[Megathread] NieR: Automata

[Gigapants]

Just finished getting the platinum for this game on ps4. Truly an amazing game. Do not stop after the first playthrough. while the ending of route A is pretty satisfying, it in no way prepares you for the craziness of C,D and E.

Very glad that I bought the black box edition seeing as how rare it is now apparently.

[Baconeggcheese]

I'm kinda bummed you apparently don't get access to many weapons the first time through. Especially the fist ones as I kinda wanted to mess around with those. Apparently only 1-2 I can get of those and I'm not quite there yet / they the ugly ones.

s'ok though, gonna play it a bunch regardless. I'm still early on but man the more I play the more I feel like we're the bad guys.

[dope_danny]

I'm kinda bummed you apparently don't get access to many weapons the first time through. Especially the fist ones as I kinda wanted to mess around with those. Apparently only 1-2 I can get of those and I'm not quite there yet / they the ugly ones.

s'ok though, gonna play it a bunch regardless. I'm still early on but man the more I play the more I feel like we're the bad guys.

I found quite a few, theres some stuff that requires very specific use of air combos, boosting and gliding across huge gaps to what you would think would be out of the level. Sadly they were mostly reskin weapons.

A a gravure DVD. Because Nippon.

-strange thing is most fist weapons are held behind the first NG in hackable chests or off unique enemies or a vendor who unlocks after making a choice i actually agonised over for like ten minutes

[Baconeggcheese]

Yeah as I am to understand it there's only 4 weapon types, with for some reason fists being hyper limited in the first playthrough.

I kinda just skimmed the weapon list (mostly because I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed where to get the first fist cause I wanted it) and noticed that a large amount of them aren't possible to get on the first playthrough in general. And there's literally only 2 color variants of the same model for fists that are possible to get in the first playthrough.

[dope_danny]

A lot of stuff is just in locked chests you unlock as 9S. There are a few however like if you find Masamune in the Forest Kings Castle that gives you a free weapon if you upgrade enough black and white weapons for example that arent just lying around to be found.

[Gaidax]

Holy crap the ending sobad... liek It's so terribad they had to make that pods thing tacked on.

Pls shoot me

[Wrecktangle]

I have to say a few things. This game blew me away at the start. The gameplay, the graphics, the customization was cool, but the more it went on I actually grew to like it less and less. I was really let down by the internet telling me that I didn't need to play Nier to appreciate Automata, but I can't help but feel that's not true. I would have imagined playing Berseria without Zestiria would have made me feel the same way. I appreciated so much more because of that.

I feel that the characterization growth wasn't good for any of them. It was actually really bad at points and I was expecting it to be good based on everything else the game presented. Things happened that literally made no sense. They weren't explained in any kind of a meaningful manner as best I can tell (even with most of the intel/archives unlocked). I just couldn't really associate with the enemies of the game. Boss fights while very impressive thematically and visually were some of the most unchallenging experiences I've seen. Hell I had a harder time with the very first level on hard mode than anything else in the game.

The combat really started to get stale on me towards the end and changing weapons didn't really do enough to save it.

The good things in this game though were borderline perfect. The game absolutely oozes style. The music, the animations, the premise and overall story are all extremely good, arguably amazing. I was really disappointed with the characterization though.

[Video Games]

I have to say a few things. This game blew me away at the start. The gameplay, the graphics, the customization was cool, but the more it went on I actually grew to like it less and less. I was really let down by the internet telling me that I didn't need to play Nier to appreciate Automata, but I can't help but feel that's not true. I would have imagined playing Berseria without Zestiria would have made me feel the same way. I appreciated so much more because of that.

I feel that the characterization growth wasn't good for any of them. It was actually really bad at points and I was expecting it to be good based on everything else the game presented. Things happened that literally made no sense. They weren't explained in any kind of a meaningful manner as best I can tell (even with most of the intel/archives unlocked). I just couldn't really associate with the enemies of the game. Boss fights while very impressive thematically and visually were some of the most unchallenging experiences I've seen. Hell I had a harder time with the very first level on hard mode than anything else in the game.

