The GWJ JRPG Club - Q3 2019 - Nier: Automata! [Main thread]

No special conditions for A or B. C or D involves a choice right at the very end of the C/D route. To get ending E, you have to replay the C/D route, have obtained both the C and D endings, and ...

Spoiler:

I'm not sure, but you may need to delete your save file.

There are trophies for other stuff like getting all the weapons.

So far I think I’ve gotten away with just dodging a lot as far as combat goes (right trigger I think?). I don’t think I’m employing to much skill or finesse. I’m only about 6 hours in though.

I didn't feel like the game requires too much finesse as long as you don't try to tackle things above your level. If the combat is too hard you can also switch to easy mode and use the auto chips as well.

I’ve been just allowing the game to do my chips and selecting balanced. TBH, I haven’t taken the time to understand them.

It took me forever to realize it for some reason, but enemies actually emit a small alter sound when they're about to attack, and timing my dodges to this sound actually makes fighting easier.

How are you folks doing so far? How far into the story are you?

I woke up early this morning thank to the fact that my apartment feels like an oven and I don't have air conditioning (although I am now seriously considering getting it), and made it to the forest kingdom. I've spent a few hours this and last week to do some sidequesting. 2B is now level 23.

I watchec an... interesting interpretation of Romeo and Juliet in the amusement park.

Speaking of sidequesting, I see a sidequest at the top of a building, but I can't find a way to get there. That has been frustrating.

I think we're pretty close to the same spot, bobbywatson. I have been told to go to the forest kingdom but am doing a lot of side quests first.

I was doing the YorHa deserter side quest when I felt good about the combat for the first time. Things started to click a little bit.

Are all items you pick up useful, or are some of them just vendor trash to be sold?

Most of them, I think are used for upgrades. I haven't fiddled with the upgrade system that much (except to upgrade the base weapon to level 3), so I don't know how much you actually need. But I also haven't been spending that much money overall, so it's not like I need to sell stuff to get some cash. I expect it would be different if, for example, I was going after the "all weapons upgraded to the max" trophy, but I am not (and I don't think I'm going to get the platinum trophy for this game anyway).

(To be fair, if I wanted to get the "all weapons upgraded to the max", I think it would be a perfect opportunity to cheat and use

Spoiler:

Emil's trophy shop).

bobbywatson wrote:

Speaking of sidequesting, I see a sidequest at the top of a building, but I can't find a way to get there. That has been frustrating.

I had this same issue and conveniently figured it out this morning. Spoilers in case people don't want to know.

Spoiler:

You need to get on the roof of some buildings in the same general area and then you can jump from roof to roof to get there. I found a couple of ways onto that system of roofs. One was a lower building near the factory entrance that has a bus next to it you can use to hop up and then roof hop all the way there. Another way is a building near where the quest is has a large tree root you can actually run up to get on the roof. Once you get near the building with the quest, you have to get on top of the building right next to it that is almost the same height and then there's an elevated box you can climb on and then jump across.

Thanks, I will check that out next time I boot my PS4!

In other news: I moved forward with the story, and got to another section with the flying units. It was pretty awesome!

I was super high on the game at first, then I calmed down a bit, but now I'm back at loving it. I've said it before, but after three slow paced JRPGs, it sure is nice to play something like this!

Last time I played about a week ago, I got through "this cannot continue", which was awesome. I was cooling on the game until that point.

Level 8 now.

In regards to selling things, be aware that the Machine Cores will sell for higher amounts on subsequent runs of the game. If you don't need the money, best to hold on to them while going for endings B or C.

I made it to ending A! My game clock was at 19:51 hours.

I want to know what Yoko Taro is smoking, because that has to be some very good stuff, and I want to know if I can get that at my local pot shop.

I'm still not 100% certain what happened overall. I'm hoping this will be revealed in the other storylines.

I will probably take a break before jumping back in to play To the Moon for the adventure game club.

Nice!!! So much more will be revealed. Have fun with To the Moon. That was a favorite of mine. Not sure how it holds up!

I, too, have just accomplished ending A. I didn't realize I was about to enter the end game when I decided to play some tonight. Ended up playing more than I meant and finished it up. I am not a fan of the endgame boss fights. It felt like the gameplay was sacrificed for the sake of dramatic tension. Although, this game seems to do that a lot in general, it was just very pronounced in the boss fight.

I'm a little late but I got started last night. Just played through the opening area so far.

As others have mentioned the music here is fantastic, I hope this continues. I'm not totally sold on the twin stick shooter meets third person action combat system, but I do appreciate that it's doing something very unique and I felt like I was starting to get the hand of things after an hour or so.

Hopefully I can put some real time in this weekend.

One of the things that impresses me the most with this game is how it can go from one genre (bullet hell) to 3D action RPG to platformer in a heartbeat, and how effortless and well integrated it all feels (even though I expect it was probably hard to pull off from a design point of view). The original Nier did that as well, and I thought it was one of the most interesting aspects of the game. The first one even had a text adventure section, and I wonder if there is one in this game too...

Got a little bit farther tonight and reached the machine village. I seem to be doing ok so far with just spamming bullets and dodging.

