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

Thanks guys. I think I'll look through that list and see if there's any side quests on there that I haven't done before going for ending A. It's good to know that there's a chapter select too if I need it.

Forlorn Hope wrote:

Thanks guys. I think I'll look through that list and see if there's any side quests on there that I haven't done before going for ending A. It's good to know that there's a chapter select too if I need it.

It's worth keeping in mind that most of the side quests from A are atill avalaible in your B playthrough, and many cases easier because you will be better geared/leveled.

Got ending A and started route B last night. It was interesting to see the little differences even this early on.

Spoiler:

I had already guessed that the following playthroughs would try to make you sympathize with the robots more but the beginning with the brother robot was a nice touch. The original Nier did stuff like this too. I also apparently spent an unusually long time on the brightness adjusting screen in route A as shown in 9s's recording.

I'm already hating the hacking minigame so I don't think that bodes well for this route. Oh well, I'm in for the story at least.

For whatever reason, I loved the hacking mini games. Maybe it was mostly getting to listen to the 8-bit versions of the songs and the seamless music transition. Never got old.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For whatever reason, I loved the hacking mini games.

Despite the fact that I suck at them, I liked them too.

bobbywatson wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For whatever reason, I loved the hacking mini games.

Despite the fact that I suck at them, I liked them too.

I liked them as well, but then again, I'm a big shmup fan (though the current state of my reflexes wouldn't support that statement...).

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For whatever reason, I loved the hacking mini games. Maybe it was mostly getting to listen to the 8-bit versions of the songs and the seamless music transition. Never got old.

My complaint with them was mostly to do with the fact that I sucked at them.

I thought the music and presentation were great. Even the gameplay felt alright, i just don't enjoy or excel at shooters.

Not directly related, but still somewhat relevant: Drakengard 3 is on sale now on the PSN store.

I think I might get it.

I’ve kind of stalled out on this because I’m dealing with some RSI pain in my right arm and can’t seem to play anything but slow turnbased stuff with my left hand.

I did go back and got endings D and E. As I suspected, ending D was not really to my liking, but immediately following it up with ending E made it a little better. I kept my save data for now if I ever have a desire to go back and platinum the game.

I'm still plugging away! I just unlocked fast travel on playthrough B. I am really divided on the hacking. Sometimes it is cool to pull of a hack on a tough guy and just have him blow up. Other times the hack is just way harder than I wanted and I wish I never initiated. Without that heavy attack, nines feels a little simple to play. Not a ton of variety unless you engage in the hacking. Also, the hacking plugin chips do not interest me. What does interest me? Trying to identify where playthrough B is different from A. I am laser focused on cutscenes trying to remember how it went the first time and finding any differences. I think it is a really neat way to tell a story. Excited to see where it goes

Hacking has got better for me in part because I realized you can use the second stick to aim/lock on but I've also done a llooottt of it. Lots and lots of hacking. About to enter the point were side quests aren't available so I hope to get ending B sometime this weekend.

Just got done with ending B. The hacking started to grow on me, especially against tough bosses.

Ahem...

I've finished! I went through C, D and E. I had heard what the E ending was before playing this, but even knowing that I found it oddly moving in the moment. I love the story in this game, and all of the different ways they leveraged what makes a video game a video game to tell that story in different ways. I didn't like the combat and ultimately turned it down to easy, since all I really wanted out of this game was to see more of the story. And the music. Such great music.

Got ending B and started route C.

Spoiler:

Humanity is dead and has been for a while it seems. Welp, I figured that might be the case. Also, it was hard going into route C and watching everyone get infected with the virus. How are we going to get out of this pickle? ^^;
When the game asked who I wanted to play as, I went with A2 since I needed a break from all the hacking as 9s. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Wait, you can lock on to enemies during the hacking game?

Yeah, there's no visual indicator but you can use the button that you normally use to lock on to enemies in the hacking minigame.

Forlorn Hope wrote:

Got ending B and started route C.

