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

Ascheroth

Member
They could include that world-building without a tedious mechanic, it's a system that punishes you for using your best gear.

Not even Dark Souls (the series that clearly inspired this mechanic) went down that route.

I just don't think it's a big deal tbh.
You don't lose your weapons, level, entire moveset and inventory (because they're kept by the pods). Spare Chips are a-plenty, and you only lose the ones you had equipped (you can have 3 configurations set-up). And you get everything back by running to your old body - or reloading.

But I fully admit I don't mind some inconveniences in gameplay if I think they serve a narration/immersion purpose.

Solution: stay alive, bruh.

Also, this ;)
 

Baalzebup

Member
They could include that world-building without a tedious mechanic, it's a system that punishes you for using your best gear.

Not even Dark Souls (the series that clearly inspired this mechanic) went down that route.
Pray tell, how does it punish you for using your best gear when you can load your previous save whenever you want? It is entirely up to the player how to deal with their losses.
 

Gbraga

Member
Pray tell, how does it punish you for using your best gear when you can load your previous save whenever you want? It is entirely up to the player how to deal with their losses.

Yeah, agreed. What the game does is basically offer you a chance of keeping everything you've done between your save and your death, as long as you recover your body. So if between one save point and the place where you died you spent 2 hours fishing, instead of having to do all that shit again because you didn't save like in most games, you can just recover your body Souls-style. But since the punishment of failing to do that is bigger than it would be in Souls, you can also just reload your save if you fail.
 

Wabba

Member
Played the demo, like it. One thing that i find odd, when it goes into cutscenes, two grey bars appears at the top and bottom. Does this happen in all the cutscene, is it possible to turn it off?
 
Played the demo, like it. One thing that i find odd, when it goes into cutscenes, two grey bars appears at the top and bottom. Does this happen in all the cutscene, is it possible to turn it off?
Can't turn off. It's a stylistic choice that has been present since Nier.
 

Ghazi

Member
Pray tell, how does it punish you for using your best gear when you can load your previous save whenever you want? It is entirely up to the player how to deal with their losses.
So you're telling me this game mechanic is good if you completely circumvent it by gaming the system?

Okay. I genuinely have nothing to offer you if this is your argument. If you couldn't reload your save would you still be fine with it? If reloading your save to circumvent it was intentional why have the mechanic in the first place?
Solution: stay alive, bruh.
I never had any trouble with it and I played on Hard, doesn't mean it isn't a bad addition to the game.
I just don't think it's a big deal tbh.
You don't lose your weapons, level, entire moveset and inventory (because they're kept by the pods). Spare Chips are a-plenty, and you only lose the ones you had equipped (you can have 3 configurations set-up). And you get everything back by running to your old body - or reloading.

But I fully admit I don't mind some inconveniences in gameplay if I think they serve a narration/immersion purpose.

Chips make a huge difference, especially on Hard & Very Hard, the game punishes you for dying while using your best chips and then makes it even more difficult for you to recover by forcing you to use your worse chip configs to attempt to retrieve them. I'm not even looking at it from a narrative perspective, it's just a bad system.

I'm not saying this is a huge issue that ruins the game, I just don't like the way it works.
 

deadfolk

Member
Do you remember running away from a certain fight? When you unlock an ending it boots you back to the title screen.

I've looked up what triggers that ending, and I may have tried that, but I honestly don't remember seeing anything that could constitute and ending, like credits or being booted to the menu. Maybe I did it when I was tired it something.
 
Phew. Finally cleared Route B last night. Notched the difficulty down to easy and just kind of flew through it. Liked it - some neat little revelations at the end, and I kind of liked the hacking minigame. Simple and fun enough.

I stopped right before starting C since it was late and I needed some sleep. But I'm excited to finally start the meat and potatoes of the story. That's what I'm really here for.
 

gngf123

Member
I've looked up what triggers that ending, and I may have tried that, but I honestly don't remember seeing anything that could constitute and ending, like credits or being booted to the menu. Maybe I did it when I was tired it something.

The joke endings usually put their credits on fast forward AFAIK. You might have just missed it.
 
My save game screen says endings: H

But I haven't gotten any endings yet. Is this normal?

