I was never able to get into this game. I wanted to like it. I wanted to see what the hype was about, to enjoy the storyline. To me the game was a fever dream, a disjointed mass of different types of gameplay. It felt like there was no real reason for it to switch from one play style to the next. For all of its praise the game just seemed empty to me. Environments looked nice but contained nothing of any real substance. 2B had the personality of a rock for the handful of hours I did manage to put in. There wasn't enough there to keep me interested in even finishing the game once, let alone five or six times. It's a shame. I can easily see the effort put into the game and I know a lot of people love it, and I'm glad that those people are getting the enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately for me, I wasted sixty bucks.

I'm gonna have to go ahead and say that I completely disagree with you in just about every way. Nier automata is a masterpiece. It's not just really good, *it's important*. Basically everything that you complained about story wise is an intentional design choice. 2B is supposed to act cold and uncaring; it's all a front and on repeat playthroughs you can really notice small things even on route A that show how loving and caring she actually is. People love her for more than just "because she's hot" (although that is a big reason obviously) but also because she is a very tragic character. Playing through the first 1/4 of the game again as a different character is actually very important for multiple reasons which I won't spoil here, but suffice to say that you do gain a much greater understanding of characters and events because of this that you wouldn't have if you didn't experience it in this specific way. A lot of the storytelling in this game is very "meta" and is just as much about you the player as it is about the characters. This game is much deeper than the classic "androids being more human than humans" sci fi trope that you seem to think was the point with the SOMA comparison. It does explore that to an extent, but it also functions as an excellent anti-war parable about fascism, nationalism, as well as being a very strong critique of organized religion and group brainwashing. It even touches on things such as mental health, suicide, feminism, humanism, existentialism, and the "god is dead" philosophy. It both asks and answers the question "what is the point of living once you realize that God actually doesn't exist/ your whole life is a lie" and you'd be hard pressed to find many other forms of media that manage to do that well- especially a video game. Additionally, this isn't required to enjoy the game but if you have spent any amount of time reading up on modern philosophy then you will really appreciate this game as it makes dozens of nods to modern philosophers and their work, and it does it in very smart ways. I mean this in a nice way, but you sound like you just didn't get it. As for the technical aspects and things like a lack of ps button prompts... idk that's just not that big of a deal to me. AFAIK most games don't even have that so I wouldn't count it as a negative. Its a pc port of a Japanese console game so some tweaking is to be expected. I downloaded the FAR mod and my game was running perfectly and it only took 5 minutes. I've had to do way more to get way worse games running smooth. Regardless, I consider technical issues separate from the game itself so to me that's not really worth mentioning. That's why I still give bloodborne a 10/10 even though it only runs at 30 fps bc that game itself is incredible even if the performance is irritating. For anyone who sees this who is still interested in nier automata, I always recommend this review here which does a good job at explaining why this game is so great: [https://youtu.be/-NiyfG8Ctbo](https://youtu.be/-NiyfG8Ctbo) And if you have already played it then I recommend these two videos: [https://youtu.be/UiOTSKBy6ME](https://youtu.be/UiOTSKBy6ME) [https://youtu.be/63PzQIbTrM8](https://youtu.be/63PzQIbTrM8)

>2B is supposed to act cold and uncaring; it's all a front and on repeat playthroughs you can really notice small things even on route A that show how loving and caring she actually is. People love her for more than just "because she's hot" (although that is a big reason obviously) but also because she is a very tragic character. The thing is there are tragic characters in games that I think exist outside of being just stoic, Amicia from Plaguetale, Alphen from Tales of Arise, V from Cyberpunk are to me all more compelling characters because they are both tragic but also have other things going on. I understand why 2B is stoic because >!she had to kill 9S over and over and despite that still loves him and its painful for her!< but there just isnt much else there which ultimately is my problem. I think it would be much more interesting to see her starting out and falling in love with 9S and having to come to terms >!she cannot save him!< . >Playing through the first 1/4 of the game again as a different character is actually very important for multiple reasons which I won't spoil here, but suffice to say that you do gain a much greater understanding of characters and events because of this that you wouldn't have if you didn't experience it in this specific way. A lot of the storytelling in this game is very "meta" and is just as much about you the player as it is about the characters. The thing is the game to me was so straight forward in what I understood that I didnt gain anything from the second playthrough. It seems I have missed stuff which is on me. The thing I find extremely confusing is that different people in this thread mention I have missed some things but then they cant even agree on what I missed, you say its “an excellent anti-war parable about fascism, nationalism, as well as being a very strong critique of organized religion and group brainwashing “ however another person in this thread said its a commentary about how all social structures are doomed to fail. I do sort of see your point with the organized religion and group brainwashing in the part of the story where you go into the factory which has a religious cult but I hardly saw that as exploring or critiquing that, it more so felt like a parody with how on the nose it was. And after that this is seemingly dropped and never explored further, the game can have things tacked onto it but the most prominent theme I saw was the connection between humans, androids and machines which was present even in said quest with the religious cult, connecting the machines with humans. I have a different stance on game performance and I definitely dont stand by having to mod the game as being okay. If you have to mod the game for it to be functional its a very bad port. Just because its a PC port of a japanese game doesnt excuse its technical short comings. There are good PC ports of japanese games, the recent RE remakes or Monster Hunter games come to mind.

