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NieR: Automata |OT| "I wouldn't expect too much from this game if I were you."

Zakalwe

Banned
I think more than the writting, some side quests are simply endearing. For example, in one side quest you are requested (Pascal Village side quest spoiler)
by a robot "girl" to rescue her little sister who got lost in the desert. When you get there you find a big robot with a pink ribbow, acting and talking like a child. When you are escorting said robot, the 9S character is presented with a bunch of questions that tipically a child would ask, and the dialogue that comes out of that is genuinely funny. Mechanically, it's just an escort mission type, but the absurdity of the concept of robots having little sisters and acting like children, coupled with the funny dialogue just sells the whole thing.

Yes, there are some side-quests that have that kind of support attached. This game is /incredibly/ charming which definitely helps the repetition.

I think the story aspects are quite weak in places in Automata, there's a quite a bit of filler, and filler on the same level as FFXV so I can't see how it's excused here and not there if we're looking at quality of side-quest writing...

Saying this, a game can utterly charm you and the flaws or repetition etc... feel like less of a deal or simply don't register at all. This part is where "greater than the sum" comes into play, and it becomes impossible to quantify.

Again, I approached this topic poorly. Apologies.
 

Baalzebup

Member
do people actually like the 2B character besides how she looks? im in route C and I just dont really understand.
Absolutely. Her stand-offish behavior leads to funny dialogue, she displays plenty of human emotion, is generally a caring individual who does nice things for people just for the sake of being nice despite her seeming taciturn nature and there is quite a bit of tragedy in her overall situation, making her a sympathetic figure as well.
 
Okay, I'm in route A trying to finish the wandering couple thing. Does anyone know how I get to the spot they are in currently? I think I'm on the last part of finding them but I don't know how to access the area they are on the map.

I also noticed some other red dots around that are really far down on the map (like below the surface). Does anyone know how to get there?
 

Hektor

Member
Okay, I'm in route A trying to finish the wandering couple thing. Does anyone know how I get to the spot they are in currently? I think I'm on the last part of finding them but I don't know how to access the area they are on the map.

I also noticed some other red dots around that are really far down on the map (like below the surface). Does anyone know how to get there?

You'll get to them eventually if you progress the story, i mean that for both your questions.
 
2B is pretty much Lightning done right. It's a thin line between a serious pragmatic soldier and a terrible attitude that doesn't play nice with others. Then again 2B didn't have to deal with Snow or have such a severe case of resting bitch face. I bet if 2B was as practically dressed as Lightning she'd click a lot more with players.
 

Shahed

Member
2B is pretty much Lightning done right. It's a thin line between a serious pragmatic soldier and a terrible attitude that doesn't play nice with others. Then again 2B didn't have to deal with Snow or have such a severe case of resting bitch face. I bet if 2B was as practically dressed as Lightning she'd click a lot more with players.
I love this game. It's probably my favourite game this generation, beating Bloodborne and Witcher III. However if I had to give a negative, it would be 2B and A2's outfits. I try and recommended this game to as many people as I can, but I always need to add the caveat of awkward design. My sister watched me play and saw some story bits and she seemed to like what she saw, but then after a bit when she saw A2 she was like 'what is she wearing'?

It's a shame because I actual like both 2B and A2. But for people who don't play a lot of Japanese games, they're an immediate barrier
 

Philippo

Member
Lmao that fucking
speed ticket
for Yosuke Saito!

I did those guys on route A but it's definitely an endurance match. I find kiting the little one away from the big ones makes it much easier to deal with.

But... i couldn't destroy them in Route B? They just lay down with 0 HPs...
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
So those
golden
enemies, are they for route C?

They are essentially an unlisted quest chain, mainly there for flavour and world-building as opposed to material rewards.

There are others that work similarly, and they are all best suited to being done during
Route B
.
 
I'm at the point in route B where it
diverges from route A
. At what point does it become difficult to do sidequests? I remember during A I felt like shit was going out of wack and I just rushed the main story. Can't remember if that was immediately after the
Flooded City
or not.
 
I'm at the point in route B where it
diverges from route A
. At what point does it become difficult to do sidequests? I remember during A I felt like shit was going out of wack and I just rushed the main story. Can't remember if that was immediately after the
Flooded City
or not.
the moment you board the flight units
in the flooded city, you are locked out of most side quests. Applies to route A and B
 

iFirez

Member
I played for 3 hours last night and I have some personal theories and assumptions about the story but as it branches and has different endings I have no idea how they'll play out.

I believe the robots are of human creation and have learnt how to reproduce humans. Humans are all dead. The androids are the aliens.
Probably way off and the actual story and twists will be way better and enlightening than that. But from what I saw last night, I feel like that's the way the story is suggesting it is going.
 

