Game #1350: Nier Automata - The End of YoRHa Edition

 The rise of the robot waifus.

 Took me too long to play Nier Automata: The End of YoRHa Edition considering how much I love weird Japanese Games, quirky Japanese directors and Platinum Games but better late than never!

 So, at first I didn't really like the game. I usually love Platinum games, but I wasn't feeling the combat. Holding down a button all the time to constantly pelter the enemies with bullets, while mixing weak and strong attacks just felt kinda meh. I also am so very tired of modern gaming trends, such as empty worlds and having to boringly gather items to upgrade my weapons or craft stuff... it felt samey. The story was fine, but I didn't think it was anything worth writing home about. Oh, look, the robots are developing human emotions, humans at the end are just machines made of blood, yadda yadda.

 I also hated how if I died I had to go back to retrieve my body or lose all the chips I purchased and crafted with my hard earned money. A few times the game bugged out and my body was nowhere to be found. And what about how some quests were impossible to complete because their levels were way higher than mine? Ironically enough, all the story content was very easy because I was too overleveled for that... but too underleveled for some of the side content. I knew about the alternate endings, but I thought I would be done after the first playthrough.

 So, next playthrough, now you play with a different character and now I lose an attack button, being stuck with a single attack string and a charge attack, and gaining the ability to hack. I hated it.

 ...at first. All those side quests I was too underleveled to complete? Now with hacking I could cheese everything. I never liked the combat too much anyways, but 9S, this other character, made it easy with his overpowered charge attacks and hacking, plus, now I understood the chip system better and could turn myself into a lean, mean killing machine. Money was no longer an issue either.

 And then... only after playing the game twice with different characters do you unlock the next two routes, and while it's set in the same environment, now the second half of the game truly starts. The stakes rise higher, the plot gets much more interesting as 9S' sanity starts slipping and we get introduced to a third playable character, and even better, now dying is a game over and the annoying mechanic of having to retrieve your body is finally axed for good.

 Then, and only then, did I fall in love with the game.

 So yeah, I think it's a tough sell. I had to play about 20 hours before I was finally able to truly enjoy it, but once it did... Yeah, Automata is really good. I think it's a tad overrated, but it's still REALLY good. I liked it!

8.5