Quick Look: NieR: Automata

Warning: I'm not prepared for this.

@wynnduffy: there's a trophy for that.

Excellent.

if appropriate time is not devoted to The Ass here i'll riot

I have spent 20 hours on this game and I'm far from doing everything. This game is great, highly recommend it.

Man, the way they fought that boss made the combat look so boring. Just R1 the video game.

Oh, like a shooter, you mean?

But yeah, it seems Alex was suffering a bit from the Shoemaker problem of being too scared to actually get in there. This boss should've been like 90% shorter. Ranged is a way to play, sure... But come on, it's a Platinum hack 'n' slasher.

Also, why was he rolling with a sword and bare fists when he could've had a greatsword and get is Square/Triangle combo action on? And he didn't know about the D-pad menu either. I think the demo Quick Look did a better job of representing the combat, but this definitely gives you a better overall idea of what the game is.

@bigbluecheese: With the Opera Singer boss fight, it's the preferred way to do it. Locking yourself into combos really opens you up to getting hit by the dead androids which sucks because then you have to spend about 10 seconds not doing damage to the boss which makes it longer.

It's super cool to be pulling off normal sword combat AND firing away at the enemy simultaneously, on normal difficulty you can lock on so managing both forms of combat is super doable, and quite interesting.

The only downside being that occasionally you have so many particle effects coming off your attacks that you can't make out enemy attack patterns super well, so I stop firing when up close with more demanding enemies. There's all sorts of depth there, too; there's a Bayo Witch Time equivalent that's accessible via one of the plug-in chips, and plenty of other unique playstyles the game reveals the later it goes on, I wouldn't want to spoil some of the games better reveals.

Seriously, the game's phenomenal, I can't understate how dope it is having completed it -- like, really completed it.

@bigbluecheese: Agreed. Understandable that it's tough to really get into it and start hackin' it up while also talking, but when I fought this boss it was dodge-parry madness.

@grandcurator taking out the androids with the pod is preferable but you can easily melee the singer

Does Alex know about the auto item chip?

Time to Dark Souls reference: 25 seconds

@grandcurator: I don't agree, sticking close to the songstress and doing air attacks (light) followed by a down attack negates pretty much all of her mechanics.

thats pretty much what its been for me so far. the combat doesn't seem very deep.

First thing I did was go look up the OST for this, the music is great.

That thumbnail image..... :)

@flappyhands: No one knows yet. Review codes will go out on launchday tomorrow for some reason :(

There are some controls systems they don't mention in game. Most are not essential but should help Alex since he hasn't seemed to experiment with it yet.

For example, L2 is lock on which is available in Easy & Normal Difficulty. This makes it a little easier to melee and shoot at the same time if you feel like making claws with your hands on a controller.

Coming out of the dodge makes you go into a run and after a certain amount of running you will reach a top speed which makes navigating the world map way faster.

Also, that big party tank was not hostile. Clown machine (Good band name) just prefaces him as dangerous and he only attacks if you attack first. It wounded me when Alex fired at it since it seemed to be having so much fun.

Also, Alex didn't seem to be doing it, but there is a quick use item menu if you press down on the dpad. You don't need to go into your pause menu to use recovery items.

For those that perhaps beat the game and watched the Quick Look - are the spoilers here as "minor" as in the Bombcast this week? Or is it safe to watch.

The original Nier was really awesome to me because of the crazy revelations in the story. If I had any of that spoiled for me I don't think I would look back on it as fondly so I don't want anything to get spoiled for me in Automata even if it is minor stuff.

@humanity: Fuck all was spoiled here, it didn't sound like Alex was very far in from the perspective of someone who's played all of it.

I was expecting Dan for this since he did Bayonetta but I am very interested in seeing something like this through a Navarro lens.

Good luck to all the other games for best music 2017.

Really, really enjoying this so far, I hope Alex keeps with it b/c some truly special stuff happens later on.

30 minutes in and I am sooooooooooooooooo sold. Getting this on Steam when it releases tomorrow.

@alex You can click the left side of the touchpad to open straight to the item menu anytime, and down on the d-pad is a quick item use menu.

Also the sidequests are more than just rewards or things to check off in a menu, they have foreshadowing and such for main story events, or are their own little stories themselves. Some of the best events/writing/characters are in sidequests, not to say that the main story is any slouch, since it's amazing.

A little addendum to Alex's explanation of the endings: things change drastically between playthroughs both in terms of mechanics and story, so even if you're usually not the type to play games multiple times you'll definitely want to keep playing after ending A if you're enjoying the game. In the original Nier it was a bit of a grind but here it's executed really well and in surprising ways.

If anyone is at all interested in learning more about the Nier universe I highly recommned Clemp's analysis video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnwEbOHo7Aw

Let's just say there is a strange and deep lore to these games... Very strange and awesome.