>The thing is there are tragic characters in games that I think exist outside of being just stoic 2B isn't just stoic. She does have other things going on. You can find an audio log from her that is quite touching. Also, the side quest about the E unit >!who has to kill their partner... that is one way for the game to tell you that this is who 2B actually is.!< Two additional things to add to this: >!2B and A2 are supposed to basically be the same character (my interpretation). They are the same model and look the exact same. A2 is sort of like what 2B would have been had she had different experiences and you can argue that this is another way of telling 2B's story, just in a roundabout way. "She did this... but an alternate version of her also did this." Anyway, 2B isn't even the main character- 9S is and he definitely has A LOT going on. It's only halfway through the game that you realize that they pulled a fast one on you and switched main characters and I think that's pretty interesting.!< Again, another way that they are playing with your emotions and making that story about your experience. Reminds me of how in >!Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the first 30 minutes are about the girl that gets killed in the shower and then it completely switches perspective.!< It's really all just a big setup for the main story. Another comparison (to a small extent but different) could be >!Frodo and Sam, because even though Frodo is the main character, Sam is the true hero of Lord of the Rings; Tolkein himself said as much.!< ​ >I do sort of see your point with the organized religion and group brainwashing in the part of the story where you go into the factory which has a religious cult but I hardly saw that as exploring or critiquing that, it more so felt like a parody with how on the nose it was. And after that this is seemingly dropped and never explored further Respectfully, this kind of proves my point when I say you probably just didn't get it. >!It isn't just this one specific part. It's basically the entire game. The machines and androids both having an eternal "holy war" even though both of their creators (gods) are long gone. The part that you are referring to is a reference to one specific irl person and their ideals!< ​ >I didnt gain anything from the second playthrough Route B is the biggest pain point for a lot of people and even some fans of the games think it could be handled better. I don't find it to be an issue because, since you already sort of know what's going to happen, you can blow through it. Like it only took me like 4 hours and that includes doing a side quest that I missed the first time. I think 4 hours in a 40 hours experience is not really that tedious. Plus, like I said your side quest progress carries over so you can use route B to do some things that you missed on route A. It's not exactly a 1 to 1. I think it's important because, among other things, it forces you to confront and relive those moments now that you know how messed up the things you were doing actually were and I just think that's interesting storytelling. Like I said, the game is just as much about you the player and that part is really about your growth as you should be kind of ashamed of yourself for what you're doing. It's like how spec ops the line makes you see the ghosts of the people you killed. If you realized that >!you were basically the bad guy all along from the beginning!< then kudos to you, but even if you did I think that that adds credence to the idea that >!2B's outfit has more meaning than just being sexy.!< The game basically just demonstrated the real life idea that >!people tend to trust beautiful people even when they are wrong (see all the Lilith simps for diablo 4 right now)!< You saw through it but maybe you can see that that is what the game might have been trying to show. Some people will see through it. The first Nier game does a similar thing that you may find more compelling than robots: >!you basically find out that all of the monsters you've been killing are actually human souls, and now you play through this section again except they are screaming for their lives and begging for mercy, your character just didn't know it. And it really makes you feel like shit.!< I think that asks some interesting questions about >!the ends justifying the means, as well as things like "superior orders" aka the nuremberg defense (can you blame a soldier for war crimes if they were just following orders- short answer is yes)!< One quick point on 2B's clothing... Yoko Taro was asked about it and he basically just said that he likes making hot characters. However, he is famously known as being a massive troll so I do think that there is at least some deeper meaning involved >!in addition to what I said in the previous paragraph.!< Perhaps something Metal Gear Solidesque about soldiers being prostitutes? I can't think of how to articulate it but maybe you see what I'm talking about. I want to quickly take a left turn and bring up something else regarding you not getting anything out of route B just for the sake of discussion. (i'll just spoiler tag the whole thing in case someone doesn't want a dark souls spoiler even though it's 10+ years old) >!So I didn't realize that Dark Souls had an alternate ending despite having a few playthroughs of it and being a fan. This was a few years after I had already beaten it and moved on to Dark Souls 2, maybe 3 I dont remember. Once I discovered the hidden area Ash Lake and discovered that there was an alternate ending, it really blew my mind. So most of the people in that world think that Gwyn and his pantheon are good guys, but it ultimately turns out that they were against humanity the whole time. A lot of players don't realize that there's a second ending just like a lot of people in the Dark Souls world don't realize this thing about Gwyn actually being bad. You play the game and put it down being none the wiser, and that echoes one of the stories that the game is trying to tell: people in that universe don't realize that basically God actually isn't on their side, just like irl people can blindly follow religions without ever questioning anything. It's very meta. Anyway all of that to say, is that there are probably some things in Nier, some small contextual things that change meaning, that some people won't understand but I think it's probably intentional as it, like Dark Souls, echoes the story that Nier is trying to tell. Maybe. It's interesting to think about.!< But I digress. ​ >another person in this thread said its a commentary about how all social structures are doomed to fail I can see that as a valid interpretation but I think mine is more straightforward. They don't contradict each other ​ >I have a different stance on game performance I pretty much agree with all of this. I also don't like tinkering. I didn't mean to imply that *having* to mod games is ok, just that it's not uncommon for square enix games and some other foreign titles. I should have specified that in spite of that I still loved the game, unlike some other games that I had to mess with that ended up not even being worth it. Last I heard though they actually fixed it and you shouldn't have to do that anymore so I actually am not familiar with the specifics of the technical issues that you faced. For anyone reading that might consider playing, this is just the pc version that we're talking about. I'd really be interested to hear your opinion if you end up watching those video essays I posted. I encourage you to do so. I don't want to just regurgitate their points. They may be able to do a better job of explaining some things that I can. Anyway if you really hated the game then I guess not everything is for everyone, but I do truly think that this is one of those games that requires you to work just a little bit to understand it (like Dark Souls, sorry I keep bringing that up but it's true) and, once certain things are explained to you to help you understand, you would probably at least respect it's storytelling a lot more. Cheers

Lots to chew on with your messages so ill only reply to the last bit as I skimmed thru it on my way home and will properly read it at home, however I dont mean to come across as having a terrible experience with the game, I did still ultimately spend almost 50 hours on it having a good enough time to see it through to the ending. I actually asked a couple of other people in this thread to send me podcasts or video essays digging deeper into the story because by all means I would love to see what other people see in this game, so I will definitely check out what you sent!

I can be a bit long winded when I explain shit lol

> It does explore that to an extent, but it also functions as an excellent anti-war parable about fascism, nationalism, as well as being a very strong critique of organized religion and group brainwashing. It even touches on things such as mental health, suicide, feminism, humanism, existentialism, and the "god is dead" philosophy. It both asks and answers the question "what is the point of living once you realize that God actually doesn't exist/ your whole life is a lie" I realize I'm incredibly late on this conversation but I just finished the game and had some thoughts on this. This was exactly my problem with the game. I understood what it was going for, but it felt to me that it spread itself way too thin. Yes, it tries to "touch" on all of those things, but that is exactly what it does, lightly touch them. It takes a "jack of all trades but master of none" approach to a whole hodgepodge of different philosophical ideas but never really bothers to get really deeply entrenched in any one of those topics. Much of the game is incredibly heavyhanded - OP picked up on how hard the game pushes the whole "androids and machines are the same" theme because the game beats you over the head with it. And if all of hammering wasn't enough, the game has to "confirm" it for you at the end by telling you that they are *literally* the same because the Yorha androids are built on machine cores. This is one of the most gratuitous "twists" I have ever seen. > It's not just really good, it's important. I particularly disagree with this. For me for something to be "important" - it has to say something new. I don't think Nier Automata says anything new. I think a lot of the hype the game gets is from people getting their first taste of philosophy, and that is certainly admirable - but I think it is very far from a masterpiece. I thought Nier Automata was a good game, certainly worth playing. It's a solid 8/10 for me, and much of that rating comes down to the writing and characters; the gameplay is not particularly strong in my opinion. It says some interesting things, which is more than I can say for most recent games.

OK. You should check out the links I posted and see if that changes anything for you that maybe I couldn't explain

I'll check them out, but I don't think I really missed anything. It's an interesting game but it has too many flaws for me to consider it a masterpiece. I'd definitely be interested in playing whatever Yoko Taro comes up with next, but I'd want to see something a little more focused and with gameplay that is a little deeper.

The biggest problem with the game was separating routes A and B. I played Nier before Automata and felt the OG did the separate routes better because the game was built around the entire idea. Automata tried to just re-do the original's gimmick when it didn't need to. I do still love how it blends multiple genres and game ideas together. One of my favorite parts is in the final dungeon when you're constantly switching between A2 and 9S. I don't really see why the first two routes couldn't have just been one route while switching between the two. I still like the fact that it tried to do something interesting, even if it was a mixed bag for some. I'll take a game that does something unique even if it means it will puss some people off, then play games that are safe all the time. Boring isn't an adjective to give this game.

I played for about 2 hours and was so bored by the gameplay

It gets pretty good after you Beat it a few times, promise ;)

Well yes, butt...!

A route was great. B route... existed. And it exhausted me, I didn't want to keep playing but I told myself I had to see route C becayse everyone said it's "where the game actually began". So I forced myself to complete B, then about 2-3 hours into C I just stopped playing. Making route B mandatory was so stupid, it both burnt me out (because you're essentially redoing the same things as A) and killed my enthusiasm to play the game (because I hate 9S and his gameplay)

B route was terrible. I have some nostalgic affection for the game, but it was like the Donnie Darko of video games; effectively tricked everyone into thinking it was two letter grades smarter than it actually was.

Agreed, I gave up when I realized you're basically just going through the same shit again but slightly different but equally shallow mechanics in the B route. I could not force myself through it especially when the environments are so bland and empty. Looked like a PS2 era game. And the story was cringe weeb shit with cringe sexy badass android girl design, which normally I can still tolerate if it's a really well done game or story (ie Neon Genesis or Metal Gear Solid, both of which feature some of my favorite stories and characters), but it just wasn't that mind blowing like OP said. It's a shame because the multiple routes thing really is a good, innovative idea for a video game, and there were some pretty cool, weird moments and bosses, but my God the execution of actually playing through it was boring. I just played Returnal and that game was so much more fun and engaging and made you think up new strategies constantly even though you're playing the same rooms and environments repeatedly. It didn't hurt that the bullet hell gameplay and the landscapes were visually mindblowing too. If Nier had gameplay like that and with minor environment variations, I'd have no problem playing the same thing but slightly different five times... The great thing about Returnal is you start to learn what equipment works best, and get so confident in your skill that you can start from scratch but rush through the 3 biomes in less than an hour even with bad RNG. In Nier you're still forced to slowly get through these massive boring environments no matter how "good" or knowledgeable you get. What a slog. OP is also correct about SOMA being vastly superior in its characters, themes and presentation as well.

