Pros:
+ the overworld has a clean design and traversal is mostly seamless
+ the prologue is an intriguing counterpoint to the fantasy setting
+ very stable technical performance that vastly improves on the original
+ the character design is memorable, even if Kainé is hyper-sexualized
+ great voice acting by a fitting cast that is even better than the Japanese version
+ overworld dialogue is humorous and perfectly tailored to each specific event
+ items are limited to only useful ones and using them in combat is quick and easy
+ the camera changing to 2D in buildings is a great idea and well implemented
+ the changes in perspective and playstyles liven up the gameplay
+ combat is a unique combination of physical and magical attack options
+ missable side quests can be obtained from an NPC in the main hub town
+ boss fights are true highlights and range from bullet hell to puzzle challenges
+ the various endings recontextualise the story in sometimes revealing ways
+ the new ending in this version wraps up the plot in a creative and satisfying way
+ the voiced soundtrack is unique and most tracks will stay with you ...
Cons:
- ... but their constant presence is tedious and the vocals can get grating
- the color palette tends towards brownish grey and the general look is washed out
- the story is good but told in a convulted and incomplete style
- characters have great moments but no arcs: conflicts are introduced and solved simultaneously
- character memories are walls of text that talk about instead of showing the action
- the urgency of the story is at odds with the leisurely gameplay and pacing
- dialogue during boss fights cannot be skipped and boss's health pools are artificially extended
- diary entries on loading screen are a nice idea but repeat too frequently
- side quests sometimes lead to moral conundrums but are mostly boring fetch quests
- dungeons and landscapes are incredibly boring and lack suprises, loot or secrets
- the general difficulty is far too low and no battle feels actually challenging
- the combat system is fluid but shallow and common fights drag on forever
- weapon types make no functional difference in combat
- leveling up has no baring on gameplay and allows for absolutely no customisation
- there are only three towns with mostly mindless inhabitants
- invisible walls are arbitrary and render navigation in towns confusing
- fishing is joyless but takes forever and is far too important for too many quests
- gardening is tedious and tied to a real-world countdown
- tutorials are two-line sentences that just appear randomly during combat
- party members are useless in combat, but at least they are invincible
- the mid-game time jump comes out of nowhere and makes solving early quests impossible
- time jump changes nothing substantial about the world (even the rubble in town is still there)
- not all dialogue, cutscenes and none of the credit sequences are skippable on later runs
- the more revealing endings are locked behind expensive and/or missable items
- there is no indication for what scenes and elements are new to each playthrough and ending
- taken as a whole, the endings offer little value for the amount of time they require
- some trophy descriptions spoil later parts of the game
Best Character: It has to be Kainé and her foul mouth, even if her design is blatantly sexist.
Best Setpiece: The haunted ship and the subsequent fight. Especially on later playthroughs.Magic Moments: The true ending. Entering the haunted ship for the first time and actually being surprised by the dense atmosphere and change in style. Entering the Junk Heap for the 10th time, questioning my life choices and feeling a single outstretched hand: "You already have optained the item Memory Alloy".
Blahgic Moment: Seeing the additonal scenes again and again on subsequent playthroughs and realizing that I need to learn how to effectively button mash.
Playtime: 26 hours at level 32 for all quests, all possible weapons, and some farming and upgrading for the first playthrough. Roughly 2,5-3 additional hours for each subsequent playthrough. 40 hours at level 40 combined for all endings and quests except that one shitty farming quest.
Verdict:
Like its lead designer, NieR has a reputation as an odd game, and rightfully so. In fact, it's perhaps one of the oddest that I have ever played and reviewed. At times, it feels like Yoko Taro and his team set out to make a modern epic but never found the time to play a recent Zelda; Ocarina of Time basically does everything better than this game, including the mid-game twist and its effect on the world, but that game came out 12 years prior. In many ways, Toylogic shot for the moon before working on the basics of their game; instead of designing progress around exploration, puzzle solving and increasingly complex combat options, they chose to design all elements of their game around mindless repetition and bland action. It cannot be overstated that the combat is shallow and wholly unsatisfying, the gameplay is limited to a handful of verbs, the quests are tedious and forgettable, the story is good but badly told and the overworld is quite possibly the most barren, unfun hub area created during the 2010s. And yet, the slow revelation of the story through the multiple endings, various heartfelt character moments, a dense atmosphere, and some incredible voice acting frequently converge into weirdly satisfying moments of awe and emotional depth.
