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amazon NieR Automata reviews
NieR: Automata – When Square Enix started announcing NieR: Automata, probably very few people knew about Yoko Taro except for fans of his titles.
However, it is still hard to deny his creative talent with a very “weird” head – both literally and figuratively – when he always wears his signature mask when interviewing or appearing in public to game introduction.
That’s why after the old company Cavia – where Yoko Taro created Drakengard and NieR – dissolved; Square Enix personally invited him to accept the position of a game director and work as a “freelancer” when available. You can come to the company to work at any time you like.
Surely this makes many people feel surprised by the fierce competition of the game industry today.
Having never owned a flashy work that moves people like Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) or enlightens the horror genre like Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil). Yoko Taro is highly appreciated for her interesting storyboarding unique taste, full of surprises and very different people.
In his games, the bad guys often don’t die, the main character doesn’t live long, while the innocent are always “cannon fodder,” but all of this is what makes a Yoko Taro – with endings. The end of the game never pleases everyone.
NieR is one such example.
This game feels like a classic “cult classic” when it is picky about players, sales are poor, and critics say it is not enough.
Most of them love this game for those who have played all of NieR, thanks to the dramatic script, personality cast, and beautiful music.
Even then, if you’re hoping that NieR will get a sequel, you must be a very optimist.
Therefore, Square Enix’s announcement of NieR: Automata is an extremely unexpected and dangerous thing because this may be a work that continues to be picky about other players by Yoko Taro and not profitable for Square Enix.
But it is thanks to the cooperation with PlatinumGames that the “landscape” has changed dramatically.
Although most of the previous titles like Drakengard and NieR are not appreciated, for Yoko Taro, they are all his “brainchildren.” They are all created by this game designer with special marks in the history of the game.
With NieR: Automata, Yoko Taro seems to have exerted all of her strengths to create an artistic game full of the most impressive touches.
Perhaps except for the combat system part, everything in the game has more or less Yoko Taro’s imprint in it.
NieR: Automata takes place in the timeline after the first game to several thousand years, making it immediately available to anyone without caring too much about the previous installments.
At this time, all humanity has left Earth, leaving a ruined planet and destroyed by machines – the “minions” of aliens. Fight them, humankind decided to send Android robots from the YoRHa organization to the ground to create endless wars, and the player will play the role of Android 2B with his partner 9S in the form of 2B look of a boy.
Although the timeline occurs long after the first NieR part, with the tragic journey of 2B and 9S in Automata, Yoko Taro has rekindled the player’s previous humanistic questions: What is humanity? What shapes human nature? How will you sacrifice to protect the people you love?…
With philosophical questions like these, if the game is not well scripted, the player will feel tired instead of being properly entertained.
But this is NieR: Automata, a game by Yoko Taro, where the closer to the end, the more everything is subtly linked together.
Even sequences that make no sense at first leave a void long after the game’s completion.
Besides the script, almost anywhere in NieR: Automata, fans can also see the “crazy” nature of Yoko Taro in it, ranging from character design, enemies, context to featured “shoot’em up” segments – the type of game he enjoyed.
Even in the actual ending (NieR: Automata has five main endings and 21 side endings – most of which are joking), Yoko Taro presents an unforgettable sequence to the player through the online and Deeply hidden questions hard for players to forget this unique game.
Yoko Taro’s previous games have not been critically acclaimed simply because they have rather “sleepy” and poor gameplay.
Therefore, when learning that PlatinumGames will be in charge of game development, many fans will be excited because this is where awesome products like Bayonetta and Vanquish were created.
But saying that does not mean that NieR: Automata is personally involved in developing “monuments” like Hideki Kamiya or Atsushi Inaba, but instead is a B team consisting of young people, talented but less experienced.
The most prominent of them is Takahisa Taura or Isao Negishi, designers who have worked on mid-range projects like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Wonderful 101, or The Legend of Korra.
And it seems that the youthful enthusiasm from PlatinumGames plus the “crazy” mind of Yoko Taro has offset each other to create an action-role-playing masterpiece, NieR: Automata, full of surprises.
The gameplay’s battle system is now still a bit old-fashioned, but with a little speed and beautiful skills added to it, the gameplay is raised to a new level.
In NieR: Automata, every movement of the main character is smooth and flawless.
Almost every battle phase is satisfying for the player, even though the game has many different types of weapons.
In addition, the Chip system also allows you to customize the main character’s gameplay to the fullest, such as increasing damage, experience points, or even chips that help the character automatically react attack, or dodge – a similar trait in Metal Gear Rising.
Therefore, enjoying NieR: Automata is very easy and suitable for many gamers, completely different from the previous NieR version.
Players will easily go through dozens of hours of gameplay to explore the open world in the game without ever getting bored, thanks to the engaging combat system.
where can you get a NieR Automata online
Nier, Automata Game of the Yorha Edition – PlayStation 4: Buy it now
NieR: Automata Game of the YoRHa Edition (PS4): Buy it now
NieR: Automata – Playstation 4: Buy it now
Nier Automata: Standard Edition (PS4): Buy it now
The difficulty balance in NieR: Automata is also done very well when the main character can automate everything on the easiest difficulty or get “one shot dead” in the opposite direction.
The music made the biggest impression in the previous NieR – besides the script – thanks to Keiichi Okabe and Keigo Hoashi from the music production company MONACA.
Previously, with the strength of gentle and deep melodies mixed with emotional vocals and performed at the right time in NieR and Drakengard 3, this duo has partly made many people known and fans of the game by Yoko Taro.
Therefore, most fans were a bit worried that the music of NieR: Automata might not reach the peak like the previous two products.
But that doubt will surely be completely cleared once the experience of this game is completed.
The background music quality in NieR: Automata is not only on par with NieR and Drakengard 3 but can also be appreciated in many segments.
Inserting music with lyrics into the game screen is a rather dangerous thing that few game makers want to do because if done incorrectly, the player will lose emotions and find it difficult to focus on the game.
That is to explain why the music of the duo Keiichi Okabe and Keigo Hoashi is so appreciated.
Almost every area in the game, emotional or dramatic scenes, is perfectly accompanied by background music that makes the player’s mood blend with the character in the most authentic way.
In particular, the title song “Weight of the World” may not be the best version in the game, but with deep lyrics full of meaning like a narration of the main character 2B, this song makes this song very popular. NieR: Automata players fully enjoy when the credit lines run out.
In addition, the background music of NieR: Automata also has some other unique music such as Vague Hope, Rays of Light, Amusement Park, enough to make any player flutter.
Unlike the PC version with many technical or compatibility bugs, NieR: Automata is more stable on PS4, although the game’s initial launch time still has gameplay-related bugs.
This situation sometimes still appears in later updates, although very rarely, causing players to get stuck.
That leads to another problem: when players realize that NieR: Automata doesn’t have an auto-save function and force them to replay a segment about 20-30 minutes long, if they miss it, they have trouble.
That may seem like an unnecessary omission for a game released in 2017. However, it’s also possible that Yoko Taro wants players to remember the old feelings when they could still enjoy the old role-playing games attractive classic – something that Square Enix has gradually lost in recent years.