Squeenix NieR: Automata from Yoko Taro and Platinum Games

[Cowboy Moment]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the music is amazing.

Sounds like you should stop playing right now, or switch the difficulty to normal. The point is to essentially never, or rarely, get hit on Hard, and a lot of the time the fun comes from doing so in melee. Also, chips do matter.

If that's the point, then the game is very poorly designed for that kind of playstyle. As far as I can tell it doesn't even have the typical action game reduced enemy aggressiveness when off-screen - you will absolutely get hit by stuff you have no way of seeing. Of course, you can mediate this by spamming dodge with Overclock equipped and only attack during the bullet time, but if a set of chips is basically required to make combat not-stupid (Anti-Chain is an obvious example of this), then why do you lose chips on death? It just makes no sense to me. It's as if someone made design decisions by flipping a coin.

Why does not recovering your body make you lose substantial amounts of stuff?

Well, wait till you loose some optimized Tier V-VI chips you've been building all game. Loss of chips IS crippling. I would probably rage-quit if I couldn't recover them at some point.

I think on Hard you should either focus hard on the defensive ones (+HP, damage reduced), which will allow you to avoid being one-shot and perhaps get something like Overclock (time slow on successful evade) and Anti-Chain (prevent damage for some seconds after being hit) too, which can effectively make you immortal with careful gameplay.
The Shockwave is really good too, as it greatly extends attack range - which makes combat with stuff like spears much safer (I've mostly played with spear+greatsword (aoe) combo.. later switched to dual greatsword, but that was on normal).

Honestly, abusing broken stuff like Overclock seems like the way to go at the moment.

As for chip loss, my personal favourite was dying in the forest, respawning, and immediately getting oneshot by a boar who happened to hang out at the save point. Didn't even have time to turn my camera around after the cinematic pan it always does. Good shit. In a peculiar way, the fact that I don't find the gameplay that good makes me rage less. In a good bullet hell shmup, 5 minutes of practicing a stage segment can really trigger me, while here I kinda just shrug and carry on.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

If that's the point, then the game is very poorly designed for that kind of playstyle. As far as I can tell it doesn't even have the typical action game reduced enemy aggressiveness when off-screen - you will absolutely get hit by stuff you have no way of seeing. Of course, you can mediate this by spamming dodge with Overclock equipped and only attack during the bullet time, but if a set of chips is basically required to make combat not-stupid (Anti-Chain is an obvious example of this), then why do you lose chips on death? It just makes no sense to me. It's as if someone made design decisions by flipping a coin.

While the gameplay might indeed not be stellar, what you're describing here is a case of "you suck". I played the game through all the endings all the way to Platinum on hard and only used Overcloack for a while and didn't touch shit like Anti-Chain at all. The only thing in the game I couldn't do on hard was that one side quest

Spoiler

where you fight Emil's clones

and I'm bad at action games. Also, hit by stuff you have no way of seeing doesn't sound like what I played at all. While some enemies will get on your ass at quite some range, it never happened that something nukes you from the other side of the map. If you're not paying attention to your surroundings, then that's your own damn fault, not the games.

I suck according to you, but honestly, I'm doing fine. I don't find the game particularly difficult overall, but the way the difficulty is distributed and mediated is just silly. I play for a couple of hours without even coming close to dying, and then get randomly surprise two-shot by something. I can obviously play without any chips at all, but that demands a much more cautious approach, which is really boring in Nier: Automata - it's a Platinum combat system, it's fun to be aggressive.

Honestly, I can kind of see why it needs to be this way - you can basically have infinite instant healing items, so the only way to threaten the player is via extreme damage. Bosses are trivial because, unless they one-shot you, you can always instantly heal back to full. That's a poor way to balance an action game, though.

I don't think you understood what I meant about off-screen aggressiveness, so let me elaborate. In a lot of good action games, enemy AI behaves differently when you can't see them, most notably, they are much less aggressive. They do this because their designers recognize that the alternative is to constantly run around adjusting your camera so you can see every enemy - not a very fun activity, and in a lot of cases the perspective is better off mostly fixed. This is not the case in Nier: Automata, and so if you don't want to get hit, this running around is basically what you need to do.

