Nier Automata (Nier 2)

[TrishaCat]

Remember that game called Nier, which was a spinoff of the Drakengard series that Yoko Taro made that I loved? You know how a sequel was announced at E3 earlier this year, and that Platinum Games was supposed to be working on it alongside Square and Taro's team? Well it was finally showed off today at Paris games. Behold, gameplay and music:

[Chrysocyon]

I should probably get around to playing the first one before this comes out.  A friend let me borrow it and it's just been sitting on my shelf for years now.

[TrishaCat]

I should probably get around to playing the first one before this comes out.  A friend let me borrow it and it's just been sitting on my shelf for years now.

You borrowed a game for several years?

[Chrysocyon]

You borrowed a game for several years?

Well, he said there was little replay value to it once he beat it 100%, so I don't think he cares if he gets it back.  He still has a bunch of my games that he borrowed that I don't think he's finished, either.

[Luca]

P U R E   P L A T I N U M

I love this studio so much.

[RestlessDreamer]

I should probably get around to playing the first one before this comes out.  A friend let me borrow it and it's just been sitting on my shelf for years now.

It's a pretty lengthy game and it's got more than its share of flaws, but the personality Nier has is undeniable. Such a bizarre and wonderful game.

Protip: Skip sidequests. They do almost nothing for you and most are little more than fetch quests. Also, nothing is lost by playing on easy. 

[TrishaCat]

It's a pretty lengthy game and it's got more than its share of flaws, but the personality Nier has is undeniable. Such a bizarre and wonderful game.

Protip: Skip sidequests. They do almost nothing for you and most are little more than fetch quests. Also, nothing is lost by playing on easy. 

Woah, slow down there. Easy is TOO easy at times and some bosses are too quick to kill, which is a problem since the boss fights are genuinely really well done. I mean I wouldn't recommend playing on Hard either, but I'm not sure easy is necessarily the best choice. Just good if something gets particularly tedious.

The sidequests also add to the game a decent bit, dialogue wise, and a couple of them (or at least one off the top of my head), is necessary to be completed in order to get a weapon, which is necessary for seeing endings C and D.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Battlechili

[RestlessDreamer]

I can see sticking the game to normal, but a ton of those sidequests give VERY little, IMHO. Also, I feel it might be best to do a clean playthrough first since endings B - D are unavailable on the first play, right?

Also, a good reason to play again for all of the new, savagely heartbreaking dialogue you get.

[TrishaCat]

http://www.jp.square-enix.com/nier-new/

Nier Automata's website has updated to have some of the newer music we might hear for the game.

Its pretty, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. The music has English lyrics. Its too...normal. For Nier, anyways. Though maybe it being sung in English has some plot relevance. I can't imagine the switch from gibberish in Nier to English in Automata would be done without reason.

[TrishaCat]

New gameplay footage is also out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxnCbNiGRME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzV4UR9kQH0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KloExTCcgs4 (this one contains story stuff so ignore if you don't want spoilers)

Its very smooth-looking as a game.

Oh, and a new character was shown off:

[TrishaCat]

http://nichegamer.com/2016/08/17/nier-automata-get-pc-release-via-steam/

http://gematsu.com/2016/08/nier-automata-coming-pc-via-steam-early-2017
 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

GET HYPED

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

[TrishaCat]

 

[yell0wf0x]

 

[TrishaCat]

1 hour ago, yell0wf0x said:

[new trailer]

I really wish we'd get a full length trailer. Nearly every trailer for this game has been mostly gameplay. Which is admittedly really refreshing, but I'd like something that could bring out more hype, y'know? I think a lot of people still don't know what this game is.  This and Death Stranding look to be the most interesting games upcoming, so it'd be nice to get a little more story information.

That said:

>sand surfing

That's really rad. I love how mobile this game is. And the music is amazing! This may have better music than the original Nier!

>March 7 release date

SOON

[Tsuujou]

Platinum Games really knocked this one out the motherfucking park. That demo is ACE.

[Tsuujou]

Oh my god. I can't take this picture.
I can't look at that last panel for too long. lmfao

[TrishaCat]

I finally got to play the demo and for some reason I found myself...disappointed. Which is weird, because the demo was really fun and great. It was incredible how smooth the game transitioned between different camera perspectives and different gameplay styles. From 3D ARPG to platforming to something almost resembling a shmup it was wonderful and not once seemed out of place. 