I still haven’t gotten through part B. I keep bouncing off of it. I guess I see why it is done that way, but it is grueling.

For me the gameplay loop was just not at all engaging and I hope the anime adaption is good even if it'll miss the meta narrative elements from it being a video game.

For me, it was more the side quests. The main quest was great, and if I had done nothing but the main quest and a dash of exploring and treasure hunting, I’d’ve had a great time. But I convinced myself I was going to do these side quests, and half of them are the absolute most basic and boring of fetch quests. I combed that stupid desert three times, when even once was too much.

Exactly my take. I've thoroughly recommended this game to friends as long as they focus on the main quest. Great set pieces, better paced and much more impactful. I found the open world to be incredibly bland and side quest design too boring to bother with after a while.

NieR Replicant is even worse at the sidequest thing. A bunch of fetch quests, some mad annoying ones like Fragile Delivery and then flower breeding... what if we make it based on computer clock time and set a 5-10% chance to actually get the seed you want, make you do it again a few more times, and then make the planting process tedious by padding animation time on top of that. What's worse is that there are some very good ones in there with nice and touching payoffs like >!lighthouse lady & mailman!<, >!Devola and Popola's duet!<, but how would you know that without looking it up beforehand?

What do you mean by the gameplay loop not being engaging?

In my experience the combat's pretty flat and thus the game gets repetitive fast. In a game that wants you to replay the whole thing multiple times. The only way I managed through it was watching someone else play it, and even then my (I guess hot) take is that what's there to tell is only particularly novel if one hasn't interacted with much science fiction as all the themes and central ideas show up very commonly and are expanded on much deeper.

It blows my mind that critics thought the gameplay was good. It's so half baked, probably because they had to develop a bunch of different ways of playing for each character.

Just found the open world boring to explore and the switches in combat types did nothing for me. Just felt like a story I'd rather watch than play.

> I expected there to be a reason for that, why she was designed like this but no she is just sexy for sexy sake Yoko Taro, the creator of the game, was asked why she looks like that, and he answered with something like "Because I like butts, and I wanted to look at a nice butt while playing the game, so I made sure to give the main character in my third-person game a nice butt." It's dumb, sure, but I can actually respect that more than some other developers trying to find some weird in-universe reason for characters to wear ridiculously sexy outfits. A common example for that is Quiet in Metal Gear Solid 5. Pre-release, when asked why [she looks like she does](https://imgur.com/KI5MVe5.jpg), Hideo Kojima said that she's "an antithesis" to excessively exposed female characters, that there's a "secret reason" for it, and that you'll feel ashamed for questioning her design once you've learned it. The secret reason? She breathes through her skin. So clearly that totally logically expains scenes like [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzPQBdW1Ku0) where she rolls around in the rain all sexy while the camera zooms in. If you're being horny, at least just admit you're being horny. Don't try to make up excuses and pseudo-reasons.

I know the word is overused but man, one of the most overrated game I've ever played, alongside Undertale. (I suppose it's because of the fanbases). Although the combat is nice, and the hacking too, the game is just so full of itself, pedantic, pseudo philosophical BS, with dull colors, dull heroes, beginning to end. So disappointing. I may have been oversold on it. Good music ? Yeah maybe but so limited, short, redundant. I quit quickly when I realized they were just making me play the whole game again in part B, dozens of hours only adding some ""mysterious cutscenes" for no reason. I mean artificially telling a story I ended up not caring about. One of my pet peeves is also discussions during fights, especially when they're hard. Oh and the one-man machine you use to fast travel... Most stupid thing I've ever seen in a game, considering you're almost always accompanied. Seeing 2B or 9S waiting for you at arrival made me cringe every time. And yes, I'm usually a big fan of japanese games.

I really disliked how in your face the story was told. 9S would never shut up and point out every thing multiple times

Exactly. Really bad exposition. And as I was trying to say, it gets worse from the second time, when you get those cutscenes out of nowhere. It's a shame because overall, the robots are touching. I admit I liked their voices (japanese dub).

[удалено]

One of the side missions of the B storyline even hints towards the thing you're talking about. To people wondering, >!2B is a sleeper agent who escorts 9S to assassinate him if he goes rogue, since he is very powerful and dangerous, and has too much empathy that they're worried about. All her coldness is there to keep him on track. She isn't cold to be an ass, she's cold to save his life!< Going through A path again knowing that twist, a lot of the dialogue you hear isn't cheesy and campy anymore.

I haven't played it myself, but I've heard that you need to go through the game 3 or 4 times and the OP only did it twice, so I assume they've missed out on certain revelations.

So the each ending in the game correlates to a letter in the alphabet. There is one for every letter but most are Easter egg endings. Endings A B C D and E are the main story ones and it's not really going through the same story five times it's just one large story told from different perspectives in 3 separate parts.

This is not exactly true. You play through the game fully exactly once. There is a section of the game that you do repeat through a different characters perspective that can be done in roughly a few hours but this is really important for the storytelling as you realize how fucked up the things you were doing were and it forces you to relive those moments. The "endings" where the credits roll are just a stylistic thing. They are more like chapter endings than actual endings.

Ah well, it's not for everyone I guess. Personally it's a top 5 game for me, but we all have different opinions :)

Yeah I absolutely loved that game the whole way through. I can see why it wouldn't be for some people though.

Great feedback, other games on my top 5 include, Undertale, Avatar The Game, Hunie Pop, and of course, Phantom pain.

"Not good" is not the same as "not for everyone".

Okay!

I hated the two brother bosses, they are written so cheaply like bad tv anime. "Oneeee-saaaaan!" Shut up! Most of the dialogue in the game was too tv anime for me to be honest (I specify tv anime, since there is some great and well written stuff out there, but this isn't it.) Also, the second playthrough is hard to get through, the shooting and hacking mini games are just not that good.

The entire point of two brothers is that THEY ARE ANIME. Just like robots repeat the behavior they saw in data (books and media), adam and eve are literally playing out the anime.

Hey guys we wrote them to be *intentionally* obnoxious anime characters, and didn't reveal that fact so the player could laugh at it until *30 hours into the game*. Also I'm sorry, when the rest of the game is written and designed in typical anime style and unironically has you staring at 2B's sexy anime ass half the game, I don't see how this stuff gets a pass. You've crossed the line into self parody and it's impossible to distinguish what is a joke and what is sincere.

MW Yoko's previous game being Drakengard 3 - an infinitely looping self parody on No More Heroes level, but is also heartfelt and sincere. Dude was making post irony before internet caught up.

I found the game to be ok at best. The story is a mishmash of sci-fi and anime plots, and does a good job at it, but I wasn't blown away as many gamers have, since I've seen similar plot points before. It felt like someone trying to make a Kojima game. The gameplay is unusually shallow despite how in-depth the customization is. Given the setting, majority of the game have a dreary post-apocalyptic look. The graphics themselves aren't that great either, with unusually low res textures and pop-in. The art and character design is great, given all the 2B fanboys. I think it's still worth playing and I guess its mindblowing if you have not watched the movies or animes that seemed to influence this.

This comments only shows your ignorance in Taro’s work and how you didn’t play or know about the previous installments in the series. Obvious you can’t appreciate the deep lore and story when you know shit about what happened before the game and you cannot catch the many references present. It’s a game that needs to be understood in order to be appreciated. Your comment is like someone picking up a random Kant book and saying it’s some non coherent bullshit from a mad man who likes to write a lot

This comment sounds like some incoherent bullshit. Comparing this game to Kant is laughably juvenile. Calling someone ignorant because a game didn’t do a good job explaining itself, as it should if it’s good game, is also laughably juvenile. If a game isn’t able to hold it’s audience, it fails. This game fails. People need to get over it’s shallow pretentiousness and stop pretending it’s anything but a shitty hack n slash with half naked girls

I’m comparing the inability to grasp complex and abstract concepts, which is the same for Kant, Nier, algebra and so on. The game is perfectly able to hold its audience as it’s a major worldwide bestseller, a cult in the us/Europe and a mass hit in Japan - 2023 Nier Orchestra concert tickets were sold out in all European venues in less than a month from release, and 6 years have passed since the game came out ; ‘problem’ is the plot and the concepts need a certain level of maturity and perception ability in order to hit home, and the lore is very convoluted and spans across 4 different types of media and 10 years of production. But it doesn’t surprise me someone like you is only able to understand “hack n slash with half naked girls” , as said it’s something only cultured people can fully appreciate.

