Nier: Automata - The End of Yorha Edition
released on Oct 06, 2022
NieR: Automata tells the story of androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their battle to reclaim the machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful machines. The NieR: Automata - The End of YoRHa Edition includes the game itself and comes packed with DLC and bonus content for the full experience of the award-winning post-apocalyptic action RPG.
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This is one of THE games of all time. Almost everything is perfect, minus the combat feeling grindy at points, from the OST to the story, characters, lore, endings. Man I wish I could play this for the first time again. Top tier game!
Yoko Taro does it again my goat
I have yet to play through the "final" endings of this game because I'm savoring it as much as possible but this has been a treat. Watching the story about this world unravel with each "play through" of this game is incredibly fun and intriguing. I like the characters and designs (I really fw the gothic-ish aesthetic) and the world design is great as well. I played this at the perfect time in my life where I actually want to spend time playing everything it has to offer instead of speed running the story as I would've prior to watching Frieren. That's a tangent though, all I have to say is that I think this game is incredible.
peak fiction.
It's sad, but the main thing I am feeling having completed this game is disappointment. Nier Automata is frequently hailed as one of the greatest games to ever grace the medium, a masterpiece that swept the industry with countless awards and accolades to place in its trophy case, lauded by fans as perfection. I'm not here to take away from any of that at all, and I am certainly not here to say this game is garbage or anything, because it isn't. Nier Automata is a game that disappointed me because it was just good. Just fine. It's an ultimately solid game that left me expecting so much more.
The biggest thing that underwhelmed me about this game is actually playing it. The gameplay itself is unfortunately extremely dry and bare bones. I was shocked and still am shocked that an action game with the name "Platinum Games" in the credits has combat that isn't just dry, but barely even surpasses being serviceable. There is like, one or two combos in the game, everything feels super floaty and light, and my god, it's just a button mashing fest. It doesn't help that the enemies can be super spongey at times, so it just makes combat feel like a battle of attrition that I need to get through so I can experience the actual story rather than the core combat of the game. The hacking minigames are mostly a bore and something that I honestly would rather have not done at all, but I appreciate them including something to shake up the gameplay while you're controlling 9S, so, it gets a pass. I do like the plug-in chips system and the ways that you have some freedom in how you build your playstyle, as it actually can alleviate some of the issues with how spongey the enemies can be, but the dryness and shallowness of the combat is probably the biggest thing that had me expecting way more.
Before I get into what I thought about the story, which is probably the primary thing that Nier is lauded for, I want to dive into some of my more personal nitpicks with this game, and specifically with some of the ways that Yoko Taro approaches things. Do not let anyone fool you into thinking this is a game that has multiple "endings". The "endings" that people talk about in this game are actually not endings at all aside from the last few. Endings A and B are essentially chapter conclusions that do not serve as conclusions to the game at large, like, at all. All the other endings are just joke game over endings meant to score quirk points. Does any of this actually matter? Not really, no, but it's just something I can't wrap my head around. Why are these "endings" telling the player that the game is over with a roll of the credits when it is in fact not even close to being over? What is the point with having all of these endings when the game is actually supposed to be experienced from endings A to E in a cohesive fashion? I don't see a reason for structuring your game in this way. This isn't really something I can actually knock the game for but it was on my mind a lot so I wanted to say it.