In a good bullet hell shmup, 5 minutes of practicing a stage segment can really trigger me, while here I kinda just shrug and carry on.

And we have arrived at the crux of your problem. You're bad at the game, refuse to accept that your bad, rationalize it that you're bad because the game sucks and refuse to invest effort. Story mode was made for casual fags like you.

Why would I need to invest effort or change difficulty? I'm doing perfectly well on Hard... I just find the gameplay to be kinda mediocre.

But yeah, caring more about a 1CC in Ketsui (a genuinely difficult Cave bullet hell shmup) than some silly death in a storyfag weaboo ARPG clearly makes me a casual. Fanboys never change.

 

[aweigh]

 

[Silva]

Bros, I'm thinking about getting this game. I understand it has shit gameplay, but I heard it has a good scenario with interesting philosophical questions and twists. So, should I get it? And I've heard it has bazillion endings. Must I replay the game for the Nth time again and again to see them all and understand them? How to better approach it to avoid frustration?

 

[Sentinel]

Each playthrough is done with a different character so you get a different perspective of events and visit different places/different missions.

It's not a typical "let's press new game and run these quests with a different build hehehe".

 

[Jaedar]

Bros, I'm thinking about getting this game. I understand it has shit gameplay, but I heard it has a good scenario with interesting philosophical questions and twists. So, should I get it? And I've heard it has bazillion endings. Must I replay the game for the Nth time again and again to see them all and understand them? How to better approach it to avoid frustration?

Towards the end of the first playthrough, two redheads will show up. Make sure you check their inventory, lots of quality of life stuff there. Other than that, not much you can do to reduce tedium, but it's worth it imo.

 

[Valtiel]

Finished a couple of days ago, enjoyed it very much. Gameplay is simplistic for platinum standards but it's ok, shame that on normal the game is too easy, with that slo-mo dodge that grants invincibility by just spammin R2, and infinite healing objects. The second playthrough yes could be annoying BUT you get to see main missions from another perspective and the secondary mission are carried over from the first one, not counting the newly added (i think there's some unique quest in this 2nd part), anyway you could just sprint to the ending B in not that much time (Example, the prologue in the second play is never annoying, think about that MGSV last mission where you're force do replay the entire TUTORIAL just for 20 sec cutscene at the end). I also really liked the scenario, and I was really compelled to see what was coming next. Secondary missions are more than ok, repetitive sometimes but always rewarding with dialogues or bits of lore. Story it's japanese nonsense mixed with philosphy 101 (even throwing philosopher's name at those adorable robots), but it wasn't annoying. Ending E made me feel connected to other players online for real since a long time.

 

[Villagkouras]

My GOTY (I know, no fucks given, but still...).

 

[Gerrard]

How to better approach it to avoid frustration?

Watch a let's play.

 

[Fryjar]

So what's the recommended difficulty here, normal or hard (using KB) to be challenging but not annoying?

 

[cruel]

I've finished my 3rd playthrough few days ago. The game had some flaws, but overall very good experience and would recommend to anyone. It's so nice to see something that has SOUL and heart put inside, not some lazy cash grab filled with QTE, lazy quests etc. Plot was good, characters (even not the main ones) memorable, good graphics, some good and memorable boss fights (desert, opera, few other), and - of course - magnificent music. Been some time when I was so impressed with OST in a video game.

The only point when the game was annoying for me was forced hacking in 2rd playthrough, other than this no complaints. It may be too easy sometimes with proper plugin chips equipped, but this is minor. And - for anybody considering - yes, it is worth to play it all 3 times.

 

[Jasede]

Normal.

 

[Silva]

Any tips for playing Nines? Boy has hands of cotton.

 

[Haplo]

Use spears. They have ridiculous range, particularly with Shockwave chips, so are the safest playstyle. His combat style actually looks and works decently with them. Alternatively use greatswords (with Shockwave) for large attack radius.

