How can a single game be so... so... so fucking GOOD?!
NieR: Automata (2017)
Basic Summary: An android struggles to overcome disturbed robots centuries after the end of the world.
Genre: RPG, Character Action Game, Hack 'n Slash, Bullet Hell
Systems: PS4, PC (though the latter version apparently has numerous porting problems)
Created by: PlatinumGames, Square Enix
Directed by: Yoko Taro
Written by: Yoko Taro, Hana Kikuchi, Yoshiho Akabane
Designed and Programmed by: Takahisa Taura, Isao Negishi, Ryo Onishi
Starring (English / Japanese): Kira Buckland / Yui Ishikawa, Kyle McCarley / Natsuki Hanae, Cherami Leigh / Ayaka Suwa, Greg Chun / Daisuke Namikawa
Story-Gameplay Ratio: A perfect 5:5
(not posting a trailer because I went in completely unspoiled on the game's various oddities and surprises, and you should too)
For the unaware, NieR: Automata follows 2B, a combat-specialized android working for YoRHa, a group comprised entirely of similar androids based out of an orbiting satellite. Untold ages ago, humanity was decimated by alien invaders who filled the Earth with murderous machines, but after hundreds of years with no appearance from the aliens, the machines are still wreaking havoc on the ruined planet. Sent to continue waging the endless war in service of their surviving human rulers, 2B and her companion 9S are sent down to Earth to assist allied android rebels against the ever-evolving robots and hopefully strike one more decisive blow against the enemy. However, the situation is far, far, far more complicated than the duo know, and the battles to come will push them to the breaking point in every way imaginable...
Spoiler: show
Just gonna open with this: NieR: Automata may be my new favorite game. Period.
That's right. I've waffled around in the past about what my all-time favorite would actually be, because almost no games I've played that have profoundly affected me emotionally have also hit that exact sweet spot with the gameplay, or vice versa. There are candidates, but the ones I'd consider meeting those criteria also wouldn't be in my top five favorite games. Automata is a powerhouse in every department I could want from a game and more, and is of such rich quality overall that it simply surpasses all my other contenders. It is, to my eye, nigh-perfect. And now I'm going to struggle to express how without spoiling it, because this is yet another game that's best enjoyed knowing as little as possible about it, and unlike a lot of prior games where I've said that, it's also quite long.
First things first, though. NieR: Automata is the sequel to Yoko Taro's 2010 cult classic action-RPG NieR, itself a bizarrely-related spinoff of the Drakengard series, though no knowledge of that series is needed to understand and enjoy the NieR games. And while Automata initially doesn't seem to share much at all with its predecessor, taking place a couple thousand years after it and seemingly with entirely different lore, knowledge of the original game is absolutely a must-have to fully appreciate the sequel. It's a good thing that the first NieR has a fantastic story, cast of characters, and world design, but it's a bit of a clunky slog gameplay-wise due to its budget and inexperienced programmers; if you haven't played or watched it, I strongly recommend looking into a Let's Play of it (I recommend this one).
All right! With all of that out of the way, we begin the review proper.
As usual, we begin with the presentation, since there's so much to talk about in all other aspects. Most of the environments are nothing new on paper -- a ruined city overtaken by vegetation, a sprawling desert, a secluded forest, etc -- but the smooth, crisp, and bright visual style makes them all pop and fit together despite the relatively short distance between them (for an open-world game, the world is actually quite small, especially compared to the original NieR). The outward mundanity of a lot of the areas also helps the oddball touches found within them, or the more bizarre and creative environs, stick out even more. All of the character and enemy models are textured beautifully and animated distinctly, and when shit's going down in that special Platinum way, it feels natural within the world. I did run into a few instances of framerate stuttering and texture pop-in, but other recurring problems like screen tearing were notably absent.
But the soundtrack? No possible complaints there. People familiar with NieR will recall its beautiful score, and Automata readily picks up the baton with an OST that stands among my favorites in gaming. There's a track for every occasion, whether upbeat or melancholy, relaxing or completely insane, and they blend together perfectly as you move from zone to zone or scene to scene. Rhythmic drum beats, techno guitars, beautiful orchestral strings, and all manner of wild or serene chanting in various languages (some fictional) fill the air at any given moment, always enhancing the scene they're placed in. There's even a few songs carried over from the first game, though I won't spoil which ones nor when and how they're effectively utilized, save that most of these moments got me misty-eyed. It is just... phenomenal. Need proof? Here are some choice samples.