I believe it is normal. (very minor spoilers AFAIK)
Dying at certain points nets you a new ending. For example, when you die in the beginning mission, you get
Ending ( letter)
_W_
 

Ascheroth

Member
Chips make a huge difference, especially on Hard & Very Hard, the game punishes you for dying while using your best chips and then makes it even more difficult for you to recover by forcing you to use your worse chip configs to attempt to retrieve them.
Technically, you have all the tools at your disposal to do everything in this game without Chips, it's just harder (or rather, easier with Chips).
But the underlying issue here is more that the games balancing is just very poor, so I can see this getting really annoying on harder difficulties.
I'm not even looking at it from a narrative perspective, it's just a bad system.
I'm not saying this is a huge issue that ruins the game, I just don't like the way it works.
Well, that's what I'm saying :p
Looking at it from a purely gameplay perspective, the system is an inconvenience that provides nothing of value. I just think it provides enough value (for me) in other areas that make me not mind this inconvenience.
 

Ghazi

Member
Technically, you have all the tools at your disposal to do everything in this game without Chips, it's just harder (or rather, easier with Chips).
But the underlying issue here is more that the games balancing is just very poor, so I can see this getting really annoying on harder difficulties.

Well, that's what I'm saying :p
Looking at it from a purely gameplay perspective, the system is an inconvenience that provides nothing of value. I just think it provides enough value (for me) in other areas that make me not mind this inconvenience.
You can make any game harder but beatable by skipping its upgrade system, but that's stupid so why would anyone do it? I completely agree with you on the game's balance/difficulty, though.

The second part of your post is fair and I can understand that.
 

Exentryk

Member
To me it just seems like they didn't have confidence in that mechanic since they allow such an easy way to circumvent it. It just seems like a weak design decision.

It seems weird how they have a system designed to make deaths more tense and punishing but at the same time give an easy out.

It would be a poor design decision if they forced this mechanic coz losing multiple +8 chips that would have taken hours of grinding to get would encourage people to not bother to get these chips in the first place. The current system is the best design decision.
The mechanic doesn't take away from players that want the harsh punishment of losing chips, coz they can still choose to not load their save. The option is available to them.
 

LotusHD

Banned
My favorite thing about the mechanic is that it continues the trend of everything being applied to you playing as an android.
 

black070

Member
I just completed all the main routes - what an emotional ride, I can't believe I had no interest in this game from announcement to release, and only picked it up at the behest of GAF. Amazing game and a candidate for one of my personal greatest games of all time.
 

The Lamp

Member
What is this game?

I turn it on and I'm fighting boring robots but with a cool long range projectile + great melee moves with what seems like a dry, run-of-the-mill story concept.

When does it become GOTY?
 

LotusHD

Banned
I just completed all the main routes - what an emotional ride, I can't believe I had no interest in this game from announcement to release, and only picked it up at the behest of GAF. Amazing game and a candidate for one of my personal greatest games of all time.

Feel free to come to the spoiler thread

What is this game?

I turn it on and I'm fighting boring robots but with a cool long range projectile + great melee moves with what seems like a dry, run-of-the-mill story concept.

When does it become GOTY?

Don't worry about when it becomes great or GOTY-level, just play and enjoy it lol

You only do yourself a disservice when you constantly have in it in your mind that you're waiting for a game to just wow you
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member

Shit....just started this yesterday and my game menu looks like that. Im not super far but past the first big boss batte and the black cube scenes.

Until a fix comes, can i backup my save and uninstall the game and reinstall it and play it without 1.04? Or am i screwed and need to delete my save and start totally over? What are my options at this point to keep playing my current save?
 

Golnei

Member
A2
in the machine mask is couture.

Also, held X is possibly the worst button placement they could have chosen for the taunt.

What is this game?

I turn it on and I'm fighting boring robots but with a cool long range projectile + great melee moves with what seems like a dry, run-of-the-mill story concept.

When does it become GOTY?

It may very well stay at that level for you throughout - try not to let inflated expectations get in the way of the parts of the game you are enjoying.
 

Gbraga

Member
They really shouldn't ask for generic items when they have unique stuff during the sidequest. I just found out I've missed on a potentially awesome fight because I already had the item. After delivering it, my Unit Data stuff got updated with a pretty cool machine I've never seen before. :(
 

Tecl0n

Member
The
Final Emil
boss fight broke me.

giphy.gif
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
Finished the demo on hard. My thoughts:

