Route C is split between two characters - A2 and 9S - switching back and forth at the end of each chapter.

While A2's playstyle shares many similarities with 2B's; they do have a few distinct differences that separate them. Firstly the self-destruct is replaced with 'berserk mode' which enhances A2's combat abilities in exchange for gradual HP loss while berserk mode is active. The other notable difference is that A2 (seemingly) lacks the fast charge attacks that required held inputs; instead holding down square initiates a taunt increasing the strength of both herself and her enemies. Otherwise, besides these key changes A2 and 2B function nearly identically with being able to wield two weapons and have the same combo strings.

Tried my hand at the machine arena and just couldn't get pass it with the machines that I'd had. So dedicated a couple hours to finding and hijacking them to which my frustrations with the disabled lock-on continues. Thankfully I worked around it by looking for another machine that was easy to take remote control of; then proceeding to backstep my way across the map and hopping from body to body until I accumulated enough unit data.

Helped Emil recovery his memories and gained access to underground area beneath the mall. I imagine this quest carries much more weight for those who've played Replicant so depending on how I feel after this I might give it go.

Between the machine arena and finding lunar tears I had to pass through the forest several times and on each I heard the same repeated dialogue. Over and over and over again. Shouldn't the kingdom be in shambles and their troops left disarrayed following the King's death or did they not receive the memo?

Not that I mind entirely since the Blacksmith at the castle lets upgrade weapons to MAX level; my surplus wealth had to go somewhere.

Read through the trophy list as I typically and do and after having alluded me for awhile I looked up the "Not that I mind..." trophy. During 9S's tan I accidently triggered a cutscene that put his pants back on and was unsure if the time require pantless was accumulative or not (checked: Yes, it is).

Spent a large chuck of todays session combing the desert for lost artefacts from the old world. I overestimated the search area which resulted in me scanning far more of the desert than was necessary to complete the quest. But on a plus side; I'm rich now.

Happened to do some fishing while resource gathering around the Flooded City and caught a brand new pod to use. Pod B fires a laser and I need to vent my frustrations about this; why couldn't the pod program "laser" been called "beam" unless there's another program of the same name obtained later into the game; it would've made more sense calling it "beam". It even functions more like a beam than it does a laser and if you're reading this you may be wondering "what's your problem?" to which I reply: "fuck if I know!". Just seeing the display read "Laser - Laser" ticks me off.

Moving on, rounded up the remainder of the side missions left over from my last playthrough and at this point I think I've hit a block in further progression until I continue the story. Found the machine vs. machine arena which is a nice way of shaking the gameplay up.

But this brings me to discuss an issue I have with hard mode. In this difficulty setting lock-on is disabled leaving only auto-lock available. This doesn't gel well with 9S's hacking ability since it's reliant on locking on to enemies and makes him incredibly awkward to use at times in combat. I was reminded that machines could be taken over when I stumbled upon the arena. Because you can't lock-on; trying to remotely takeover an enemy from a distance is unreliable playing regularly and if you approach them closer to get a better chance they immediately aggro. This means I completely disregard a mechanic because it simply doesn't function without proper lock-on.

Passing through the Forest Kingdom elicits memories of its founding under the King's desire to form a family. A later memory shows the king having passed away and his subjects place a memento within a baby-like machine and vow to protect them until they grow into their next King. An earlier side quest from 2B's route revealed the King died of his own kindness giving body parts to his subjects until he could no longer operate.

Progressed the story up until the game gives the ability the fast travel and then spent the remainder of my session just completing side quests.

Took the liberty of raising the difficulty from [Normal] to [Hard] since the playthrough is mostly identical and figured the increased difficulty would freshen it up. However 9S's dampened melee capabilities means I'm maintaining my distance from enemies so it hasn't really effected the gameplay all that much.