Man, please stop referring to the first Nier as a different type of game. It's not. They are both the same kind of game, and they are both awesome, in every kind of way.

I don't think @alex realized that dashing also puts you into a faster movement state until you stop moving again, which means that you may as well be dashing all the time, both in and out of combat - 'cause why not!

Like others said, pressing down on the D-pad pulls up the quick item menu. It's meant for you to be able to tap Down + Circle (use) in about half a second, for reactionary use mid-fight instead of going all the way into the main menu, or even into the Left Touchpad menu.

Regarding the chip system and how many things you can activate at a time based on your memory pool: If you wanted to, you can unequip the entire UI in order to equip, say, an extra Melee Damage +3 chip, and play with no HUD. It's kinda nuts.

Also you can lock on, which can be a pain in large groups of enemies. For single enemies/a boss, though, it essentially means never having to aim the gun ever again so you can just hold down the shoot button and dump on fools forever, while concentrating on dashing between bullets/evading melee attacks/doing sick combos.

Also also, every single button is remappable from within the game itself, so you can put whatever you want on whichever button you want. I switched dash/evade to R2, shoot to L1, and special attack to R1.

Thanks for giving this incredible game some well-deserved attention, duders.

Why did the YoRHa android want 2B in a salad?

So she could be Near A Tomato

@roussow: thanks! It's been hard holding out for the PC version but finally I'll get my hands on this tomorrow. Will be cool to get a little taste of it today through the QL.

I bought this 5o keep me busy until andromeda comes out, the demo was awesome but playing on a controller felt terrihle. I can't wait to see this game at 4k. 2b is a great character.

Vinny's mind works differently than mine. I just think of pencils.

Spoilers, I didn't know 4K was gonna show up in this game.

NieR: Automata, we hold you in our hearts!

And when we think about you, it makes me wanna fart!

That boss shooting missiles after you while you dash away from them looked incredible!

Do you have to eat?

Yeah, I'm pretty tired of hearing that as well. "I didn't play the original Nier, but from what I understand it was more of an RPG."

What the hell does that even mean? They're both action/adventure hack 'n' slashers with a leveling system. They both have just as much bullet hell action going. They both have shifts in camera perspective. They're the same damn type of game.

This is a Yoko Taro game first and a Platinum game second. Whatever you thought is new to the series is probably not. It's very tiresome to have people completely unfamiliar with the first game just assume that anything good about Automata couldn't have possibly been in the original.

but how are the facial animations??? HOW ARE THE FUCKING FACIAL ANIMATIONS???!!??!!! *falls to knees sobbing*

seriously being in such a drought of gaming and really needing something to play i grabbed this for ps4 and played first three hours on normal. combat is fun but it already seems kinda rote. and the story's been simple so far but i guess i haven't gotten into the NieRy bits yet. from what i hear the doors get blown open at some point, and maybe i should have gone with a higher difficulty. will i need to consult a recap of the first game at some point?

Like I understand this and agree somewhat but awesome in every way is a bit much.

Like I think the original Nier had these good gameplay ideas but Platinum has now properly realized them.

Thanks as always for the content you content creators you. I have no intention of playing this game but judging from the quick look alone this soundtrack seems amazing.

One thing that's starting to grate on my nerves about Dan is him making random associations with other games apropos of nothing. I noticed it on the Beastcast where Jeff is trying to talk about Wildlands and he's just asking "Is it like Army of Two? Or Haze?" There's nothing inherently wrong with referencing other games but it also comes across like he has nothing meaningful to add to the discussion other than letting people know that he remembers other games...

Alex is wrong. You don't need to attack the tank. You can just ignore it like the other friendly robots.

also the grass looks REALLY crummy and kind of takes me out of the game, especially after how fantastic it looks in BotW.

One correction... It's pronounced "ROW-bits" not "row-BOTS."

#RyanDavisRobitLove

Just a small note: you guys don't seem to understand what boost mode does. PS4 games with no Pro mode run on the PS4 Pro exactly as they would on a regular PS4, because the CPU and GPU automatically set their level of performance to the old PS4.

Boost mode overlocks the cpu and half of the GPU on the PS4 Pro (while keeping the other half dead, like a regular PS4) for games that are not made with a PS4 Pro mode actually activated. Actual PS4 Pro games, like NieR Automata, already benefit from the full power of the Pro. Turning on boost mode in that case would change nothing.

Also, of course boost mode doesn't do anything (and is not there as an option anyway) on the regular PS4.

@ripelivejam: A drought of gaming? You can't be serious. How many hours do you play every week? RE7, HZD, Zelda and Nioh aren't enough for a few months?

@aedouard: That's his gimmick to stand out in comments.

Alex liking this game has brought me great joy on this day.

Hey everyone, buy this game.

I found it really odd that Alex barely ever engaged in sword combat. Also, he didn't ever lock on.

I like the character design of 2B and 9S, I think those are excellent.

@redhotchilimist: Good job duder.