I guess I just wanted to see more story, and missed how the music wasn't AS good as Nier's was. Realistically though, it'd be hard to live up to Nier's soundtrack anyways.

If there was anything that bugged me, it was how after finishing a combo your character seems to briefly move slower before the next combo.

[Tsuujou]

1 hour ago, Battlechili said:

I finally got to play the demo and for some reason I found myself...disappointed. Which is weird, because the demo was really fun and great. It was incredible how smooth the game transitioned between different camera perspectives and different gameplay styles. From 3D ARPG to platforming to something almost resembling a shmup it was wonderful and not once seemed out of place. 

I guess I just wanted to see more story, and missed how the music wasn't AS good as Nier's was. Realistically though, it'd be hard to live up to Nier's soundtrack anyways.

If there was anything that bugged me, it was how after finishing a combo your character seems to briefly move slower before the next combo.

I've never seen a demo actually go into any key plot points honestly. I also found that the delay after the combo can be canceled with a dash. So I would sort of...shimmy enemies as the fighting game cats would say and get this nice flow going. Pretty sure it's just a balancing thing. Dunno.

[Feelwell]

I nierly looked into this, but this style of game has never been my thing.... 

[yell0wf0x]

So close. Glad this didn't get canceled.  

 

[yell0wf0x]

As a pleasant surprise to me last night,  this actually is now out where I am. Didnt expect it till like 2 weeks from now, but yeah. So I'm getting this together with horizon zero dawn on Tuesday next week. So yeah. Fun fun. So many games to play~ 

[TrishaCat]

11 hours ago, yell0wf0x said:

As a pleasant surprise to me last night,  this actually is now out where I am. Didnt expect it till like 2 weeks from now, but yeah. So I'm getting this together with horizon zero dawn on Tuesday next week. So yeah. Fun fun. So many games to play~ 

Man, I'm jelly.

Hope you have fun with it! I am genuinely convinced this game will be the closest to perfect video games will ever get. My bar is set tremendously high for this title, perhaps too much, but that's how much confidence I have that these developers have made a solid game. Listening to the soundtrack on Youtube, (beware of spoilers; unfortunately these OST posts come with gameplay footage including spoilers) at the very least the music is amazing.

[Shiro]

13 hours ago, yell0wf0x said:

As a pleasant surprise to me last night,  this actually is now out where I am. Didnt expect it till like 2 weeks from now, but yeah. So I'm getting this together with horizon zero dawn on Tuesday next week. So yeah. Fun fun. So many games to play~ 

Pre ordered this game and I'm seriously looking forward to playing it. There hasn't been a game that has looked this amazing and used the full potential of the PS4 since Killzone Shadowfall. Just looking at the scenery and game world just leaves me awestruck. 

 

 

[TrishaCat]

The Steam page is up and system requirements are out!

Minimum Specs

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit / Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit (32-bit OS not supported)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 or higher, AMD A8-6500 or higher
• Memory: 4GB or higher free space
• Hard-Disk / SSD: 50GB or higher
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 VRAM 2GB or higher / AMD Radeon R9 270X VRAM 2GB or higher
• Sound Card: DirectX 11 or higher
• Communication Environment: Broadband or higher
• Screen Resolution: 1280×720
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad (XInput-only)

Recommended Specs

• OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit (32-bit OS not supported)
• CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 or higher, AMD A10-7850K or higher
• Memory: 8GB or higher free space
• Hard-Disk / SSD: 50GB or higher
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 VRAM 4GB or higher / AMD Radeon R9 380X VRAM 4GB or higher
• Sound Card: DirectX 11 or higher
• Communication Environment: Broadband or higher
• Screen Resolution: 1920×1080
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad (XInput-only)

Just a fair warning to anyone considering buying it: The 3rd party EULA the Steam page advertises itself as having isn't readable, at least not at the moment.

Also I recently found out that the soundtrack has 8-bit versions of some of the tracks in-game, presumably for some sort of hacking mini-game. Song of the Ancients (Fate) in 8-bit sounds amazing. Posessed by a Disease is pretty good too.