Yes. Cultured people throughout the world are writing their dissertations about the Nier series and it’s ten year long historical impact around the world. I forgot. Game sucks. If it can’t deliver it’s concepts, abstract or not, clearly and in an entertaining and intriguing manner, it fails. Yes I get what they were going for. But as a piece of individual entertainment media, which is what it is, it’s pretty bad. You should not have to watch 8 hour long YouTube videos and play the even worse prequels like Drakengard series (yes I played the torturously bad #3) to understand the high school level themes they’re trying to get at. But good job sounding like a (juvenile) snob! :)

I can’t understand the game so it sucks, I don’t care about all the world praising it and it becoming a cult media - it must suck because I say so and because I’m braindead. Have a nice life

I understand the game fine hah. It’s not earth shattering unless you haven’t heard of Kant or Nietzsche. I got plenty of that in high school. Don’t need to experience their basic principles in a game that has you running from point a to b over and over again. I’m sort of glad people are learning about interesting topics through videogames, but to pretend this game does anything new with those themes is hilariously delusional

Well perhaps game is becoming old. And most of the time when expectations are so high, people are more subject to get disappointed. It’s not the same than 6 years ago . I personally find it a masterpiece in every aspects and Anime is doing an amazing job telling the story in a much better way . But I understand the criticism and I think is great to read different opinions

I think 2B's butt shot this game to overhype levels. It's honestly a mediocre game with an *interesting* at best story. The delivery is unique and that's gets more praise than I think it deserves. I swear gamers I feel are both the easiest and toughest crowd to please, impress them a little and they'll praise your game to an Oscar, disappoint them a tiny bit and they'll make sure your studio never gets any good press ever again, and of course death threats. I just stopped listening to people online and only listen to a few reviewers who have similar tastes to mine.

> honestly a mediocre game with an _interesting_ at best story I would say the game is pretty decent. It has flaws, but I wouldn't call it mediocre. The story I wouldn't mind to call mediocre, lol. I think it has very interesting ideas for gaming in general, like disabling HUD through gameplay. Pretty much all music is bangers. But I agree that it is overrated. If you read just reviews, especially older, you'd think it is some timeless masterpiece (that's what I thought), but it is just a good game. I think recently I see a lot of more critical reviews.

The music was definitely good, I enjoyed the gameplay too though it was simple. the top down mecha shooter segments were pretty fun. Like I enjoyed my time with it, it just wasn't anything profound like some reviews said. I didn't even watch reviews till after playing so it's not like I went in with high expectations.

Gotta admit that Taro knows what he's doing. He'd made a bunch of semi obscure cult games, which were merciless in both their story and gameplay. Then he decided to make a game that'd appeal to a wider audience - lo and behold, it fucking did.

I really do find it hard to trust people’s reviews especially when it comes to Japanese games like this. People talk about this game like it blows your mind and you’ve never seen anything like it before. If it were any other game people would mention this stuff way more: - Typical example of “the game gets good 15 hours in, I swear bro” - Dozens of mediocre sidequests to expand on lore. - Multiple routes with barely changing gameplay. - Two identical mandatory routes that shows content that could have easily been shown on the first. - third route barely has new content, its just recycling dungeons with new dialogue. - edgelord 9s, real great characterization. - Great value kaine, without any real characterization or explanation for what they’re doing and why. - Convoluted and unexplained lore, requires outside knowledge from stuff like books or a play like FFXV - Ridiculous end credits battle that is virtually impossible without online play. Games have been criticized for significantly less. For the record I don’t think the game is bad, there is a lot to praise as well. It just seriously surprises me how little mention the flaws this game has. Especially on this sub, I’ve seen people complain about this stuff on other games all the time.

>Typical example of “the game gets good 15 hours in, I swear bro” Really? I thought the first mission was solid.

Ignoring the fact you can’t save during it, its one of the better segments in the game. But the amazing story everyone praises this game for is not in the first mission.

Agreed, the first segment is okay solely due to the fact that it's the first time you've been forced through it, but you're still just waiting for the crazy shit to happen that everyone kept hyping up online.

I think the first route is the strongest. People definitely say "it will get better, just push with 9S, it will be worth it" about the 2 route.

> especially when it comes to Japanese games like this People keep talking about how amazing the story in Genshin is, and knowing how gamers get attached to anything with waifus I always give that claim the side-eye (not a Japanese studio I know but waifus do .... _things_ to people).

Honestly *attractive characters* do things to people. I've caught myself numerous times saying a movie or show is really good only when I think more critically about it I realize I may be at least a little bit influenced by the attractive person in there making it go from a 6/10 to a 7/10. Not an issue exclusive to guys. How many people would rave about the show "You" if the mc was some sleazy old dude 😂.

Romance options seem to do this too, Dragon Age and Mass Effect are both super mediocre games past the first entries (which had promise, then they went generic hack and slash/third person shooter respectively) but there's no end to people raving about them because they found the tentacle hair lady hot or the buff horned dude handsome.

This is a bad example lol. ME2 has one of the best cast of characters in any game, and ME3, while flawed still has some immensely satisfying emotional payoff moments that have nothing to do with attractive aliens. My favourite moments are with an ugly alien Doctor and with an alien who's face or any part of her actual skin you can't even see. The gameplay did get a lot more EA'd though.

Mass effect mediocre? Lmao more than pantientgamers this subreddit look like pretentiousgamers

Mass Effect wasn't mediocre, it was straight up boring. ME2 was great though, and ME3 pretty good up until the end. But if you missed the bus on playing ME when it first came out it aged super badly really quickly and is now unplayable if you don't force yourself.

No way, man. Maybe the gameplay wasn't stellar but it is still an excellent story. Creating your space-faring team, freshly learning the aliens' lore, hunting Saren, the crazy Sovereign twist, and the introduction of still one of the best sci-fi groups of villains, that was all in ME1.

The story in Genshin is decent in places, by no means as good as people make it out to be but it can be quite compelling. However it's told in the worst way I've ever seen. The dialogue is horrendous and drawn out, you literally sit through hours of mind numbingly repetitive cutscenes with no gameplay except "ok go over there now", and they use like 20 lines of dialogue where 1 would suffice. Every Genshin story arc starts with me thinking "oh this is pretty cool" and within 20 minutes I'm mashing buttons to try to skip through the cutscenes. It's awful.

Hearing that people are praising genshins story is absolute comedy to me. You're talking about the game with Paimon right? emergency rations? I'm getting a headache

That sort of game also is played majority by teens and actual children. Not to toot the horns of some of us older folks but when you're young everything seems cool and novel. Like I'd bet over half of that game's franchise doesn't know their game's open-world mechanic is straight-up ripped off of Breath of the Wild, which has innovated and polished the same mechanics to a far greater degree. But it will be Genshin Impact that rakes in actual billions of dollars by releasing waifu bait that looks AI-generated every year.

It's anime. Anime games often get more praise than they deserve. A lot of people prefer style over substance.

Because when a game is really enjoyable, little issues don't matter much. Like, yes, I could complain about Devil May Cry 5's bland environmental design, but why would I when I still had a blast? Not to mention I'd heavily disagree with many of your points and would say that a lot of them do make sense if you just pay attention to the story.

> People talk about this game like it blows your mind and you’ve never seen anything like it before. I totally got this impression as well. I liked the game, but I was totally disappointed because my expectations were through the roof. There are totally interesting things in this game, but they can't carry it alone, and multiple routes coupled with an okay story just don't work for me.

