Nier: Automata Review | A Masterpiece

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Yesterday I just finished my route E in Nier:Automata, the one that seems to be considered the true ending of the game, and I knew I had to write about this game the fastest I could! Nowadays, it takes a lot to make me put a game in my Top 10 list right away… Well, I hadn’t even finished Nier: Automata and I knew that it was in the top of the list for sure.

But, that’s what happens when you have a masterpiece, right? From the bat, you already know I adored this game developed by PlatinumGames. But, let’s go a little more in-depth into it, shall we?

– Synopsis –

Nier: Automata is an action RPG Game developed by PlatinumGames. It is the sequel for Nier (the sequel of its fourth ending actually) which is itself believed to be a sequel for the games Drakengard. This was the first game I played directed by Yoko Toro, the mastermind behind Nier. And, well, that man is a genius.

Nier: Automata plays under a post-apocalyptic setting where the human race has been attacked by aliens in the past. At the moment, all human race alive is set in the moon and it’s the job of Yohra, a community of Androids to defend the Earth from the enemy’s Machine Army.

The game is broken in 3 parts where you play three different characters. 2B & 2A, two different combat models and 9S, an information gather kind of android. The story revolves around the evolution of the machines/androids where there is such an evolution that they start to get human emotions as also getting to the bottom of both the human and aliens race.

– Plot Review –

I don’t want to give away too much since the game will be way more enjoyable if you enter without any knowledge of what is going to happen. Nevertheless, I will try my best to give you some lights in why the plot is so good.

First of all, never, in my life, I felt as desolated when killing my enemies as I did with Nier: Automata. The game is able to mess with your feelings, and, even though they are your enemies, you just can’t feel that you are doing the right thing.

More than once I was killing an enemy boss and I was saying “No!”, “I don’t want to”, “Please game, don’t make me do this”… Well, maybe I said that because I was streaming where I get more vocal while playing, but, nevertheless I was just saying what was on my mind.

But, what about the main story? The one focusing on our main characters? Well, let me tell you, for Androids who are designed to kill their enemies to start developing some kind of conscience goes a huge path. And that path is emotional. They were able to write the characters and dialogue in such a manner, that you just end up falling in love with these characters and want them to be happy. However, that’s not always what is going to happen.

Moreover, there is a lot of mysterious regarding everything in Nier’s world. Right from the bat, you start getting information from your commander, other machine lifeforms who are peaceful, resistance members, and so on that just does not add up. This makes you feel more invested in the game because you just want to know what is going to happen and what’s the reason behind it.

Couldn’t find the artist, but it’s way too good of an art to not share with you guys

Basically, Nier: Automata has a great plot. For someone who is not that into robots, post-apocalyptic stuff and so on, I loved it from the beginning to the end. Oh and let’s not forget about the 26 endings you have to accomplish which gives you completely different outcomes of the story.

Although the main routes are 5, from A to E. Being that routes A and B are points where you can “end the game” but do not give you all the story. While C, D, and E are different full endings you can get. All the others ones are endings you can get by dying, failing missions and other stuff. I mean, if a character dies in a game, that would be an ending right? The difference here is that, instead of a game over, you actually get to know what happens if the character failed that mission.

– Gameplay Review –

The gameplay is basically flawless and completely responsive. This way, I’m going to focus more on the different type of gameplay you get.

Action Fighting –

It’s an action RPG, so, of course, you will have a lot of Real-Time Fighting to do. In Nier: Automata you play with 3 different characters, each one with its own way of fighting. 2B and A2 are combat Yohra models and therefore are the ones where you have the most experience out of this. You can equip with two weapons. I, personally, always went with a light and a heavy weapon. You have one button to do light attacks and another one to do heavy attacks. Depending on the weapons you have, the combos will be different. 9S, being a non-combat android, only has space for one weapon and his attacks are always done in a medium range.