The combat really started to get stale on me towards the end and changing weapons didn't really do enough to save it.

The good things in this game though were borderline perfect. The game absolutely oozes style. The music, the animations, the premise and overall story are all extremely good, arguably amazing. I was really disappointed with the characterization though.

Not wrong. It has the weakest characters of all the taro games, but I kind of think that is the point because they're androids. 9s is obviously the best because he goes from happy-go-lucky to hey! murder is fun while toobie doesn't talk very much and a2 is just kaine light. But I really just wanted to see the entire narrative rather than just the characters. I still don't think I can appreciate enough that a and b are just the intro.

[Baconeggcheese]

I think I'm still somewhat early on but yeah the story seems a bit fragmented and all over the place and there's lots of stretching my willing suspension of disbelief. Like the entire concept behind how we transport, or that I'm supposed to believe the flight suits are super expensive to operate but they are somehow just churning out the resources / tech to produce android bodies. I could rattle off an ever increasing list of these lil things as the games gone on.

But frankly all that's ok, because the core gameplay and animations are just so good that it makes up for anything else for me thus far. My one gripe with the combat is the splash effects are way too loud / blinding. Fighting regular mobs of around our size is always a practically blind experience as the splashes from hitting them blind you to the point where you actually can't see anything going on and you have to rely on sound and the lil flash of red if you can catch it.

Is there a slider to turn that down specifically in the graphics? Cause that'd be awesome.

[dope_danny]

or that I'm supposed to believe the flight suits are super expensive to operate but they are somehow just churning out the resources / tech to produce android bodies. I could rattle off an ever increasing list of these lil things as the games gone on.

Actually they do explain stuff like this Flight suits are new tech made from scratch, androids parts like black boxes are actually salvaged machine parts repurposed. The aliens made the machines en masse from scavenged machinery left over from the war with the red eye legion before the calcification virus wiped out pre replicant humanity based on Emil and all his clones who attempted to fight off the invasion early on and the androids and emil have the same origins in the mago particles experiments before project gestalt. They are effectively the same thing bar an aesthetic choice. Machines are based on emils appearance as the most intimiating enemy force the aliens encountered, androids are based on the original gestalt humans so they could integrate with replicants undercover but hardware wise they are actually the same under the surface, meaning with all their masters gone the whole war is utterly pointless since they are effectively fighting themselves for no reason than they look different and were told to. Not so subtle commentary really

[Baconeggcheese]

Actually they do explain stuff like this Flight suits are new tech made from scratch, androids parts like black boxes are actually salvaged machine parts repurposed. The aliens made the machines en masse from scavenged machinery left over from the war with the red eye legion before the calcification virus wiped out pre replicant humanity based on Emil and all his clones who attempted to fight off the invasion early on and the androids and emil have the same origins in the mago particles experiments before project gestalt. They are effectively the same thing bar an aesthetic choice. Machines are based on emils appearance as the most intimiating enemy force the aliens encountered, androids are based on the original gestalt humans so they could integrate with replicants undercover but hardware wise they are actually the same under the surface, meaning with all their masters gone the whole war is utterly pointless since they are effectively fighting themselves for no reason than they look different and were told to. Not so subtle commentary really

Like I said I'm still pretty early on, so I dunno half of what you're talkin bout. Guess I'll find out xD.

I have a hard time imagining they aren't salvaging things for resources for damn near everything though. Including said flight suits.

[Wrecktangle]

Not wrong. It has the weakest characters of all the taro games, but I kind of think that is the point because they're androids. 9s is obviously the best because he goes from happy-go-lucky to hey! murder is fun while toobie doesn't talk very much and a2 is just kaine light. But I really just wanted to see the entire narrative rather than just the characters. I still don't think I can appreciate enough that a and b are just the intro.

I didn't want to cite specific examples because I didn't want to throw any spoilers. It's also why I avoided the entire thread up until I almost plat'd it.