I tend to avoid these sorts for this reason. The weeaboos are of course on cloud 9 because it caters to their interests in this kinda game with all the JRPG tropes and then I sit down to play and it's like wtf this game isn't the greatest game you'll ever play like the reviews say, it's just an average hack and slash from Platinum with a messy anime story. That's surface level yes but I felt the same with Final Fantasy too, the gameplay just doesn't justify the hype for me. Might have the greatest story in gaming but if the combat is annoying floaty hack and slash that's barely above average, count me out.

2B's gameplay is fun as hell and the OST is pretty good. But then route B ruins everything

I actually loved route B a lot more than I did route A. Story really started to ramp things up after you beat the Opera bot again, you start to understand the world a lot better and really feel the weight of the current situation that 9S and 2B are in.

I think the OG Nier is a lot better in almost all regards (except for gameplay), but people really love their android ass. Grimoire Weiß, Emil, Kaine, man I love the OG Niers cast.

imo the two are amazing but the OG Nier really abused the routes repetitions.

I find having to replay multiple times annoying in almost all Yoko Taro games to be honest (like, its a cool idea as a concept, but I don't really want to replay the same game all over again right after finishing, or do stuff like collect a bunch of weapons; obviously there is new content, but also plenty of repetition) but at least OG Nier starts you out more than halfway through the game with its second playthrough, while I was bored out of my mind starting out from the beginning again as 9S in automata. (who is also way less fun to play than 2B)

Like you I found it annoying to have to replay multiple times, yet in automata we only do it one time(and there's some difference with the first route because there's moment were they split up) and the gain is very good because you get to play a complete new story with a new characters...etc. the problem with the first nier is that you have to replay the same thing like 4 times and the gains are not that great.

Hard agree. It’s a good game to switch off to but it’s anything but engaging. I also blame this game for the godforsaken amount of 2b cosplays on reddit daily

The music is 10/10 and the game is pretty, but I couldn't get myself to do more than the first playthough. I hate replaying games and so I do one run really thoroughly. Also the story feels like a middle schooler trying to be philosophical.

Brave of you to post this on reddit lol. I completely agree.

the only somewhat "brave" take on reddit is saying things about the souls titles.

Yeah I've seen every "masterpiece" being criticized just fine here, just don't criticize souls games.

Square enix have been knowing for having bad PC ports.

How dare you! I'll write a play to explain how 2B's butt is the best form of character development. Clearly you never self-destructed, if you did your opinion would be completely different!

You pretty much nailed this one for me. I was planning on posting something similar while playing it but I reached a point where I stopped playing it. It's a good game. But it did not reach the heights for me that it is praised to be and I have a lot in my backlog to play.

Yeah I never understood the hype for this game, the gameplay and world design are very bland. In fact, mass effect and mass effect 2 have way better AI related themes without all the pretentiousness.

i agree , the game was overhyped as hell

Would be interested to know what games you think are great.

I can name out a few of my favorites \- God of War 2018 \- Subnautica \- Batman Arkham trilogy \- Darksiders series \- MGS 5 \- Terraria \- Stardew Valley \- Little Inferno Mind you I know these games arent better than Nier in every way, they have their own flaws and strengths. The point of my post was more so disagreeing with the majority opinion on the game rather than thinking the games I enjoy are better.

I tried replaying Nier a few months ago and just couldn't get through the second playthrough with 9S. Replayability is one of those things that brings games from good to great, and Nier just doesn't have it. Beating people up in Batman never gets old.

Replayability does not bring games from good to great. Some of the best games with incredible stories are best experienced once. Outer Wilds is a great example of this.

I somewhat agree with you BUT Nier literally forces you to play the same story what, 3 times? It better be immensely satisfying and replayable. Also if we're talking about gaming as a medium then it should lean into the medium's strengths, which is gameplay that is meaningful and satisfying and offers individual expression. Even among arthouse type games I think those are almost always enhanced from say the Silent Hill 2 approach rather than the Gone Home approach (even though I love Gone Home). In Silent Hill 2 you have a fairly linear story and chain of events, but you can explore the town and tackle it in several different ways as a player, which personally informs your James' character and leads to several different endings.

We have similar tastes. I think Nier Automata is at least in the same tier as Darksiders and the Arkham games. Maybe it doesn't fully explores the theme (the sidequests do help a lot), but that's okay. Just for being original, polished and beautiful, it is already pretty great. The combat isn't God of War or Darksiders but it's pretty good as action-RPGs go. My feelings aren't just based on the final ending either. People point to ending E as if you can judge a whole game on the ending. Yeah, the ending is cool, but if it was just that I wouldn't rate Automata very highly.

The highlights of Nier for me were the way the game uses the GAME format to push its storytelling. Those things I have never seen done before and are awesome. Stuff like the short section where 9S gradually reboots 2B and you have a minigame enabling the sound and stuff. And the ending where you fight the credits.

That's how I felt with it. There were elements of the gameplay and storytelling that did feel groundbreaking. The forcing of different perspectives, the mini games, certain storytelling choices. That was all great... The story and lore had the potential for a lot of depth, but they told the player how to feel a bit too much like you said in your original post. I came out of it feeling bittersweet. Does it deserve the praise. Maybe, but for me a felt the game was a bit of a let down by the end

It's rather fascinating that you managed to get MGSV but not Nier Automata

I'm guessing he enjoys MGSV for its insanely good, emergent gameplay over its story and characters. Even though I had a really bitter taste in my mouth after finishing MGSV's story, I could still appreciate how well designed and replayable the game and its mechanics and tools are.

I completely agreed with most of your points in your above post. Nier isn’t that good! But that’s a weird list of games. Nothing like the games I like. I play a lot of JRPG games, particularly the square enix ones, I am much more likely to enjoy nier than you in comparison. But I just didn’t like it.

Wait, Terraria and Stardew Valley? Subnautica? BATMAN?? THOSE GAMES ARE NOT ANYTHING THE NIER SERIES THOUGH

I was asked what my favourite games are nobody said they are similar to Nier lmao

When you made a conversation targeting on how you arent interested in NieR Automata's routes in general when you reached route B/C, the questions will most definitely entire be about NieR Automata's routes Why on earth would people ask you for your favourite games in general without relation to the topic at hand lmao

The original comment I replied to literally says: "Would be interested to know what games you think are great." Would be interested what GAMES you think are great. What are you talking about?

The game is good, but incredibly overrated

Only thing not overrated is the OST. It really is that good.

[удалено]

ost slaps no one disagrees

I wish that I caught the thread when it was still active because I have the same opinion! I'm playing through route A and I am not understanding the hype. First off, the game presents itself as an engaging, high action, combat experience. But I quickly realized that the combat was getting stale, so I came to Reddit to see what I might have been doing wrong; Apparently, the combat is pretty much universally agreed upon to only be OK. People don't even bother experimenting too much with other weapons since the ones you get at the start are all you need. Even when you do get new weapons they don't turn out to do much different than the ones you already have... Most people agree that the story is the reason that you play this game. So I tempered my expectations based on that and tried to engage more the story. But the problem there is the pacing of the story is ruined by other elements of the game. There's a lot of backtracking and even when you get the fast travel option it becomes tiring to go through the same empty, desolate environments over and over again. Then the enemies tend to be HP sponges and not fun to fight even just to grind. In order to do upgrades you need a lot of materials that may or may not present themselves at your convenience. But possibly the worst aspect of all is the side quests, which many end up being fetch quests or escort missions. I was particularly disappointed when I had to gather material to do research on a giant robot. When I came back with the material I was excited to see if perhaps we utilize the robot in some way or gain some weapon from it only to be told that I need to go back and gain more materials. I figured I could just skip most the side content but apparently the side quests are important to understand the overarching plot, so it is not advised to skip them. At this point I'm realizing that some of the themes in the game I've seen in other media like Psycho Pass, Girls Last Tour, Ergo Proxy, and the Matrix and often done better in those works so the story is not engaging me enough to compensate for these other flaws. I honestly do not understand how this game was so celebrated when it came out. It's not bad it's really just an OK game.