  • The combat seems simple. There are fewer combos compared to Bayonetta and no dodge offset. Though, I know there are tons of upgrade chips so maybe I shouldn't expect much from the demo.
  • The game didn't really click with me until I remapped gun to L1 and dodge to R1. I only use my index fingers for the triggers so not being able to shoot and dodge sucked haha.
  • While I like that the gun is what differentiates the combat system here, I'm still unsure if I like the manual aiming on hard mode. Yes, it adds another layer of complexity, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
  • Dodging seems too strong. Against the double buzzsaw fight, you can just mash dodge indefinitely when they both come at you at ground level. On top of this, you don't get any sort of grace period when hit. In the beginning, I auto-ate like 4 small recoveries in a row without really realizing it because I got hit 4 times back-to-back, not recognizing that I could've dodged immediately after the first hit. These two things combined really promote super safe play, especially when your gun does serviceable damage.
  • There were tons of enemies I think I could've just run past. Like 60% of the demo or more. Wonder if this is supposed to play into the meta-narrative of the game.
How close to the mark am I when it comes to full game? Also, if I've already played Nier, will I still be surprised by the additional endings? For example, not sure if everyone's crazy reaction to C is because they've never played Nier or if they're series' fans as well.
 

Golnei

Member
They really shouldn't ask for generic items when they have unique stuff during the sidequest. I just found out I've missed on a potentially awesome fight because I already had the item. After delivering it, my Unit Data stuff got updated with a pretty cool machine I've never seen before. :(

Was this about "The Twins' Request"?

I delivered the items and suddenly there's a
dinosaur
in the bestiary I've never encountered ingame.
 

The Lamp

Member
A2
in the machine mask is couture.

Also, held X is possibly the worst button placement they could have chosen for the taunt.



It may very well stay at that level for you throughout - try not to let inflated expectations get in the way of the parts of the game you are enjoying.

Wow.

This is the last time I listen to GAF hype about a game like this lol. Back to Persona 5 and Zelda. I'll get back to generic robot fights another day.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Finished the demo on hard. My thoughts:

  • The combat seems simple. There are fewer combos compared to Bayonetta and no dodge offset. Though, I know there are tons of upgrade chips so maybe I shouldn't expect much from the demo.
  • The game didn't really click with me until I remapped gun to L1 and dodge to R1. I only use my index fingers for the triggers so not being able to shoot and dodge sucked haha.
  • While I like that the gun is what differentiates the combat system here, I'm still unsure if I like the manual aiming on hard mode. Yes, it adds another layer of complexity, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
  • Dodging seems too strong. Against the double buzzsaw fight, you can just mash dodge indefinitely when they both come at you at ground level.
  • There were tons of enemies I think I could've just run past. Like 60% of the demo or more. Wonder if this is supposed to play into the meta-narrative of the game.
How close to the mark am I when it comes to full game? Also, if I've already played Nier, will I still be surprised by the additional endings? For example, not sure if everyone's crazy reaction to C is because they've never played Nier or if they're series' fans as well.

The full game's​ Hard Mode is harder than the demo's. Like seriously, if you buy it, I advise you to get through the the demo section on Normal, just to get through it.

As the gameplay, not as deep as Bayonetta, but the different pod programs and chips can give you that extra depth if you're looking for it. The game doesn't really force you to get to that sort of skill level, it's pretty easy-going and inviting if you play on Normal.


If you played the original, that's all the more reason to buy this. Certain things will land more. And the different endings itself isn't what surprises people, just the actual content within them, namely Route C and onwards.

Wow.

This is the last time I listen to GAF hype about a game like this lol. Back to Persona 5 and Zelda. I'll get back to generic robot fights another day.

I mean, we could hype you up right now if you want lol

Game's my GOTY over both P5 and Zelda (Still have a long way to go for P5 though). I just restrain myself nowadays because a game's always better when you ain't constantly worrying about why everyone's praising it.
 
They really shouldn't ask for generic items when they have unique stuff during the sidequest. I just found out I've missed on a potentially awesome fight because I already had the item. After delivering it, my Unit Data stuff got updated with a pretty cool machine I've never seen before. :(

Was this about "The Twins' Request"?

I delivered the items and suddenly there's a
dinosaur
in the bestiary I've never encountered ingame.
The dinosaur/" Shin Godzilla" variant is still encounterable outside of the side quest. I initially missed it for the same reason of having all the items needed to complete it already in my inventory. However, my next visit to the waterfall section of the forest kingdom had the machine still wandering about and I was able to fight it without issue.
 

Gbraga

Member
Was this about "The Twins' Request"?

I delivered the items and suddenly there's a
dinosaur
in the bestiary I've never encountered ingame.

Yep, exactly.