On the gameplay front, which doesn't get nearly enough praise compared to the story, things are just as bright. Yoko Taro's games are usually notorious for feeling terrible to play, which was why his partnership with Platinum was such a brilliant prospect, and the result of said partnership is something fantastic. Platinum doesn't go as all-out insane as they're usually famous for doing (don't go in expecting the in-depth combos and crazy spontaneous setpieces of Bayonetta or MGR: Revengeance), but they put immeasurable polish into the first game's mechanics so that this feels like a monumental improvement without being a complete departure. You still strike at close range, send out volleys of projectiles, and avoid the enemies' own collections of orbs in a "bullet hell" manner; the addition of a lightning-fast dodge and counterattack gives you much more versatility. 2B controls like a dream in all situations whether in or out of combat, and the action is tight, fast, and adaptable enough that it fits both the massacring of standard machines and intense duels with the epically-scaled bosses. The amount of modification and customization you can give your Pod (the machine that lets you send out projectiles and use special attacks) and yourself through plug-in chips is icing on the cake. It just feels all-around good to play.
Beyond the controls, there are other bits of the game that must be commented on. In a fun twist, every mechanic in the game is story-justified; you see maps and readouts because of 2B's visor, menus are her Pod giving her options, and things like saving and fast-traveling (which is unlocked later in the game) have in-universe bases that actually play into the plot sometimes. On saving, there is no auto-save and you can only do a quick save or manual full save when you're in the vicinity of an unlocked access point; this is normally not a huge problem, as the game is generous enough with the access points across the overworld, but there are a few enemy-heavy stretches very late in the game that can be cause for frustration if you die. The game also places some importance on side quests; they don't change anything to do with the main story, but a lot of them do pack either important information or emotional knife-twists from the most unexpected places. Though a lot of them are fetch quests, I highly recommend doing as many as you can, because a great many of them are well worth the effort.
Now before plumbing the depths of the story, let's delve into the main cast of characters, obviously starting with the lead. 2B is initially a pretty flat character by all appearances; she fulfills the "cold, emotionless girl who actually has hints of emotion" archetype that's ever popular in Japanese media, and Kira Buckland's voice acting fills out all the boxes to make this satisfying enough. However, there are subtleties to pick up on in her personality and character interactions almost from the outset, from the YoRHa rules she gives that only she seems intent on following to how she quickly cracks in a baffling way in the prologue, and these glimpses get gradually expanded upon as the story progresses. By the time the final act is wrapping up, critical developments have turned her into possibly the best character in the game, and it's a treasure to reevaluate her path through the game with knowledge of what's revealed later. Character depth aside, she also happens to be a massive badass to rival other Platinum heroes, moving with cool efficiency and precision that everyone is rightfully impressed with, and despite her outlandish clothing, the camera never lingers on her as a fanservice object. All in all, a perfect protagonist.
Her ally 9S is no slouch himself; in fact, there were points in the game where he actually surpassed her as my favorite character, though 2B still wins out overall. His easygoing demeanor and constant casual chatter form a great buddy-cop-esque dynamic with the stoic and reserved 2B, and while some of his slacker schtick may wear thin for some after a while, he's a loyal soldier by most measures and he knows when to grit his teeth and do his job. I grew to care about him to the point that the scattered points in the game when he's not at 2B's side felt rather surreal, and I even bought his faint romantic teases with her because of their great chemistry. Like 2B, he gets rapidly increasing development as shit starts to go down in the third act, and Kyle McCarley rises to the challenge as his performance slowly gets unexpectedly raw and emotional. I adore where his character arc ultimately leads him, and like his companion, he's going to linger in my mind for a long time.
The last of the main characters is rogue android A2, and... well, she's harder to talk about than the other two. In fact, I likely wouldn't even make mention of her if she wasn't on the cover, because I completely forgot she was supposed to be in the game and was pleasantly surprised by her appearance. She first enters the playing field relatively late in the second act, and then only really takes prominence in the third act in a rather spoiler-y fashion. A lot of her backstory is also bafflingly only available in a Japanese-only prequel stage play, the outline of which is made available in-game eventually and which you can find analyzed in full by YouTuber Clemps (in a part of his spoiler-filled analysis of the whole game), but which is still frankly unnecessarily conveyed and saps some of her later arc of the impact it should have.