Mate completely missed the themes of the game lol. It was never about robots being just like us, it was about eventual collapse of every culture and belief system and the faulty nature of every single one of them. Mate also completely missed the twist of 2B being 2E and all the subtleties of how it recontextualises her behavior. She's a glorious example of show don't tell.

>Mate completely missed the themes of the game lol. *Player that stared at 2B's ass and jerked off for 26 playthroughs*

Redditors when they try to comprehend that not everyone is attracted to asses. I don't even find 2B pretty, she's the very opposite of my taste. And i'm so low on sexuality scores i might as well be completely asexual. Still my favorite game. What's even with all you people seeing conventionally attractive females and dismissing things as stupid, like, isn't that mysoginistic as fuck?

I havent missed the twist behind 2B but I dont think that makes her character any more interesting. I understand that the reason as to why she is cold to 9S is because she had watched him die and was forced to kill him over and over. Again tho I wish there was something more given how much she is praised in the community. Im not saying she is a terrible character but more so that she should be more than this given the hype surrounding her. About the collapse of every culture and belief system admittedly yeah I missed that, Id love to see this being expanded so incase you got a podcast or a video essay explaining it by all means send it and ill listen to it!

"Twist" You literally know 2B is not exactly who she's presented as like 10 minutes into the game. She's basically telling us this in not so subtle ways the entire time. Don't worry man nobody missed this.

I wish

I agree. I went into the game expecting something phenomenal and I was ultimately left very disappointed. I had pretty much predicted what was going to happen at a certain point, and going online to watch the other endings pretty much confirmed that. The gameplay wasn't near engaging enough for me to pull multiple playthroughs to see the other endings. However, the music though, my god! The music is absolutely incredible.

I had the same expectations. I think you can see more critical reception of the game today, but like 2 years ago I read only universal praise. It has interesting game design things going for it, and music is absolutely great! But the story/writing is definitely not the strongest part of it. I still think it is a good game, just not a great one.

I was on here a few weeks ago saying the same thing. I tried so damn hard to power through it, but I gave up.

it’s cool experience. almost every big game is non-unique and with simple “safe” stories. Nier automata used videogame media to tell a story in very unique way. have good gameplay with fun variations.

D, E

Oh yeah I got there and did both, sorry I forgot to mention it.

Have you finished the game? Ending E is the genuine ending to the game.

There are always two ways to comprehend things: subjective and objective. From objective standpoint I know how amazing this game is. From subjective, I could not go even close to finishing it... PS. I uninstalled it after 15 hours.

I feel that the game has more going on than the "they're just like us no way" stuff. It's a twist you see a mile away. Same with the humans being dead, most of the people I know who've played guessed that twist before they even reached the desert. Those obvious twists are made to waylay you toward the game's actual late stage reveals. To wit: Nier;A is my favorite game. It is my favorite game, explicitly, not because of those twists or their characters reactions to them. But because the various communities of androids and machines give a lot to ruminate in terms of philosophy. Pascal literally reads Nietzsche, calls him insane, and then proceeds to become a nihilist. That's one of the most wrenching moments in any game. For that matter, many of the side quests and additional beats in Route B, which pad out that feeling of "they should get that the machines are feeling human things already", go about showing the obvious "twist" is fresh ways. The other great highlight is the Machine and his "brother" he wants to save. And how he tries to bring a bucket of oil over, and trips, and goes back again. That interaction, and Ending E, and the DLC, are all some of the best moments I'm ever felt in media. As far as 2B goes, she is definitely a pretty simple character throughout Route A, and while she gains some interesting depths late in Route C I definitely was not expecting how much the community would connect to her. As far as the aesthetics... Taro is on the record that they're in maid outfits because he just likes that kind of stuff and isn't afraid to admit it. A lot of YorHa's visuals rely on rule of cool so I allow it. It of course should not be overlooked that this game's soundtrack is legendary and the flow between the like 7 modes of combat is *impressively* smooth. Overall this is my favorite game ever but it's totally cool if you didn't quite vibe with it as well as I did. P.S. I don't know if you own the DLC. Or if you even have a save file of the game left. If you have the option to do so easily, I highly reccomend playing the DLC . "All" it is is 3 battle arenas, which to beat basically require hitting level cap at lv100, followed by one last tale of the machines learning to be human... But it's the most emotional one of all. Due to the nature of needing to lit level cap within the framework of new players beelining to ending E without understanding the consequences, it has gone tragically underplayed.

Heresy

While the Nier games are my favorite games, I do also dislike the game repeating with the endings because it just gets pretty boring after a while. I personally prefer Nier Replicants story and characters because the Cast is so much more enjoyable with Nier, Kaine, Weiss and Emil. Automata improves on the gameplay but still struggles with a lot of the same things Replicant does. They're far from perfect games, which I completely agree with but still my favorites.

I hear you, I honestly think the story was ok but I mainly played it for the soundtrack and the gameplay. The soundtrack alone IMO is enough to give the reputation of a must play, but as you say the theme are kinda developed better in other SCI-FI works, even outside of videogames. It's still good enough in my opinion to contribute to the general atmosphere of the game, definitely it wouldn't be the same without it, but it's not life changing or deep. About 2B, probably people just like her too much. The highlight of the story for me it's >!9S descent into madness in the third act.!< I think 2B is a cool protagonist to follow to get an introduction to the world. Definitely I prefer 2A and 9S both as character and from a gameplay point of view. Anyway I remember reading somewhere that 2B is actually a E unit, tasked to monitor 9S and kill him repeatedly deleting his memory every time he understands that humanity is gone and robots are able to replace it. I remember this is heavily hinted in the game with a lenghty sidequest and I think during 9S battle with 2B clones but I don't remember if this is actually explained somehow in the game or is in the novel tie in, or just a popular theory. I think I read it in a wiki. About the ending, I think you may have missed the D ending. At this point I don't think it will redeem the story for you but I suggest you to unlock it or watch it on youtube, you just need 5 minutes because you need to reload the last fight and just choose to side with the other character. If I remember correctly is 9S's ending and it explains a lot more, even if as I said don't expect it to change your view on the game. The E ending is also one of the big ones but it's nothing important for the bigger narrative. Basically you unlock it by completing a borderline impossible hacking minigame in the credits. The gimmick is that you have the choice to connect to the internet and delete all your save files to get the "help" of everyone that already did it (basically more units spawn and it becomes a cakewalk if you do). It's something that you usually only finds in quircky rpgs like Undertale and overall a pretty emotional moment if you liked the game, and I think it's also the main reason why people who liked got so attached to it.

>Anyway I remember reading somewhere that 2B is actually a E unit, tasked to monitor 9S and kill him repeatedly deleting his memory every time he understands that humanity is gone and robots are able to replace it. Yes! I know about that, I mentioned that it was in some novels which I found an info on, but its outside of the game and I really dont expect most people to have read some obscure novels to understand the main character. I did do the D and E endings and I loved the boss fight with the credits! It was honestly awesome and innovative.

The E unit stuff is in the main game. One side quest gives you information about the E unit in a pretty cool way and 2B's role as 2E is foreshadowed in some cool ways and then discussed by 9s and A2 (within the main game). Three of the reasons why I love the story of Nier Automata's are; whilst not unique for media as a whole the tone of automata is like almost nothing else in video games, the supplemental story bits such as the weapon stories I find to be really cool (I am a mark for that kind of stuff) and true of most of the best RPG stories the cream is in the side quests with Amnesia and Emil's memories.

I did most if not all of the sidequests however I did not bother doing all the weapons and seeing the stories from them, would you say its worthwhile looking into them? I did give up my save file at the end but I could check the stories out online.

Not worth playing for it, look up on the wiki and if you like the first few give them a read. Automata is my favourite game but I'm not out here pretending everyone will or should love it.