 

[Silva]

Thanks for the tips. It just clicked that his gameplay asks for different strategies, instead or trying to do the same as 2B. I ended up LARPing him and focusing on ranged fire (with the equivalent chip config) and hacking. I'm carrying a spear just in case.

By the way, this game rocks. A pleasant surprise for me. I'm liking it way better than Souls 3. It does starts slow - or more accurate, it starts kicking ass with that aerial insertion and the factory operation, but then it kinda crawls along until things heat up again.

Another thing that I like is how it meshes things from various genres and tropes together. It doesn't always work, but overall it results in a very fresh and varied gameplay.

And the setting is delicious. Threading the old world history together through quests/weapons/places is very satisfying. Reminds me of Souls series environmental storytelling.

Im finishing the boy playthrough right now. I hope the remaining portion does not disappoint.

 

[Ezekiel]

Any tips for playing Nines? Boy has hands of cotton.

Just hack everything. His hacking is really overpowered.

 

[Jasede]

I can honestly say the last portion makes the first two seem like a little warm-up.

Which is honestly very impressive - to go, as a player, "WHAT THE FUCK!?!!? OH SHIT!" despite all the things that happen in boy and girl playthrough is nuts. The last one has the intensity of an elevator crashing down at maximum speed and culminates in what is to this day my favorite moment in gaming, which I think you will recognize when you see it.

I think Yoko Taro himself put it best when he said "FUCK SQUARE-ENIX"

 

[Jaedar]

I can honestly say the last portion makes the first two seem like a little warm-up.

Someone else said: The first two parts are world building. The third is world destroying.

 

[Silva]

I admit that bitch speech about "command lying to me" or something is haunting me through all 9S playthrough.

That and a crazy wish to play 2B again. Not because I dislike 9S, no, but now I really got the game flow and mechanics, I wonder how long my enemies can resist 2B superior ass-kicking. How long, I wonder?

 

[Jasede]

Please document your reaction to the 9S playthrough when it is finished.

 

[Jasede]

And now for something amusing / rage inducing: Yoko Taro's top ten games of 2017! (Google it if you don't believe me!)

10. INSIDE - brief spooky indie game with twist ending
9. Undertale - it's Undertale
8. Gravity Rush 2 - arcadey brawler
7. Danganronpa 3 - hard to explain... a quirky visual novel, a bit like 999
6. Dodonpachi Ressurection - an incredibly difficult bullet hell SHMUP
5,4,3 Alienation, Nex Machina, Matterfall -- difficult arcade-like games with upgrade systems
2. Horizon Zero Dawn - WTF Yoko Taro
1. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - WTF man

... so he likes brutally difficult arcade games and SHMUPS, but is also addicted to a furry "waste your entire life gardening and paying off loans" shit game.
Trolled again...

 

[Jasede]

Spoilers, dude.

 

[Ivan]

who cares, no one's going to buy this overpriced product

 

[Jaedar]

Trolled again...

Yeah, if you trust anything Yoko Taro says publically, you are probably going to get bamboozled.

From the actual article (concerning INSIDE):
I want to make sure to set aside time to play games that are important.

That being said, in the end I wasn’t able to make the time. So although I purchased it on Steam, I haven’t been able to play it even once. Regardless, I am sure that it is a masterpiece. Not only because it is a game developed by Playdead, but also because everyone’s reviews are great as well.

 

[Dayyālu]

I admit that bitch speech about "command lying to me" or something is haunting me through all 9S playthrough.

That and a crazy wish to play 2B again. Not because I dislike 9S, no, but now I really got the game flow and mechanics, I wonder how long my enemies can resist 2B superior ass-kicking. How long, I wonder?

You'll have your gift granted, you get to play again 2B with a (gameplay-wise useless) battle armour for a while. Then you'll get something that makes 2B seems weak if we're talking raw damage.

And Taro is a professional troll. Still waiting on his adult video, though.