However, all elements considered, the bad aspects sadly outhweigh the good ones, and it is very difficult to recommend anyone to sit through hours upon hours of running forwards for a few remarkable moments per playthrough (which can easily be looked up on online). The guys from "Watch Out For Fireballs" called the game a "gemmed flaw" instead of a flawed gem because of this severe imbalance, and that is why I argue against playing this.
If you feel like you have to play this regardless to spite me or because you are a fan of NieR Automata, this is my strongly recommended way of playing:
1. Ignore the trophies.
2. Avoid spoilers at all costs. There is absolutely no point in playing this if you know the twists.
3. Play on easy difficulty. It changes nothing about the story or the trophies but speeds up progress, and the game is far too easy at every difficulty.
4. Follow a guide to spend as little time as possible to get all endings. Shuffle around the save files for maximum efficiency.
5. Memorize which scenes to skip on subsequent playthroughs and develop a sense for whenever new elements are introduced.
6. Ignore most, if not all side quests. You need money for late game progress, but there are combat options available at a certain point.
7. Don't upgrade your weapons. Don't spend time on fishing or gardening. In fact, ignore everything not related to the main quest.
8. Memorize the quickest way through areas like the Junk Heap. Don't pick up collectibles aside from weapons. Look up their locations.
9. Use your items and edit your words as soon as get them to get through fights quicker. Memorize the answers and grasp the logic of the text riddles.
10. Seriously, ignore the damn trophies! Don't be the guy who farmed for materials for 20 hours on end for a blinking icon. Time is short and you will die one day.
+ the overworld has a clean design and traversal is mostly seamless
+ the prologue is an intriguing counterpoint to the fantasy setting
+ very stable technical performance that vastly improves on the original
+ the character design is memorable, even if Kainé is hyper-sexualized
+ great voice acting by a fitting cast that is even better than the Japanese version
+ overworld dialogue is humorous and perfectly tailored to each specific event
+ items are limited to only useful ones and using them in combat is quick and easy
+ the camera changing to 2D in buildings is a great idea and well implemented
+ the changes in perspective and playstyles liven up the gameplay
+ combat is a unique combination of physical and magical attack options
+ missable side quests can be obtained from an NPC in the main hub town
+ boss fights are true highlights and range from bullet hell to puzzle challenges
+ the various endings recontextualise the story in sometimes revealing ways
+ the new ending in this version wraps up the plot in a creative and satisfying way
+ the voiced soundtrack is unique and most tracks will stay with you ...
Cons:
- ... but their constant presence is tedious and the vocals can get grating
- the color palette tends towards brownish grey and the general look is washed out
- the story is good but told in a convulted and incomplete style
- characters have great moments but no arcs: conflicts are introduced and solved simultaneously
- character memories are walls of text that talk about instead of showing the action
- the urgency of the story is at odds with the leisurely gameplay and pacing
- dialogue during boss fights cannot be skipped and boss's health pools are artificially extended
- diary entries on loading screen are a nice idea but repeat too frequently
- side quests sometimes lead to moral conundrums but are mostly boring fetch quests
- dungeons and landscapes are incredibly boring and lack suprises, loot or secrets
- the general difficulty is far too low and no battle feels actually challenging
- the combat system is fluid but shallow and common fights drag on forever
- weapon types make no functional difference in combat
- leveling up has no baring on gameplay and allows for absolutely no customisation
- there are only three towns with mostly mindless inhabitants
- invisible walls are arbitrary and render navigation in towns confusing
- fishing is joyless but takes forever and is far too important for too many quests
- gardening is tedious and tied to a real-world countdown
- tutorials are two-line sentences that just appear randomly during combat
- party members are useless in combat, but at least they are invincible
- the mid-game time jump comes out of nowhere and makes solving early quests impossible
- time jump changes nothing substantial about the world (even the rubble in town is still there)
- not all dialogue, cutscenes and none of the credit sequences are skippable on later runs
- the more revealing endings are locked behind expensive and/or missable items
- there is no indication for what scenes and elements are new to each playthrough and ending
- taken as a whole, the endings offer little value for the amount of time they require
- some trophy descriptions spoil later parts of the game
Best Character: It has to be Kainé and her foul mouth, even if her design is blatantly sexist.