Kyonashi

Member
Does anyone have any good camera settings they've tweaked? I still feel like the camera is a bit too floaty/weighty. It's on the spectrum between Zelda and TLG, but a little too close to TLG for my preferences.

I've already turned off auto-centre cause I generally like to have my camera pointing down at a harsher angle than the game kept correcting too, anything else to keep it tight and fast?
 

jonjonaug

Member
Yes, there are some side-quests that have that kind of support attached. This game is /incredibly/ charming which definitely helps the repetition.

I think the story aspects are quite weak in places in Automata, there's a quite a bit of filler, and filler on the same level as FFXV so I can't see how it's excused here and not there if we're looking at quality of side-quest writing...

Saying this, a game can utterly charm you and the flaws or repetition etc... feel like less of a deal or simply don't register at all. This part is where "greater than the sum" comes into play, and it becomes impossible to quantify.

Again, I approached this topic poorly. Apologies.

Almost all of the sidequests in Nier Automata are thematically relevant or foreshadow something that happens later on. Even stuff like Speed Star or the Father Servo quests are framed in such a way that they tie into the game's themes of finding meaning in existence. There are some miscellaneous quests like the box pushing ones, but those usually have funny or interesting payoffs at least. About the only ones that are none of those things are just a few odd jobs you do for the resistance camp, but plot-wise you are there to help them out and these are usually the simplest quests in the game (helping set up the camp in the Forest Zone as an example).

Most of the sidequests in FFXV are stuff like "help me get my food shipment back" or "pick these crops", but there's nothing later in the game about crop picking and just about none of them have any real relevance to the overall plot other than the ones that point you in the direction of a tomb. None of them have any real memorable events or emotional payoff other than the few that end with fighting a boss type monster (Deadeye being the obvious standout). Nier's sidequests I'd say only around 1 in 5 were duds, and most of those duds were simple things that took almost no time to do and still offered good rewards. But in FFXV I'd say only around 1 in 5 were worth doing.
 
Why can't I map dodge individually from movement buttons? You know, there are so many fucking buttons and macros on PC to choose from, but nope. I also don't like how I get stunlocked or hit multiple times (kinda like a combo); I mean I already get one-shot killed on hard, and it is easy to get hit when your dodge button has to be pressed TWO fucking times to start the dodge animations. There should be some knockback animation with i-frames like DMC.


There is no hope in continuing with KB/M. I will get a controller that lasts more than 8 hours first (anything not made by Sony), and then try to see if I can dodge properly.


I am fighting the naked evolved boss in the desert (WTF is wrong with the robot sex LOL). I got him to his last phase where he teleports, and then I ran out of healing items (it is stupid that you reload with your healing items used). Dodging by pressing direction twice is stupid on keyboard. My wrist really hurts now and I couldn't dodge his stupid projectiles (the ground pillar attack).
 

jonjonaug

Member
Why can't I map dodge individually from movement buttons? You know, there are so many fucking buttons and macros on PC to choose from, but nope. I also don't like how I get stunlocked or hit multiple times (kinda like a combo); I mean I already get one-shot killed on hard, and it is easy to get hit when your dodge button has to be pressed TWO fucking times to start the dodge animations. There should be some knockback animation with i-frames like DMC.


There is no hope in continuing with KB/M. I will get a controller that lasts more than 8 hours first (anything not made by Sony), and then try to see if I can dodge properly.


I am fighting the naked evolved boss in the desert (WTF is wrong with the robot sex LOL). I got him to his last phase where he teleports, and then I ran out of healing items (it is stupid that you reload with your healing items used). Dodging by pressing direction twice is stupid on keyboard. My wrist really hurts now and I couldn't dodge his stupid projectiles (the ground pillar attack).
Just get a 360 controller, works great for me. I preferred using the 360 controller on PC over the Dualshock on PS4 when playing the game.

As for stunlock: There's a chip you can use that will make you temporarily invulnerable on taking damage.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Almost all of the sidequests in Nier Automata are thematically relevant or foreshadow something that happens later on. Even stuff like Speed Star or the Father Servo quests are framed in such a way that they tie into the game's themes of finding meaning in existence. There are some miscellaneous quests like the box pushing ones, but those usually have funny or interesting payoffs at least. About the only ones that are none of those things are just a few odd jobs you do for the resistance camp, but plot-wise you are there to help them out and these are usually the simplest quests in the game (helping set up the camp in the Forest Zone as an example).

