Mmmph. That's kinda how I feel about this game. I recommend it only if you really like the genre. Give it the ol' two hour try and see if you really like it but otherwise its kinda buggy in all the worst spots, causing four BS deaths in my hour of play. The story is quite bad, but its teetering on so bad its good. For reference, both the main characters at the start have the gruffest voice possible, and the wilhelm scream is used in the opening cutscene. It's this weird blend of trying to take itself seriously but also dashing all of that randomly.

The moment to moment gameplay is ok, and uses some weird choices that I think could have done it some good, like no reloading and minimal ADS required. But when you put it all together it's just not quite worth it, and the main swinging gimmick is done way better elsewhere. Try CRUMBLE if you like that sort of thing, its a great game.

I will never beat this game. Not legitimately anyway. As I set this down at 2:30 AM, content that I have exhausted the limits of my waking mind, I smile. This shit is ridiculous. The puzzles are so SO SO easy at the start that its cute. It hypes you up, puts some pep in your step. I found myself wagging my finger at the screen. "Oh dev, you sly dog :)", I would say, as I spotted the half hidden small dot that was the key to the puzzle. But my god. Chamber three feels hard? Chambers one through six are absolute fucking HELL. And they are so fun as well. I don't think you will ever experience as soul crushing a moment while playing video games as when you try to look up little additional hints online for a puzzle, and finally wring the last ounce of brain power out of your head and into the massively overcrowded paper in front of you; only for the solution of the puzzle to be a cheeky little pun. I refuse to gamer rage, so I broke down instead.

Setting both you and I's inevitable ineptitudes aside, it was always refreshing to step into a new topic of Cryptography and see that Mr. Brown had tidied up a little space for learning some new facts about my new passion that he had introduced me to. It's clear to see the dev loves all this with all his heart.

Now, one last thing. The challenge puzzles. I don't think a video game puzzle has ever smacked me in the face harder as when I looked up the solution to the first puzzle after a good 20 minutes of thinking. It all clicked in my head within a split second and I was left feeling guiltier than a dog that pissed on the rug. Please stay away from all guides online except for the ones that advertise exclusively hints. Those ones are good.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention not to play this if you like Claire De Lune because after 10 min you will despise it.

What a damn fine game. I was prepared to give it a "great" rating, but after that cannon ending, this really is one of those once in a decade games. Everything is so polished, and it builds on its predecessors so fluidly, with references that don't feel forced, and acknowledge the mistakes of NieR. To get the last ending (Y) was a little ridiculous, so I skipped out on that, but even without 100%ing the game I felt satisfied exploring the deep world that was laid out for me. The world isn't massive, but its complex and evolves with time frequently. Which is to say, exactly what you want to see in an open world game. The attention to detail with what you are able to do is fun as well. Excellent game, I highly recommend. I would also recommend watching a quick recap of the end of Drakengard and the whole of NieR Replicant, though. Otherwise you may be a little lost when the word "Gestalt" starts getting thrown around.

Look, the game is... alright. If you really think you want to try it, go ahead and buy it. I beat the entire game plus bonuses on the hardest difficulty in 1.4 hours, so there's time to refund if you don't like it. The director of the game clearly had a vision going into this, and you can see it shine through in some levels, but overall the game just feels vaguely unprofessional. There are so many things that you can nitpick during a playthrough that it feels like the game was programmed, checked for bugs, then shipped once all were gone. No polishing here, no making it seem more fair. Maybe I'm just biased because I played the game in the only difficulty that doesn't have automatic slowdown for every obstacle. In that case, if the game was designed to be played that way, then it's belittling. Every single jump is slowed for you, so you have a full three seconds of moving through honey until you have to press one button. Ok then, maybe the reason it's so easy is because it wants you to focus on the story. Nope, the story is trash. Can be summed up as "guy runs away from people while carrying satchel" you never really get a motive or anything. The flips and stuff you do are kinda cool, but how cool can a game make you feel when there are a total of four buttons to push? I don't really know what the devs were going for here, and I'm even more confused if they achieved it.