Spoiler:

Humanity is dead and has been for a while it seems. Welp, I figured that might be the case. Also, it was hard going into route C and watching everyone get infected with the virus. How are we going to get out of this pickle? ^^;
When the game asked who I wanted to play as, I went with A2 since I needed a break from all the hacking as 9s. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

To answer your last question:

Spoiler:

You eventually will be able to play both, and will need to in order to get ending C/D/E.

Malkroth wrote:

Wait, you can lock on to enemies during the hacking game?

On hard, lock on is disabled.

Was surprised when playing route C and

Spoiler:

I repaired a dead body only to find out that it was infected. I didn't expect it to fight me.

I'm having trouble getting Emil to sell anything at his shop other than crummy chips. He only wanders around the desert entrance and I really need certain materials to upgrade weapons.

Posting a bit late but I got endings C/D/E a week or so ago.

Emil's shop never strayed from the desert entrance until I did chapter select but I ended up not trying to upgrade all the weapons/pods anyways since the RNG is crap in this game. I spent a couple hours trying to collect gears from random harvest points to max out the last pod and only got 2.

Then I

Spoiler:

bought the last three trophies to get the platinum because screw that. Purchased the one for upgrading all weapons, upgrading all pods and getting all endings (one ending requires to upgrade all weapons).

Route C definitely was were the game shined.

Spoiler:

It was heart breaking when the child robots commit suicide and Pascal asks you to either kill him/erase his memories. I walked away since it seemed like the right thing to do but it still felt bad. It was also hard watching 9S spiral downwards after 2B's death. My only complaint was that you had to hunt for A2's backstory/motives. I wish it was more integrated into the main story.

I liked how the pods grew throughout this route. Cheered when they're like we're not satisfied with this ending and proceeded to try to save 2B/9S. And I happily deleted my save to help someone else out.

Overall, I really loved this game. I still like the original game more since I felt like it had a more endearing cast but on the flipside, this had much better gameplay. It'll be interesting to see where Nier goes if it continues from here.

And I discovered this lovely playlist:

The english voice actors for 9S and 2B play Nier Automata.

Forlorn Hope wrote:

Posting a bit late but I got endings C/D/E a week or so ago.

congrats!

Forlorn Hope wrote:

Overall, I really loved this game. I still like the original game more since I felt like it had a more endearing cast but on the flipside, this had much better gameplay. It'll be interesting to see where Nier goes if it continues from here.

We didn't get much discussion here about the original game.

I really liked Automata, is the original worth playing for the first time now?

Cronox wrote:

We didn't get much discussion here about the original game.

I really liked Automata, is the original worth playing for the first time now?

Yesssssssssss!

Well if you're willing to put up with the rougher gameplay, then yes, definitely check it out! I played it for the first time last year and loved it.

I played it right before automata came out and really enjoyed it. It may be a little rough around three edges but implemented its story ideas better I think.

Is NieR playable on PC?

merphle wrote:

Is NieR playable on PC?

No. Only PS3 and Xbox 360, and it wasn't backwards compatible on Xbox One last time I checked. I was thinking it'd be neat if they upressed it and fixed the frame rate a bit on Xbox One.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
merphle wrote:

Is NieR playable on PC?

No. Only PS3 and Xbox 360, and it wasn't backwards compatible on Xbox One last time I checked. I was thinking it'd be neat if they upressed it and fixed the frame rate a bit on Xbox One.

My hypothesis is that the code for the game is such a clusterf*ck that SquareEnix has been unable to port it to anything, otherwise they would have done it already. Since the game was developed by Cavia and not SE, it's also possible there are copyright issues.

I played it a few years ago and, while I enjoyed the story (Façade is one of my all time favorite videogame settings, and the music is fantastic), I'm not sure it's worth playing. I would just watch a YouTube story recap.

Annoying that they never put Nier for sale on PSN. I want to replay the game but I only have a 360 copy and a dead 360.