NieR: Automata (2017)

Giving this one overall a 9/10!

Can't add more than what's already been said about this game, but I am leaning towards calling it a masterpiece. Is it perfect. No. But I find it hard to find anything that could truly be perfect. I wasn't THAT attached to the characters as a whole. Don't get it twisted. I still enjoyed their POV's and perspectives but I was more interested in the philosophical concepts that are explored. I definitely want to explore why some of the characters are named the way they are.

I loved the music! It is gorgeous and really captures the vibes, the desolate nature of the world. But despite this, there's also a feeling of hope and that is beautiful. Adding to that, the world is also beautiful!

The only con I have really is that it does get quite repetitive at points. As a result, I think in part, the reason it took me a bit to finally finish is because I wasn't that engaged with the hack n' slash gameplay. When the game starts to introduce other characters and styles of play was when I felt a lot more engaged. I really enjoyed the hacking minigames ie. Nier Automata did a great job of really varying the gameplay in the latter half for sure.

This title is one of those rare games that manages to be both a thrilling action experience and a profound work of art. Developed under the eccentric and visionary direction of Yoko Taro, it combines stylish, high-speed combat with a layered narrative that explores what it means to be human, through the eyes of androids and machines long after humanity has vanished. I knew this was one of the highly praised titles of all time, but I thought this was because of how exotic it was, not to mention it was part of a franchise which I had never heard of. But after playing this and experiencing almost all of it's contents, I can safely say this is absolutely one of the best games of all time.

Set thousands of years in the future, the story follows combat androids 2B, 9S, and later A2, as they fight to reclaim Earth from alien-created machines. What begins as a seemingly straightforward war between androids and robots slowly unravels into a philosophical and emotional journey filled with existential questions, moral ambiguity, and heartbreak. And for me this is where this game shines, I think it's biggest strength is it's story and the meaning behind it. And I'm not talking about some cliche vangeance plot, or some convoluted story with a lot of plot-twists, this is genuinely one of the best stories you can find on modern videogames.

Each of the game’s multiple main routes (A through E) reveals new perspectives and hidden truths, turning the act of replaying into a vital part of the storytelling rather than simple repetition. The game also has a ton of secret endings, which are mostly meme endings, you'll for sure experience some of them without even knowing. The combat is fast, fluid, and satisfying, allowing you to chain together sword slashes, ranged attacks, and acrobatics with ease. It also constantly experiments with gameplay perspective, shifting from 3D hack-and-slash to 2D platforming or even top-down bullet-hell segments, often within the same mission.

These transitions feel seamless and serve both mechanical and narrative purposes, keeping you constantly engaged. Visually, the game embraces a desolate beauty, ruined cities overrun by nature, hauntingly empty deserts, and broken amusement parks filled with lifeless machines that somehow evoke emotion. The minimalist art direction is elevated by an extraordinary OST, whose music shifts between ethereal vocals and driving battle themes, perfectly capturing the game’s emotional tone.

Where this game truly stands out is in its willingness to challenge you emotionally and intellectually. It questions purpose, consciousness, and the nature of life itself, all through the lens of characters who are, ironically, not human. The final hours, and especially the ending sequence, are among the most memorable and impactful in gaming history. This game is a rare masterpiece that transcends genres. It’s not just a game you play, it’s one you feel, think about, and remember long after the credits roll. This is absolutely a must-play if you like action games, or if you agree with the idea that videogames are a work of art, to any degree.

So I played this a while back but recently just replayed it along with NieR: Replicant, and after that, I have to put it on my top 3 games of all time.

I would say that this is a good example of how games can be representative of pure art, from the music that is beautifully composed, the story thats deep and gut wrenching, to the gameplay thats hack n slash but in a non-repetitive way with all the weapon combinations, not to mention how many times you switch characters or gameplay styles when doing main story missions. The main thing that really sold me is the story, its really interesting in the philosophical sense that even a gamer like me could understand and relate to.

Safe to say that I REALLY enjoyed this and deffo reccommend to anybody, even though some people are turned off by the 'anime' style of it, its NOT a gooner game.

2/5

Played about 6 hours on Steam.

The main takeaway here is a lesson in not forcing something because of it's critical acclaim. My instinct is to think "What am I missing?" when I hear a game is so beloved and it's just not meshing with me. Usually I'm not missing anything and it's just not for me.