Have to say I actually really enjoy the hacking and may even prefer 9S over 2B. Whenever this is a reflection on the quality of the combat or my poor taste (likely both) remains to be decided. Definitely unbalanced with the rest of the game though perhaps that was intentional to allow players to finish up content that missed out on the first playthrough.

Take Father Servo for instance. Regularly his bulky HP would take upwards of 15-30 minutes to bring down unless you were appropriately levelled which is unlikely due to how big the jump in LV is between each quest. But because hacking does percentage based damage the fights over in just under 2 minutes. Same can be said for the golden machines which when I first encountered in 2Bs route took over 20 minutes to defeat but hacking got the job done in a fraction of that time. Suppose I feel like this is cheating in a way as by hacking I avoid having to evade enemy attacks. Granted the bullet hell minigame substitutes the dodging you'd perform in the environment however this means skipping out on the boss specific moves and learning how to avoid those.

To continue on a critical tangent I don't think 48 stages is a large enough amount to carry the hacking through the entire game. Some bosses have unique hacking levels but often its taken from the list referenced above so bosses lack identity in 9S's route.

To mention some positives however, 9S also has unique side quests and I liked the goofy interactions within them. The reclusive son that doesn't want to leave his room locks himself away forcing 9S to hack it open; only inspiring the son to keep increasing the security and to create an unpickable lock. This pleases the mother who is glad that her son finally has a goal in life completely ignoring reason 9S tried to break him out in the first place. Likewise the machine who pretends to be stupid in order to exploit his fellow machines. The humour is lost in translation when describing it here in this log so you'll have to take my word for it.

Believe I'm mostly caught up on the stuff I missed during my first playthrough so next session I may go on and complete route B.

Being locked out of pursuing any more side quests, I pressed onward with the story and finished 'Route A'.

To surmise what happened as well as my thoughts:

The search for 9S lead me to the 'Copied City'. My first question was where this structure even was? It connected with an elevator and seemingly extents infinitely. Not to mention how much silicon was required to form this place.

Either way, you find 9S and a boss fight with Adam shortly ensues. Like the previous encounters with the twins, it was more of a nuisance fighting him than anything else. In Adam's journey to comprehend emotion and the complexities of human nature he disconnects from the network and allows 2B to kill him so that he might understand why humans feared death.

The city collapses and you escape with 9S. Upon getting back to the surface Pascal informs you of another machine factions interested in forging a peace treaty which isn't suspicious whatsoever. Player then meets up with Pascal at the abandoned factory (again...) but at least this time you explore a new part of the factory instead of revisiting the opening area. I didn't try killing any of the cult members before entering the main room but I'm guessing there's a hidden ending if you do so.

Expectedly, the treaty does not go to plan and all hell breaks loose. I was sufficiently overleveled so didn't run into any problems with the enemies. Pascal took the whole situation rather well considering; more intrigued if anything.

But not long after that you return to find the resistance under attack from machines. The other brother Eve is running rampant at the loss of his brother Adam. The fight is decent enough I suppose requiring a varied use of your arsenal to take him down.

The "ending" felt hastily concluded but obviously this isn't really the end instead just the prologue to the rest of the game.

Before that I must now replay the game and go through 9S's route. Immediately after starting and trying to help a robot fix his big brother - I finish the game - well its more a joke ending but still. The opening level plays out from 9S's perspective this time serving as an extended flight unit section and introduces his unique 'hacking' mechanic which I quite like. The integration of 'hacking' could be considered jarring and maybe doesn't flow as well as doing combo strings with 2B but regardless the mini bullet hell arenas are fun.

Had a chuckle at watching the boot up sequence from 9S's point of view, which shows the player recording of the tutorial during 2B's route. Kind of embarrassing having to watch me take my time tinkering through all the menu options.

Can't say if the additional lore and scenes justifies forcing me to do a 2nd playthrough to reach the rest of the game as of yet.

