NieR: Automata (2017)

[Hero-of-Time]

14 minutes ago, Nolan said:

Congrats on 200, and what story elements have left you confused?

Just some of the stuff that connects the game to the original. I'm also interested to see how the games connect up with the Drakenguard series. I've got a couple of videos lined up, so I've got some good viewing ahead of me.

[Nolan]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Just some of the stuff that connects the game to the original. I'm also interested to see how the games connect up with the Drakenguard series. I've got a couple of videos lined up, so I've got some good viewing ahead of me.

 Seriously people that haven’t played and care, don’t fucking open this. 

Spoiler

Definitely watch your videos as there is a TON of history (I can point you towards Dark Id’s LPs if you’d like to read some of it)

But the long short of it...Drakengard ending E via the watchers Caim and Angelus and the big bad break reality and jump into our universe 2002 or 03 over Tokyo. Shit goes downhill quickly. A rhythm battle ensues and the goddess is defeated and turned into Salt, Japan then shoots down Angelus.

Earths reality has no magic, and when they burst into our reality they also brought magic with them which caused a lot of bad things to happen but most importantly the sickness of humanity. Cue the Gestalt and Replicant plan. Humans needed to outlast the cleansing of magic from our world, the method to this was to separate soul from body. Then once magic was gone put gestalts back into their respective replicants. 

Replicants were getting the black scrawl though, and dying. Gestalts were gaining physical forms (Shades in Nier 1) and trying to take their replicants. Papa Nier went full apeshit to protect his daughter annnd well he’s effectively the reason the gestalt program failed and all humans are dead. A few thousand years later, androids are still kicking around and propagating the existence of humanity. Also Aliens and Machines.

Popola and Devola are actually among the original androids and were meant to oversee the gestalt program. Most went crazy. Best good boy Emil is a weapon resulting from the experiments around the gestalt project. He was put into that body and magiciefied and all that. Papa Nier saved him from a very Resident Evil esque mansion. He is effectively immortal (hell he set himself off as a magic nuke at least once). His memory is fried because during the war with the machines he created so many copies of copies. He was kind of fighting the war on his own damn near.

That’s all disjointed as fuck and really missing a tooooon of info. There’s 9000 years of backstory basically. 

Also, I haven’t played D3 but it apparently explains why the weapons are in every game. Also Drakengard 2 is a shit game and should be discounted always. 

[dwarf]

Just started this on hard mode and died twice at the boss before being booted to the screen. Is it worth persevering with this level of difficult or do the unskippable transitions/cutscenes and punitive checkpoints persist in a similar fashion?

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by dwarf

[Sheikah]

Just started this on hard mode and died twice at the boss before being booted to the screen. Is it worth persevering with this level of difficult or do the unskippable transitions/cutscenes and punitive checkpoints persist in a similar fashion?

 

It becomes much easier generally as you get the option to buy as many potions as you want and use them whenever. You can also equip abilities that give you health restoration on kills etc.

 

At the beginning I remember that feeling, as it seemed like a game where you couldn't easily get healing items. Doesn't stay that way.

 

[Nolan]

No. Just play on Normal. Anything above normal is an exercise in fatiguing yourself on the game. I mean if you really want to persevere  go ahead but it may tarnish your view of what is an outstanding game.

Alternatively just change the difficulty after the prologue. I believe that is possible, and you won’t get booted to the title. But you will continually get killed in about 2 hits which is easy to do. You can spec to be more resilient but it takes time. Don’t play on very hard. Even fully spewing yourself to be a tank the best you can manage is about 1.5 hits until death. There are no trophies or achievements related to difficulty. 

[Sheikah]

On 31/05/2018 at 1:43 AM, Nolan said:

No. Just play on Normal. Anything above normal is an exercise in fatiguing yourself on the game. I mean if you really want to persevere  go ahead but it may tarnish your view of what is an outstanding game.

Alternatively just change the difficulty after the prologue. I believe that is possible, and you won’t get booted to the title. But you will continually get killed in about 2 hits which is easy to do. You can spec to be more resilient but it takes time. Don’t play on very hard. Even fully spewing yourself to be a tank the best you can manage is about 1.5 hits until death. There are no trophies or achievements related to difficulty. 

I remembered as well when the difficulty options appeared that hard mode took out lock on. Yeah... don't pick hard mode.

[dwarf]

Ideally I'd have something in-between normal and hard - I like the freedom and responsibility of aiming manually on hard mode, but I don't like the one or two-hit deaths.

Difficulty is an interesting issue in gaming in general. When your time for playing games is slim sometimes it would be nice to balance the settings to preserve the feeling of being challenged without the hassle of constant death. Yet I understand that being able to massage the difficulty away would take away from certain games like Dark Souls.

