Nier: Automata Review Round-up

Kotaku

Giving players the option to enjoy the game on their own terms is something Nier: Automata does very well. Challenge-hungry players can ramp the difficulty all the way up, doing away with silly things like targeting and aiming. Folks who just want to enjoy the nice game with the pretty androids can set the difficulty to easy, which allows for the equipping of special chips that auto-heal, auto-fight, auto-dodge—they almost play the game for you.

IGN (8.9)

Nier: Automata is a crazy, beautiful, and highly entertaining journey full of nutty ideas and awesome gameplay. It may not include the most sensical story or compelling characters, but its frenzied combat -- coupled with beautiful visuals and a stunning soundtrack – make it too much fun to pass up.

Polygon (8)

If that's my biggest problem with it after clearing each of the game's five core endings, that should say everything. Nier: Automata is a game that's more than willing to make players feel small, both physically and conceptually. It wants to swallow them whole, and it succeeds. Nier demands patience with its antics — not to mention its definition of "ending" — but it's patience was rewarded.

GameInformer (7.8)

While the story has many cool and interesting moments, the repetition and lack of depth make them hard to fully appreciate

Gamespot (9)

The sequel to Yoko Taro's cult hit is a beautifully frenetic hack-and-slasher with an engrossing and layered story.

As of the time of this post Nier currently has a 90 metacritic score with 40 reviews, making it the highest rated PS4 game.

I cannot believe a Yoko Taro game has 90 on Metacritic, is this real life.

I'm fighting back the tears. 13 years for Yoko to get a game above a 70 on MC (all 3 Drakengards and NieR 1 are Yellow on MC). I hope it keeps that 90.

Probably would pick this up on steam, but it's a pretty congested time to be coming out sadly so persona 5 and (hopefully) mass effect will take precedence atm.

It is still a game made by Platinum Games.

Alright, I will probably get this on Steam. Wasn't sure but the general impressions are way better than I expected.

this game will be the casualty of the rush of good games at the start of this year for me, sad to say. have to draw the line somewhere.

my life for zelda.

Completed this game a few days ago and I definitely agree with it scoring in the 90's.

Feel like GameInformer's complaint about the lack of depth in the combat is a bit unfair though since you can unlock skills like wires, witch time equivalents, bombs that slow down time for enemies and things like that to play around with in your combos, though they're more hidden than your basic skills.

My copy's on the truck to arrive today, can't wait to check it out. I can step away from Zelda for a couple hours.

@neocalypso: I don't think it would be getting half the praise it does if that's all it was though. The combat is better than any other game Yoko Taro has worked on, but it's still Yoko Taro's unique touch that elevates it above and beyond.

I'm just glad he finally found a developer competent enough to not drag down his potential as a creator.

Thank god for Platinum.

Y'know, I'm pretty big on character action games. It's great knowing that Platinum made a great game out of a franchise that I don't care about and that Automata can be a self contained story, and also more importantly that I don't need to buy a PS4 to play it.

...But, 2B and Ruff Ryder are gonna have to wait a sec because of a recent discovery I made involving my gaming spirit animal, Kenichiro Takaki, which also falls on St Pats.

It is my greatest sadness that this game will not get the attention it richly deserves because of a crowded release window. My god is it a masterpiece.

Wow this looks like a really cool game. I dont think im going to get it any time soon because of all of the games that have come out this year already but it looks like something I will pick up.

SHIT SQUARE ENIX

It sold around 200k in its first week in Japan, compared to 60k (I believe) the first game sold. So it's already fairing a lot better.

I believe Automata has already outsold the original Nier's entire lifetime sales. I'll be very curious how it does in the west though. The original did okay in Japan, but bombed hard here. It is kind of a shame it's up against even more competition in the west though, with western franchises like Mass Effect soon and even big Japanese releases like Persona that Japan doesn't have to worry about now.

I'm really happy it's reviewing well. Looks like a ton of fun and after finding the gameplay more clunky than I expected in Horizon I'll be happy to jump into a game that has this real twitchy and responsive feel - at least the demo felt wonderful in that way so I'm hoping the final game does as well.

Thinking about buying it on Steam this month. I don't really see the release window as crowded. Automata is the only one I'm interested in, and I usually don't even like JRPGs and Platinum Games. Well, Zelda also looks good, but I'm probably never getting another Nintendo.