The story is... good. I really love the characters and the palpable amount of struggle we feel them all go through as they change and adapt to what they learn about the world, but I think the story itself hits bumps and potholes along the way to its conclusion. The middle of the game after routes A and B conclude is exceptionally good, with a ton of tension being released as some huge plot twists occur and a pretty gut wrenching final sequence before we are met with "ending" C and the beginning of the final act of the game. Moments like ending C showcase what Nier is best at: applying the gamey-ness of a video game to a story and letting them amplify each other. In other words, the experience that the story is telling in that moment is made so much more powerful by the fact that you, the player, are experiencing it in a way that is made so much more immersive by the mechanics of the game. Again, Nier excels at this in so many different moments, and it is those moments that made this game really start to click with me. But there is an equal measure of moments where the story is too on the nose, or too scattered, or just plain shallow that make me feel so mixed on the plot. The final routes of the game have some incredible building tension as we ascend towards the final fight and ultimate conclusion of the game - but the events that happen in the final location feel rushed, out of left field, even a little bit sloppy sometimes. The antagonist is terribly undercooked and the conclusion, while somewhat powerful, left me with more of a feeling of "oh, that was it?" than anything else. The good thing about this game is that the themes of it are impossible to miss, so there's no way that Yoko Taro's ideas can be lost on you. The bad thing about this game is that the themes of it are IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS because the characters will basically tell you to your face what you are supposed to be feeling or learning with all the subtlety of a shonen anime character's monologue, wiping away much of the early intrigue and emotional payoff for events that should be tugging at my heartstrings.
The best way I can describe this game is as a really, really excellent third or fourth draft of a video game. The combat has good aspects, the story has a spectacular cast, powerful themes, there's a beautiful soundtrack and art direction, and a really strong emotional backbone to build the plot off of. But it's dry. Disconnected in places. It needs editing, proofreading, some fine tuning in some really critical places before it's wrapped up and shipped off. There are highs that feel like an absolutely euphoric grand slam to win the world series and lows that feel like you're on the wrong end of a despair-inducing no-hitter. Bad game? No way. But this one needed some extra work.
The biggest thing that underwhelmed me about this game is actually playing it. The gameplay itself is unfortunately extremely dry and bare bones. I was shocked and still am shocked that an action game with the name "Platinum Games" in the credits has combat that isn't just dry, but barely even surpasses being serviceable. There is like, one or two combos in the game, everything feels super floaty and light, and my god, it's just a button mashing fest. It doesn't help that the enemies can be super spongey at times, so it just makes combat feel like a battle of attrition that I need to get through so I can experience the actual story rather than the core combat of the game. The hacking minigames are mostly a bore and something that I honestly would rather have not done at all, but I appreciate them including something to shake up the gameplay while you're controlling 9S, so, it gets a pass. I do like the plug-in chips system and the ways that you have some freedom in how you build your playstyle, as it actually can alleviate some of the issues with how spongey the enemies can be, but the dryness and shallowness of the combat is probably the biggest thing that had me expecting way more.
Before I get into what I thought about the story, which is probably the primary thing that Nier is lauded for, I want to dive into some of my more personal nitpicks with this game, and specifically with some of the ways that Yoko Taro approaches things. Do not let anyone fool you into thinking this is a game that has multiple "endings". The "endings" that people talk about in this game are actually not endings at all aside from the last few. Endings A and B are essentially chapter conclusions that do not serve as conclusions to the game at large, like, at all. All the other endings are just joke game over endings meant to score quirk points. Does any of this actually matter? Not really, no, but it's just something I can't wrap my head around. Why are these "endings" telling the player that the game is over with a roll of the credits when it is in fact not even close to being over? What is the point with having all of these endings when the game is actually supposed to be experienced from endings A to E in a cohesive fashion? I don't see a reason for structuring your game in this way. This isn't really something I can actually knock the game for but it was on my mind a lot so I wanted to say it.