I can discuss a few things about her, though. Personality-wise, she's a bitter and angry loner who spends her days vengefully slaughtering machines -- very similar to the original NieR's best character, foul-mouthed intersex swordswoman Kaine, though not nearly as compelling or well-realized. She does go through a surprisingly great little character arc with her fairly limited screen time, and only what basic knowledge of her history the game gives you is necessary to appreciate the context of her interactions with 2B and 9S. So ultimately, while she doesn't hold a candle to the main duo, she's still pretty great.
And since that's the last main character I can say much about without going into enjoyment-dampening spoilers (I didn't even have an idea of who the main antagonists were when I went in, and I aim to preserve that freshness for you), we have nothing left to do but go into the most hotly-praised aspect of NieR: Automata: the masterful story. Yoko Taro has always delivered great stories in his games, though they've always been ignored because of terrible gameplay and related factors (the sole exception being Drakengard 3, which is just awful beyond all repair on every front). With an actual genuinely great game as his foundation, he's woven an incredible tale that's much more fun to digest and be emotionally wrecked by. It's thematically rich, examining concepts like human centricism, the inherent futility of conflict, and numerous more meta tropes in increasingly fascinating lights, and Yoko Taro's writing insanity perfectly matches Platinum's design insanity in a way that elevates both and hinders neither.
As was the famous gimmick with NieR, the first time the credits roll in NieR: Automata is not the ending, but merely the end of Route A. The routes aren't determined by choices or anything; they're less "alternate endings" than linear continuations separated only by credits. Unlike the first game, Square Enix puts an explicit message after the credits letting you know to press "Start Game" again because it's not over, but enough people have apparently somehow still stopped after Endings A or B that I feel the need to make it clear from the start. And I also can't properly talk about the story without going into the routes, so here we go.
The vast majority of the game takes place in Route A, which goes through most of the initial character development and conflicts, contains at least 80% of the side quests (which, I reiterate, are worth playing), and follows a very satisfying arc to what would probably be the definitive ending if it weren't a Yoko Taro story. Playing it at a proper pace and tackling most of the side quests, it can take upwards of 25-35 hours -- not ridiculous JRPG length, but a sizable chunk of time all the same. Luckily, it's fun as fuck, the story told is relentlessly compelling as it dishes out twist after twist on the initial scenario, and multiple unpredictable shakeups happen whenever the setup threatens to get a little stale. Every few hours my trip through the ruins was met by a sight so striking, disturbing, or just plain weird that I resisted stopping just so I could see what the fuck was going on. It winds toward its climax with a stretch of a scenario that does draw on a bit too long and feels slightly out of place, but that leads up to an awe-inspiring climax with a satisfyingly challenging boss, and the ending is just the right mix of triumphant and bittersweet. It's not as subversive and mind-melting as NieR got even in its first run, but it's a well-told story and I was left very, very curious about how the rest of it would play out after the events of this "finale."
Unfortunately, Route B is my single big problem with the game, even though it's far from subpar. Like NieR's Route B, it follows the same events from the first playthrough, but from a different perspective and with loads of new information doled out that changes everything you've understood and sets up what comes next. However, while the first game picked up this second playthrough from the halfway point and packed flashback sequences that dramatically recontextualized the battles you fought to devastating effect, Automata has you play through the entire game again with only brief new expositional breaks, development bits, and unlockable files. While this isn't a huge problem because the lack of significant sidequests makes the route far shorter than the first run (if you blitz through it like I did, it can take just a few hours), and there are a few gameplay shake-ups and sporadic changes to events, the vast majority of it is the same game all over again and it can get tiresome despite its rich quality. It doesn't help that what you learn about the battles you've been fighting at this point is most of the time more "aw, that's pretty sad" than NieR's "FUCK I'M SUCH AN ASSHOLE." There is a significant dollop of new intrigue toward the very end of this playthrough that radically changes the game, but I'm not sure if playing the entire game uncut was a necessary lead-up to it.
