Squeenix NieR: Automata from Yoko Taro and Platinum Games

[Saark]

I think what people seem to forget is that when Nier:A came out, a lot of people were praising it for the fluid combat and responsive controls. While this may seem intuitive to everyone, N:A made it possible to animation-cancel any animation, allowing for incredibly complex combos by switching pods around, switching weaponsets to chain different types of heavy/quick attacks with different weapontypes etc.
The problem is that this depth of the combat never really got any use in the game itself, because most mobs just died to the typical combo of quick/heavy attacks of your preferred weaponset, and dodging everything that tried to hit you.

This type of responsiveness however, and the ability to animation-cancel every attack or movement with another one, isn't something that is all too common even in games that are quite similar to Nier:A, which I believe is what they are talking about here.

 

[Suicidal]

Yeah the big problem with this game's combat is that the enemies are kinda... meh and that the game further undermines it with dumbass design decisions like unlimited potion spamming that kills the challenge. The combat system itself is very good and I had a lot of fun fighting the bosses (on hard difficulty and with minimum potion use so I actually had to learn their attacks and dodge/counterattack properly) but fighting the generic enemies gets old pretty quickly and there isn't nearly enough variety of things you can fight to last for the 3 required playthroughs.

 

[Gerrard]

The only people who could learn anything from that about action game desing are western devs, but western devs have an aversion to learning.

 

[LESS T_T]

Video of Taro's GDC talk is up now: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024894/A-Fun-Time-in-Which

Audio design talk is paid content unfortunately.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

So what is the logic that every-time you complete the game and replay it the world changes to another ending. As in, what is the ingame logic for having different endings each time? What was the logic to not understanding enemies in Nier the first time but you understand them the second time.

Also, were you impressed by the philosophies the game tackled? How good was the writing? (from someone who played through games like Xenogears, Planescape and Kotor2 and the likes...)

 

[LESS T_T]

Video of Taro's GDC talk is up now: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024894/A-Fun-Time-in-Which

Now on Youtube:

 

[Saark]

GamesBeat: You mentioned during your panel at GDC panel that having a few drinks while you’re writing the scenario helps you. What do you like to drink when you’re writing?

Taro: When I’m writing it’s better to not drink something that’s too high in alcohol content, because I fall asleep right away, but those drinks taste better, so I end up doing it anyway.

He's going to end like many of the best musicians did in their time, by overdosing on one of the susbtances that made them such great artists in the first place. What a way to go.

Excerpt is from this interview btw.

 

[ilitarist]

Also, were you impressed by the philosophies the game tackled? How good was the writing? (from someone who played through games like Xenogears, Planescape and Kotor2 and the likes...)

You'd get more philosophy from reading couple of wikipedia articles than from playing games.

Anyway, the philosophical flavour is very superflous. You have 2 giant robots who are called Marx & Engels. Because they're encountered at factory first. That's it. They don't talk about class struggle or historical determinism. Nope. You have Simone Beauvoir and she's called so because she's the only female boss. If you want you can deduce that she also made herself into woman and that's what Simone talked about (womanhood is a social construct, no one is born female) but in every other trait she has nothing to do with feminist approach of Simone. Sartre expy has nothing to do with Sartre and is more like Schopenhauer actually. And so on and so on.

As for actual questions of the game - it's the usual anime teenager philosophy. What is to mean to exist. What's the purpose. What to do when there's no god and no real goal. Not even exploring the nature of medium and setting the way Planescape or KotOR2 does. It plays with characters being aware of UI a little but that's it.

And you do not actually replay the game. It's a gimmick. You just click new game and it sends you to a next chapter of the story, but you'll play the first half of the story twice with some alterations.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://east.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/nierautomata-one-year-anniversary-celebration

NieR:Automata – One Year Anniversary Celebration

• SAT 04/07 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
• ALBATROSS THEATRE

Join key members of the NieR:Automata team as they celebrate the first anniversary of the game’s release.

This will be livestreamed here: http://www.twitch.tv/pax2

I hope someone throw a question about long overdue patch.

 

[Silva]

Also, were you impressed by the philosophies the game tackled? How good was the writing? (from someone who played through games like Xenogears, Planescape and Kotor2 and the likes...)

The writing is good and on-point, but I think one would get disappointed searching for deep philosophy in the game. What it does very well, imo, is explore its central themes through the various quests, lore and gameplay. In this sense it's really similar to PS:Torment in that the narrative per se is nothing to tell home about (except the true ending, which is frankly beautiful) but the way everything in the game reinforces/make the player reflect on those themes, is.