The story is... good. I really love the characters and the palpable amount of struggle we feel them all go through as they change and adapt to what they learn about the world, but I think the story itself hits bumps and potholes along the way to its conclusion. The middle of the game after routes A and B conclude is exceptionally good, with a ton of tension being released as some huge plot twists occur and a pretty gut wrenching final sequence before we are met with "ending" C and the beginning of the final act of the game. Moments like ending C showcase what Nier is best at: applying the gamey-ness of a video game to a story and letting them amplify each other. In other words, the experience that the story is telling in that moment is made so much more powerful by the fact that you, the player, are experiencing it in a way that is made so much more immersive by the mechanics of the game. Again, Nier excels at this in so many different moments, and it is those moments that made this game really start to click with me. But there is an equal measure of moments where the story is too on the nose, or too scattered, or just plain shallow that make me feel so mixed on the plot. The final routes of the game have some incredible building tension as we ascend towards the final fight and ultimate conclusion of the game - but the events that happen in the final location feel rushed, out of left field, even a little bit sloppy sometimes. The antagonist is terribly undercooked and the conclusion, while somewhat powerful, left me with more of a feeling of "oh, that was it?" than anything else. The good thing about this game is that the themes of it are impossible to miss, so there's no way that Yoko Taro's ideas can be lost on you. The bad thing about this game is that the themes of it are IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS because the characters will basically tell you to your face what you are supposed to be feeling or learning with all the subtlety of a shonen anime character's monologue, wiping away much of the early intrigue and emotional payoff for events that should be tugging at my heartstrings.
The best way I can describe this game is as a really, really excellent third or fourth draft of a video game. The combat has good aspects, the story has a spectacular cast, powerful themes, there's a beautiful soundtrack and art direction, and a really strong emotional backbone to build the plot off of. But it's dry. Disconnected in places. It needs editing, proofreading, some fine tuning in some really critical places before it's wrapped up and shipped off. There are highs that feel like an absolutely euphoric grand slam to win the world series and lows that feel like you're on the wrong end of a despair-inducing no-hitter. Bad game? No way. But this one needed some extra work.
Nier: Automata doesn’t justify itself as a video game as much as I would have preferred. The numerous fake endings felt pointless and the gameplay, while varied in scope, becomes repetitive due to heavily limited enemy variety and encounter design. In an uncharacteristic move from Platinum, battles often boil down to simplistic wars of attrition where you mash the attack button and occasionally jump or dodge. It’s a real shame too, because everything else is phenomenal.
The story is unforgettable. A mindbending tale about racism, humanity’s justifications for war, and the necessity of a God for finding purpose in life. Truly one of the best stories the medium has been graced with. The three playthroughs required to see the whole story are well done, especially the last one. Seriously, if you play this and enjoy the gameplay a lot more than I did, Automata may be a contender for your favorite piece of interactive art.
Audiovisually, this is a feast. The graphics are a firm reminder that the AAA industry would be better off dropping photorealism more often in favor of creating a memorable art style that doesn’t require years of development time. I will certainly remember these post-apocalyptic landscapes for a long time. The music accompanying them will burrow itself into your brain. Great to listen to on YouTube for sure, but far more powerful when playing the game.
Despite coming out in a year packed with great games, Automata sold very well, but unlike many commercial successes today, it stands tall as something special. The product of a true visionary. If you are hesitant to play it because of the anime influence, don’t be. The story is far more contemplative than most non-anime narratives and it avoids a lot of the cliches typical of the medium.
The story is unforgettable. A mindbending tale about racism, humanity’s justifications for war, and the necessity of a God for finding purpose in life. Truly one of the best stories the medium has been graced with. The three playthroughs required to see the whole story are well done, especially the last one. Seriously, if you play this and enjoy the gameplay a lot more than I did, Automata may be a contender for your favorite piece of interactive art.
Audiovisually, this is a feast. The graphics are a firm reminder that the AAA industry would be better off dropping photorealism more often in favor of creating a memorable art style that doesn’t require years of development time. I will certainly remember these post-apocalyptic landscapes for a long time. The music accompanying them will burrow itself into your brain. Great to listen to on YouTube for sure, but far more powerful when playing the game.
Despite coming out in a year packed with great games, Automata sold very well, but unlike many commercial successes today, it stands tall as something special. The product of a true visionary. If you are hesitant to play it because of the anime influence, don’t be. The story is far more contemplative than most non-anime narratives and it avoids a lot of the cliches typical of the medium.