In this case the gameplay of Nier didn't grab me. The idea of chip customisation is intriguing but not enough to hook me in. The character weren's interesting to me, at all. The overall plot had obvious mystery to it, but it honestly dragged and didn't dole out reveals at a good pace. There's obvious thematic work being done and it's a little on the nose for my taste.

Not sure if I have anything unique to say that is not already mentioned in the few lower ratings review for this game.

I don’t think NieR: Automata is bad. The combat is great, the music is divine and the world setting is interesting. But it definitely doesn’t meet my expectations. Route A was quite enjoyable but Route B really put me off. Route C is a bit more interesting but at no point I felt shocked or emotionally disturbed. Not sure if I was looking for exactly this when I decided to buy the game but in retrospect I hope this game had a similar impact on me as Inscryption or The Stanley Parable. I played the Stanley Parable right before NieR: Automata, that might have dramatically altered my expectation of multi-play through and meta interactions.

Another fault of mine is probably knowing too much before playing the game. I went in almost blind when I played Inscryption and The Stanley Parable and the surprise element was big. I had a few “wtf? Is a game supposed be allowed to do this?” moments. On the other hand, before playing NieR: Automata I already knew about the multiple playthroughs and final delete save scene. Knowing enough about a game to make a good purchase and keeping knowledge to minimal to avoid getting spoiled is a delicate balance 😅.

Obligatory YouTube explainer:

What is the best PS4 game? Bloodborne? The Witcher 3? Persona 5? Red Dead Redemption 2? Rocket League? 13 Sentinels? Resident Evil 2? Devil May Cry 5? God of War? Uncharted 4? Nope it’s none of these, it is Nier: Automata, and it isn’t even that hard of a choice. Nier: Automata achieves what many games should be trying to achieve – A perfect marriage of gameplay, visuals, story and sound.

You should go into this knowing as little as possible so I’ll keep things brief. The story is one of the best ever. It is phenomenal and so effective. It’s the type of story that can only be done properly in video games. The soundtrack is beautiful and one of the best ever. The game doesn’t have the biggest budget visuals but the art direction more than makes up for it. The game play is great. It is an action RPG inspired by hack n slash games with lite shump sections and regular perspective shifts. It’s made by Platinum Games, the developers of Bayonetta, Vanquish and Astral Chain.

So why am I not giving this a high 9? Unfortunately due to the way the game plays and how the story is told there is too much repetition. You fight the same enemies and see the same locations often. Then on top of this the side quests can be bland and add to the repetition. But of course all of this is really nothing compared to how good this game is.

Are video games art? Yes, Nier: Automata proves this. Are video games on the same level as great literature and films? Yes, Nier: Automata proves this. If Roger Ebert was still with us Nier: Automata could have changed his mind on video games. Nier: Automata has the power to change you or at the very least be thought provoking and moving. Yoko Taro, the games writer and director, is a genius.

Yeah I know this review sounds hyperbolic but Nier: Automata deserves it and if this little review convinces one person to play Nier: Automata then it has been more than worth it. If you love this medium then you need to play this.

9.4/10

I have a lot to say about this game. I tried to condense it as much as I could but clearly that didn’t work out. Apologies and feel free to skip to the last paragraph for my final thoughts and score.

I finished this game a few days ago, but wanted to give some time for my thoughts on it to settle before writing them down. NieR: Automata is a difficult game for me to analyse for several different reasons, the main one being that I am not a JRPG guy. The only true JRPG I’ve played so far (and that was a long time ago) was FF8, which I loved at the time but don’t see myself enjoying it now. I’m also not, in any way, shape or form, a fan of the anime art style. This is nothing more than personal taste, but anything resembling anime, even if just aesthetically, is something I naturally stay away from. These two preferences combined made me stay away from NA for quite a while, even though around me all I read and heard was how much of a masterpiece, genre-defining and unbelievably deep this game was. On top of that, the game’s fans seemed overly protective to me, which made it hard to parse the information when it came to its quality.

I decided to try it out seeing as it was leaving Game Pass. I always feel compelled to finish a game I start, but worst case scenario I could always put it down for a few hours after I had confirmed my certainty that it just wasn’t my type of game. Over 30 hours later, I was staring at the credits for the 5th time with a sense of loss, that stemmed from the fact that I knew my time with the game was at an end. And at the same time, I had no idea how to rate it. As I begin to write this, I still don’t.

