So I've been Googling around for a bit trying to figure out an answer to this. I own both the PC and PS4 versions of Nier: Automata. I ended up buying the PS4 version after the jenk bothered me enough with the PC version, but eventually went back to playing on PC. I'd stopped playing for a month or two a week or so after launch and came back to the PC version and finished ending A about a month ago. When I came back I noticed that the quick menu had changed, it no longer took up the full screen and wouldn't stop combat while it was up. Strangely after a few sessions the PC version went back to the "old" method where the quick menu takes up the screen and pauses the game. Just yesterday I decided to boot up the PS4 version as I wanted to continue playing with that version of the game. It seems like it uses the quick menu that doesn't pause the game, but I know that it once did have that "old" menu.

What is going on here? Is there some setting or condition that I don't understand? Was the game updated to this new menu?

Wow, after a couple days of looking around I managed to find an answer on the Steam forums. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the fact that sometimes I hit the select button (left on touchpad, weird squares on Xbox controller?) and this is what brings up the stop-time menu. Just pressing down on the D-pad only brings up the active menu.

Must be an update. Started NeiR: Automata in late June, beat it in mid July and did not see this once.