I would have been totally on board with the Androids don't have feelings and the correlation with the Machines apparently having senses of self causing drama, but they didn't really go that route though. I would have been on board with the Androids going through a sense of self journey/developing feelings/soul/heart in retrospect to the machines, but that didn't happen either. What little of that did show was inconsistent (9S being almost human, 2B caring more than she should of him, 2B feeling fake, then human, then fake. A2 not being fleshed out terrible well and not really feeling or seeing any impact to the 2B and her's interaction.

I think an enormous opportunity was missed in these aspects. There are other gripes like A&E that could have been way better IMO and I really wish the c-city was utilized a bit more.

[Baconeggcheese]

@Wrecktangle I do think its funny how inconsistently one will be like open to the idea of being sympathetic to a bot and the other will be all "Don't forget they're the enemy!" and which one is which seems to switch with every encounter.

[Gaidax]

I think I'm still somewhat early on but yeah the story seems a bit fragmented and all over the place and there's lots of stretching my willing suspension of disbelief. Like the entire concept behind how we transport, or that I'm supposed to believe the flight suits are super expensive to operate but they are somehow just churning out the resources / tech to produce android bodies. I could rattle off an ever increasing list of these lil things as the games gone on.

Basically you need to get to ending C/D to get at least some sort of complete picture, but once you hit previous game wiki and read on plot of it, you will have complete picture on what is up.

It has many important ties to old game, on one hand you are thousands of years after, but what happened in Automata is a result of what happened there and all the insight is there as to why things are this way or at least then you understand why it works like this.

Maybe actually a good idea would be to read the plot of previous game and timeline, so you catch on to what is going on, basically best time to do it is the moment you start getting bits of info about Project Gestalt. It won't really spoil things either, IMO, since this game is kinda a distant sequel.

Playing Nier Automata without knowing plot of Nier Gestalt is like playing Mass Effect 2 without playing Mass Effect 1, you will get around, but you will lose a lot of insight which you kinda should be having.

IMO, plot-wise and story-wise once you understand everything (which means you have to investigate first game info) - it's top notch. I'd say it's like reverse Mass Effect, except for in Mass Effect you have this mysterious unknown enemy that is only really revealed in the end, while here you think you know who you work for and why you fight, except all of this is a huge facade that was built to deceive you. So you start off thinking you know everything, but it's a giant lie... OST really gives some off, where Bunker music is called "Fortress of Lies", which it really is.

[Baconeggcheese]

@Gaidax dem liars saying you don't need to touch the old games for this one.

[Gaidax]

Basically, you don't NEED, but you will not get complete picture and it's not because things are intentionally obscured - i.e. ME1 and ME2 situation where you don't know shit because that's the whole point of standing to unknown threat, but simply because you don't have all the VERY relevant info from the previous game.

You can sorta wing it, because as 2B, 9S or A2 you are not really even knowing that, since that knowledge was lost though.

So I guess it's the matter of perspective.

[dope_danny]

@Gaidax dem liars saying you don't need to touch the old games for this one.

