So I played the original NieR some time ago. I liked what I did play, but never got to experience it enough to form a definitive opinion, but man, was that combat not the best. If it was just a little refined, I could like it more… And then Platinum Games came along. And that’s the transition to start talking about NieR: Automata.
So, when it came to the tuktok ten, I thought it would be hard for any game to just break the tuktok ten so easily. Most of my tuktok ten paborito games are games I have cherished memories with. But NieR: Automata, I have no nostalgia for, and yet it managed to break right into the tuktok Ten, and beat out both Silent burol 2 and No madami Heroes. So let’s talk about why. Taking place in the taon 11945, a group of androids known as the YoRHa Unit are fighting a seemingly endless war against a group of machines on the earth to save it for the good of humanity. One of these androids, the fighter 2B and her partner, a young scouter named 9S, go across the ruins of earth in the hopes of salvaging something, and many deaths and many, many tears are experienced throughout the game. Mixing this game with Yoko Taro’s insanely brilliant Pagsulat and the grand polish of Platinum Games’ gameplay, this was a match that sounded too good to be true, and yet here we are. The game has a real fun combat system, where you can use two swords at once to perform different combos, and with all weapons having different speed, attacks, and such, it’s good to experiment with them. You also have a Pod, a little robot assistant, that helps you shoot enemies, and can also perform special moves that really hits them. All this gives you a chance to try out new things and to see what works best for you. And it doesn’t stop there, cause there are also Chips, which give you different stat boosts, like speed, strength, health, and so on. And I thought changing out weapons would be experimental, but the chips really change things up. And what’s madami is that 2B and 9S have different gameplay mechanics entirely. 2B is a fighter, so she is just your usual Platinum player character, but 9S is as weak as a baby, so he relies on hacking into robots to destroy them from the inside, turn into them temporarily, or have them fight alongside them. The world of Automata is also breathtaking. I remember just seeing the City Ruins and thinking, “damn”. And boy, little did I know there would be madami glorious moments like that. I could honestly make a listahan of my paborito moments from NieR: Automata alone. The game can get painfully depressing but also poetically beautiful all within the span of a few minutes. Seriously, the segundo you start the third route, you will feel like you just had your puso torn out sa pamamagitan ng Yoko Taro has he starts LOLing. And, again, the music. That damn score is so beautiful, and any song in the game where the vocals kick in really adds to it. I could spend hours talking about Automata’s world building, the depressing nature of it, and how it also connects to psychology, but that would take forever. And then there’s the side content, like all the side quests, all the weapons to collect that all have their own stories, the really wacky secret endings you can get out of nowhere, and getting to see my boy Emil again from the first game is always a joyful experience. God, why is there so much to talk about in this game? I’m so used to just spending one page worth of talking about the game, and yet I want to talk about Automata all the damn time. I just pag-ibig this game so much.
Okay, slowing down now. NieR: Automata is a beautifully depressing game and probably the best game on the PS4 right now. Yes, better than Bloodborne and Persona 5. Maybe not on a technical level, but it managed to impress, amaze, and keep me invested from start to end. And yes, 2B has a nice ass. Please contain your thirst, people