With this, you always have pods to go with you. These pods to all the shooting. So, depending on the strategy, you may want to go for a long range attack. In fact, most of the times you will have to a little of both at the same time. You can get special attacks with your pods which go from a heavy bean to a gravity hole to pull enemies closer.

Hacking –

9S is the one that will be doing the hacking and he can hack in pretty much everything. Here you will need to push the heavy attack button and he will send some kind of light towards the enemy. Depending on the enemy, you will have to hit them a different number of times to actually start hacking.

Hacking comes in a kind of airship combat game. Here you will need to shoot enemies until you are able to destroy all of them before the time runs out so you can hack successfully. After you do this you, sometimes, will have different choices you can do.

You can detonate – making damage to the enemy and the ones around them.

You can subjugate – the enemy will start fighting for your cause during a certain time.

You can Remote Control – Which means you will play as the robot until you decide to auto-destroy it or you get enough damage that the robot is destroyed.

Actual Airship Combat –

I’ve played some games in the Airship combat genre and, to be honest, they could launch a spin-off of Nier: Automata focused on their Airship combat and it would be a good one. Here, you will play in the Androids’ airships in a 2D and 3D kind of environment. In fact, the setting will change from 2D to 3D many times. However, the change is so smooth that it just feels right.

Leveling Up –

As usual from an RPG, 9S, 2B, and A2 are able to level up. This level is always shared by the 3 characters. Meaning, if you level up 2B and then play with 9S, then 9S will be in the same level as 2B was.

However, the way you actually upgrade yourself is the thing that is completely different and a nice detail added to the game. Since you are an android, you have a memory capacity. With that memory, you can add plug-in chips. These plug-in chips go from more attack power to more speed, passing to all of the system things you want in the game. Do you want to have a bar telling your HP? Then you will have to use a chip for that. Want to know your enemies HP, then you need to make sure that one is also built in. But, the funnier of this, is that you always need to have one chip plugged in, the OS chip which has the android’s central system. Taking that out means dying on the spot!

– Graphics Review –

Nier: Automata came out in 2017, which means the graphics are astonishing as you could expect from a big budget game nowadays. The environment though, it’s what takes the medal here.

As what you could expect from a world that was taken by a post-apocalyptic environment, most of the buildings are destroyed. In Nier: Automata you are able to travel through many places. You start in the cities ruins where you can find buildings completely overcomed by Nature. But, you will also have the possibility to go and experience the desert, forest, coastlines and so on. Nevertheless, contrary to other games, the world is not too big. In my opinion, this is extremely important for you to get a higher emotional attachment to the world itself since not many hours into the game and you start to know it as you know your own neighborhood (maybe even better).

Nier: Automata is all about the cold-blooded war. This way, be prepared for some strong visuals. However, in the end, these visuals are what make you feel emotional towards what is happening.

The only thing I think I would say that is not my cup of tea is 2B’s clothing design. Being able to see her panties all the times does not really speaks that much to me. However, since you can also see 9S in boxers, at least we have some kind of gender equality here 😛

– Soundtrack Review –

Nier: Automata soundtrack just enters my top list and stays in a clear position of number one. Although you have so much fight, so much death, suffering… Everything that you would relate to a war. The soundtrack is in fact quite relaxing! It’s one of those games that, even if it was bad, I wouldn’t really care about it because of the music.

Even if you are not thinking about playing the game itself, I utmost advise you to hear to the OST nevertheless. It’s perfect for anytime you need to be a little more focused. Being that at work or blogging, it’s just those kinds of OSTs. Here’s my favorite:

– Final Thoughts –

Nier: Automata is a masterpiece. There is no other way to put it. From the story to the gameplay, animation, and OST, everything is just done perfectly. All of them work closely together to give you the best experience ever. I highly recommend you to play this game. Even if RPG is not your thing, take a shot on this. Contrary to many other RPGs, Nier: Automata took me more or less 50 hours to finish (and I’m a completionist).

What about you? Have you played Nier: Automata? What do you think about it? Tell me all in the comments! ^.^

See You Soon! 😀

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