On 2/24/2017 at 5:15 PM, Shiro said:

Pre ordered this game and I'm seriously looking forward to playing it. There hasn't been a game that has looked this amazing and used the full potential of the PS4 since Killzone Shadowfall. Just looking at the scenery and game world just leaves me awestruck. 

[Horizon Zero Dawn tech analysis]

Horizon: Zero Dawn looks gorgeous and extremely technically impressive, but I'm worried about its gameplay and especially its plot and animations. Mostly because of this scene with Brom. The acting, the music, its all so...out of place in that scene, and while that's one single part of the game, its worrying of what else might be sub-par in the game. 

[Shiro]

3 hours ago, Battlechili said:

The Steam page is up and system requirements are out!

Minimum Specs

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit / Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit (32-bit OS not supported)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 or higher, AMD A8-6500 or higher
• Memory: 4GB or higher free space
• Hard-Disk / SSD: 50GB or higher
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 VRAM 2GB or higher / AMD Radeon R9 270X VRAM 2GB or higher
• Sound Card: DirectX 11 or higher
• Communication Environment: Broadband or higher
• Screen Resolution: 1280×720
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad (XInput-only)

Recommended Specs

• OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit (32-bit OS not supported)
• CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 or higher, AMD A10-7850K or higher
• Memory: 8GB or higher free space
• Hard-Disk / SSD: 50GB or higher
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 VRAM 4GB or higher / AMD Radeon R9 380X VRAM 4GB or higher
• Sound Card: DirectX 11 or higher
• Communication Environment: Broadband or higher
• Screen Resolution: 1920×1080
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad (XInput-only)

Just a fair warning to anyone considering buying it: The 3rd party EULA the Steam page advertises itself as having isn't readable, at least not at the moment.

Also I recently found out that the soundtrack has 8-bit versions of some of the tracks in-game, presumably for some sort of hacking mini-game. Song of the Ancients (Fate) in 8-bit sounds amazing. Posessed by a Disease is pretty good too.

Horizon: Zero Dawn looks gorgeous and extremely technically impressive, but I'm worried about its gameplay and especially its plot and animations. Mostly because of this scene with Brom. The acting, the music, its all so...out of place in that scene, and while that's one single part of the game, its worrying of what else might be sub-par in the game. 

Well, I've been playing for quite some time (exploring and almost done with the main story) and It's been great in my opinion. The story is great, and it makes you want to keep going to the end to find out what really happened. The gameplay is fluid, and it works the way it was intended, and there's always something to do. Sidequests, main story, cauldrons (mini dungeons) challenges, searching for upgrades, and somehow, it never manages to get old. Though, this is just my take on the game. All I really have to say is that it's definitely worth the money, and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves a good story and open world experience.

[yell0wf0x]

On Monday, March 06, 2017 at 4:22 AM, Battlechili said:

The Steam page is up and system requirements are out!

Minimum Specs

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit / Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit (32-bit OS not supported)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 or higher, AMD A8-6500 or higher
• Memory: 4GB or higher free space
• Hard-Disk / SSD: 50GB or higher
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 VRAM 2GB or higher / AMD Radeon R9 270X VRAM 2GB or higher
• Sound Card: DirectX 11 or higher
• Communication Environment: Broadband or higher
• Screen Resolution: 1280×720
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad (XInput-only)

Recommended Specs

• OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit / Windows 10 64-bit (32-bit OS not supported)
• CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 or higher, AMD A10-7850K or higher
• Memory: 8GB or higher free space
• Hard-Disk / SSD: 50GB or higher
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 VRAM 4GB or higher / AMD Radeon R9 380X VRAM 4GB or higher
• Sound Card: DirectX 11 or higher
• Communication Environment: Broadband or higher
• Screen Resolution: 1920×1080
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad (XInput-only)

Just a fair warning to anyone considering buying it: The 3rd party EULA the Steam page advertises itself as having isn't readable, at least not at the moment.

Also I recently found out that the soundtrack has 8-bit versions of some of the tracks in-game, presumably for some sort of hacking mini-game. Song of the Ancients (Fate) in 8-bit sounds amazing. Posessed by a Disease is pretty good too.