NA has its fair share of issues. The colour palette seems bland and washed out almost everywhere (Amusement Park aside), and even the world itself becomes boring and repetitive after one point, which made me frequently use the fast travel system. Exploration often feels too restrictive (the amount of visible walls you bump into during your playthrough is frustrating). Navigation is a but confusing at first, especially because that map was awful to make sense out of. Camera can be a nuisance, especially in combat with big bosses and in those 2D segments when you could easily mistake your character for your companion. The chip system is awesome, but I wasn’t a fan of having to use chip slots for basic HUD elements (though I understand the reasoning from an immersion standpoint). Story wise, there are some glaring pacing issues at times (I particularly felt this soon after the beginning of the 3rd playthrough when you start playing as A2). Quest pacing can be off-putting too, because most times you can finish a specific side quest, go back to the same NPC immediately after to move on to the next related quest, and they act like they haven’t seen you in a while. Finally, while combat is certainly deeper than what I’ve heard from most people, the game never gives you a reason to explore its depth, which leads me to my last bit of criticism: there is a weird issue in NA when it comes to difficulty balance: Normal is way too easy after the early parts, and you can simply spend the entire game button mashing; Hard is way too hard and a massive jump from the previous setting. It really feels like there’s a whole in between level missing here. For all these reasons and a couple more niggles, I can’t really consider this the masterpiece that almost everyone seems to think it is, and I actually think the awe felt when it came to the game’s brilliance persuaded a lot of people to ignore its issues.

However, I can’t say I blame them. Because holy shit, the level of quality in the things NieR: Automata does well is through the roof. The unexpected and expertly crafted story is what most people point to and label as genre defining and philosophically unparalleled. I can understand, but I only partially agree. To me, there are 2 central concepts in NA (spoiler territory ahead, though I’ll try to keep it brief): the first is the nature of consciousness, and here, even though the concept is pretty well explored, I personally feel other games have done it at least slightly better and in a more gut-punching way (SOMA comes to mind as an obvious example). The second is the meaning of existence, and how such is only truly achieved when shared with others. Here, I feel, is where Automata truly shines. At first I honestly saw it as somewhat unnecessary and even pretentious. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that ending E is the epitome of the shared experience in gaming: you try to blast your way through the credits while avoiding a seemingly infinite number of bombs; you feel the odds overwhelmingly stacked against you, yet you never give up; when all begins to seem hopeless, you start reading encouraging messages from people who have been in your shoes, which gives you the will to continue; at the last minute, when you really think you won’t be able to pull it off, you get offered a message of hope in the form of help. And this help comes from people who have sacrificed their own saves in order to be there for a complete stranger. This is the highest form of altruistic symbolism I have experienced in any game I’ve ever played, placed at the most perfect time, after the player has experienced all the events that had led them to this point. If there is a genius moment in Automata this is undoubtedly it, and I tip my hat to Yoko Taro for having created such a beautiful thing. To me, ending E is this game’s clear crowning achievement, and one of gaming’s finest moments.

Other things I thought Automata did remarkably well: 1) the weaving of its multiple playthroughs. If you’re like me, the thought of replaying the same sections of a game over and over is more than enough to make you not want to play it. If that’s the case, however, you have nothing to fear here. The only playthroughs that share quite a few similarities (and sometimes show a bit of incongruence timeline wise) are 1 and 2. But even those are different enough that they don’t feel samey, though you do revisit the same places and relive some of the same events; 2) gameplay in most respects - especially when it comes to movement and combat - is incredibly responsive and rewarding, to the point of feeling almost exhilarating at times; 3) the sense of progression is awesome, especially at the early to mid stages of the game; 4) The RPG elements centred around weapons, chips and pod mods are vey satisfying, and they give you plenty to create different play styles if you want to; 5) hacking and air combat, Automata’s ‘mini-games’, are amazing. They’re surprisingly fluid, fast paced and enjoyable (the air segments in particular gave me serious Galaga and Raptor vibes); 6) though the game isn’t graphically anything to write home about, the presentation is stellar; 7) the machine dialogue is delightful - some of it is quite humorous, some of it is unbelievably heartbreaking (that ‘brother’ scene in the beginning of the 2nd playthrough was particularly painful); 8) and last but my god, certainly not least - the soundtrack. It’s not that I like all of the songs equally (in fact I downright dislike a couple of them), but the ones I do like I became almost obsessed with. They’re the perfect audio complement to every single area of the game they were put in, and the amount of emotional tone they add to the story beats is very difficult to put down in words. Wonderful job.