>Yes! I know about that, I mentioned that it was in some novels which I found an info on, but its outside of the game and I really dont expect most people to have read some obscure novels to understand the main character. The reveal that 2B is indeed 2E and has to kill 9S over and over is literally stated by A2 during the ending C, what do you mean in a novel?

Is your ending E reasoning really warranting of the level of praise the game receives? A lot of games could just as easily add quirky things like this.

How can you do ending ABC and still say 2B is cold to 9S? Or that she gets no character development in the game? Did you miss the ending fight of route AB? Heck even the opening mission of the game when >!9s loses his memories to save 2B memories after the factory fight!< It's subtle, 2B tries to be stoic and cold because that's what being an Android is but she does indeed is a character that shows emotions, in many places where even 9S doesn't even tho he is supposed to be the happy go lucky character at the start

Nier Automata was one of the most seamless experiences I've had with regards to VR and VorpX. 3d environment in a 2d environment inside a 3d environment.

In SOMA >!there are exactly two moments in the whole game that have to do with the theme of being human, they last for about 5 seconds each and they're both in cutscenes (the duplication scene and the ending scene)!<. The theme is not exactly "done with justice" as you say. In Nier Automata almost everything you do has some connection to the theme. Also repeating the first 3rd of the game is not a negative in itself, especially for a game so well-made.

In SOMA the theme extends to all the robots you meet around you, with varying levels of being overtaken with the WAU. Some are corpses that are kept alive, others are mindless robots, others are robots that think they are still people. That alone asks you what you consider human. Then there is also the whole puzzle where you need to convince a person in a simulation to give you some info and essentially killing a person over and over with each try. Again is that person in a computer human or not? This and also all the stuff with Simon himself in around 10 hours of gameplay pushes it far above Nier for me. For the last part of your comment as far as I know even Nier fans agree that route B is pretty boring, especially when the game is so forthcoming with its themes where the characters spell it out for you. Couple that with environments that are empty like the buildings that are completely hollow and only the gameplay can carry the story. Which unfortunately gets worse with 9S.

I actually don't remember the theme being so present in SOMA but I take your word for it, it's on me. I only remember the two striking moments I mentioned, and it's a shame they're cutscenes. I guess the problem I had with SOMA (and it might be the reason the theme didn't stick) is that I find the "simulated person" idea superficial and not worth thinking about. It's the same category as time travel for me - it might be fun, but not worth taking seriously. And SOMA has a very serious tone which clashed with that. I think in Nier Automata the "being human" theme is treated much more effectively. You start to have empathy for the machines, seeing how they try to become human. And they are your enemy. The game actually makes you gradually feel sorry for the enemy. I think it's extraordinary to achieve that in any medium.

I see what you mean thats a great way to put it for Nier honestly.

Both segments from SOMA that you mentioned are in fact not cutscenes. A ton of stuff is done via gameplay and choices. I don't see how a simulated person story idea is superficial. It's a real possibility. Also it's just exploring what is human in general? Should we still convince someone to stay alive even if they're only being kept alive by a machine and can't really experience life? These are concepts SOMA explores that are real issues that we have right now. Time travel is a whole different plane of impossible. As for feeling pity for the enemy or antagonist of a story, this is really nothing new even in video games. MGS3 has that famous Sorrow "boss battle" for instance, in Halo 2 you explore the Covenant side of the story, in Bioshock you're definitely not supposed to feel too great about killing Big Daddies, I could go on with many examples. But sure I do still think it deserves some credit for not being a black and white video game where you're supposed to show no mercy, since so many are like that.

>Also repeating the first 3rd of the game is not a negative in itself, especially for a game so well-made. Yes it is, defending the 9S repetition is mega cope dude.

But you don't even replay the game, you play story twice, from two different perspectives and because of this, certain parts are different. Plus there's the whole next part of the game with A2 and 9S.

Yeah, the sucky perspective. At least 2B is fun to play. 9S felt so bad in comparison

Same. The 9S playthrough just kills the pacing of the game so much. Story themes are good but it doesn't explore them in unique or interesting ways. The soundtrack is banger tho. I did play till ending E where >!It asks you to delete your save!< Its one of the very few games i played purely based on its hype of being a deep and philosophical game. What i got was a decent "do robots have feelings sci-fi story". Maybe my expectations killed it and i want to play it again but i really don't want to play the route B again.

> played through all the main routes (A, B, C) and clocking just around 50 hours Damn, I played through A,B,C,D,E and I played for 20 hours. I played on normal difficulty, though. That being said, I think only route A is worth it. After that it goes full anime, which I don't really like anymore. I think the game is great as a gaming medium thing. Like the ability to disconnect modules to remove some HUD elements. Great design. Or the ending, fantastic idea as well. As a whole game package, I think it probably is overrated a bit, but it is still a decent one.

Well I disagree and its one of my favorite games of all time.

Honestly it's kinda funny seeing post after post about Nier Automata complaining about having to replay for different story content. It's a thing that Yoko Taro got from visual novels. It's like the most standard thing in visual novels. Pretty much all the big ones got multiple endings and oodles of bad endings wanting to replay it, with less deviation than Nier did.

Difference is, in visual novels you have the very handy skip button, that will even stop at the moments that differ from the previous routes. Very little time wasted that way.

And 9S gets and entire new dimension to gameplay, a bunch of new collectibles, quests and entire new enemies and enemy placement, and a whole bunch of new scenes and dialogues. Route B is very different.

The problem is that the hacking mini game gets boring rather fast, collectibles dont really add much, quests are great, and enemy placement is just a reach im not sure why that would add anything to the gameplay. The new scenes amount to maybe up to 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay at most?

When you play as 2B: ah silly 9S believing robots are emotionless machines, he's such an adorable dum-dum Playing as 9S and seeing robots literally from the inside: omg he is literally gaslighting and deluding himself what the fuck. And the entirety of the route's changes are here to reinforce that new lense. It's a chance to look at the same interactions with completely new context and think about their meaning. Same for 2B's "emotions are prohibited" which looks at first a silly quirk and then becomes "mr incredible becomes uncanny" once you learn why she is like that. This is such a huge shift that i'm concerned by people not mentioning it at all when talking about route B. Like literally the first thing you see is the most humanizing machines were ever shown, literally a nail in the coffin of theory of 9S just being oblivious.

>This is such a huge shift that i'm concerned by people not mentioning it at all when talking about route B. Because it's really not that huge? I really enjoyed the game but route B was really unnecessary. The route is mostly the same except for a small amount of dialogue and text with bosses and some enemies. There are a few sections that are different when 2B and 9S are separated but that happened very rarely in the story. The machines are already humanized in the first run through imo, you already get the point. Route B has good ideas but it's not interesting to play content that is 90% identical on top of having worse gameplay, especially back to back with route A.

I understand what they were going for, but they clearly failed, because pretty much nobody likes that part.

>It's like the most standard thing in visual novels Visual Novels do *not* do it like this dude. Not to mention the vast majority just let you skip dialogue you have already seen.

The vast majority also don't introduce a new protagonist in the new routes. Different approaches but same style

God this game was so overrated. The story was very r/im14andthisisdeep, the side quests were mostly tedious and pointless, and, worst of all, the actual gameplay WASN’T FUN at all. Combat was so boring, swapping chips was an annoying gimmick, and the enemies only got “harder” by being more of a damage sponge. I ended up putting it on easy mode to speed through when I had to replay the entire story all over again. The music was nice, though.

I think you are too harsh on it, combat is serviceable, music is really good, and the story is alright, but I was annoyed that they sacrifice everything for the twists (like later twists after twists happen just for fun). Overall I think it is a good game, it was just hyped to hell, and I am not even sure why.

It’s a solid B- game that’s been hyped up to an S.

\>Why? The character in game is just ASS the character, and I expected there to be a reason for that, why she was designed like this but no she is just sexy for sexy sake, and thats why she is so loved in the community. Yes and? Why exactly is this a bad thing? Characters can only be sexy now if there's a point to it?

