Rate and Review Video Games You've Played

[Rinni]

Although I played it early last year, I really want to review it here so others can decide to play it. It's not one of my favorite games and I'm considering getting a tattoo in its honor, it's very touching and the symbolism truly reached me on a personal level.

 

 

Name: Nier: Automata

Director: Yoko Taro

Publisher: Square Enix

 

THIS REVIEW IS FOCUSED ON THE PC PORT OF THE GAME. THE GRAPHICAL AND GAMEPLAY ISSUES AREN'T PRESENT IN THE PS4 VERSION SO IF ANYONE CAN PLAY IT ON THE PS4 THEN PLEASE DO SO INSTEAD OF GETTING THE HALF-ASSED PC PORT. THE GAME ON THE PS4 IS A SOLID 10/10 FOR ME

 

Gameplay: 8/10

I played with Mouse + Keyboard and some of the bindings (like the dash) were rather uncomfortable because you constantly use these abilities to dodge during the battle, thus having it bound to something like double tapping the direction you want to dash towards is tragic and will take longer to execute than just pressing a button on a controller. However, some people make it seem worse than it truly is, and I personally never got frustrated because of these insignificant inconsistencies in the controls + I could still clear the game on Hard without difficulty.

 

The biggest problem with the gameplay is that the PC port is extremely lazy and there are performance problems. It's kind of baffling that Square Enix hasn't directly addressed these problems yet and the players themselves had to make custom patches + share them on the Steam forums to help others get rid of the shitty port limitations. I remember back when I played the game right after it released it crashed quite a bit but I think that got fixed already.

 

Plot: 10/10

I'm... what. Final Fantasy XV done right. Just like in FFXV's case, there is media outside the game that extends the lore (Prequel Play telling A2's story, Epilogue of the True Ending in a Music Concert, short prequel stories, etc.) but the game's content is neatly packaged and you don't need to check this content out before playing, you can do so after playing since I assure you the game is going to leave you wanting more. Even without it you'll be able to fully understand the plot.

 

There are five endings (A/B/C/D/E), four of them are canon (C isn't and it's just an alternate outcome of D) and you need to play through the first four before unlocking the True End (Ending E). Although they're called "endings", it's very different + I assure you it's not replaying the same thing over and over again to unlock the other endings. This is spoiler-free so I won't say anything else.

 

Everything fits together seamlessly I was so shocked after playing tbh. PLAY ALL OF THE SIDE-QUESTS 

 

Art/Graphics: 8/10

The landscapes and characters look stunning, and I adore the semi-realistic approach of the game when it comes to the character's style. Doesn't get a 10/10 because the graphic inconsistencies on PC are noticeable, there are problems like: slightly grainy pre-rendered cutscenes capped at 30FPS, occasional stuttering during cutscenes (tbh I never noticed any stuttering myself but many people complained about it on the Steam forums so it probably depends on your specs) and clunky fullscreen setting, with black bars obstructing the view (there is an easy user-made fix for this using a program called Borderless Gaming, I used this myself).

 

Music: 10000/10

Nier Automata truly deserved the Best Soundtrack Award in 2017, all of the music is BEAUTIFUL and memorable. Whoever wanted Cuphead to win this category didn't play Nier Automata tbh. Games often suffer from having a few good and memorable tracks but the rest of the music is forgettable and bland, THIS IS NOT THE CASE AT ALL IN NIER AUTOMATA, every single one of the tracks is a masterpiece and up to this day I still constantly relisten to the game's OST. Here I'll leave a few of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEeE6ewooQ

 

There are a few other songs I adore but I'm not sharing those because it's more impactful once you hear them in-game 

 

Localization: 7/10

Tbh I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you play with the Japanese dub + Eng subs. 9S is a completely different character in the Japanese version and was turned into an annoying jokester in the Eng dub so please just avoid it. If you know Japanese you're going to get the best experience Nier Automata has to offer because some symbolic/sentimental lines were slightly altered for no fucking reason  even if you don't understand Japanese still use the Japanese dub + Eng subs combination since each character's personality is nicely transmitted through the tone of their original Voice Actors. I'm really passionate about this game so if you decide to play it and your Japanese knowledge is limited + you are curious about some of the important changes in the Eng subs just PM me and I'll enlighten you as you progress  we ship 2B and 9S in this house!

 

Conclusion: PLAY IT 10/10 IT'S SO GOOD SMH.

 

PC VERSION GETS A 9/10 BUT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE PERFORMANCE ISSUES

Edited March 10, 2018 by Rinni