So here I am, a wall of text later, still not very certain about what score to give NieR: Automata. It has quite a few things I’m critical of, yet it also reaches peaks I rarely encountered throughout my gaming life. I can’t look past its flaws to call it ‘a masterpiece’. However, the game does show genuine strokes of genius when it comes to not only its remarkable storytelling within the gaming framework, but also its powerful final impression. In the end, I’m deciding to give Automata an 8.5/10, but I can easily understand anyone who’d be inclined to rate it even higher. Perhaps part of my rating is down to my personal disconnection from JRPGs and the anime style as a whole, which in a way, speaks to the strengths of a JRPG, anime style game that still managed lock me in from start to finish.

My review of NieR:Automata may be similar to my review of Bloodborne because I had very similar experiences with both of them. For both:

• I loved the aesthetic
• I loved the combat
• It got to a point where I was so frustrated I cried
• I couldn't end up finishing it so I admire it from afar

However, in the case of N:A, I couldn't get past one boss and therefore had to completely end my adventure. I had run out of healing items and I couldn't successfully run away from the boss to get to a station where I could buy more (I tried.) In Bloodborne, if I was stuck on a boss at least I could leave it, try to level up and then go back to it.

Aside from that, I think I got about...40% through the main story. I know I didn't get very far, but I loved the character development that I was witnessing and the overall arc that the story was heading towards. If you enjoy the Dark Souls style games, I think you'll really enjoy NieR:Automata.

Basic philosophy being made accessible for anime weirdos in a pretty viewtiful game. Plus the camera's a bit wonky and changes too much angles for a musical too! It's fairly poorly optimized, if you have a laptop with 4 CPUs, you need to Alt+Tab+Delete and turn only CPU 0 and 2 on, basically turn off every second CPU, like a pattern, or else you'll have a game that crashes. Despite it's multiple issues based around those PC things, the game is very well done (no glitches encountered and there's effort in the animations, though I guess I say that because I played Fallout 4 before this), it's super smooth and the landscapes are seemlessly huge. Good acting too and the DYNAMIC MUSIC!! is the best aspect of this game, but outside of that it still is part of flawed series.

There's plenty of fetch quests but I've become very fond of fishing. This musical has a lot of neat ideas mixed in a big nihilistic mess (like they tried to combine and make an Open world RPG which doesn't go that well with the pacing of a "character action" game) but I feel as if as a result there were a lot of tone issues (I mean it is supposed to this deep gritty art game but it is also one of the games with the most amount of porn cosplay, that alone speaks for itself, I guess I should be blaming some unintelligible play no one cares of with girls in Lolita dresses) and it ended up reminding me of those low art depressing sci-fi b-movies from the 70s, you know the ones that usually star a guy with a turtle neck or a space woman in a unrealistic sexy retro-futuristic suit?

There were moments of which the game really dragged on due to the horrible pacing that ruined a decent combat system, and really despite the tiny moments this game had to shine in which were very unique, I wouldn't go as far as some die-hard fans (some of which are notably insufferable anime trash that know nothing, which sorta shows that the game being slightly philosophical wasn't enough to actually make people looking for a game with a butt to learn something or start thinking) that have never seen some quirky developer in their life give their soul to the ULTIMATE DEEP GAME, one that uses clichés straight out of the Neon Genesis Evangelion playbook of how to be fake deep... I mean when the game started making robots commit suicide because of the meaningless of life I started to roll my eyes!

Sure there are some progressive ideals sprinkled through out the game, a character is obviously a lesbian very early into the game, commenting on the idea of gender is hinted at somewhat, but like I've commented on before it doesn't do that much of an effort to explore that, and as a result many of the fans have learned nothing and a lot of them just care about 2B's butt. Apparently the points in this game that could be interpreted was not driven hard enough, and let's just say that I can tell all of the characters are gay because their creator doesn't allow them a happy ending and casts "Bury Your Gays" (to the point even EMIL DIES as a secret extra boss SPOILERS, and yes Emil is meant to be gay as showcased in the first NieR Game). But outside of trying to showcase that propaganda is bad, god is a falsehood, the systematic structure makes it so that we castrate outcasts and non-believers and gender is a social construct along with other identity stuff (barely explored at all besides some single lines of dialog towards a robot becoming a woman but still worth the mention haha), stuff I kind of already knew of without NieR Automata trying to raise questions about it or slightly nudge at the topics... But yeah outside of that most ideals are just... Eh.

