So I completed this last night. I haven’t played any previous game in the series so had no idea what to expect. First up I really enjoyed it. I loved that I had no idea where it was all going and how the side quests, while often mechanically rote, were usually surprising in some way and almost always tied into the central themes of the game. Whenever I found myself rolling my eyes over a quest I was always pleased to have it end with something that peaked my interest.
I wrote this a while back to illustrate the tug of the game’s side quests:
“I fought the forest king’s guard behind a giant wooden door that was unlocked using several items found around the castle. It was exciting to find the door, exciting to assemble the key, exciting to see what was behind the door, exciting to get beyond the king’s guard and exciting to find an old robot overgrown with flora in front of a gravestone dappled with sunbeams breaking through the forest boughs. What was there? Would it be some lore and further insight into the world? A wad of G? A new weapon? A diamond plug-in? A pod? A pod program? Some rare materials? Another quest layer? Some strange new item? That mystery made all the stages that came before it exciting and it’s the beating heart of the game’s side quests. Where will this lead? What will I discover?”
I really liked this observation in the main thread. I think this is one thing that kept me interested on top of the unpredictable direction of the story – I never knew what ‘mechanical set-pieces’ the game was going to throw at me. Really cool and exciting. In the Yoko Taro documentary someone posted he said that he wanted to make games that were unexpected and I think he’s succeeded, at least to me as a Nier noob.
I can relate to some of @Woodlance’s criticisms and I’ll second his praise of the music being layered so it can be dynamically adjusted to complement different situations. Vessel did this with Jon Hopkins’ music and it worked really well when tied to puzzle progression. The music in Nier: Automata was fantastic too. I’m not wild about crafting systems but I didn’t find it egregious here. I maxed a lot of weapons out just through exploration. That said, I’m sure I’d have needed many more hours to max the rest out!
Okay so on to the story and my readings. I’m not sure I was quite as high on the [E]nding as @rhamorim but still got most of the themes it was exploring, which is unlike me because I’ve usually got a tin ear for that kind of stuff. I liked that you, as the player, ended up fighting the credits (the developers = the creators = god) to allow the data to leak so 2B, 9S and A2 could have another shot, but in order to do so you needed help from other players to succeed. While I think the save data wipe seems heavy handed it kind of is the ultimate sacrifice to a gamer. I pondered the choice for a while and to avoid being paralysed by all the stuff I’d not done and found, and in keeping with the themes of the game, I went ahead. I also liked that Pod 042’s dialogue was very tongue in cheek, particularly about the possibility of intensely dislking the player you could end up helping.
For some reason I also missed this:
Two hacks and A2 was toast for me. I must have damaged her enough while dodging or something. That’s a really cool reveal though as the camera pans out. I first chose A2 at the end and her ending left me wondering what would happen to 9S, then when I eventually went back and chose 9S… Christ, that was grim. This whole game was grim.
There’s a strong sense of companionship/partnership running through Nier: Automata too, from 2B and 9S (who usually worked alone) to Adam and Eve, Devola and Popola, the two Pods and even the last boss is a twin configuration. Without the other half they become almost dysfunctional. Simone may be another example.
If I have any criticism, some of the dialogue is cheesy and over the top (I laughed a number of times, probably when I shouldn’t have) and the story is piled high with stuff to sift through and try and connect. Even before 9S loses his mind, to say he was one of the most advanced YoHRa models, he was a dimwit at times. For almost the entire game he’s constantly saying machines don’t feel anything and blah blah. Dude, wake-up, look around you. Also: you’re a machine too, but called an ‘android’ instead.
I’m also really surprised how many parallels this has to SOMA (spoilers!), from the existentialist themes and what it means to be, to machines exhibiting human characteristics and even the ark plot point and resolution. SOMA’s not as expansive but I think it’s a lot more focused and succinct. It shocked me and I felt that dread and loneliness a lot more at the bottom of the ocean, all while another version of me went into the heavens, just like 9S.
All in all though, a unique and constantly surprising experience that I really enjoyed and certainly one of my games of the year for its boldness.