[Mark Brown covered the subject pretty well]

[Goafer]

Just picked this up to see what all the fuss is about and I don't think I've ever played a game where the travelling felt so good. There's something about the speed that 2b runs at and the way she leans into corners that's just right.

 

I'm also getting a Shadow of the Colossus vibe, as I'm not entirely sure I'm the good guy and I'm reluctant to kill the machines.

[dwarf]

I like the fluidity of the movement too but I'm not sure the open world suits it. 

The game is laced with some of the most egregious invisible walls I've ever come across as well.

[Goafer]

17 minutes ago, dwarf said:

I like the fluidity of the movement too but I'm not sure the open world suits it. 

The game is laced with some of the most egregious invisible walls I've ever come across as well.

Oh god yeah. It does feel a bit outdated in that regard. It almost feels like a PS2 game in places.

[dwarf]

I just defeated the androgynous human cyborg that gets queefed out of the robot horde and... I'm just not feeling this game. There's so much going for it - the aesthetic, the music, the inviting open world, the wackiness, the transitions between 2D and 3D etc - but it struck me after a while that it's not actually fun to play.

The combat is rigid and dull, the enemy variety is pants, and when you get down to actually exploring the world the invisible walls and dead environment make travel time a pain in the arse. It's like the character is really expressive but there's nothing for it to interact with. I can't muster the enthusiasm to keep picking the items up, or bother engaging with the odd batch of enemies when you can either run past them or pick them off slowly from distance without the need to take any risk at close-quarters.

I completed Furi yesterday and there are a lot of similarities between that and Nier. It's not the deepest action game out there but Furi was challenging and kept me coming back for more. Can't say the same for Nier.

Cba/10

Edited June 10, 2018 by dwarf

[Nolan]

There is an auto item pickup mod you can equip, which would remove a lot of the item tedium. 

 

I don't recall ever really having issues with invisible walls, I know they’re around but, they’re also typically in spots you’d expect. You’re also definitely the only person I’ve seen call the combat rigid and dull. But if you’re not feeling. 

I mean hey, I think Furi was an absolute chore and I only did I think a single boss. 

[dwarf]

Furi's first boss is a tutorial.

[Goafer]

Just got ending A. I'm enjoying it a lot, but I still feel like I'm just starting out and haven't been fully drawn into the story yet.

The gameplay is fantastic though. I love how it switches to 2D and twin stick shooter. As said before though, I t does feel a bit outdated in places. If I had to sum up the game so far in one sentence, I'd say it was the best PS2* game I've ever played. *Not a typo.

I'm also glad I'm playing it on normal. I don't have time for hard games and normal has been pretty easy without being patronising. Only died once when my auto heal thing didn't kick in soon enough.

Got a weird glitch on the space station too. The camera got snagged, so I was controlling 2B off screen and getting further away. Because she was too far away, the game unloaded the area the camera was stuck at so I was just looking at blank space with some elements still there. Did a full lap of the station and the camera reattached itself to 2B and everything was fine again.

[Goafer]

 

Spoiler

Just started 9S' story and one little thing that I love. The bit where you setup 2B's settings is recorded and played back when you go through it as 9S. I let him talk for ages as he seemed embarrassed so it's great to see it from the other perspective.

 

Edited June 10, 2018 by Goafer

[Nolan]

Slightly spoilery but eh it’s a year old now.

[Happenstance]

Just been announced for Xbox One so I think spoilers should still be in full effect.

[Nolan]

Oh yeah good point! @Goafer if you could edit your post perhaps? This is a game where being blind really helps the experience on certain things. 

[Goafer]

Finished this yesterday.

 

Spoiler

Got endings A-E, but didn't delete my save as there's still some things I want to do, including the DLC.

Really didn't like 9S towards the end, to the point where I really wanted to just pick A2 again when going back to get his ending.

May also have to read up a bit on the original Nier, as I got the gist, but I'd like to learn more.

I've gone through and got all the endings, except for Y, which I'm working on. I've read 2 different things about the Emil fight though. One source says you need all the weapons to be able to fight him and another that doesn't mention it. I'm hoping the latter is accurate. I've already got as far as getting Emil's mask though, so I'm hoping I can do all of it.

Overall fantastic game. It was a bit over angsty at times, but otherwise great. The controls felt great once I got used to them, the music was incredible and the overall theme was great. Some bloody heavy moments as well. Poor Pascal...

 

[Julius]

Picked up the game the other day, and I’m around five hours in. 