Luckily, just as things start to get mundane, the third act hits with Route C and Jesus fucking Christ it's something. This route was exactly what I both wanted and dreaded from the game. It's tightly paced, packed with character development and new mysteries, and fucking gut-wrenching on multiple levels. As I watched events play out in both fascination and horror, I often felt enraged and wronged, but in the best possible way: out of investment in the characters and world and a desire for vengeance against the antagonist/s responsible for what they were all going through, rather than displeasure with bad writing or plotting. This is the route where Yoko Taro unleashes everything he's been keeping up his sleeves, to marvelous effect, and it's without a doubt among my favorite stretches of any story across all media. Devastating losses and powerful emotional reveals are all intertwined around a question so towering and compelling that I had to force myself to stop playing at a point because I wanted answers (and recompense for the fallen) so much that I was willing to play well past midnight and into the early hours of morning. The climax of this route is a bit of mixed bag -- there's a lot to love story and gameplay-wise, but there's also a tedious boss battle that went on way too long and held the threat of losing all my progress due to a lack of save points -- but the final battle is pitch-perfect regardless of which choice you make, leading into either Ending C or D, both of which are perfectly satisfying conclusions to the story.
But unlike NieR, there's one last bit of the game to go after this: Ending E. This can only be unlocked after viewing both of the other endings in whatever order you choose (I think the story works better with Ending D leading into it, but that's just me), and it's perfect. It is just so goddamn perfect it defies words, not that I could give it many for how easy it is to spoil. It is something that can only be truly enjoyed by playing it yourself, as viewing an LP of it takes all of the life and impact away from the content. I was in tears over how profoundly it affected me, and I won't even say whether those tears were from uplifting or saddening events. It is the perfect bow on all of the themes the game has worked toward expressing, it's something I've never seen another game even try to do, and I genuinely see this single stretch of game as Yoko Taro's unquestionable magnum opus. I will give only one intentionally vague piece of advice in this little spoiler tag, for the sake of ensuring you can see it yourself without screwing it up:
God... I just love NieR: Automata so much. By no means is it perfect, and there are a few pivotal missteps along the way I feel could have been avoided or fixed, but it's overall of such an awe-inspiring quality that I struggled even to isolate its singular flaws. It is a game of deceptive depth, incredible impact, and immeasurable creativity, and it's rightfully what's bringing Yoko Taro from the fringes of gaming nerddom into relatively mainstream success. I struggled with this review for almost a week for the sole purpose of getting at least one more person to buy it; it deserves all the attention it could get. As I said, it might be my favorite game of all time; at the very least, it's my unrivaled Game of the Year in a year that's spoiled us for choice on amazing games, and it'll take something godlike to topple it from that spot.
Rating: Top TieR
TREMENDOUS SPOILERS, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT CLICKING THE BELOW SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T CONCLUDED ENDING E; THIS IS SOLELY FOR ME AND ANYONE WHO'S COMPLETED THE GAME:
That's right. I've waffled around in the past about what my all-time favorite would actually be, because almost no games I've played that have profoundly affected me emotionally have also hit that exact sweet spot with the gameplay, or vice versa. There are candidates, but the ones I'd consider meeting those criteria also wouldn't be in my top five favorite games. Automata is a powerhouse in every department I could want from a game and more, and is of such rich quality overall that it simply surpasses all my other contenders. It is, to my eye, nigh-perfect. And now I'm going to struggle to express how without spoiling it, because this is yet another game that's best enjoyed knowing as little as possible about it, and unlike a lot of prior games where I've said that, it's also quite long.
First things first, though. NieR: Automata is the sequel to Yoko Taro's 2010 cult classic action-RPG NieR, itself a bizarrely-related spinoff of the Drakengard series, though no knowledge of that series is needed to understand and enjoy the NieR games. And while Automata initially doesn't seem to share much at all with its predecessor, taking place a couple thousand years after it and seemingly with entirely different lore, knowledge of the original game is absolutely a must-have to fully appreciate the sequel. It's a good thing that the first NieR has a fantastic story, cast of characters, and world design, but it's a bit of a clunky slog gameplay-wise due to its budget and inexperienced programmers; if you haven't played or watched it, I strongly recommend looking into a Let's Play of it (I recommend this one).
All right! With all of that out of the way, we begin the review proper.
