NieR Automata (aka Nieronetta) Catch-All

I know a lot of people are looking at both this and Gravity Rush 2, so I thought I'd post this fan art from one of my favorite artists.

IMAGE(http://i2.pixiv.net/img-original/img/2017/01/17/03/41/10/60976717_p0.jpg)

She has a lot of fan art from both games on her site.

I just realized why I like the new NieR logo so much. The custom font is really cool. The way the middle part of the N slants down and the way the middle part of the lowercase e slopes up along a line that also goes through the middle part of the uppercase R is rad. Both lines connect at the i.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/VleZswr.jpg)

The soundtrack is going to be 3 discs with a bonus 4th disc for early versions. The preorder is up in Japan, but there's nothing on the NA store yet. The usually have the Japanese versions on there eventually. I hope they have the early version with the extra songs.

Uhhhh...

That is so deliciously weird and messed up. I honestly hope there is some crazy stuff like that in the game.

Well, I'm $200 poorer thanks to the preorder on Square Enix's store going through. Soon. I hope they ship it to arrive on or before release day. I don't know if I'll be able to handle waiting for it!

So, I checked amazon.co.jp for the soundtrack, and they have two listings. One says something about an early bonus or privilege CD of some sort, so my guess is that is the limited 4 disc version. I preordered it and with shipping it was around $36 which isn't bad for an import. Play Asia just has the normal 3 disc version listed from what I can tell. It's supposed to release in March and the shipping estimate is putting it at arriving in early April.

I believe I should be able to cancel the preorder if it pops up on the NA Square Enix store.

If you don't mind digital (and DRM), don't forget that many of Square-Enix's soundtracks tend to end up on iTunes.

shoptroll wrote:

If you don't mind digital (and DRM), don't forget that many of Square-Enix's soundtracks tend to end up on iTunes.

iTunes doesn't do DRM on the .m4a files anymore do they? They haven't done that since like the first year or two when they did the .m4p files (those were the worst). I wouldn't mind firing up my mac mini and going through the pain of buying it there if it was unavailable anywhere else and transferring it to my main music library, but I'll really be wanting the CD and bonus tracks on this one. Remember, I'm the crazy person who imported the sheet music for the piano collections and learned most all of those songs on piano.

That'd be the route I'd probably go for the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack which I'm lukewarm on, but I haven't felt the desire to buy that yet.

At any rate, it's good to point that out in case anyone wants to get it for a reasonable price some time in the future.

Ah right, they dropped the DRM a while ago. Maybe I should've said non-mp3 format?

I believe you can download a lossless equivalent format so that should satisfy most.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I believe you can download a lossless equivalent format so that should satisfy most.

Oh! Do they have ALAC as an option on every album purchase now? That'd be awesome. It's still hard to get FLAC on everything. Amazon only does mp3 still.

New trailer:

New music! I'm very excited. The English voice acting sounds pretty good. Anime dubs can get a little "cutesy" so I'm glad they seem to have tried to avoid that trap.

Time to watch it again.

Less than a month to go! I can't do dubbed voices in Japanese games or film, no matter how good they are.

Engadget's got a mixture preview and interview with Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito. It has some info on how the project was started (evidently Squenix approached Taro, and Taro had already started talks with Platinum about a collaboration), and some of Taro's typical quirkiness, but some of the game preview info is more than I wanted to know outside of learning from it in the game. So be warned, I suppose. Nothing hugely spoilery since it's all content immediately after the demo takes place, but still...

I wrongly remembered the PC-version to be day and date with the PS4 one, but it seems it doesn't even have a date yet. Damn.

So coooooooool:

Engadget wrote:

The game also has a Dark Souls–inspired revival system. At one point, I took on a group of elks to see what, if any, resources I could obtain from them. A couple of hits later and 2B was defeated, only to have her thoughts and memories downloaded into a new body. The old 2B remained on the battlefield, however, with all of my old equipment intact. It was up to me to retrieve it -- a second death would mean losing it forever. Later, a spokesperson for Square Enix told me that another option exists. For particularly tough encounters, you can choose to revive your previous form as an additional combat partner. They'll fight only in that specific area, however, and vanish once you've defeated the immediate foe.

Famitsu gave it a 39/40. Because clearly they were paid off

Obviously they paid more money for Nieronetta

Nier had 10/8/8/8 [34/40].