Horizon: Zero Dawn looks gorgeous and extremely technically impressive, but I'm worried about its gameplay and especially its plot and animations. Mostly because of this scene with Brom. The acting, the music, its all so...out of place in that scene, and while that's one single part of the game, its worrying of what else might be sub-par in the game. 

I've had for a week now but I still haven't started playing it. Lol. 

And speaking of music, I kinda think some music in neir automata doesn't fit so well when in the open world when yer out exploring or in that rebel village. The music is good, don't get me wrong. Maybe its just me. 

[yell0wf0x]

Launch trailer is up! Must be so fun to battle in that roller coaster! 

 

[TrishaCat]

2 hours ago, yell0wf0x said:

Launch trailer is up! Must be so fun to battle in that roller coaster! 

That remixed music from the original Nier really took the cake and made that trailer.

So excited! Its painful having to wait an extra ten days to play it, but I just know it'll be worth it in the end. And yeah. Though while the rollercoaster is cool, I think the amusement park in general looks pretty fun. That boss-like tank thing looked interesting.

[Taikugemu]

Why vidia games are so expensive here, Ugh.

[TrishaCat]

Well, I finally got it and I've put a decent bit of time into the game. Its everything I hoped it would be and then some. The music is even better than the trailers originally implied. The gameplay is smooth and it gives you a wide variety of tools for combat while keeping you on your toes to where you can't just walk up to an enemy and just hack and slash away.

There's just one problem; I'm still stuck at the tutorial of the game.

This game has several difficulty settings, and I think normal is too easy and I like a good challenge, so I've been playing on hard mode. For a good while I didn't understand how the dodging mechanic worked and once I figured it out its an extremely useful if somewhat overpowered tool for avoiding attacks. Even if you dodge TOWARDS an attack, as long as you keep dodging you can't be hurt. But despite this, learning that has only resulted in me dying after an hour of play getting to the tutorial's end boss instead of dying at the beginning of the tutorial. Because this game has no auto-save feature, that means that every time I die I have to restart at the beginning of the game again. To be fair, I do believe nearly every death I've had is my own fault, so I'm not upset thinking the game is cheap. Its very fair and even gives you too much power with the dodge mechanic I think. But on hard mode, you die in pretty much two hits. Just one if you're hit by the end boss. So a small mistake and you're done for, and that's been making progressing in this game a pain. On the bright side, apparently this game has 26 endings, one for every letter of the alphabet. As it turns out, dying in the tutorial is an ending. Ending W to be specific. I thought that was kind of neat and a nice touch, though it loses its charm after seeing the ending text multiple times.

It'd be nice for a difficulty setting between normal and hard, though really, I just need to git gud. This is keeping me from commenting on the story though, which is really important to me, as it was one of the strongest parts of the original Nier.

Anyone else been playing? How do you feel about the game thus far?

EDIT: http://www.strawpoll.me/12566115

[yell0wf0x]

I've only started it yestersay. Looks like we ended up playing at the same time. Haha. 

Tho, I don't remember a tutorial level.  Was that the same as the demo? Like the factory level? 

I'm around the part where I just beat the 3rd boss. Or second, depending on if ye count that factory one as a boss. 

My impressions so far, the seamless transition between gameplay styles is really good. I'm impressed. The music is good but somehow makes me sleepy. Mostly because I found a lack of enemies in the world. The space is big but feels rather empty. Hopefully that'll change as the game progresses. The start around the factory had more enemies than the city ruins. 

Also, I'm disappointed with the roller coaster. I thought there'd be a boss fight there. 

[TrishaCat]

5 minutes ago, yell0wf0x said:

Tho, I don't remember a tutorial level.  Was that the same as the demo? Like the factory level? 

Yeah. Basically the demo and the shmup segment right before it

5 minutes ago, yell0wf0x said:

Also, I'm disappointed with the roller coaster. I thought there'd be a boss fight there. 

Aw. I thought there'd be a boss there too.

[yell0wf0x]

I'm on my second playthrough now. And I gotta say. Wow. The second playthrough is even better than the first. I wasn't able to get ending W, but I hope I could get it sometime soon. I got endings A and G so far. And I'm kinda want to get all now. Gg square and plat

[Shiro]

Just got this game an hour ago. I've only heard good things about it, so I decided to try it out. So far, it's very fun, and the soundtrack is great.