There's a lot of things that make me go "Yeah I get it", and by that I mean is that it does the JRPG sin of overstating what the audience already know is happening, like of course the robots are imitating humanity and grossly misunderstanding the complexity, and yeah humanity is messed up and weird! Not only that but the whole recurring theme of "robots ironically not getting they're simply robots and they don't have much capabalities outside of fighting for a reason, and when they don't have that reason they kind of malfuction" is also done too much, the ideas are simply stretched out. A lot of NieR Automata might be shallow references to human concepts because it relies a lot on interpretation, a lot of anime has this style of writing too, where it relies more on symbolism than substance, oh and by the way "become as gods" = Robot's gods = humans, humans = mortal. I saved you some time to solve that riddle if you ever end up playing this game. The whole eros and thanatos theme is kind of bad too.

We get it, it's possible to get that the very first time out of 1000 times it's hinted out throughout the game. Maybe because I did take classes on basic Nihilism, the concept of being slaves to our flesh and the cycle of conflict isn't all that new to me and I don't get surprised when it's showcased via plot but I will admit that the whole robots trying to take a spin on it is a neat idea. It's just that I think the fans should just accept the fact that Nier is Niché and overstays it's welcome rather than overdo it's importance, at moments it gets REALLY boring.

Like it doesn't take a designer genius to know how to streamline this game for the sake of it being more accessible, apparently many people didn't even beat this game and many didn't went through any effort at all, to help with that: just be sure to make all side-quests accessible at first so that you don't have to go around the empty sandbox back and forth chasing the new popped up side-quests, this helps with making side-quests be beaten faster. And just put the extra content that is unlocked in second playthroughs like intermissions there from the very start to shorten the experience more, there are plenty of ways to pack many of the content in 1 playthrough without needlessly extending the game, I'm sorry but it's simply bad design, I mean for christ's sake! You're making me play this game more than once couldn't you do a little for me here?!

Nier Automata is the Sonic Adventure of Hack 'n slash games in how it makes you go around a single sandbox a lot and pick different characters to go through the same levels, but hey at least it's better than Sonic Adventure (It seems people have learned nothing since 1998). This is not a baseless comparison, the similarities are striking, there is even fishining in it!

..They could have also made shooting automatic in every difficulty because easy difficulty just ruins the whole game. I have a lot of minor complaints really that amount to big ones. And really I truly understand the people who give this game a 2/5 are coming from: repetition is a game flaw not a gimmick to base your whole game on! Perpetually trapped doing things over and over! I know what makes Nier Automata special is it's progress through multiple walkthroughs but... They really could've just made the game a single playthrough if they wanted and cut the whole episodic stuff. I realize that the game is purposefully like this to be annoying and artsy, yet Nier Automata has difficulty staying fresh every now and then without some Mexican Standoff twist on twist, sabotage on sabotages, psyops and etc.

Maybe I was expecting flying babies or something more over the top like an interdimensional travel to Tokyo rather than just cyberpunk clichés, some of which are even in Mega Man Legends. If anything the Watchers from Drakengard make some sort of cameo, a cameo that makes 0 sense if you don't know anything about the series. Sorry none of the more weird science-fantasy plot points are that showcased in Nier Automata, they're just alluded to as minor backstory to this self-sufficient high-sci-fi post apocalyptic scenario, a pity really because this was Yoko Taro's moment to shine and show off how weird they are considering the huge audience they got by working with Platinum Games who gave the series for the first time good gameplay mechanics (and in the process helped Platinum Games get out of bankrupcy, when you concentrate on the Platinum aspects everything is peachy), but all they did was the tamest things one could do. A lot of Nier Automata is deceptive and sadly cuts it's interesting concepts short, that's the game the director is playing.

I love cyberpunk ideals but I feel as if everything Nier Automata did was done better and more concentrated on in other cyberpunk video games. NieR Automata alludes to more interesting established lore in past games rather than come up with that many new ideas of it's own, if you haven't played or know of Nier's lore you are out of the loop, and really Nier: Automata has a lot of references to the first Nier game as if it thinks the first NieR game was more interesting, and considering what I've heard of the first NieR and how much more goes on in that game I've starting to believe that.

