@sodapop7: Boy, you ain't kidding. I have continued to chip away at Nier while not really enjoying it, but even still, I don't really have a horse in the race (mostly because it's their list). What I am not looking forward to is the endless battle that the game is likely going to induce. Especially if the loudest negative critique is from Dan just saying that it's "dumb".
My fingers are crossed that Jeff kind of just shoots it down for having what is basically bad gameplay and being a boring game, and those aspects not outweighing the story that others like. But I don't know, maybe Jeff loves it. It's really hard to tell. I just hope it's not as awkward as Saints Row 3 vs. Skyrim.
Jeff seemed pretty into it in one of the podcasts. I think his biggest criticism was that route B is largely shit to play through (which it is)
I really liked Automata so I hope the guy's give it a fair representation in the talks. Like all of Taro's stuff it's really rough around the edges and I think he's a guy who tries to have his cake and eat it when it comes to matters of gender politics and such. But while the concept of android sentience isn't really at all novel it definitely does some stuff with it in the very late game which is genuinely surprising. It's thematically challenging in a bunch of fun and interesting ways that I can't really get into without spoiling but there's a great podcast with Austin Walker, Patrick Klepek and Alex on the waypoint site that gets into it (which is full of spoilers naturally). But if you're not into the game then you probably won't be bothered by spoilers so maybe that will interest you, I don't know.
I'd also say for people like Abby who aren't digging it or people who are getting bored there's no shame I think in just dropping it and checking out a youtube playthrough or speedrun with cutscenes or something if you really feel like you want to know more about what it's doing. The ending won't have the same impact because of the particular things that you are doing in it but it doesn't make a bunch of sense to me to stick with and complete a thing that you really disagree with.
After all a bunch of people didn't bother to play the original Nier which is a beautiful experience once you get past the jank. I prefer it to Automata
Haven't followed the big long thread, but Nier OG ain't bad. The combat is mashy and the sidequests are bad but it has great characters, music and story. Skip the side-quests and only go for endings A and B.
Drakengard 1 and 3 are terrible but it's fun to look them up online
I'm confused, are there people who actually think that Nier: Automata has good combat? I'm like 4-5 hours in and this game feels a bit low rent to me so far: upscaled PS3 mid-gen graphics, boring combat, barely there voice acting...does the story just go places sometime soon that I'm not seeing?
It's got a good combat engine. Problem is it's not what people these days call a 'character action' game. It's not really supposed to have loads of combat options, it's just an action-RPG.
So yeah it's about story and quests and equipment. It's really a Yoko Taro game/Nier sequel by way of Platinum instead of a bona-fide Platinum game. I think this has messed with people's expectations a bit. It's also interesting that the combat wasn't really the major bum note of Nier 1, it was the side-quests and repetitiveness of some sections which can still be a problem in Automata.
Automata puts all the really great stuff in the final route.
I will never understand how people can dislike the Marvel movies... I understand that they may not scratch all your "movie itches" but I can't understand how people dislike them.
Conversely I can't understand how people still have such an appetite for them.
To me they're the movie equivalent of Assassin's Creed releases.
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