NieR: Automata Day One Edition

The original Nier is a game that I personally hold very near and dear to my heart. Sure, it could be improved in some areas, but to me it ranks alongside Deadly Premonition as the very definition of a flawed masterpiece as what it does right manages to make me forgive it for whatever flaws it might have. Though while some others also felt that way, the rest of the world didn't, resulting in low-ish sales and a fairly mixed reception. Which is why I was incredibly surprised when the announcement of a sequel arrived. I was incredibly excited, but also curious as to how this would top the first game.

To start with, I'll get to the one of the two main aspects that the first game was criticized for: the mechanics. I personally didn't think that the original's gameplay was nearly as bad as a lot of others say. In fact, I thought that it was perfectly alright, and even flat-out fun during some of the boss fights. But this is a pretty clear step up in my opinion. When it comes to Platinum's works in the world of hack-and-slash games, I'd personally take Bayonetta [ベヨネッタ] and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance over this since they feel a bit more refined, but this is easily the most polished of the Drakengard series in general (I say this having played all of the first Nier, some of the first Drakengard, and a good deal of Drakengard 3, the latter two being games that I need to get back to at some point). And while the hacking portions in the form of a twin-stick shooter feel jarring at first, it manages to quickly come off as feeling incredibly natural.

The other aspect that the first game was criticized a lot for was its visuals. More specifically, its graphical fidelity. I personally don't really give way too much of a shit about that kind of thing in general, but this is also a noticeable step-up in that regard. In terms of visuals as a whole, the game looks damn good, but it truly steps into "holy shit this is amazing" territory with a couple of areas in the form of the Copied City and The Tower, the latter in particular now being one of my favorite settings in any game thanks to its incredibly surreal architecture reminiscent of the works of Tsutomu Nihei (author of Blame! and Knights of Sidonia) and NaissanceE (which I doubt Yoko Taro has played, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did).

In terms of the soundtrack... I know that this is an unpopular opinion, but I kind of prefer the original in that regard. Don't get me wrong, I still think that this game's soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, but the first's just kind of connected with me a little more (and it helps that that game's OST is pretty much the gold standard of actually non-cringeworthy fantasy music for me). Which made the moment where this game's Devola and Popola units assisting 9S with Song of the Ancients playing in the background with vocals all the more incredible, but I digress. Even if I do prefer the original's soundtrack, this game's is still definitely one of the best of the year. Actually, I'd say that it's still one of the best works of music from this decade in general, soundtrack or not.

In terms of everything else, like the characters, atmosphere, and plot? Well, Yoko Taro hasn't lost anything after the first Nier, and has made a work that easily stands up right against it. It still has the perfect balance of melancholy and insanity (which is fitting considering 9S' descent into insanity, which is probably one of the most chilling things I've seen in any work in a long time), and the atmosphere is still downright incredible. And Emil is... well, OK, he's not still Emil since he's transformed into a traveling salesman who call people "friend-o" and blares annoying theme music. Good work, Yoko Taro, you crazy, brilliant, 2B porn-obsessed, trophy-hating maniac.

Honestly, when it comes to my favorite games of all-time, I'd absolutely place this right alongside the original Nier (which is in my personal Top 10). I also wouldn't call this flawless (for example, the way that it handled Route B could have been improved, but at least that's the last time you have to play though that content), but the fact that this game is absolutely downright incredible in a lot of other ways makes those flaws seem so insignificant its not even funny. Every now and then, I feel like taking a break from games for a while, and despite my love for the medium I feel like I need a reminder as to why I love them so much. A couple of years ago, a playthrough of the first Nier was the reminder I needed then, and this game was exactly the kind of reminder that I needed at this moment. Thank you, Yoko Taro.