As usual, we begin with the presentation, since there's so much to talk about in all other aspects. Most of the environments are nothing new on paper -- a ruined city overtaken by vegetation, a sprawling desert, a secluded forest, etc -- but the smooth, crisp, and bright visual style makes them all pop and fit together despite the relatively short distance between them (for an open-world game, the world is actually quite small, especially compared to the original NieR). The outward mundanity of a lot of the areas also helps the oddball touches found within them, or the more bizarre and creative environs, stick out even more. All of the character and enemy models are textured beautifully and animated distinctly, and when shit's going down in that special Platinum way, it feels natural within the world. I did run into a few instances of framerate stuttering and texture pop-in, but other recurring problems like screen tearing were notably absent.
But the soundtrack? No possible complaints there. People familiar with NieR will recall its beautiful score, and Automata readily picks up the baton with an OST that stands among my favorites in gaming. There's a track for every occasion, whether upbeat or melancholy, relaxing or completely insane, and they blend together perfectly as you move from zone to zone or scene to scene. Rhythmic drum beats, techno guitars, beautiful orchestral strings, and all manner of wild or serene chanting in various languages (some fictional) fill the air at any given moment, always enhancing the scene they're placed in. There's even a few songs carried over from the first game, though I won't spoil which ones nor when and how they're effectively utilized, save that most of these moments got me misty-eyed. It is just... phenomenal. Need proof? Here are some choice samples.
On the gameplay front, which doesn't get nearly enough praise compared to the story, things are just as bright. Yoko Taro's games are usually notorious for feeling terrible to play, which was why his partnership with Platinum was such a brilliant prospect, and the result of said partnership is something fantastic. Platinum doesn't go as all-out insane as they're usually famous for doing (don't go in expecting the in-depth combos and crazy spontaneous setpieces of Bayonetta or MGR: Revengeance), but they put immeasurable polish into the first game's mechanics so that this feels like a monumental improvement without being a complete departure. You still strike at close range, send out volleys of projectiles, and avoid the enemies' own collections of orbs in a "bullet hell" manner; the addition of a lightning-fast dodge and counterattack gives you much more versatility. 2B controls like a dream in all situations whether in or out of combat, and the action is tight, fast, and adaptable enough that it fits both the massacring of standard machines and intense duels with the epically-scaled bosses. The amount of modification and customization you can give your Pod (the machine that lets you send out projectiles and use special attacks) and yourself through plug-in chips is icing on the cake. It just feels all-around good to play.
Beyond the controls, there are other bits of the game that must be commented on. In a fun twist, every mechanic in the game is story-justified; you see maps and readouts because of 2B's visor, menus are her Pod giving her options, and things like saving and fast-traveling (which is unlocked later in the game) have in-universe bases that actually play into the plot sometimes. On saving, there is no auto-save and you can only do a quick save or manual full save when you're in the vicinity of an unlocked access point; this is normally not a huge problem, as the game is generous enough with the access points across the overworld, but there are a few enemy-heavy stretches very late in the game that can be cause for frustration if you die. The game also places some importance on side quests; they don't change anything to do with the main story, but a lot of them do pack either important information or emotional knife-twists from the most unexpected places. Though a lot of them are fetch quests, I highly recommend doing as many as you can, because a great many of them are well worth the effort.
Now before plumbing the depths of the story, let's delve into the main cast of characters, obviously starting with the lead. 2B is initially a pretty flat character by all appearances; she fulfills the "cold, emotionless girl who actually has hints of emotion" archetype that's ever popular in Japanese media, and Kira Buckland's voice acting fills out all the boxes to make this satisfying enough. However, there are subtleties to pick up on in her personality and character interactions almost from the outset, from the YoRHa rules she gives that only she seems intent on following to how she quickly cracks in a baffling way in the prologue, and these glimpses get gradually expanded upon as the story progresses. By the time the final act is wrapping up, critical developments have turned her into possibly the best character in the game, and it's a treasure to reevaluate her path through the game with knowledge of what's revealed later. Character depth aside, she also happens to be a massive badass to rival other Platinum heroes, moving with cool efficiency and precision that everyone is rightfully impressed with, and despite her outlandish clothing, the camera never lingers on her as a fanservice object. All in all, a perfect protagonist.