Explored the forest kingdom today, did a few sides missions along the way. Died for the first time to a LV50 goliath (I was only LV23) and decided to return at later time as I wasn't dealing any substantial damage anyway.

Found the castle location a little difficult to navigate with the forced 2D perspective but this also happen to be the moment I discovered that the camera could be moved in this sections (assumed it was locked) which made finding hidden rooms significantly easier.

After reaching the king - a tiny machine cradled like baby - they're swiftly executed by a rogue android named A2. The ensuing boss was fairly easy, and honestly I find most encounters in the horizontal 2D side-scrolling sections to be somewhat lacklustre given the limited room for the player to move around in. Enemies can only approach you in two directions and their attacks have to be evadable within that enclosed area so often times attacks are really easy to dodge. Without the large open spaces to throw out complex bullet patterns, most horizontal 2D sections consist of minimal bullets that are simple to avoid and the horizontal perspective makes aiming easier and by virtue shooting down projectiles a breeze. This mainly applies to the 'horizontal' sections as the 'overhead' perspective gives you more directions to work with and thus the encounters can be more elaborate. But even so the horizontal sections didn't need to be so middling as games like Metroid are entirely in a horizontal 2D plane and while they fall victim to some of the same issues, overall they manage to craft more compelling action in this perspective.

Afterwards I proceeded to complete the backlog of quests that had piled up. Have to say: I REALLY dislike the amount of times I've had to come back to the abandoned factory just to pick up stuff. It doesn't feel as if the map is big enough or that the space they have is used to its fullest extent with so many side quests taking place in the same location. On the subject of tedium; having to sit through all the dialogue and camera pans to the goal on each attempt of the "Speedstar" quest is very frustrating. I tend to be bothered by intermittent pauses in gameplay more than slowly paced sections so this was especially bothersome for myself.

Due to all of these annoyances I decided to drop by the Flooded City. In doing so, lead me to unintentionally making progress in the story and consequently getting locked out of several quests that'll have to be next playthrough now (though probably for the best).

It here that another on rails shoot 'em up sequence took place. I liked this one even if it dragged a bit. 9S gets separated from 2B and now I'll have to obtain a scanner to seek out his Black Box signal.

Turns out the aliens had died centuries ago, which explains the widespread shift in machine behaviour. Fighting a perpetual war at the whims of creators long since perished; left only to contemplate the meaning for why they even fight. Separated from the network and given the opportunity to act on their own free will.

It's here you reconvene with twins born amidst the machine orgy. They talk about humanity and vow to kill them. While this exposition is happening you fight the twins on a 2D plane, one on one. Like before the fight is more annoying than it is hard as they keep teleporting around and going invulnerable.

Following that I was finally given access to the transporters allowing me to fast travel across the map. This spurred me on to continue working through side quests and I believe to have hit the wall as to how far I can progress without strenuous effort. One side quest in particular "11b memento" featured an ambiguous conclusion. Said quest involved finding the body of a deceased android designated 11B and to bring back whatever remains were left as mementos.

At the end of the quest you are provided a choice to tell 16D about 11B's planned desertion or choose to withhold the truth. If you decide not to share her plan, then 16D will confess she was in a relationship with 11B and that she'll convert into a combat model in order to avenge her. However, should you tell her the truth; she proceeds to laugh and speak mockingly of 11B's death. Revealing that she had been continuously abused and with her passing she was now free to devote herself to work.

On picking either decision, 16D will reward you with a [Melee Defence 6+] chip and say "I don't have a reason to protect myself anyone..." carrying heavy implications to the severe extent of her abuse from 11B. This contradicts the outcome of not telling her; in which she talks about how 11Bs desire to protect her seemed "romantic at the time" and even going so far as to convert herself. From what I gather the combat models are typically seen as superior and this tends to manifest into an inferiority complex within many defensive models. Perhaps it's why if you don't tell 16D the truth she speaks so highly of 11B compared to if you do, as by maintaining the belief that she was inferior she could somehow justify her suffering under the pretence of it being the status
quo. Her choice to convert models could be construed as attempting to escape this abuse, she wouldn't be viewed as inferior and thus not risk being abused or used as a disposable shield.