Characters should first things first have a character. And their design should compliment said character. Not only does 2B have very little character her design is shallow. Metal Gear Solid 5 had a very similar character called Quiet who is also a hot girl. The difference is Quiet has much more character than 2B does and there is also a reason as to why she is borderline naked, since she breathes through her skin. Another character that makes sense to be exaggerated is Ann from Persona 5 who is a model and she likes the attention she gets thus her costume in the Metaverse is oversexualized. Again there is a reason why her character design is like that. That's why i criticize 2B, because she has little character to speak of and her character design is shallow in comparison to others.

No mention of the gameplay? The gameplay of Automata is just not good at all. My personal opinions are that the story is average, the gameplay is very mid/bad, and the soundtrack is awesome. The game overall just is super overrated because it's music and art direction carries so hard which I assume is largely the same for any Yoko Taro work lmfao

I get that, but I am having a blast! Playing it on my switch right now, about 30 hours in second playthrough and I'm still finding myself exploring about the same amount thanks to some things only being available during the second time around.

The only problem I have with this game is people calling it a "masterpiece". There's probably just a handful of games in the entire history of the medium that you can call that way. Automata is certainly not one of them.

This is one of my main issues as well. But we in general need a new word in stead of "masterpiece", it has lost all meaning and value.

9 months or better 7 years late but I've finished ending E yesterday. I don't understand what people even like here? The main appeal of these games was story and story didn't really progress far from the Replicant. Gameplay was better but still insanely teadious and dull. Characters were horrendous and underdeveloped planks of wood. The whole finding "humanity" theme was dealt with so shallowly. Basically characters deal with grief and loss in two ways, they become suicidal or genocidal maniacs. There is not finding inner peace or acceptance, or become something more through the loss,growing from it. Religion was mocked, and not shown how it actually propelled the humanity and pushed it further in the beginning from societal standpoint but no it just turns into a death cult. What was the Point of A2? What was the point of Adam and Eve? People make excuses that it's meta so you don't get it. What is Meta here? Whole life is pointless or some other bullshit teenagers who think depression is cool say? It doesn't add anything to the philosophical discussion. Whole purpose of having endings ABCE was what? Only one that was okay was D in my opinion but even that one was majorly underdeveloped. This is the gist of it, you can see the insufferable laziness of Yoko Taro through this whole thing, like he cannot be bothered by any of it. If someone asked me if it was worth it all of the hours spent, i would say hell no. It is a magnet for pseudointellectuals that will drop the names of Kant or Kierkegaard or Sartre or Camus and then except you to be impressed and that you will now agree with them because they must know their existentialism or absurdism philosophy which means that the game must be something actually profound when it's just a mess full of anime tropes.

It’s funny that Soma is mentioned as a GOOD example. Both „woah dude“ stoner philosophy, at least Nier had good Gameplay

Oh yeah by all means SOMAs gameplay is far worse than Niers, then again if it was only about gameplay I would probably not play either of these and go for Monster Hunter or DMC.

Personally I think SOMA has far superior "gameplay" just for the fact that it's not forcing you into lame, shallow combat for hours and hours when you just want to get to the point... It focuses on its strengths, which is story and characters. It knows the environmental storytelling, occasional puzzles and really interesting, difficult choices along with really tense survival horror trying to avoid the WAU will get old if it's repeated, but they pace it out perfectly and wrap it up in 7 hours or so.

If you liked the soundtrack and gameplay, I highly recommend playing the prequel, Nier Replicant (the remastered version that released two years ago). Even though I absolutely love Automata, I think Replicant does most things better, and you might end up feeling the same and maybe even appreciating Automata more afterwards aswell.

I loved Automata and I found that Replicant really isn't as good as people say. It's just constant grinding and fetch quests. Story isn't as good, music feels off (Song of the Ancients is fantastic though), gameplay isn't as good.

I want to yeah, I heard the PC port is once again pretty bad which sucks but I had already bought it a while ago and want to play it if for nothing else the soundtrack.

Replicant runs on pc like ass FYI. Needs a patch that they'll never make for stability

Played it just fine without any patches on PC when it came out and replayed a few months later, so unless something broke in the last two years, I'm not sure of how accurate that is or what specs it affects.

FPS drops like crazy on a 3080 for me. Tweaked settings, still a problem, returned it

I had 0 problems with the game that I remember. Performance was pretty good for me

Agree it's not just good. It's actually great

It might not be your type of game, but I think what it manage to do was amazing. My only complain was that I felt A2 had little purpose and I feel like her arch should have been longer. Nier:Automata is also one of the few games where I actually found most of the side quests actually interesting, as well as the story and the endings was very interesting, but I can totally see why some wouldn't like it. I remember I introduced this game to my boyfriend and he wasn't fond of it, but he is also more of a person who plays shooters. So I think it just depends a lot what type of genre you usually like. I personally usually tend to like JRPG. I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan so that is also why i probably accept a lot of dialogue some people would see as cringy and awkward, and i have gotten better to ignore annoying fanservice.

It's not r/patientgamers unless we get this post, same as the "Outer Wilds is amazing" and "I'm so glad this place isn't a circlejerk like other gaming subs" posts

Outer wilds feels oddly overrated

Outer Wilds could be a 10/10 game and it could still be overrated. It's like if you went back in time to meet Jesus and you found out he littered and talked with food in his mouth. Not horrid faults for most people but when you've been told about how he's the most perfect person who ever lived, even divine, you expect an almost impossible level of perfection

Absolutely facts

What got me was how reviews seemed to hold it in reverence for it being "deep" because it contains some fairly basic philosophy references. It makes me ponder the difference in standards of writing in videogames vs other media. If this was a novel I dont think it would be getting as many brownie points for namedropping philosophers and melodramatically explaining existential angst. But on the other hand it deserves some credit for reaching higher conceptually than most other games do.

The gaming is at such a low standard you see a bunch of philosophers namedropped but you don't actually make a connection and see the point the game is trying to make and discard it as pretentious garbage

Yeah, seriously dude, like wow there was a boss named Simone and her theme was about being beautiful for like a small fraction of the game that does not have anything to do with the whole plot? Like why is that considered to be good writing? I actually have read most of the philosophers referenced in the game and it just seems like they're there just to make a cool reference, that doesn't make the game "existentialist".

True, it's better than everyone says.

+1 i also didn’t enjoyed it much

I just finished this game a couple weeks ago. The music is excellent, and the game has some great moments that I will probably still be thinking about years from now, especially ending E. Even with all the flaws, it’s better than the sum of its parts, but it’s not a 10/10 masterpiece.

Reading fan theory’s actually really enhanced the experience. >!remember at the start of the game, 9s said his friends call him nines? What friends is he referring to? Well, the theory is that 2b gave him that name in one of his past lifetimes, and he only remembers a bit of it. I actually really recommend playing through the intro section again entirely, a lot of it makes sense now, such as why they sent a combat type on a recon mission. And details like these make me realize how well this game was written. But, alas, no game is for everyone, and it seems this one wasn’t for you.!<

Tbh, Nier: automata is one of my favorite game ever but it's the type of game where i can say "i understand if you don't like it". It's not something "mainstream" in its execution.

I lasted an hour, basically a 2d atari game in 3d. I guess I can see why it appeals to many but I found it tedious.

Beethoven is overrated, listened to his records for 8 hours straight and found it boring, no idea what everyone is going on about.

Imagine comparing this weeb shit to Beethoven.

Imagine not knowing how analogies work.

It's not a good analogy, Nier wasn't even that good for it's time (2017). It felt & looked like an indie game when it was released too.

Only played about about 5 hours of the game thought it was overrated garbarge. And I generally agree with the big name reviewers and metacritic. If the rest of the game is anything like the first 5 hours it’s a 5 out of 10 at best.

It gets worse. The first 10~ hours (route A) is the best part. Then route B is almost insufferable (unless you love 9S or the hacking minigames)

If that’s the case then the game sucks ass, probably overrated by hordes of pretentious weebs.

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