Looking forward to it, but the Nier recap videos I've watched recently seem like NONSENSE.

Great to see it reviewing well. I enjoyed the demo and I love character action games. As much as I'd love to buy it, I can't really justify it right now with Zelda having just come out and Horizon.

I already bought zelda and horizon. Dammit video games you are going to send me to the poor house

Automata's got some magical pedigree for sure. Whether you're into Yoko Taro's bizarre writing or Platinum's combat polish, it all comes together here, and Keiichi Okabe tops it off with another mesmerizing soundtrack. I didn't fully realize until I played it, but Platinum was a great pick particularly for their experience with creative perspective changes and dynamic soundtracks.

It's got all the trademarks, from sudden genre shifts and a plethora of bad endings to animation cancels and taunts that increase damage taken and dealt.

Really happy for everyone involved and I just hope the PC version is stable at this point, because I'd gladly double dip.

I wasn't going to get it at release because the combat looked and felt loose compared to other Platinum games. I managed to get it with an 18% discount so I threw caution into the wind and grabbed it anyway. I still think it looks good but I'm more on the cautiously optimistic side of things after the demo and a few videos I've seen.

I'm so excited. I am going to love this game.

The first Nier has too much heart and cool shit in it to deserve the overly cynical reputation it got. Glad people are giving this one a chance.

I can't believe Taro killed a man for a t-shirt.

I've always liked Taro despite not really getting into any of his games. I think this might be the first time I show my appreciation with money.

@ivdamke: it's probably the best Platinum combat they've managed to put out in a while, if not since Bayonetta. Their last few outings have been underwhelming to say the least.

Sitting at a 90% on metacritic with 49 reviews. This year is absolutely nuts.

I beat my HK copy on saturday and yeah it's my GOTY game for sure. If nothing else Platinum's gameplay is a perfect conduit to get to the good Yoko Taro stuff, which in this is him at his best. 90 on metacritic is as it should be.

@TechnoSyndrome:

*of this year, though it is still top 10 all-time when you ignore rereleases.

This game has always looked good but now I'm looking forward to it more than ever. Wish I didn't have to wait until Friday, but it's not the worst crime dealt to PAL regions.

@rubberluffy: I'm mostly talking about attention relative to the other games coming out. It's a game that demands you play the entire thing to see the greatness in it and I don't see any of the staff doing that nor do I see most people doing that. Not to mention that a lot of the impact in this game comes from playing the first Nier which as you said not a lot of people did.

However seeing it sell so well is great to see, and the reviews have been excellent as well.

I was super fucking excited for the PC release of this game.

The first Nier had some really great ideas and was one of the most innovative games of the past generation. Unfortunately, most of the game was a painfully tedious slog and you had to go through the second half four times to get all the endings. I absolutely simultaneously loved and hated it. The game had so much potential!

Then, holy shit! There's a sequel and a studio known for great game play is involved!! And it's getting a PC release!!!

Then, fucking Square goes and region locks the game. Not available where I live.

HHARRGGGGHHH!!!!

@humanity: Bayonetta and MGR are very much what I'm comparing it to, in which case based on the demo it falls flat feeling slow and lacking impact when matched up to those games. I see no point in comparing games like TMNT, Transformers and Korra, not only because they're developed by different internal teams but also there's just a feeling that they were 'side jobs' where as this feels like a true project. Talking out my ass, but that's how I feel about it.

I'm sure I will still very much enjoy it, but with the floatier animations and no ranking system I'm not sure where it will slot in with the rest of their bigger titles. Can only wait and see.

Can't you just get it from a key site like GMG and activate it on Steam?

@ivdamke: Bayonetta is probably the best character action game made to date.

MGR combat was ok although heavily flawed while the game itself as a whole was pretty underwhelming.

I'll agree the level design was bad, but the combat loop was incredibly satisfying. It was fast, had impact and playing it on Revengeance for S ranks was a hell of a lot of fun. Sams DLC made it even better. I'm very much specifically talking about the combat though not the game as a whole. In that Niers combat is much slower and has a floatier presentation. It's also significantly more forgiving in it's systems requiring less precise player execution. If we were to bring up "game as a whole" I could ding a lot of things in Nier: Automata right now because I've seen the side quests and most of the ones I've seen are garbage and entirely carried by the combat.

