NieR: Automata

Zloth

I smell a... wumpus!?
Joined
August 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
GamesRadar review for consoles: http://www.gamesradar.com/nier-automata-review/ (coming out on Steam on the 17th)

I've been looking forward to this one since I read about the chip system - it's almost like modding is part of the game mechanics!
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
I got it last weekend for my PS4 Pro on a whim, and I've been having a blast with it! The combat is very fluid, and (on the normal difficulty at least), both melee and ranged fighting seem viable and interesting. I like mixing up between two for variety. The controls can be remapped (even on the console) to better suit your playstyle.

I like how the game periodically switches genres from 3rd person action RPG to side-scrolling metroidvania to spaceship shmup (vertically scrolling, sides scrolling, top-down, and 3D shmup segments all make appearances). The genre blending reminds me a bit of the Guardian Legend that I played as a kid (great hidden Action RPG gem from the NES days), which oddly enough also starred a female android. Both games managed to blend genres and gameplay styles to good effect. NieR: Automata changes things up just enough I think, to where it doesn't becoming too repetitive.

The graphics look great to me on my (sub 4K) TV when seen from about 10-12 feet away on my couch…but then again I have old eyes…but I do wear glasses, LOL. I especially like the ruined city with it's lush forests that have grown wild for millennia on a world without humans.

Only gripe I have is occasional frame rate drop, which is disappointing, given I have a PS4 Pro and am using the new "boost mode" feature. Hopefully a patch or two can fix these occasional hiccups, which are not nearly enough to detract my enjoyment of the game. When it is running full speed, which is the vast majority of the time, it's smooth as butter.

I give the game two thumbs up, for the glory of mankind! d-(^-^)-b
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2014
Messages
44
Location
Gensōkyō
This game, highly praised from everyone, getting 5/5 from gamerant and 100% elsewhere…

Underperforms on PC. As usual, modders to the rescue:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/524220/discussions/0/135512104777399045/

What it does? Instead of overall microstuttery and 30ish FPS the game now gets close to 60 FPS. And idiotic screen stretcher from 720p aka fake1080p is now removed and the game has a proper 1080p resolution.

I'm still not buying this rince/repeat game, that price is too hign for 10 hours long playthrugh IMO. No I don't care if it expects me to replay as it has randomly generated trashmob respawns. Drop the price on that odd roguelike.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
This game is tempting me but the fact that you pretty much have to use a controller or suffer is a bummer since I never use the controller I bought and generally detest anything console/controller-first designed. I've considered giving and playing it with controller to try to get over this hangup.

But another factor is that you pretty much need to use a 3rd party patch (created on day 1) and there are lots of reports of video issues with both cards even with latest drivers and beefy systems.

I'm kind of disappointed that even a month in the publisher/developer haven't patched the game AT ALL when a player managed to "fix" several issues with the game on day 1.

And now today I see that there's DLC hitting for it in early May, so they can't be bothered to patch obviously easy to fix things or look into the video card issues, but they sure as hell can milk even more money out of players.

I think it's more like 30 hours of content and for someone like me that's probably more like 40-50, but even so, I usually prefer games with replay value or more content for my $60. There is something to be said for quality over quantity but since they're already milking DLC it just doesn't sit well.

I'm also not sure I like the style of the game. The game is getting rave reviews and comments and maybe it's more fun to play than to watch, because when I watch video of the game, it looks incredibly grindy and repetitive to me, alternating between grinding trash to tedious boss fights where it all looks the same and you're jumping around like some MMORPG BG crack monkey. There are a lot of games I like playing that I find boring to watch (and in general I prefer actually playing games over watching someone play games) so maybe.

I like a lot of styles of RPGs and would rave about some RPGs the way some rave about Nier, but I'd bet a lot of those players wouldn't even consider touching some of the RPGs I like. And I consider the civ franchise to be a masterpiece but a lot of people don't play strategy games at all. So this whole "it's a masterpiece" thing to me is highly subjective based on what genres you like.

That Bayonetta game hit PC recently too and that game looks even more boring and repetitive but it's a loved game. I'm thinking brawlers just aren't my thing, masterpieces or not.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2013
Messages
633
Location
Arizona
This game is tempting me but the fact that you pretty much have to use a controller or suffer is a bummer since I never use the controller I bought and generally detest anything console/controller-first designed. I've considered giving and playing it with controller to try to get over this hangup.
...
That Bayonetta game hit PC recently too and that game looks even more boring and repetitive but it's a loved game. I'm thinking brawlers just aren't my thing, masterpieces or not.

