of Judgement, Neon Green, inspires a visceral hatred and anger in White he doesn’t initially understand. When the plot is focused on exploring the bonds they had in life and how this new situation is impacting their afterlife, Neon White can write an effective narrative that lets the story explore ideas and thoughts outside of a simple competition.
However, Neon White can also be quite indulgent and unabashedly corny at times, especially with some of the other members of Neon White’s former gang. Neon Violet is immature and flirtatious in a way that can be a bit uncomfortable or a little gross at times, but it’s at least intentionally off-putting to some degree. Similarly, Neon Yellow talks a bit like a dim-witted but well-meaning jock, but his seemingly friendly and a bit dorky behavior is also used against you well. You can’t fully tell in this story about sinners who is authentic or who you should let yourself become emotionally attached to, something the story uses to good effect in different directions. The cast does ultimately become a likeable bunch, and those gifts you can give them can actually unlock extra scenes that sometimes exist for purely comedic purposes. You might roll your eyes at some of the humor or recoil a little at a crass line, but you also get a better sense of characters by seeing them in simpler situations like trying to sneak a bite of Heaven’s food or taking a dating compatibility quiz. These slower sections, even compared to visual novel scenes by the game’s creator, do contrast with the kind of heart-pumping, drum and bass backed action of the main journey and can be skipped easily enough if they don’t click, but the story isn’t a write-off because it can use the extra space to write something with a memorable cast, even if sometimes you remember something about them that is a bit strange or uncomfortable.
THE VERDICT: Neon White’s story is more of an acquired taste that requires a little faith that the stranger aspects will pay off once the criminal intrigue and character relationships are fully explored, but the gameplay comes out swinging and doesn’t stop hitting until you’ve cleared every level with Ace medals on each. The stages are refined to a sheen to be conducive to immediate apparent exploration with your enjoyable but tactical use of Soul Card abilities and because of that you can start to identify the shortcuts and time-saving tricks yourself without it feeling spoon fed to you. Because the control is so smooth and solid you won’t really protest any slip-ups and can easily dive back into another quick attempt of the nicely condensed levels, Neon White never feeling too demanding while still evoking that sensation that would usually come from achieving speedrunning perfection.
And so, I give Neon White for PlayStation 5…
A GREAT rating. Refining your movement through a level to achieve tight times is not something unique to Neon White, but its emphasis on the kind of speedy and skillful movement you’d see in a speed run but with a more approachable and still rewarding format is what really helps it shine. A level in Neon White is often quick and exhilarating, the soundtrack from Machine Girl a great companion as you find restarting isn’t too much of a barrier because stages are often speedy and easy to slip back into. Absurd techniques aren’t required to achieve the Ace medals but they’re still there to reward you for finding the ways to shave seconds off your time, whether it be just through moving the main path so expertly it clears the level quickly enough or identifying the spots where you can improve by finding alternatives to the well communicated expected direction. Neon White having a few levels where maybe it’s not immediately apparent where to go or how to grab the gift is hardly something to hold against it when it offers so many stages on top of extras like the sidequests, and the range of Soul Cards and how they start getting used in tandem in stages really helps add to that thrilling feeling you are developing your abilities to overcome a true challenge. The gold medal requirements for the story aren’t too demanding so you’re not beholden to acing any stage if some don’t happen to click, and while the demons aren’t too fearsome, you do start to face more difficult layouts later on with elements like big explosive tripwires to dodge that keep some peril in play despite how well you’ll be trained to overcome it. Neon White’s unflinching approach to writing might be the harder part to swallow for some players, its anime influences and raunchy humor sometimes coming on a bit strong, but it also makes the social connections feel a bit more authentic because these sinners fighting for redemption aren’t all polished or perfect. Removing it would strip the game of some of its effective identity, and while a few lines could be shed and maybe broaden the audience a bit for it, being true to itself does mean the characters stand out well and leave you with more thoughts on their relationships than something squeaky clean.
Neon White has a stylish look and sound while also making you feel stylish for how you move expertly through its levels. It doesn’t feel like it is holding your hand and you can even refine your own route rather than always going for the hints or subtle guidance to earn your top times, and the Soul Cards provide some satisfying movement techniques that do require a good sense for how to use them if you want to really shine. Neon White’s story will probably be its most contentious part, but it provides a better tale than reading its isolated quotes would suggest, and much like how the gameplay may not sound immediately appealing to people who don’t normally chase speedrun times in their games, it actually holds together better than what your first impression of it might be. Neon White defies your expectations in a good way, putting expert movement in your hands even if you wouldn’t think a speedy first-person shooter would be up your alley in its more traditional forms.