Possible, but unreliable. Apparently, some region locked games (ie: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) will throw up "this region is unsupported" errors and just not run. Hopefully this won't be the case with Automata and I can just do that.

Also, Steam has been cracking down on people using VPNs to get games from regions where the game is cheaper. Madness! The closer the Internet brings us together, the further apart they want us!

@sinusoidal: I was under the impression the VPN thing was just for purchases directly through Steam and not from external key providers partnered with publishers? But yea that sucks, no idea why it even happens.

@ivdamke: I think I've figured out why. They actually localized and released the PS4 version here (in Korea) on February 23rd. I imagine the Korean PC release is delayed until they localize it. Most of the time, we get releases at the same time as everyone else because very-little-to-no localization is done. Which is no problem for me since my first language is English.

I can't complain too much about the delay if it's actually because Square is being more consumer-conscious than usual. Good for them, even it means little to me since I'll be playing in English anyway. Koreans have always gotten the shitty end of the stick when it comes to localization.

The Squeenix online store lists it available for pre-order. For some reason, the store re-directs to the EU version and is asking 60 Euros for the Steam version! At least that's pretty solid confirmation it'll be available here one way or the other eventually. I'll be waiting for a sale though.

@ivdamke: I can't speak for Nier as I've only played the demo but it looks like the world and level design is really interesting - especially with the fun perspective changes into bullet hell.

Automata looks like a fun game but we will see. MGR was a solid idea but the camera was actively working against you since parrying was directional. It was difficult, for those that really feel like a game needs to punish them to appreciate it, but to me it was difficult for all the wrong reasons and unlike Bayonetta it did not motivate me invest time into learning it better.

Of course to each their own. I realize the contingent of players that love any challenge really appreciated it.

Well, out of the slew of new game releases, I decided to take the plunge with Nier: Automata.

We'll see how this goes :)

@ivdamke: The thing about Nier Automata is that it isn't a Platinum game, it's a Yoko Taro game with Platinum helping out on the gameplay. The combat feels good and there is more depth than at first glance but it's not aiming to be like Metal Gear Rising or Bayonetta.

Got my copy. Won't be able to play it until tomorrow.

PSA I read that the Nier has to be fully installed before playing it. Or you could get some game breaking bugs.

@marcsman: The most recent patch (1.02) seems to have fixed that.

Man, it's so comforting to see a Platinum game get good reviews again. Even if I'm sure some of the praise is for the Yoko Taro madness, it's been a while since I've played a really great character action game. Looking forward to giving this a shot later this week.

Yes, this patch fixes that bug for the US version. Be sure to update to 1.02 before playing the game, but theoretically, you could start playing and patch it later after you ran into the problem. It happened to me when I started playing the JP version before it fully downloaded on the JP release day. They patched it a day later and retroactively fixed my save which was amazing because I had put in 9 hours or so poking around the world at that point, and I thought I lost all that gameplay due to the bug. The JP patches and updates are different than the US patches, obviously, but they are addressing similar issues.

My Black Box edition arrived today, so I've started playing through the game again on hard instead of normal which seems like it'll be much more satisfying combat-wise. Oddly, the current US version seems to hardly suffer from framerate stutters off of the general locked 60 fps. The JP version tended to drop fps when going between areas. I haven't played enough to confirm if performance was actually enhanced for the US version on PS4 Pro.

So is NIER a ARPG ? or a JRPG with a Platinum Combat vibe ?

@soulcake: Kinda more the latter as of my few hours in, AFAIK there aren't any combo lists for example. Also the gun functions in a different way than in typical character action games. There's a lot of character customization but different than a DMC for example. If you like Platinum style combat and some weird bullet hell stuff you'd like this combat. Movement feels like a Platinum game but dodging a lot more small projectiles and you die in a few hits even on normal difficulty

I'm very conflicted. I'm considering buying this because I loved the demo and I want something different to play along side Zelda. I have Horizon but I'm just out of the tutorial and I want to wait until I'm done with Zelda before jumping back in.

From what I've seen it already handily outpaces Metal Gear Rising in terms of combat options.