Spoiler:

The Opera Robot Singer boss did give me a little trouble but I luckily had enough healing items to get through it. I loved her design though and that music got the blood bumping. Also, my head is still spinning on what happened before that with the robots trying to act like humans by trying to perform sexual acts together and then they came all together to form a..android..or human. Not sure what was going on there. I expect like the original Nier that they'll paint the robots in a very sympathetic light in subsequent playthroughs. Maybe they'll play with my expectations a little, who knows..

I also think the corpses that you find lying around are..interesting? They have random messages and you can either recruit them or take the materials. Haven't played with the chips or upgrading anything yet.

Forlorn Hope wrote:

I also think the corpses that you find lying around are..interesting? They have random messages and you can either recruit them or take the materials. Haven't played with the chips or upgrading anything yet.

It took quite a while for me to start using the chips and upgrading, but it's well worth it, and it makes the game much better. Especially the "Offensive Heal" chips. They are not very useful when shooting, but when using melee, they will heal 2B rather quickly.

With "To The Moon" done, I look forward to start on my second playthrough this week!

I'm just starting the fairgrounds and loving things so far.

I am starting to really enjoy the combat, the music continues to be absolutely fantastic, the story is moving at a great pace and looks to be headed in a very interesting direction and the dialogue has been quite enjoyable too, 9S is particular is quickly becoming a favorite.

IMAGE(http://giphygifs.s3.amazonaws.com/media/tFK8urY6XHj2w/giphy.gif)

I'm enjoying reading through this thread almost as much as I enjoyed playing through the game a few years ago. It's bringing back very fond memories.

So, how are you folks doing after a bit more than a month? Have you completed the first playthrough? What are the high points so far? And the low points (if any)?

I played a bit this week, completed a bunch of side quests (I think I'm at 55% completion on side quests), did some fishing, and moved along in the second playthrough's story quite a bit (I just reached the castle).

So far, I don't really have anything negative to say about the game: It moves at a brisk pace, it looks good (again, I'm not a graphics expert), the combat is simple but fun, story is still interesting (even though I expect it to be something of a downer at some point), music is fantastic... The side-quests are pretty boring overall, but then again, most side-quests are.

I'm hoping to get to the end of the second playthrough sometime in the next week or so (tomorrow is a holiday here, so I will probably play some more), then take a break to play Night in the Woods, before going back for the third playthrough (most likely near the end of August/beginning of September).

Get ready to cry! The downer stuff really starts in earnest near the end of the B route, and C is very heavy at times.

C does not force you to retread the story from A&B, though: the plot moves forward, chronologically, from there. I'll be interested to see if you end up deciding to press on rather than taking a break.

I just realized that I already declared the game in the Pile thread for August, so I guess I will be doing route C immediately after. I'll just make sure I have a box of tissues next to the couch.

Edit: Turns out I was closer to ending B than I thought. I might wait a week before starting the next path.

Having to hack the doors during the

Spoiler:

"Become as Gods" section

was a lot less dramatic than actually fighting my way through it.

I started back up today after a break. I think I got a little bogged down with doing side quests in the first playthrough and I decided to just progress the plot. I think I’m getting close to finishing the first route.

I like the world a lot. Combat is decent. I’m sure there’s nuances to it I’m not getting but I’ve found what seems to work for me which mostly consists of attack a few times then dodging and then repeat. Occasional leap into the air to come crashing down like a dragoon.

I have not started playthrough B yet. I wrapped up Cold Steel from last quarter at the end of July and Fire Emblem had just came out so I started in on that. I will probably start back into this game soon and try and balance the two throughout August. I did start playthrough B once but accidentally got ending H before going too far.

I'm just through the Forest Kingdom in my first playthrough.

Very much enjoying myself so far, the music continues to be fantastic, the pacing of the story has been great, the dialogue is enjoyable and I'm appreciating the mini open world as I feel like I am making good progress each time I put some time in.

I started my B playthrough tonight and immediately accidentally took the G ending. I had to start B over again. It was a cute and funny ending but having to do that short, tedious bit right at the beginning of B for a second time sucked. Glad to be playing my android Nines. He's my hero.

Wembley wrote:

It was a cute and funny ending but having to do that short, tedious bit right at the beginning of B for a second time sucked.

I had to do that too (although I triggered the ending on purpose), and while I agree that bit was tedious, I thought it was also cute and super sad

bobbywatson wrote:
Wembley wrote:

It was a cute and funny ending but having to do that short, tedious bit right at the beginning of B for a second time sucked.

I had to do that too (although I triggered the ending on purpose), and while I agree that bit was tedious, I thought it was also cute and super sad :(

Judging by what I a few hints at the end of ending B,

Spoiler:

I suspect that all the machine life forms are actually inhabited by the minds of deceased humans who managed to download their consciousness into a computer and then transferred them to the robots. Or that the robots found the data and copied it to their own circuits. Or something like that. So, just like the first NieR game, you think you're killing one thing (shades or robots), but as you go through the game you're actually killing humans. Or something similar.

Just a theory for now.

Just got Ending A. So far, the story hits the beats I expected it to. Intrigued about a lot of the unanswered questions from the first playthrough, so I'll start up my next one soon enough.