The super condensed Nier universe timeline
>Squenix ask Taros team to make a warriors clone when they started to get big, they make Drakengard to mediocre reception.
>When thinking on what to do next Taro sees the events of 9/11 and is driven to make a game where "anyone can do the worst things as long as they truly believe they are doing the right thing".
>When deciding what to make he looks at the joke ending for Drakengard in which the player character rides his dragon through a portal into modern day shibuya and is shot down by JSDF fighter jets. Using the genre swapping writing trope of "ten minutes before the beginning, ten minutes after the end" he start to write a new story based on what happens next:
-The foreign particles of the dragon begin a pandemic called 'White Calcification Syndrome" or WCS where people are literally decomposing into salt. Infectees that dont become 28 days later style berserkers called "legion".
-A wall is built to seal Shinjuku as the dragon corpse is researched and multiple dimensions and magic are confirmed to exist.
-Inside Shinjuku looks like a blizzard form all the salt, but a large dark shadow is spotted by satellites heading for the walls
-New Legion with glowing red eyes dubbed 'the red eye' leads the legion to break the wall
-Japan has to nuke shinjuku to contain WCS, unwittingly sending it into the upper atmosphere and spreading it around the world
-A new project is begun called 'Project Gestalt' as all vaccine attempts fail. Using a mass produced spellbook named Grimoir Noir -handed out to the poor under the guise of food rations- anyone who touches it is cursed and their soul leaves their body becoming a 'Gestalt'.
-A new system is developed to clone the bodies of Gestalts, called Replicants, and androids are create to grow new bodies, infiltrate human settlements and look after them till the WCS burns out and the Gestalts can return to human form in their new Replicant bodies.
-The project falters when Gestalts start to 'relapse' and lose their sapience and become monsters. An untainted 'Original Gestalt' is required.
-Seeing what happened to the rest a shinjuku survivor named Nier and his sick daughter Yourna who has WCS have not touched their Grimoirs. But when being attacked by a mass horde of Relapsed Gestalts Nier makes a faustian pact and becomes the original Gestalt seperating his soul from his body, gaining immense magical power and keeping his sapience and personality intact.
-He works with the government in exchange for putting his daughter on Ice in cryo slep.
-a millenia passed and humanity dies out but the rate of relapsing Gestalts increases and in an unforeseen outcome with the androids the Replicants develop sapience, their own identities and thoughts and eventually civilisations. Gestalt Nier believes the androids have lost control and tracks down replicant Nier and Replicant Yourna and steals her.
-Events of NIER occur and Replicant Nier defeats Gestalt Nier, but this means the 'original Gestalt' sample is lost and therefore the androids cannot restore the 21st century gestalts to their new replicant bodies and they can only relapse. The human race is declared extinct in 3 generations.
-With all all large scale military gone aliens that have watched this unfold move in to claim earths resources. The replicant guarding androids keep up their orders to protect whats left of humanity but in a more guerilla warfare capacity.
-After countless battles with one of Niers characters created based on the magical particles found in the dragon to be a superweapon before humanitys collapse who can self replicate into an army the aliens use the old world machines to create imitations of him as their own army.
-Aliens disappear and machines become more erratic, humanity is assumed wiped out and the androids fall to despair without a purpose.
-When all seems lost new androids with advanced weapons appear, claiming to be from the new 'project Yorhma initiative' and they have evacuated all humans to the moon. With renewed purpose the project gesalt androids, now called 'the resistance' take up the fight with the machines again wondering where the aliens have gone.
-The events of Nier automata occur.

very brief but thats the basic gist of it.

Yeah, Taro doesnt go by conventional sequel rules

[Gaidax]

What I do not understand still is who created Project Yorha to begun with?

[Video Games]

I didn't want to cite specific examples because I didn't want to throw any spoilers. It's also why I avoided the entire thread up until I almost plat'd it.

I would have been totally on board with the Androids don't have feelings and the correlation with the Machines apparently having senses of self causing drama, but they didn't really go that route though. I would have been on board with the Androids going through a sense of self journey/developing feelings/soul/heart in retrospect to the machines, but that didn't happen either. What little of that did show was inconsistent (9S being almost human, 2B caring more than she should of him, 2B feeling fake, then human, then fake. A2 not being fleshed out terrible well and not really feeling or seeing any impact to the 2B and her's interaction.

I think an enormous opportunity was missed in these aspects. There are other gripes like A&E that could have been way better IMO and I really wish the c-city was utilized a bit more.

A lot of it probably has to do with the budget. I doubt it was more than 15 million, and probably less, because they don't even have more to do dlc. Also time. An extra 6 months to a year and 10 million more, and they probably would have made everything flow better.

[Deleted]

What I do not understand still is who created Project Yorha to begun with?

I finished the game today with ending A, B, C, D and E
i went ALL the way and hadn't unlocked my platinum trophy yet.. so now i have to start over.. oh well

From what i understood the humans created androids to save them from dying/extinction (not sure from what, ilness or in general) but they failed and the humans went extinct. But since the androids were created with the purpose of protecting humanity they no longer had a purpose and therefor got derpressed. Because of this a group of androids came up with a plan to fake the humans still living. This worked for some time but the truth about the humans extinction got out and because of this they started a plan to eliminate all androids as they in the end have no purpose in life. There was a couple of different projects building up to this but the final project was Project Yorha that would end it once and for all and eliminate all androids.