I mean at least the first NieR game allowed it's characters to say the f word, it's censored in NieR Automata for some odd reason. Also, they could've done a little effort to translate the missing gap of lore that connects this game with the last one, because most of the Emil vs Aliens plot is based on a WAY more detailed CD novela of sorts, again, there's so little of plot in this in comparison to the first game, and the lore? It's all fragmented, it would be an epic if it was all put toghether coherently but NieR Automata feels like just another short story as a result. Yoko Taro's fragmented story telling is just plain bad and it isn't that charming it's just an unacceptable way to present a story.

And besides I'm not someone who is going to invest that much care into some weirdo in the video game medium (It may be Yoko Taro's most accessible game yet, but that's not saying much honestly, they still are niché games that "Drag on", and it's still even with a Platinum Games entry a mediocre series, also by this point, it has changed it's tone and themes about a hundred times, desperately trying everything to see what shoe fits. It's a deeply flawed series that is all over the place and this being the best one there is in it is kind of a funny fact, I feel as if Yoko Taro has been cursed to cult favoritism for life and cannot catch a break) nor am I someone who's feelings haven't been tampered a thousand times by media to not expect some obvious sad story (I've seen more striking). What NieR Automata has is anime writing, not the worst anime writing but anime writing nevertheless, in other words: it often relies on symbolism and the act of alludding towards serious topics casually more than actual in detail text and exploring those topics more.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by WRPG standards of writing which actually have a lot more substance in text (rather than for example: a short synopsis of the game SOMA as an ending haha), like PlaneScape Torment or Fallout 2, in general games that have a proper dynamic story, even undertale got this better with 20 neutral endings actually based on the actions you did, I say this because Nier Automata only has a lot of endings because it has had the structure of a visual novel once and outside of that it just utilises some joke where you eat a wrong item or if you leave a mission area and counts that as an ending.

I've heard so many people go "Yooo this game has so many endings!" and are these endings really much of an ending deserving of praise? They're neat inclusions but I wouldn't even consider them to be proper endings. Keep in mind that if you consider the first 3 playthroughs to be a single playthrough there is actually only 2 endings to choose from in 1 single playthrough (C and D), and a special one after just replaying the final boss chapter (E) that has a bullet hell segment that if you aren't connected online you have to cheat to pass, your reward of tolerating pretencious questions such as "Do you think games are silly little things?" and having to answer no when you want to say "yes" so that you don't quit the game is pretty much this:

The rest of the A to Z endings are just very short lines of dialog after a loading screen basically saying something along the lines of "and everyone lived pointlessly ever after, who cares, the end". Pretty much most of the endings have as much effort as the way on how to get some of them: by waiting and doing nothing! Don't expect anything in the same quality of Fallout: New Vegas. Also what's the deal with ending J? You were going to kill the robots anyways, why does killing them seconds before change that much, how is that much to create a time shift and different ending? And did you know that ending L (one where you abandon a character) shows that you abandoned another character due to a error? Wow! That's nitpicky but that's what these endings are, they're nits! They feel like quirky game over screens if anything, I'm not entirely sure why they kept them on the menu screen as if you HAD to get them. Only 3 (5 if you count the 2 fake endings) of 24 of these feel like actual endings.

I didn't get ending Y because that requires you to: "to do Emil's Determination you need to get all weapons and upgrade them to level 4" and I just am not doing that. Basically Nier Automata has a lot of endings as a joke and not because it's that much of an actual RPG with that many key decissions. And I don't even like those WRPG games that much but I did get a lot more of substance from them, but their writing beated simply alluding to simple conclusions. Or hell even 90s JRPGs had more substance to them than the small amount of short quirky dialogs Nier Automata has which is followed by a few info dump reveals in the end, rather than you know: a gradual info-dump that would be better paced. The plot reveal for how tensely paced it is... Is actually kind of short when you put it all into words. This game is so overhyped it is crazy, you finish it and you go "That was it?" or "Well, that sorta sucked" because the small twists on twists might not do much rather than make you go "Oh, okay. I guess that explains that but doesn't add much really to the short plot."

NieR Automata has a weird ironic clash of genres, it fails as an RPG game because it isn't that big in content and what it has to offer (like it's predecessor is known as a obviously bad game but it at least had a lot more to offer to the point this game keeps referencing it's events) and it fails as an action game because the pacing isn't linear enough (like Metal Gear Rising which I consider to be a PERFECT game, that game's pacing allowed philosophy themes to rapidly showcase themselves and immediately go to the next awesome moment, in fact it's like the most straight to the point Metal Gear game in the whole series) and makes you go around an empty sandbox and go around in circles multiple times. Maybe NieR Automata should just be treated as this little spin off and I'm treating it too much like a huge self-sufficient game when it isn't, maybe there will be another entry in this series that does better and bigger.