Best Setpiece: The haunted ship and the subsequent fight. Especially on later playthroughs.Magic Moments: The true ending. Entering the haunted ship for the first time and actually being surprised by the dense atmosphere and change in style. Entering the Junk Heap for the 10th time, questioning my life choices and feeling a single outstretched hand: "You already have optained the item Memory Alloy".
Blahgic Moment: Seeing the additonal scenes again and again on subsequent playthroughs and realizing that I need to learn how to effectively button mash.
Playtime: 26 hours at level 32 for all quests, all possible weapons, and some farming and upgrading for the first playthrough. Roughly 2,5-3 additional hours for each subsequent playthrough. 40 hours at level 40 combined for all endings and quests except that one shitty farming quest.
Verdict:
Like its lead designer, NieR has a reputation as an odd game, and rightfully so. In fact, it's perhaps one of the oddest that I have ever played and reviewed. At times, it feels like Yoko Taro and his team set out to make a modern epic but never found the time to play a recent Zelda; Ocarina of Time basically does everything better than this game, including the mid-game twist and its effect on the world, but that game came out 12 years prior. In many ways, Toylogic shot for the moon before working on the basics of their game; instead of designing progress around exploration, puzzle solving and increasingly complex combat options, they chose to design all elements of their game around mindless repetition and bland action. It cannot be overstated that the combat is shallow and wholly unsatisfying, the gameplay is limited to a handful of verbs, the quests are tedious and forgettable, the story is good but badly told and the overworld is quite possibly the most barren, unfun hub area created during the 2010s. And yet, the slow revelation of the story through the multiple endings, various heartfelt character moments, a dense atmosphere, and some incredible voice acting frequently converge into weirdly satisfying moments of awe and emotional depth.
However, all elements considered, the bad aspects sadly outhweigh the good ones, and it is very difficult to recommend anyone to sit through hours upon hours of running forwards for a few remarkable moments per playthrough (which can easily be looked up on online). The guys from "Watch Out For Fireballs" called the game a "gemmed flaw" instead of a flawed gem because of this severe imbalance, and that is why I argue against playing this.
If you feel like you have to play this regardless to spite me or because you are a fan of NieR Automata, this is my strongly recommended way of playing:
1. Ignore the trophies.
2. Avoid spoilers at all costs. There is absolutely no point in playing this if you know the twists.
3. Play on easy difficulty. It changes nothing about the story or the trophies but speeds up progress, and the game is far too easy at every difficulty.
4. Follow a guide to spend as little time as possible to get all endings. Shuffle around the save files for maximum efficiency.
5. Memorize which scenes to skip on subsequent playthroughs and develop a sense for whenever new elements are introduced.
6. Ignore most, if not all side quests. You need money for late game progress, but there are combat options available at a certain point.
7. Don't upgrade your weapons. Don't spend time on fishing or gardening. In fact, ignore everything not related to the main quest.
8. Memorize the quickest way through areas like the Junk Heap. Don't pick up collectibles aside from weapons. Look up their locations.
9. Use your items and edit your words as soon as get them to get through fights quicker. Memorize the answers and grasp the logic of the text riddles.
10. Seriously, ignore the damn trophies! Don't be the guy who farmed for materials for 20 hours on end for a blinking icon. Time is short and you will die one day.