I'm like you, I don't care much for twitchy RPGs, I call them 'dodgers' because you spend combat swinging and rolling around, which I find less immersive even than turn-based combat, as in real combat people are not rolling around their enemies unless they're masters of monkey-stance jiujitsu or whatever.

I will be playing Nier in a few days though so I'll let you know if it's good for people like us.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
I finished it, but still playing it. Totally recommended. It's a mixture of third person slasher, bullet-hell, platformer/shoot-em-up, though most of the time you'll be in third person slasher mode. Great graphics, oozes style, good music, even though I'm not into twitchy games I somehow managed to finish this on normal difficulty. I played it in my PS4 so don't know how K+M handles.

When you finish the game, you get to play again with a different character, but not in the typical way. In this game, say in one hypothetical scene you and your companion need to kill a giant robot boss, you both go at it but it's too strong, your companion says something like "Wait, I see a hatch in its leg, I'll go check it out" he leaves you and a minute or so later he tells you in the com 'Ok, I disabled the knee, he won't be able to move, finish it!' and you go and kill it. In the second play you play as your companion, and instead of attacking the boss you play the part of going into the hatch and disabling the knee (with a different set of challenges). Also, all the conversations you two had you're now in the other side, so you get to see the companion's thoughts. So it's a good and fun way of replaying it, not to mention it's much faster because you keep your 'addons' which makes battles faster (and you don't spend time with the side-quests).

EDIT: Never mind! I didn't finish the game even though the game implied I did. You really do need to continue playing, the story goes on! The first credits scrolling is basically like halfway through the game.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Ok, finished the game for reals this time. Took me 35 hours and loved it. This is I think Game of the Year material (speaking of PS4 version), though I haven't played Persona 5 yet.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Seriously? Did you play HZD yet? For all I know, noone who played that one likes it less than Nier.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Funny you say that, I'm here waiting for HZD patch to install, will report back on it later.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Ok, HZD didn't last long, returned it after a couple of days. I can see why people would love this game, but it's just not my type of game. Great graphics, and a big world to explore. Unfortunately I don't care much for 'explore' games. I just never 'felt it' for HZD and was just playing trying to reach the end, but then I missed a jump and fell and didn't care to continue.

HZD is sort of like a post-post apocalyptic setting, sort of like Fallout 3 where you are a tribeswoman and the world is the remains of some area like a thousand years after the nukes fell, with machines acting like animals, and you are the Chosen One for your tribe sort of. It's very light in the 'RPG' department, it's really more a survival/action game, with quests.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Would love to hear feedback on keyboard and mouse use. Like the looks of everything enough to purchase except controller so far.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Finally got started on this. Jeez, who's idea was it to not allow any saving until you got past the prelude, including a fairly nasty boss fight!? Anyone else looking to play, I would recommend starting the game on easy - or maybe switching to easy when you see the big boss fight coming. (You'll know it's coming. There's a big, open area in front of you and you're suddenly given lots of health boosts.)

Still deciding on controller vs. mouse/keyboard. The controller is definitely better in some of the top-down arcade'ish fights but it might be good to switch between them in other places.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Controller all the way.

There's a few things wrong with this game for sure. The port really wasn't done well and Square/Platinum haven't done a thing to fix it. You need to get the FAR mod and drivers made in July or later. There's also been quite a bit of back and forth over the same areas. You'll find tons of invisible walls and continuing the main quest can sometimes (but definitely not always) suddenly end seemingly unrelated quests.

But I'm loving it! I can forgive a lot if you give me interesting quests in an interesting world!
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Ok, finished the game for reals this time. Took me 35 hours and loved it. This is I think Game of the Year material (speaking of PS4 version), though I haven't played Persona 5 yet.
Jeez, it took me 65 hours. Did you... for real reals finish it? Endings ABCDE and get all the way through the finally final end credits?
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Jeez, it took me 65 hours. Did you… for real reals finish it? Endings ABCDE and get all the way through the finally final end credits?

Yes that's why I posted twice, first time I thought I had finished it, second time I really did finish it.
Though if you spent a lot of time just exploring around that could be the reason, I'm not an explorer, I did the main quests and the side quests I found on the way to the main quest points. It's like in Fallout 3 I remember people saying they played for hundreds of hours while I finished it in one weekend (like 20 hours), also people complaining that a max of level 20 was too low while I finished the game at level 15.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
Back
Top Bottom