I feel as if I'm giving the game a 4/5 out of pity but really there were moments I was truly feeling a 3/5 instead, and I haven't played the first Nier game but if it was just this but without the good combat and the same amount of tedious actions over and over with fetch quests and revisiting locations, I kind of understand why the first Nier game was badly received, with that said I guess it's uniqueness (and ambition to try a lot of things, while not perfect: there are a lot of cool ideas) does deserve some respect. I won't lie it isn't interesting to some extent and worth a look if you have the patience.

Update: I changed the score to a 3/5 regardless after realizing that some cool looking glitch effects that make for some good immersive story-telling isn't worth the hassle THAT much.

Any game that pulls of some post-modern "what if the story was told this way" stuff gains a extra point for me (although to some extent it feels like an artificial way to extend the longevity, they could have easily streamed everything down and make characters selectable from the very start and add the second playthrough features there from the start as well, if anything they could've allowed chapter selection there from the start too), but jeez is the tone inconsistent and forceful sometimes. They really should've have had some more proper direction in design and aesthetics. If you ever play the game, don't make the mistake I have and just speedrun it, read up the extra lore somewhere else, this game has a gripe against completionists. This series' feelings are bittersweet and I guess in some odd way will make you feel something regardless.

10/10 - Masterpiece - My second favourite game

Pros:

Amazing and unique story with many twists, bringing up and exploring philosophical and moral themes that kept me up at night. Also, the character development and relationship building between 2B and 9S is nothing short of masterful.

Fluid Platinum Games combat, meaning you can feel badass as you combo your way around hordes of enemies. The game has many amazing boss fights, as well as good graphics, stunningly varied locations and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack

Cons:

Quite a small map with little to do or interact with other than side quests and machine enemies, and a somewhat underwhelming and underdeveloped buy/sell and crafting system

Backtracking (Especially with ending B)

Nier:Automata finally broke the ceiling that the Drakengard-Nier series couldn't quite reach - they did it, thanks to a successful partnership with Platinum Games. The games were always known for unique, captivating stories amidst mediocre gameplay (and it's true), but Automata brings a level of polish that feels alien and welcome.

Taking place in the far flung future, you play as an android (one of three) fighting a conflict against strange robot beings called machines. In typical Drakengard/Nier fashion, not all is as it seems past the first ending of sorts, as stories are repeated, characters are much more than they appear, and twists come out of every corner, including plenty of shoutouts to the original Nier series.

Gameplay is a mix of hack-and-slash a-la Platinum, with a mix between light and heavy attacks with a variety of four different weapon types, each with their own upgrades and stories. Evasion is key to get past enemy attacks at the last second for powerful counterattacks, and a robotic Pod unit is available to aim and shoot from a distance.

That's just icing on the cake, though. Alongside RPG level gains, shooting segments in the form of flight sequences and hacking minigames keep things fresh, especially in the case of the latter. One of the only downsides to gameplay is that the difficulty does feel a bit off, with Normal feeling too easy and Hard feeling too brutal, but it's a small compromise for some very entertaining combat.

The game's visuals are stark, but also painted with plant and animal life - it's easily the best looking the series has ever been. The music doesn't quite reach the emotional depth of Nier or the dissonance of Drakengard, but it's expertly done, with tracks that hearken back to the original and some incredibly moving vocals.

All in all, Nier:Automata is a barrel full of surprises. Its story seems basic and predictable at first, but by the end of the final ending (bad endings included), you'll wonder how much more of a creative wellspring it can get. Combined with solid mechanics and it's the best of both worlds.

Realized I was playing this because other people told me to and I was not enjoying it at all. Visually boring and monotonous fighting mechanics. Ended up dropping it before finishing it for the first time.

... but then continued and realized it's doing some incredibly cool stuff with narrative gameplay. Some of the mechanics that get tiresome throughout the game get turned on their head and messed with towards the ending of the third playthough in a really interesting way, and it was just enough to make me feel satisfied that I actually stuck through it. I do see why this is getting heaps of praise, I just wish the combat was more fun and the systems were a little more intuitive. I felt underpowered for most of the game until I figured out how to actually utilize my chips when it was too late.