Dawg... Like 10 hours in, I wasn't expecting this to be much of a great game. It felt very similar to the first entry in terms of structure and story but after the halfway point it just goes completely nuts. Seriously, I wasn't expecting any of the stuff that was happening, especially considering how predictable the first game was in terms of story. I guess there's a very valid reason as to why we needed four 20+ hour games to tell this tale. Even tho I took my time finishing this, I was more than surprised at how excellent just about every aspect was. The dungeon crawling was as addictive as ever, the combat still quite fluid considering this came out in 2006. Also the improvements and qol changes, as minor as they were, had a lot of impact on the game flow as a whole from my perspective. It made the (enjoyable) monotony not as monotonous. Story wise, this is probably a lot stronger than the first game, but considering the first game (and most of this game) was build up, I can look past that. The new cast additions were sensational and I'm not sure when a game made me care about characters I barely knew for 5 hours as much as this one. Frankly Vol. 2 is everything Vol. 1 was but updated and brought to an entirely new level of quality, in terms of just about every aspect. And going by the preview for V. 3, I'm pretty sure that's gonna go even further. I'm insanely excited. Hoping to wrap it up before February but I may spend more time, depending on how good the next one is. "Become strong... Strong enough to destroy me". These words I think just show what sort of adventure I'm in for from here on out.

So the first game I played through this year and the first game I'll abandon ratings for is this one. It's been a while since a game has actually intrigued me as much as this beginning piece to a four part sequel series, even more so a rather obscure one at that. I'm shocked at how well this game is able to not only emulate but translate the feeling of an MMO into a single player experience. It's really dope. And even if the lore for the game is technically fictional even to the fictional characters on screen, it lays such an interesting groundwork for the setting of this game. In comparison to a lot of other first parters, this one actually manages to tell a very convincing tale from beginning to end, riddled in questions. I can't convey how excited I am to play more of this as I basically played through the entirety of this game in one go. It's just so very addicting. Also, maybe a more niche thing I enjoyed, were the conversations in the online forums and seeing them evolve. Things like the news board were certainly less interesting but reading rumors or "player experiences" helped a lot at getting more invested in the world. I really can't empathize enough how awesome some of the "conversations" on there were. So yeah what can I say about .hack//G.U. in a nutshell? It's a great video game with so much love and care out into it. This by all means is a game by people who dearly love the medium and find fulfillment in telling a tale about the things they hold dear. (also is it just me or do some of the "abilities" look like Yu-Gi-Oh anime monsters?)

Yeah I don't know what I should tell ya about Nier that hasn't already been said. It's an amazing journey with great characters. I just wish there was more of it (the characters, imma play Replicant after this anyway). The magic of everything after route C cannot be captured in words. If you're alright with about 25 hours worth of "only good" (sounds ridiculous I know) content for the sake of experiencing one of the most magical stretches of gameplay you'll ever see, then this is your game. You should play this now. Aside from gushing over Nier, there are still some critiques I wanna add since being 100 pro whatever game I review seems weird. So I'm not the biggest fan of the combat. It works but especially the hacking is quite annoying after getting used to its unique nature. I do generally like the characters A TON but to also be a bit critical, I felt A2 and 2B could have had some more time to develop, just some more conversational stuff. But then again that might have actually ruined the vibe the game presents so I will not whine about that any longer. Automata is a game everybody and their mother should play because it is so entertaining and universal in just about everything it does despite presenting itself in an esoteric fashion. I hope people will continue to support amazing AAA releases like these as they should be the standart for us consumers. But maybe too much good would ruin the fun of playing games. And so, to end this review I'll leave you with a great quote from the game you'll not wanna miss ever "A future is not given to you. It is something you must take for YOURSELF". After all, Nier is about the world, us, the humans but most of all, you, the player

Edit: after some reflecting and seeing other opinions that are actually more on the negative end, I do wanna redirect my thoughts a little bit. Automata is not subtle whatsoever. It always tells you what it's going for. The symbolism isn't inherently hidden. But I don't mind that at all, as the game presents those things in a way where they become inherently interesting as a result of wonderous presentation and actually well done storytelling. Yes the thematical ideas aren't super unique but the way Yoko Taro expresses and expands upon them in this game is breathtaking at times. I don't think I've ever cried at an ending before playing ending E. I don't think I've had as much fun following along with a story where the destination was more or less set in stone. Automata does a lot of things not exactly in a way where philo nerds would be getting excited but it gets a universal message across without being too overbearing about it. It uses emotions and actual character journeys in order to get to a point where even the most obvious of ideas become masterpieces in my eyes. Sometimes I believe we don't need to overanalyze everything. Initially I did not get the whole "2B and A2 thing", same with the masks but in retrospect it feels much more clear and smartly implemented. Sure it's obvious but to me it adds intead of subtracting from the overall experience.