Her ally 9S is no slouch himself; in fact, there were points in the game where he actually surpassed her as my favorite character, though 2B still wins out overall. His easygoing demeanor and constant casual chatter form a great buddy-cop-esque dynamic with the stoic and reserved 2B, and while some of his slacker schtick may wear thin for some after a while, he's a loyal soldier by most measures and he knows when to grit his teeth and do his job. I grew to care about him to the point that the scattered points in the game when he's not at 2B's side felt rather surreal, and I even bought his faint romantic teases with her because of their great chemistry. Like 2B, he gets rapidly increasing development as shit starts to go down in the third act, and Kyle McCarley rises to the challenge as his performance slowly gets unexpectedly raw and emotional. I adore where his character arc ultimately leads him, and like his companion, he's going to linger in my mind for a long time.
The last of the main characters is rogue android A2, and... well, she's harder to talk about than the other two. In fact, I likely wouldn't even make mention of her if she wasn't on the cover, because I completely forgot she was supposed to be in the game and was pleasantly surprised by her appearance. She first enters the playing field relatively late in the second act, and then only really takes prominence in the third act in a rather spoiler-y fashion. A lot of her backstory is also bafflingly only available in a Japanese-only prequel stage play, the outline of which is made available in-game eventually and which you can find analyzed in full by YouTuber Clemps (in a part of his spoiler-filled analysis of the whole game), but which is still frankly unnecessarily conveyed and saps some of her later arc of the impact it should have.
I can discuss a few things about her, though. Personality-wise, she's a bitter and angry loner who spends her days vengefully slaughtering machines -- very similar to the original NieR's best character, foul-mouthed intersex swordswoman Kaine, though not nearly as compelling or well-realized. She does go through a surprisingly great little character arc with her fairly limited screen time, and only what basic knowledge of her history the game gives you is necessary to appreciate the context of her interactions with 2B and 9S. So ultimately, while she doesn't hold a candle to the main duo, she's still pretty great.
And since that's the last main character I can say much about without going into enjoyment-dampening spoilers (I didn't even have an idea of who the main antagonists were when I went in, and I aim to preserve that freshness for you), we have nothing left to do but go into the most hotly-praised aspect of NieR: Automata: the masterful story. Yoko Taro has always delivered great stories in his games, though they've always been ignored because of terrible gameplay and related factors (the sole exception being Drakengard 3, which is just awful beyond all repair on every front). With an actual genuinely great game as his foundation, he's woven an incredible tale that's much more fun to digest and be emotionally wrecked by. It's thematically rich, examining concepts like human centricism, the inherent futility of conflict, and numerous more meta tropes in increasingly fascinating lights, and Yoko Taro's writing insanity perfectly matches Platinum's design insanity in a way that elevates both and hinders neither.
As was the famous gimmick with NieR, the first time the credits roll in NieR: Automata is not the ending, but merely the end of Route A. The routes aren't determined by choices or anything; they're less "alternate endings" than linear continuations separated only by credits. Unlike the first game, Square Enix puts an explicit message after the credits letting you know to press "Start Game" again because it's not over, but enough people have apparently somehow still stopped after Endings A or B that I feel the need to make it clear from the start. And I also can't properly talk about the story without going into the routes, so here we go.
The vast majority of the game takes place in Route A, which goes through most of the initial character development and conflicts, contains at least 80% of the side quests (which, I reiterate, are worth playing), and follows a very satisfying arc to what would probably be the definitive ending if it weren't a Yoko Taro story. Playing it at a proper pace and tackling most of the side quests, it can take upwards of 25-35 hours -- not ridiculous JRPG length, but a sizable chunk of time all the same. Luckily, it's fun as fuck, the story told is relentlessly compelling as it dishes out twist after twist on the initial scenario, and multiple unpredictable shakeups happen whenever the setup threatens to get a little stale. Every few hours my trip through the ruins was met by a sight so striking, disturbing, or just plain weird that I resisted stopping just so I could see what the fuck was going on. It winds toward its climax with a stretch of a scenario that does draw on a bit too long and feels slightly out of place, but that leads up to an awe-inspiring climax with a satisfyingly challenging boss, and the ending is just the right mix of triumphant and bittersweet. It's not as subversive and mind-melting as NieR got even in its first run, but it's a well-told story and I was left very, very curious about how the rest of it would play out after the events of this "finale."