It got off to a really rough start. I think the beginning is a bit obtuse, and not from a storytelling perspective, but completely from a gameplay perspective. The tutorials (or lack thereof) were pretty poor, and for someone who hasn’t played a game developed by Platinum before, I found myself dying time after time against the first boss, and constantly losing thirty minutes of progress to then be booted back to the home screen felt completely jarring. The initial controller configuration also felt very strange, which I think only compounded my difficulties and therefore frustration.

However, that opening segment aside, I’m enthralled. The through the world feels great, and I love the sound design and the general themes of the story so far. I also find myself being consistently humoured by what’s going on around me, even in the middle of an intense battle. I’ve finally started to come to grips with the controls after nearly five hours, and it’s becoming very fun very quickly. I accidentally wandered into a chasm where I was outlevelled by nearly 20 levels, and yet thanks to the great combat system, I didn’t feel the need to run away, but wanted to test myself against some stronger foes. The boss battles too have been really fun so far.

The music is absolutely phenomenal — I think I might have to pick up the OST after I’m done  in particular:

Spoiler

the song in the amusement park and the epic music playing when the Goliaths turn up out of nowhere after you first return to Pascal’s Village to deliver something to Pascal. 

 

Edited December 20, 2018 by Julius

[drahkon]

It's currently 27,50€ on eBay for the UK version. I'm soooo tempted, even though I'm completely absorbed by Dragon Quest XI.

Has anybody played the DLC, yet? Would you say it's worth waiting for the Yorha Edition (will be 40€ and comes out in Febuary) or is the game pretty much a complete experience on its own?

[Shorty]

I'm not sure what prices are like over there but that doesn't seem very good, it's frequently < £16 brand new here.

[drahkon]

4 minutes ago, Shorty said:

I'm not sure what prices are like over there but that doesn't seem very good, it's frequently < £16 brand new here.

Found another offer for 25.50€.

It usually still costs somewhere between 35 and 40€ around here. The German version is hard to find. 

With shipping, importing it from the UK would still cost me between 22-25€. 

Edited December 20, 2018 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

@Julius Yeah, the OST is amazing. It's easily one of the best that has arrived this generation. I often listen to it at work or when I'm grinding in a JRPG. It has a nice mixture of tunes that relax you and tunes that get you pumped.

Weight of the World is one of my favourite video game songs ever.

 

 

[Julius]

Got Ending A yesterday...this game was weird as hell — probably the strangest game that I’ve ever played — but I absolutely loved what I’ve played of it.

As I mentioned before, the traversal, music and combat are all excellent, and the themes driving the heart of the story are really compelling. The game’s art style, character design and sound design is also excellent throughout. Maybe it’s just me, but I get the feeling that the game was made on something of a tight budget? I’m not too sure, and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way: more so, that the way in which Yoko Taro and his team seem to have creatively overcome some obstacles in their methods of storytelling seemed almost experimental in some ways, and a lot like some of the extremes I’ve only heard talked about by some indie filmmakers/game developers. 

I’m going to put it down for now — I’d like to go back to Dragon Quest VIII on 3DS as something a bit lighter over Christmas — and then pick it up again to see the other endings later on, but man, I’m probably going to have to play other games by Taro-san at some point for some (read: probably a lot) more context. 

Spoiler

The Forest Castle and Abandoned Factory missions were absolutely incredible — again, the music in particular really shone through. I love the way in which the game transitions from a 3D hack-and-slash to more of a 2.5D platformer throughout the game, and from what I’ve played so far, I think that’s where it’s a it’s best.

Also, I was particularly heartbroken for the robots in the Abandoned Factory, and the commentary going about religion, power and the ultimate question of what freedom was, that was evident throughout the game, came to a head for me here — and I thought that it was great. It wasn’t Yoko Taro bonking you over the head with “RELIGION IS BAD”, “YOU ARE NOT FREE”, etc. — as hinted at by a lot of the game’s dialogue, particularly that of the robots, it’s a case of the game pushing you to challenge yourself on the fundamental level of your own ethics and philosophy, and to ask more questions. 

Somewhat annoyingly, I didn’t take what, looking back, was an obvious hint that the placement of a shop in the Abandoned Factory was clearly trying to give me (read: “STOCK UP ON CONSUMABLES, DUDE”), so facing three bosses in a row without any opportunity to stock up again was extremely challenging and tedious. So, that was probably the least favourite part of my experience so far — maybe on par with the struggle present in the opening thirty minutes for someone like me. I don’t think I’ve ever evaded in a game so much in my life.

Also, a special mention to the (often dark) humour in this game, largely portrayed by the robots. I loved Pascal and Pascal’s Village; the environmental sex jokes shortly before Adam was introduced were absolutely hilarious; and little things, like robots screaming for help or acting hurt (“Ow, Ow, Owwww”), were fun — but, importantly, in a way which complimented the themes of the story. 

Oh, and Emil is the best