Gaf has the text from Famitsu:

Nier Automata review detail

-10 hours to finish the game first time, 30 hours to reach final ending
-Overall game quality and music is amazing
-Once you get used to R2 dodge, the game gets really fun
-Wish the loading time was shorter
-Yoko Taro's characteristic is present in the game so fans should be very happy
-The difficulty adjustment is very good so anyone can progress in the game
-Customization of auto parts to get the right difficulty balance for yourself is quite difficult

The snark about Famitsu in that thread is hilarious.

10 hours probably scares some people, but you know you'll have to play multiple times, hence the 30 hours. I'm totally good with that. More games need to explore this concept, especially since Yoko Taro isn't known for his games being ... refined.

I'm not terribly familiar with Famitsu... are they known for doing paid reviews, or something?
Also, do they not do full reviews, just give scores?

Taharka wrote:

I'm not terribly familiar with Famitsu... are they known for doing paid reviews, or something?
Also, do they not do full reviews, just give scores?

IMAGE(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-72Nv9VtDwiE/T5qbAL5YGpI/AAAAAAAAC2Y/KgAsgWKjanc/s1600/can-of-worms.jpg)

They have a panel of four reviewers for each game who score the game on a scale of one to ten. Those scores are then compiled into a score from 4 to 40. They're pretty routinely accused in the West of having a conflict of interest in the games they give high scores to, helped in part by their sometimes unexpected choices for perfect scores.

Taharka wrote:

I'm not terribly familiar with Famitsu... are they known for doing paid reviews, or something?
Also, do they not do full reviews, just give scores?

I'm also busting on Garion for implying Persona 5 bought their high score in that thread last year. Or at least I think it was Garion.

shoptroll wrote:
Taharka wrote:

I'm not terribly familiar with Famitsu... are they known for doing paid reviews, or something?
Also, do they not do full reviews, just give scores?

I'm also busting on Garion for implying Persona 5 bought their high score in that thread last year. Or at least I think it was Garion.

It was garion, but his #1 game of 2016 was a frickin' Jo-Jo game. He no longer gets to throw shade at Famitsu for doing the very same thing in 2013.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Taharka wrote:

I'm not terribly familiar with Famitsu... are they known for doing paid reviews, or something?
Also, do they not do full reviews, just give scores?

I'm also busting on Garion for implying Persona 5 bought their high score in that thread last year. Or at least I think it was Garion.

It was garion, but his #1 game of 2016 was a frickin' Jo-Jo game. He no longer gets to throw shade at Famitsu for doing the very same thing in 2013.

This comment is 40/40.

Spoiler:

Fwiw, I still think Famitsu isn't exactly where I'd go for legit reviews, it's a hype magazine, but that Gaf thread is hilarious because it's all people talk about when it comes to Famitsu. Can't have any sort of conversation with all the snark.

I don't think there's any publication I'd go to for legit reviews.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Taharka wrote:

I'm not terribly familiar with Famitsu... are they known for doing paid reviews, or something?
Also, do they not do full reviews, just give scores?

IMAGE(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-72Nv9VtDwiE/T5qbAL5YGpI/AAAAAAAAC2Y/KgAsgWKjanc/s1600/can-of-worms.jpg)

They have a panel of four reviewers for each game who score the game on a scale of one to ten. Those scores are then compiled into a score from 4 to 40. They're pretty routinely accused in the West of having a conflict of interest in the games they give high scores to, helped in part by their sometimes unexpected choices for perfect scores.

Well, back in the day, way way back, up until the PSOne and N64 days, maybe even the PS2 days, Famitsu was considered the authority on how good a Japanese game might be. There was a time, a long one, when that 40/40 Famitsu score was so rare that a game getting it basically guaranteed a top-tier quality title. That, of course, has changed, which is why people mostly seem to talk about them getting paid for high scores.

All the official countdown art they've been posting is rad:

IMAGE(http://drakengard-3.com/blog/stuff/uploads/2017/02/countdown-12-funahashi-eiji-768x344.jpg)

IMAGE(http://drakengard-3.com/blog/stuff/uploads/2017/02/countdown-11-kameoka-shouhei-large-768x361.jpg)

IMAGE(http://drakengard-3.com/blog/stuff/uploads/2017/02/countdown-10-nakajima-shion-768x627.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/CieBBPf.jpg)

The countdown is for the JP release, but still, so close! I'm pretty sure I'll be able to play the game before the world falls apart. Pretty sure.

That sort of study has been made of American publications as well, particularly with regards to perfect scores.

Personally I just wish more Japanese blogs and publications would be translated into English, but that costs time and money and there's just not enough interest for it to be done on such a wide scale.