Most of the sidequests in FFXV are stuff like "help me get my food shipment back" or "pick these crops", but there's nothing later in the game about crop picking and just about none of them have any real relevance to the overall plot other than the ones that point you in the direction of a tomb. None of them have any real memorable events or emotional payoff other than the few that end with fighting a boss type monster (Deadeye being the obvious standout). Nier's sidequests I'd say only around 1 in 5 were duds, and most of those duds were simple things that took almost no time to do and still offered good rewards. But in FFXV I'd say only around 1 in 5 were worth doing.


Yea... you don't have to love all of Nier's sidequests, and some can be more bland than others, but FFXV is the lowest of the low regarding recent games I've played.

Even the most interesting sidequests, which I think was what, the ones concerning the Legendary Weapons and the Sealed Dungeons, just had you go and kill monsters, and then you'd just get your weapon. Then rinse and repeat. Extremely very little narrative payoff from the NPCs giving you the quests, and definitely little to no charm or humor.

I think the only one that remotely did anything for me was when you get the headlights for Cindy, because at least that got her to briefly talk about her past.
 
Just get a 360 controller, works great for me. I preferred using the 360 controller on PC over the Dualshock on PS4 when playing the game.

As for stunlock: There's a chip you can use that will make you temporarily invulnerable on taking damage.

Oh nice to hear about the chip. And yeah I will get a 360 controller. I previously had Sony controllers because I like them better when I play DMC 4 (high level stuff with guard canceling/flying and style switching), but I don't play DMC4 a lot as a used to. My recent PS4 controller started disconnecting because of the cheap USB port, so I am not going to touch Sony's products for a while.
 

aravuus

Member
I already really liked the pods before this, but the pod's interactions
with A2
on route C has been absolutely hilarious
 

TrueHero

Member
Ok im trying to find out how far I am into route A,
I'm with Pascal in the factory right before the boss
anyone know how far this is? half way done? I'm loving it so far.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Almost all of the sidequests in Nier Automata are thematically relevant or foreshadow something that happens later on. Even stuff like Speed Star or the Father Servo quests are framed in such a way that they tie into the game's themes of finding meaning in existence. There are some miscellaneous quests like the box pushing ones, but those usually have funny or interesting payoffs at least. About the only ones that are none of those things are just a few odd jobs you do for the resistance camp, but plot-wise you are there to help them out and these are usually the simplest quests in the game (helping set up the camp in the Forest Zone as an example).

Right. The sidequests are rarely very narratively involved (it's not The Witcher), but they all add color to the game's themes, even if it's in a super ham-handed way.

The real improvement with them when compared to Nier's sidequests is that you're almost never asked to farm and pray for random drops. In any case where a specific item is needed the game will place one somewhere on your map and highlight it.

I do kind of miss people asking me to fish, even though that minigame was ass in Nier.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Route C

9S has gone off the deep end here folks ;_;
 
Route C - Shit is going down!

9S has totally lost it. Some rather disturbing scenes in there (9S stabbing 2B over and over and over) and this being a Yoko Taro game it's going to get even worse! I just know it!

Hopefully some answers soon. I'm pretty confused right about now.
 

DSix

Banned
Sounds like you went in with the intentional on hating. You should stop playing and give a user score of 0 in meta critic.

You can't be farther from the truth.

I pre-ordered the PC version because I love JRPGs and Platinum action games. But so far Automata doesn't fare well as neither.

I'm now speedrunning through route B to see what else could be in store, just to be sure.
 

Philippo

Member
Finished the desert in Route B.
That
additional cutscene
was really weird, but the realization was charming.

Also, the desert is basically
over Facade
? I mean, obviously the way the machines here dressed was an homage to that, but the relics quest made it pretty obvious. I remember people saying to come back later in the run
because the landscape changes, i guess it shows more of the city ruins
? Still, pretty sad to
see things dedicated to Fyra, her wedding was probably the scene that made me cry the most in all of gaming
.

Also, i noticed in the small pond two androids
basically collapsed due to Jackass drug, does it mean she's secretly testing it on other machines?
 

Jiraiza

Member
Finished the desert in Route B.
That
additional cutscene
was really weird, but the realization was charming.

Also, the desert is basically
over Facade
? I mean, obviously the way the machines here dressed was an homage to that, but the relics quest made it pretty obvious. I remember people saying to come back later in the run
because the landscape changes, i guess it shows more of the city ruins
? Still, pretty sad to
see things dedicated to Fyra, her wedding was probably the scene that made me cry the most in all of gaming
.

Also, i noticed in the small pond two androids
basically collapsed due to Jackass drug, does it mean she's secretly testing it on other machines?

They're just junkies.
 
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