[QT Melon]

Yes Nier has a very lovely soundtrack. I know FFXV put in Song of the Ancients in their music player  which i love putting on. I'll probably get neir 2 when I get back into finishing Horizon Zero Dawn

[Pignog]

arf video games art? this gaymer thinks not

[yell0wf0x]

Just finished my third playthrough and got ending C. And wow. That section leading up to the final part was really good. Now that's what I call good gameplay design. Everything just blends in so seamlessly, it was exhilarating! I'm so motivates to get all endings now. Just missing D, E and Y now. 

[Shiro]

Just started playing as A2. The game has been so much fun so far, but when starting on C after I finished B, I noticed that almost all the enemies were 20 to 25 levels above me, and I've been repeatedly getting obliterated over and over. Did I really screw up or something just by not doing the side quests? Or is this intentional? 

[yell0wf0x]

2 hours ago, Shiro said:

Just started playing as A2. The game has been so much fun so far, but when starting on C after I finished B, I noticed that almost all the enemies were 20 to 25 levels above me, and I've been repeatedly getting obliterated over and over. Did I really screw up or something just by not doing the side quests? Or is this intentional? 

Hmm. I think enemies were generally around level 50 by the time I started route C. But I was over leveled by 3 to 5 (route b, enemies were around level 40 and I was around 35 to 37 that time). I think maybe it's cuz I've been doing the side quests too and trying to get endings. Also, trying to get materials for weapon upgrades and stuff.

 

I'd say, try changing difficulty to help even it out a bit if yer having trouble. Difficulty is apparently adjustable in game so ye could switch from very hard to easy anytime ye want. 

[TrishaCat]

I just got Ending A and honestly...I'm disappointed.

This isn't the game I was expecting it to be. I know its not the end of the game yet and there's still more story to tell, but even the original Nier had a satisfying first ending. This ending doesn't feel satisfying at all and the game feels largely rushed and unfinished. For example, I don't think enough time was spent between the characters for

 

2B to care as much as she does about 9S. I feel as if the ending was contrived. I can't take her care of 9S seriously when so little time was spent between them and they barely talked to each other.

This isn't at all like Papa Nier's interactions with Kaine and/or Weiss. Those characters talked a lot throughout the series and learned more and more about each other as they spent time with one another, and reason was given for why the characters acted the way they did.

 

Emil's suffering felt real.

 Here its all just....I couldn't feel anything for these characters. It wasn't sad. Taro games are supposed to depress me. I can't take these character interactions seriously in Automata. And I didn't even know I was at the final boss of the game once I got to it. I don't even know what the plot of this game was for Ending A.

Also gameplay wise, I feel like there weren't enough fun bosses. The fights against all the big robots were really fun, but the fights against Adam and Eve were boring and dull and largely just spent standing away shooting at them until they die while dodging their attacks. They're so small they're unimpressive to look at, and they didn't do any really crazy attacks to make them interesting. I wanted more fights like the opera boss or the kaiju. 

[yell0wf0x]

Well this should be fun! 

 

 

[QT Melon]

From what I understand, A just kinda makes you go "oh" but once you try the other routes you're like "OH :O" so do play the other ones.The people who complain about the endings the most are the ones who haven't done the other routes.

[Shiro]

I recently finished all routes, and got endings A through E. All I have to say is, wow. This game left me speechless multiple times during my time playing it, which doesn't happen to me very often.  It's definitely an experience that I'll always remember.

[yell0wf0x]

I still haven't done D and E. And I'm missing Y. Need to get back and grind for parts to upgrade all my weapons and pods. Gonna platinum this on ps4.

Been busy with persona 5 atm tho. When I'm done with that, I'll be sure to come back. 

[yell0wf0x]

So I platinumed persona 5 last weekend, so I got to go back to nier now. And I finally platinumed it last night. But damn yo! That ending was intense as fuck! I was like, this looks easy.. Then it gradually became a shit storm and I was like..  Holy fucking shit this is fucking hard as fuck! 

Ending E was really nice tho.

It should be E for existentialism.

 

[Tsuujou]

This game isn't blowing my mind as much as I was expecting it to, but I'm making progress. Though I'm having issues on the PC port which admittedly might be hampering things. 

I think 2B's operator wants to fug her...