Nier: Automata — Game of the Yorha Edition Review
The most fun you can have interfacing with a myriad of complex existentialism and philosophy concepts.
The most fun you can have interfacing with a myriad of complex existentialism and philosophy concepts.
Check out this review in the form of a post-mortem discussion in my podcast, VOID ARCADE.
If you like rich narratives & plot twists, thinking about what makes us human, or just enjoy a good action filled hack n slash, play Nier Automata. I cannot recommend it highly enough. You need to experience this game and be forever changed.
There are so many positive things that I can say about Nier:Automata, and I’ll get into some of those, but here is the short version: If you’re reading this because you have been thinking about playing it eventually or sometime soon or whatever, I beg you to drop everything, move Nier Automata to the front of your backlog, and play this masterpiece of a game. Play it through until the end. Play through ALL the endings, A — E. Skip just one ending, and you’ve missed the brilliance of the game, and done yourself a disservice. Only at the completion of Ending E will you understand how this is one of my favorite games of all time.
The main reason for this is that the narrative is deep and incredibly thought-provoking. Yoko Taro uses the rhetoric of this game to spin these subtle messages to you to make you think about existence. Life. Purpose. You might look at this game and think that I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. If you can take a fraction of a second and look beyond the anime or JRPG influences, you’ll see it. The more you pay attention to the details, and the world, and the words you hear and read, the more you think about the real world that we all inhabit. Beyond this, you think about the intrigue and mystery that exists in the game world, and it constantly throws twists at you to keep you interested and on your toes. It couldn’t be more well done. It’s near perfect in this regard.
Which may not be a feat on its own in comparison to other forms of media, but there’s a fun game underneath it all. I’m a Platinum Games fan, so I knew what I was in for: Flashy, stylistic, and smooth hack ’n’ slash combat. Smooth as butter, with tons of weapon variety and the ability to do a little bit of build crafting and optimizing. It’s expertly crafted to the point where I believe it feels just as good to play as some of the modern releases in the genre. So, if perhaps you’re not immediately interested in the story, but the combat entices you, I think there’s plenty here to enjoy at surface level. There is enough here to make for a satisfying 20+ hours of fun, and it includes some challenging end-game content to boot, should you so choose.
Along the way, you’ll complete missions that may differ mechanically or stylistically, and these are woven with little micro-stories that will keep you engaged. Some mix up the game with an element or two, to keep things interesting, and I never found any of them to be too tedious. Of course, the star of the show is the main plot line, but many of the smaller quests have a unique story to tell that expands upon the world and perhaps will make you, again, think about some of the threads that connect it to real world scenarios. Overall, I say that there’s enough variety in the entire span of the game that it was engaging enough to keep me hooked from the beginning to the end. I encourage you to look beyond the surface of the “game” but if gameplay is all you're looking for this is a great hack n slash.
The true standout moment is at the true end of the game. Ending E. It’s such a powerful experience that can only be told in the medium of games, and it’s a memory that I will never lose or forget. It effortlessly takes all the rhetoric you’ve been absorbing during your play time and ties it together in one magnificent moment.
Nier Automata is a work of art. A real masterpiece. I cannot help but recommend this game to everyone. If you engage with the story, the rhetoric, and the gameplay, you cannot help but be satisfied and awed by this game, and because of that, I consider it to absolutely be a must-play.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.