 

[Zer0wing]

FYI Drakengard 3 went playable on RPCS3 and 1st Nier also getting there.

 

[KlauZ]

Because they're encountered at factory first. That's it. They don't talk about class struggle or historical determinism.

Engels does process materialistic ideas through his contemplation and past life of absolute determinism and classless society

every other trait she has nothing to do with feminist approach of Simone.

Why should she? Its not a bio fic.

has nothing to do with Sartre

Sartre was opposed to institutional approval and wrote a lot about people's influence as a source of binding personal freedom.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[lightbane]

Gentlemen, rejoice! NIER Automata's mandatory lp done by TDI is ready! https://lparchive.org/NieR-Automata/

For those who didn't want/couldn't play the game.

 

[Ivan]

who?

 

[Silva]

Gentlemen, rejoice! NIER Automata's mandatory lp done by TDI is ready! https://lparchive.org/NieR-Automata/

For those who didn't want/couldn't play the game.

Lemme guess, you're this TDI guy.

 

[Jasede]

Nah, TDI basically revived NieR and Drakengard single-handedly. First, Drakengard 3 is basically written in the same style as his LPs and second, he got, through those LPs, enough people interested in NieR that Yoko Taro himself ended up sending him stuff personally.

A lot of people, back in the day, used to lurk on SA exclusively to learn about obscure games through, at the time, good let's plays.

 

[cruel]

How bad is original NieR, gameplay wise? Is it just average, or very bad / annoying? I have ps3, debating whether buy it or just watch LP

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Jasede]

Average to okay. The fighting is "okay".
Certainly not bad or terrible. It's not very good, either. Some even think it's "good" in a B, B- kind of way.

 

[Dayyālu]

WHERE IS MY NIER AND DRAKENGARD 3 PORT TARO

WHERE

IT

IS

(also, I am too a Taro fan mainly through TDI. Who the fuck would play Drakengard 1 on its own , seriously, without someone saying "this is stupidly bonkers"?)

 

[Zombra]

Nier Automata

I wanted to love this game but it is a fucking slog.

Yea the people keep saying it gets better second playthrough. What the fuck? It was mediocre at best first playtrhough, how the fuck would it magically get better larping a little boy isntead?

Don't get me wrong. I'm absolutely willing to believe that the payoff is worth the climb; I've been blown away by slow burning games with a subtle premise that builds to an brilliant conclusion. But in most cases those games are either short or they have good gameplay between A and B. N:A is an excruciatingly long game with dull ARPG gameplay featuring countless hours of running over featureless sand dunes hitting robots with a stick. It's one of those games where booting it up gives me a feeling of dread because playing it is a chore. I get that if I do my chores I might get a cookie later - maybe even the best cookie I've ever tasted - but it's just not enough.

Ivan if you like ARPGs, and "pattern" bosses where you do stuff like jump over attack A, block when they do attack B, and then you run up and hit them while they recharge, and then do that 50 times, going to a menu to spam healing potions whenever you get hit, you will probably like this more than I did. Maybe look at a random gameplay video. Flip around. You will see a lot of running and a lot of hitting, and not much else.

 

[Ivan]

It sounds like you haven't uninstalled yet

 

[Zombra]

It sounds like you haven't uninstalled yet

My last achievement was in July 2017 and my total playtime is like 6 hours. If it's still installed it's because I want to want to play it ... but I don't actually want to play it.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Don't get me wrong. I'm absolutely willing to believe that the payoff is worth the climb; I've been blown away by slow burning games with a subtle premise that builds to an brilliant conclusion. But in most cases those games are either short or they have good gameplay between A and B. N:A is an excruciatingly long game with dull ARPG gameplay featuring countless hours of running over featureless sand dunes hitting robots with a stick. It's one of those games where booting it up gives me a feeling of dread because playing it is a chore. I get that if I do my chores I might get a cookie later - maybe even the best cookie I've ever tasted - but it's just not enough.

My advice is to play through the Amusement Park section (after the desert), at which point the story becomes more interesting and you should also be obtaining better and more varied chips that will improve combat. If you still find you don't like it, then you can stop playing.

 

[Silva]

Zombra , despite the Platinum brand Automata is still a storyfag game at its heart, for good and for bad. If by 6h nothing grabbed you yet, it's probably not for you.

As a comparison, the desert stage you found bland and boring? I loved it, and the music and the feeling of unearthing old civilizations under the dunes. I was mesmerized by it.