I had a love hate relationship with this game. Yoko Taro is a total weirdo and I think his role as the director for this game lent it so much authorship and personality. The story here is fairly good, you play as androids supposedly created by humans who've sent you down to earth to rid the planet of an alien race that destroyed civilisation and forced humans to move to the moon. Now... This is a Japanese game, so you can expect about 50 different plot twists and conspiracies although I really just want to give you the basic premise here. The more you become introduced to this alien race of robots the more you start seeing them mimic humanity, exhibiting human emotions and ideologies like family, royalty, and religion. I like that the game tries to get you to question your objectives and whether or not you're indeed the good guys, and the antagonists (which change from one act to another) also have fairly interesting resolves.

The English voice acting in this game is just okay by JRPG standards, the main characters 2B and 9S are decent enough but I actually found the character A2 to have the best performance here. 2B is a stern, workaholic who doesn't goof around and her dynamic relationship with the immature and naive 9S was fun to watch play out, then there's A2 who was more of a grittier and rebellious character which I quite liked. The robots on the other hand have horrendous and grating voices, you barely understand what they're even saying most of the time. It doesn't really make sense because there's another robot character in the game named Pascal who has a perfectly fine voice. The presentation in this game is also mixed, I liked the ruined cities and weird locations like a Disney-esque amusement park. But the colour contrast in most areas is bland and there are textures here that look really ugly. For a game with last-gen visuals it surprised me with how choppy the graphical experience was on my PS4, this is the very same machine that ran the likes of Uncharted 4 and Horizon Zero Dawn as smoothly as a baby's behind there's no excuses here. The game's soundtrack is pretty decent too with many epic compositions and vocal accompaniments. I wouldn't say it's as great as some are suggesting because there are some really cringy and unflattering pieces thrown into here, but overall it's a solid score.

Let's talk about game-play because that's the real meat of this experience. At it's core this is a hack and slash RPG with some odd genre blending elements thrown in. The melee combat is pretty good and not unlike Bayonetta where it's heavy on combos and quick time dodges, you also have a pod at your side that's used for special attacks and long ranged combat. I liked the pods I just wish aiming with them wasn't as tricky, I also dug that with 2B & A2 you could mix and match different weapons to make combos more interesting. At certain points this game will have short sections where things turn into a side scrolling bullet hell shooter which is a great idea on paper; but this has to be some of the most boring bullet hell I've played in a while, in mean they basically just throw hundreds of the same weak enemies at you in slightly different synchronisations. Once you unlock 9S you'll learn that he can hack into and control other robots by jumping into a short and really simplistic Geometry Wars mini-game, like many things in this game I like the idea but in practice it just rips all of the momentum out of fights and is a less preferable method of combat than straight up melee.

Now I'll talk about what I thought was the game's biggest annoyance for me and it revolves around this business of multiple endings. There are two main acts in this game, the first act takes about 8-10 hours to complete as 2B and once it's over you're not allowed to progress into the second act until you replay the first act as 9S. The problem is that his perspective is nearly identical to that of 2B's and where it does branch off it's less interesting than what 2B is doing at any given time. This could have been handled way more effectively, by giving players the option to choose between characters and dishing out any small story revelations unique to 9S's playthrough by other means. Instead you're made to retread the same 8-10 hours on auto-pilot basically. The second act which draws in the character A2 is pretty strong tho and houses some of the game's strongest boss battles and set pieces. Another thing I thought was interesting is how the game makes use of it's relatively small open world, they do a good job at disguising the fact that you're being cycled through the same areas over and over by adding twists and new perspectives.

I still have things to complain about, like how they shower you in buffs and generous upgrade chips early on which essentially breaks the combat system, the majority of side quests are lame as hell, and just the lack of enemy variety over all; I feel like 80% of the enemies you face in this game are weak grunts. There's a lot of beef flying around here and that's because I sunk almost 30 hours into this game, clearly there were things I enjoyed enough for me to be compelled to finish it. I enjoyed the non-traditional storytelling and some of the characters, I liked the feel of the melee combat overall, and the weird genre bending ideas thrown in even if they're some of the weakest aspects of the combat. NieR is a fine and admirable game I just think there are way too many nagging features that made it a slog for me personally. I've been very critical of this game mostly because I've played such exceptional open world game's over the past little while and I can't even pretend that NieR's in the same league just because it's different.