Nier is a series I had heard good things about. A cult-classic of sorts. All I knew was the round smiley face mask which has now become a trademark of Yoko Taro when making public appearance and that it had a very pretty soundtrack. Of Automata specifically I was exposed to the protagonist 2B, whose design has reached pop-status in some places. The game itself was pretty well liked by people at the time of release. Since I didn't have a PS4 or Xbox One I did not play it at launch. Later on the game was released on PC. This release suffered from numerous problems that were common among Japanese PC ports at the time like performance issues and lack of ability to set custom resolutions. It was several years later that the game was re-released for Microsoft Gamestore with fixes for those issues and after much fan outcry was updated on Steam as well. This is the version I played.
Nier Automata can be a pretty divisive game. It starts as bullet-hell type shooter that changes perspectives from top to side to later on behind. This bullet-hell theme plays out for the rest of the game. There is nothing really offensive about these parts, they are for the most part pretty easy and don't take up too much of the time. I found them enjoyable. The actual meat of the game though is the combat. The way I'd describe it is "Diet Bayonetta." You have only a handful of attacks and weapons whose combos can be varied a bit but at least just using the in-game tips this did not seem to produce significant changes in combat. While large enemies require learning their tells to counter (which makes you feel like you're really getting better) the game likes to to throw hordes of enemies at you which are not as interesting to deal with. The problem here is that you can't really deal with it as you're going to take random shots from the crowd. This in turn makes combat slow as you take more conservative luring approaches or strafe the group with ranged attacks. At no point did I feel like I had effective crowd-control options.
Beyond combat the game is setup in an open world. This works to some degree. It's not nearly the barren and unfun wasteland of No More Heroes but it's also not brimming with exploration like a Xenoblade. Although the random enemy fights and glowing item pickups really did remind me of that. It takes a little while to open up fast travel and sometimes it locks you out forcing you to go on foot. This can be a little boring but at least 2B's running speed is pretty brisk and the animation on it is top-notch. Small things go a long way. There are sidequests as well which mostly get you materials you need for better upgrades. Though I found that not only did upgrades not feel super punchy but that some upgrades were hard to obtain. The upgrades for pods specifically eluded me which really hurts your overall damage output.
Gameplay aside, the game's presentation is lovely. Designs are very striking, writing and themes are interesting. There's a sort of darkness to it but it's not heavy handed. The music is also quite nice. In some cases I found it to be a little overbearing and would preferred a little more ambiance without vocals but it's certainly distinct and adds to the mystery of the world.
Upon finishing the game I had some mixed feelings but overall I enjoyed it. Still something about it felt a little incomplete and there's a reason why.
Playthrough B
The game does not, in fact, end once you roll credits. The second playthrough is done with 9S, 2B's partner throughout the story. You play through the same story sequences but from the other perspective. Also some story bit are fleshed out a bit more with little sequences that get dropped in. There's also some gameplay changes. 9S can hack objects and enemies. The former allows you to open chests you couldn't in the first playthrough, the latter is the core fighting mechanic for 9S. While you can still use weapons, hacking deals a ton of damage and hurts nearby enemies making it actually good for crowd control (and making the game just easier overall). Hacking sequences are little bullet hell arenas and if you fail you take damage instead. Once you get to use the the different enemy configurations they become easier and you can take out heavy enemies quickly. Everything else is the same even up until the end.
Playthrough C
After 2 whole playthroughs you get the second half of the game. This really opens up the story and gives you a third playable character. Sequences get much harder too and this increased difficulty made the game more fun. It was here where I found the power of auto-heal, which if you can dodge most attacks then you effectively become invincible as you'll heal between hits. Didn't mean you could slouch, but decent play was enough to succeed. I still have no clue how to dodge lasers on the desert boss. Also in part C the story goes to interesting new places which help to keep you hooked.
At the end you get the chapter select screen which makes getting the other endings easier.
Playthrough D
Just the end sequence again but from a different perspective with a new boss battle.
Playthrough E
There is one last bullet-hell shooter part before you get to the true end. It starts out not-too-bad before going bonkers at the end. There's a very interesting social mechanic here too where you are asked to altruistically delete your save data to make it easier for someone else. I actually enjoyed this part and the rendition of "Weight of the World" switching between different languages was really cool.
Conclusion
When I hit the end of play A I really did not realize what I had missed. I liked it okay but it didn't blow me away. I actually asked around to see if I should continue playing a second time because the game doesn't make it clear at all that you just stopped at the half-way point. Overall, my like of the game improved considerably in the later portions. Still a bit flawed but I have great respect the presentation and what it ultimately tried to do. I doubt I'll do the other endings as the other few I tried leave you with a sentence of dialog before the joke roll credits. Not really worth it, but the feature to remove your OS chip is cute.
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