The dinosaur/" Shin Godzilla" variant is still encounterable outside of the side quest. I initially missed it for the same reason of having all the items needed to complete it already in my inventory. However, my next visit to the waterfall section of the forest kingdom had the machine still wandering about and I was able to fight it without issue.

Awesome! Thanks.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
The full game's​ Hard Mode is harder than the demo's. Like seriously, if you buy it, I advise you to get through the the demo section on Normal, just to get through it.

As the gameplay, not as deep as Bayonetta, but the different pod programs and chips can give you that extra depth if you're looking for it. The game doesn't really force you to get to that sort of skill level, it's pretty easy-going and inviting if you play on Normal.


If you played the original, that's all the more reason to buy this. Certain things will land more. And the different endings itself isn't what surprises people, just the actual content within them, namely Route C and onwards.
Yeah, I sort of expected it to not be a full-blown Platinum Games action title. It was marketed as an action RPG right? I think I'd play on hard regardless. Auto-aiming the gun on normal feels like I could sleep through most of the demo level haha. Thanks!
 

Baalzebup

Member
So you're telling me this game mechanic is good if you completely circumvent it by gaming the system?

Okay. I genuinely have nothing to offer you if this is your argument. If you couldn't reload your save would you still be fine with it? If reloading your save to circumvent it was intentional why have the mechanic in the first place?
The player can pick and choose their poison due to how it is set up. If you die, you have the following options:

1) Just load straight out, undo everything you've done since the last save. The most basic save/load option in the world.
2)Play it kind of hardcore, accept your losses as they come and just keep playing, at least keeping all the loot you've accrued up after the last save, including the chips you didn't equip.
3)Save to another slot after the first death, allowing you to attempt to recover what was lost and keep what you've found since, but with the caveat that you can only resort to the basic save/load system until you've recovered what you've lost and made it back to a save point. Or you can return back to 1) if you think recovery is too hard.

There is no 'circumventing the system' in any of this. The system itself allows you to do so. It is a system that imposes a death penalty on the player, but one that can be handled in multiple different ways. Nothing wrong with that.
 

Arion

Member
It would be a poor design decision if they forced this mechanic coz losing multiple +8 chips that would have taken hours of grinding to get would encourage people to not bother to get these chips in the first place. The current system is the best design decision.
The mechanic doesn't take away from players that want the harsh punishment of losing chips, coz they can still choose to not load their save. The option is available to them.

No, I think they just did a bad job integrating that system into the game. I think they could have had a similar death system in the game without allowing save/loading to circumvent it while also being somewhat fair. Perhaps removing the animation to retrieve the previous body to make it easier. Or perhaps you only lose one of the chips instead of all of them on death. As it is now, it seems like they wanted to have that system but didn't know or want to balance it properly. Instead they just left an option to completely bypass it. This is why I think this was a huge oversight on their part. Any player can put a bunch of restrictions on themselves to make the game harder but that does not excuse the game design.

What is this game?

I turn it on and I'm fighting boring robots but with a cool long range projectile + great melee moves with what seems like a dry, run-of-the-mill story concept.

When does it become GOTY?

You should never go into any game expecting a GOTY. That's a good way to stop yourself from enjoying video games.
 

Hektor

Member
What is this game?

I turn it on and I'm fighting boring robots but with a cool long range projectile + great melee moves with what seems like a dry, run-of-the-mill story concept.

When does it become GOTY?

Wow.

This is the last time I listen to GAF hype about a game like this lol. Back to Persona 5 and Zelda. I'll get back to generic robot fights another day.

These are some of the weirdest posts ITT

Yeah, I sort of expected it to not be a full-blown Platinum Games action title. It was marketed as an action RPG right?

Yea, it's a Nier sequel first, and a Platinum game second, going in solely on Platinum games' virtue might lead to disappointment., so you should try to keep an open mind in that regard
 
Hey guys, a friend of mine hasn't gotten his cards on Steam despite having played for ~60 hours. Is there any restriction to cards related to purchases on Steam?
 

cm osi

Member
These are some of the weirdest posts ITT



Yea, it's a Nier sequel first, and a Platinum game second, going in solely on Platinum games' virtue might lead to disappointment., so you should try to keep an open mind in that regard

fun because the game goes way past the "fighting boring robots"

but i guess fighting goblins is much more fun
 
About 2 hours into Route C. Story is definitely picking up, but haven't seen anything "omfg" worthy yet. I probably should have avoided this thread for the most part. I think some of the reactions here have given me unrealistic expectations of what to expect.

Still, super excited to see where things go. My interest is definitely piqued.
 
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