NieR: Automata (2017)

First couple of hours: 5 stars, amazing game, eyegasm

Middle of the game, until end of route A: 3 stars

Route B: Rushed through it, can't say much except hacking sucked a bit

Route C: ZERO STARS. F*** this game.

I rage quit and uninstalled after that virus thing with 2B. I had to lower the difficulty to easy for that fighting section with 9S, where he almost loses his visual ability, and the game turns into a Gameboy screen. It was super difficult, and frustrating even on easy difficulty. Then, when I had to experience the same thing with 2B and died... That was it.

I've been bindging Nier Automata's OST for the past weeks. It's so great. I particularly love the nonsense lyrics (the perfect way to avoid lyrics with dumb meaning but still get the musical range of the human voice).

Amusement Park is one of the standouts as it captures the weird, dark but also somewhat cute ambience of the game. I also really like music with vibraphone, which is arranged so well here.

Wow, so many people online that didn't delete their save because their wanted to 100% the game or something like that. Take that as more evidence of how players mistake busywork and achievement-hunting with actually experiencing a game.

Case in point: this resetera post from a player who says that they regret sacrificing their save because they wanted to continue playing to get all achievements and whatnot. However, 4 years on, I bet they probably remember the game much more strongly because of this. (Compare also to this Reddit post with a similar title, but who actually regrets not deleting because they actually understood that sacrificing your save is an integral part of the experience; remembering the pain that you cannot go back to it is the idea.)

That was a bold move, Nier: Automata. Actually deleting my savefile is a strong commitment to the theme. This final ending really elevated the game for me.

I still don't really get the story. Perhaps I missed some optional but crucial archives, perhaps I'm a bit thick, of perhaps it's not supposed to make sense. But I don't think it matters much.

Oh, I though that the various playthroughs where all the same story from different perspectives, but now I'm playing a whole continuation of the plot? Strange.

The more I go through the game, the more fascinating the plot and setting become. But also, the more I realise how shallow the gameplay is. 9S hacking minigame was fresh at the beginning, but then it never evolved a single bit. The game gives you a dozen or more different melee weapons and attack chips, but there are basically no hacking upgrades. No increase in health, time limit, damage, or other types of hacking bullets.

On the other hand, the game buries you with useless mechanics: crafting materials, chips, weapon enhancement, pod enhancement, skills, even --to @bmo's delight, I'm sure-- fishing! All of which are basically pointless since I'm able to breeze through almost any encounter without much if any upgrade.

Money is so ridiculously common that you can buy healing items by the hundred and still have enough cash to buy the Moon back from the humans. No reason to use anything but the smaller healing item, too, since you can pause and use as many as you like. This renders almost all defensive chips useless, since damage is just a nuisance.

Oh, and all those weapons? I haven't found any use for them, really. The starting sword seems to be the best one and I also found the apparently best slow sword really early in the game. The weapons merchant never had any weapon even close to what I had. So the hack-and-slash gameplay also didn't evolve very much. A2 was an opportunity to introduce new moves, but she plays exactly like B2, which not only is a disservice to gameplay variety but it also kind of undermines any investment in losing 2B; it's hard to mourn the loss of a character if they are replaced by a clone almost immediately.

Also I think I'm missing some esoteric crafting material to upgrade my pods, and I haven't had any reason to use any other pod skill than the laser blast. So add that to the pile of game mechanics that I never used and never had reason to use.

And the world is also similarly shallow. The first hours surprised me with the open-world design, but this tiny area is not enough to hold 30+ worth of game. Areas are recycled over and over as new objectives make you go back to the same zones multiple times. How many bosses do I need to fight on the same exact crater?

This game needs to be much leaner. Remove the crafting, remove all the crap items without any use, remove fishing, remove animal baiting and remove the boring sidequests that amount to nothing (that sokoban-like minigame is the first one on the chopping block). Then, add a couple more interesting hacking chips and more location variety.

I'm on the second playthrough and I've got to say that I don't understand people who complain about the repetition. Yes, you play the same main missions, but with a character that has a completely different play-style. Side-quests are also different (and you don't need to re-play completed ones) and you get many different cutscenes. Besides, the main story is rather short and can be completed in a few hours, so it's clear that the whole game is more than just 2B's story. I finished 2B story in ~10 hours with many side-tracks and now I'm blasting through it again now that I know what to do and fast-travel locations are all available from the start.

It occurred to me that this template of playing the same story from different perspectives seems much more common in Japanese games than in western games. At least I remember that the Senra Kagura games have the same structure. I wonder if it's Rashomon's influence. :P