But when confronted by the reality of 11Bs death she disregards this notion entirely and lets out their true feelings unburdened from a hierarchy that coerced her into thinking otherwise - in this scenario she chooses not to convert to a combat model as she no longer has to believe those units are infallible. 11B is gone, she doesn't need to protect herself anymore.

Of course there is room to speculate alternative possibilities, for instance perhaps their relationship was genuine. The disparate hierarchy narrative can also by applied here, 16Ds affections towards 11B may have resulted in her overextending herself and sustaining far more abuse then she needed to. When asking the player to seek out 11Bs belongings - she isn't sure how to process her grief being unfamiliar with the experience of losing someone precious. What you tell her in the end influences how that emotion is handled. In not telling her, that image remains intact and decides to go off and try get revenge; leaving behind her defensive chip since if she can't find peace in avenging 11Bs death than she has no other reason to live at all, possibly suicidal unable to cope with the loss. You betray that image when revealing the truth and unable to accept it, 16D reevaluates all of her prior experience and attempts to frame it negativity since she has nowhere else to direct her emotions. She decides then to occupy herself in work to avoid thinking about 11B and move on.

I could just be delving far too deep into a minor side quest and looking for depth where there isn't, but this kind of moral dilemma and thought provoking subtext were frequently touted as proof Nier: Automata was something more. So I tried my best to engage with it.

Spent most of today's session completing various side quests, and I'm clearly going to be here for awhile.

These robots all seem to have a screw or two loose. Many of the current quests throw enemies that about 15~20 levels higher than me so I may need to press on with the main story soon.

During an encounter with YoRHa androids the stunned enemy "finishers" were acting extremely glitched. Not certain if my attacks were even going through at all but still won in the end. Made the mistake of taking on Father Servo's black belt challenge only at LV 14, took around 30min of just whittling his HP down until he was finally defeated.

The desert was fun to traverse thanks in no small part to the ability to slide down dunes.

Robot orgy scene was hectic and genuinely quite funny; unfortunately the same cannot be said for the subsequent boss fight. Didn't find them particularly challengingly but it did kind of drag (perhaps skill issue). Disne- I mean the "amusement park" area felt smaller than it should've but I suspect it'll open up more later.

The boss there was cool and I liked how the music synced up with the corresponding attacks. This fight definitely stressed the 'bullet hell' component of gameplay more.

One issue I've found with the constantly shifting perspective is that the camera doesn't always centre immediately which left me unable to see where the enemy was or incoming projectiles. On a related note, the game can be finicky when trying to interact with NPCs or objects in the environment while in a forced 2d perspective.

Completed a fair amount of side quests today: mostly standard affair, however the silliness of some of dialogue makes it worthwhile.

Finally got around to trying this; been on my radar for awhile.

As for my first impressions:

The introduction sequence was pretty good, showcased a mix of its various gameplay styles. I think given my minimally acted upon fondness for bullet hells may result in bias towards this game.

Controls feel good to use; but the timing window for dodges might be a bit too lenient as I found dodge spamming certain phases to be a viable strategy. I imagine that timing window will only increase as I progress further into the game.

Obviously just entered the tutorial section and its kind of jarring pacing wise after such a bombastic opening but I've played enough JRPGs to completion that it's of little consequence to me.

Playing XC2 + Torna shortly beforehand without any break period was a mistake. I'm still feeling the burnout from those games, time will tell if I end up shelving this temporarily.

Despite that, I'll continue to soldier onward. The opening cinematics reek of polish and that additional Dev time really shines through. Not sure if the production quality will remain consistent throughout but nonetheless excited to see what's in store for the next entry.

» Review In Progress (Indefinitely)

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