Unfortunately, Route B is my single big problem with the game, even though it's far from subpar. Like NieR's Route B, it follows the same events from the first playthrough, but from a different perspective and with loads of new information doled out that changes everything you've understood and sets up what comes next. However, while the first game picked up this second playthrough from the halfway point and packed flashback sequences that dramatically recontextualized the battles you fought to devastating effect, Automata has you play through the entire game again with only brief new expositional breaks, development bits, and unlockable files. While this isn't a huge problem because the lack of significant sidequests makes the route far shorter than the first run (if you blitz through it like I did, it can take just a few hours), and there are a few gameplay shake-ups and sporadic changes to events, the vast majority of it is the same game all over again and it can get tiresome despite its rich quality. It doesn't help that what you learn about the battles you've been fighting at this point is most of the time more "aw, that's pretty sad" than NieR's "FUCK I'M SUCH AN ASSHOLE." There is a significant dollop of new intrigue toward the very end of this playthrough that radically changes the game, but I'm not sure if playing the entire game uncut was a necessary lead-up to it.
Luckily, just as things start to get mundane, the third act hits with Route C and Jesus fucking Christ it's something. This route was exactly what I both wanted and dreaded from the game. It's tightly paced, packed with character development and new mysteries, and fucking gut-wrenching on multiple levels. As I watched events play out in both fascination and horror, I often felt enraged and wronged, but in the best possible way: out of investment in the characters and world and a desire for vengeance against the antagonist/s responsible for what they were all going through, rather than displeasure with bad writing or plotting. This is the route where Yoko Taro unleashes everything he's been keeping up his sleeves, to marvelous effect, and it's without a doubt among my favorite stretches of any story across all media. Devastating losses and powerful emotional reveals are all intertwined around a question so towering and compelling that I had to force myself to stop playing at a point because I wanted answers (and recompense for the fallen) so much that I was willing to play well past midnight and into the early hours of morning. The climax of this route is a bit of mixed bag -- there's a lot to love story and gameplay-wise, but there's also a tedious boss battle that went on way too long and held the threat of losing all my progress due to a lack of save points -- but the final battle is pitch-perfect regardless of which choice you make, leading into either Ending C or D, both of which are perfectly satisfying conclusions to the story.
But unlike NieR, there's one last bit of the game to go after this: Ending E. This can only be unlocked after viewing both of the other endings in whatever order you choose (I think the story works better with Ending D leading into it, but that's just me), and it's perfect. It is just so goddamn perfect it defies words, not that I could give it many for how easy it is to spoil. It is something that can only be truly enjoyed by playing it yourself, as viewing an LP of it takes all of the life and impact away from the content. I was in tears over how profoundly it affected me, and I won't even say whether those tears were from uplifting or saddening events. It is the perfect bow on all of the themes the game has worked toward expressing, it's something I've never seen another game even try to do, and I genuinely see this single stretch of game as Yoko Taro's unquestionable magnum opus. I will give only one intentionally vague piece of advice in this little spoiler tag, for the sake of ensuring you can see it yourself without screwing it up:
advice
Never give up, no matter what. When the time to say "yes" comes, you'll know.
God... I just love NieR: Automata so much. By no means is it perfect, and there are a few pivotal missteps along the way I feel could have been avoided or fixed, but it's overall of such an awe-inspiring quality that I struggled even to isolate its singular flaws. It is a game of deceptive depth, incredible impact, and immeasurable creativity, and it's rightfully what's bringing Yoko Taro from the fringes of gaming nerddom into relatively mainstream success. I struggled with this review for almost a week for the sole purpose of getting at least one more person to buy it; it deserves all the attention it could get. As I said, it might be my favorite game of all time; at the very least, it's my unrivaled Game of the Year in a year that's spoiled us for choice on amazing games, and it'll take something godlike to topple it from that spot.
Rating: Top TieR
TREMENDOUS SPOILERS, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT CLICKING THE BELOW SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T CONCLUDED ENDING E; THIS IS SOLELY FOR ME AND ANYONE WHO'S COMPLETED THE GAME:
extreme critical spoilers
Endless thanks to everyone who sacrificed their hard work so that I could see the journey through to the end. I couldn't have done it without you, and I hope my hard work has gone to good use for someone else -- if the stars align, maybe even someone who eventually reads this. My file was "Sben".