NieR: Automata - Baby Got Backup Drive - The Something Awful Forums

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STANKBALLS TASTYLEGS: Oct 12, 2012

Smirking_Serpent posted:

I knew it only let you restart after part 1 so I think I'm good.

I don't think I'm going for 100% but I'm gonna get at least some of my weapons fully upgraded.

even if you missed anything, the most important rewards (weapons) will show up in shops during the second half of the game

# ? Jul 1, 2018 19:53

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# ? May 10, 2024 18:08

Smirking_Serpent: Aug 27, 2009

these games make my heart hurt

# ? Jul 2, 2018 01:58

Lube Enthusiast: May 26, 2016

I�ve been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to decide what to do regarding (third play through/route C spoilers) Pascal�s request to take his life/erase his memory/3rd option: abstain and walk away. Jesus Christ.

# ? Jul 4, 2018 17:09

Zonko_T.M.: Jul 1, 2007; I'm not here to fuck spiders!

Lube Enthusiast posted:

I�ve been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to decide what to do regarding (third play through/route C spoilers) Pascal�s request to take his life/erase his memory/3rd option: abstain and walk away. Jesus Christ.

if you erase his memory he opens up a really neat shop! :haw:

# ? Jul 4, 2018 17:28

Smirking_Serpent: Aug 27, 2009

In Nier 1, do I just reload after ending C and choose differently to get ending D?

Is there anything different in a fourth playthrough if you save after C and load from that save?

# ? Jul 7, 2018 00:44

Zinkraptor: Apr 24, 2012

Smirking_Serpent posted:

In Nier 1, do I just reload after ending C and choose differently to get ending D?

Is there anything different in a fourth playthrough if you save after C and load from that save?

I don't think there's anything different in a fourth playthrough. You should be good just reloading your save. That's what I did, anyway.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 00:47

Momomo: Dec 26, 2009; Dont judge me, I design your manhole

Lube Enthusiast posted:

I�ve been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to decide what to do regarding (third play through/route C spoilers) Pascal�s request to take his life/erase his memory/3rd option: abstain and walk away. Jesus Christ.

A lot of people don't like it, but I feel like just leaving was the only option I could take. Killing him and erasing his memory are the same thing as far as I'm concerned, and a Pascal that's alive and remembers what happened could do things for the better in the future. He's the machine lifeform version of Anemone, and she definitely seems glad she didn't die when she wanted to.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 00:54

Well Manicured Man: Aug 21, 2010; Well Manicured Mort

Momomo posted:

A lot of people don't like it, but I feel like just leaving was the only option I could take. Killing him and erasing his memory are the same thing as far as I'm concerned, and a Pascal that's alive and remembers what happened could do things for the better in the future. He's the machine lifeform version of Anemone, and she definitely seems glad she didn't die when she wanted to.

When I chose to erase Pascal's memory I knew right away that I'd made a horrible decision. I think I spent a couple minutes just sobbing at my desk before I could go on. The voices of the children shouting "Uncle Pascal! Uncle Pascal!" as you did the deed was just... too much. I didn't even know you could choose to walk away!

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:23

TalkLittle: Jun 23, 2004

Short story book to be published in English https://twitter.com/VIZMedia/status/1014987269533519872/photo/1

quote:

Announcement: NieR: Automata: Short Story Long, out spring 2019. Includes the classic novella �The Flame of Prometheus,� the short story �A Much Too Silent Sea,� and original tales of A2, Emil and more!

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:25

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Lube Enthusiast posted:

I�ve been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to decide what to do regarding (third play through/route C spoilers) Pascal�s request to take his life/erase his memory/3rd option: abstain and walk away. Jesus Christ.

It is a really tough issue to handle. From a gameplay perspective wiping his memories is the best choice, and perhaps more importantly doing so is the only way you can grant some mercy for Emile. Focusing on the decision itself I feel as though Pascal at that point is too broken to be able to rebuild himself up mentally so I view walking away from him being the cruelest decision you can make.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:29

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

Pascal should've joined up with the amusement park weirdos

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:38

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

Pascal should've joined up with the amusement park weirdos

Shame that the only one left was machine on a break.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:39

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

Hunt11 posted:

Shame that the only one left was machine on a break.

Aw gently caress, I forgot they turned into zombies. Why did that happen again?

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:41

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

Aw gently caress, I forgot they turned into zombies. Why did that happen again?

I am not exactly sure but either when the network lost its two pillars of support or when it decided it was done with the planet and just flicked the murder switch.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 01:43

Escobarbarian: Jun 18, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Just crossposting the big essay I wrote in the PS4 thread after finishing Route E because oh my god this game is amazing and I love it:

Escobarbarian posted:

While trying to convince me to play NieR: Automata not long back, a couple of goon friends told me, knowing what a fanboy I am, that Yoko Taro was the David Lynch of video games. Obviously this felt like a bit of a stretch, and it�s extremely obvious they don�t share much in the way of overt visual styles or storytelling methods, but by the time I was done I completely understood. They�re both the best in their fields at injecting surrealistic images with masses of meaning and emotion, both look the darkness of the world dead in the eye and greet it with love, humanism, and a healthy dose of humour*, and both are unparalleled in using every part of their medium to maximum effect to enhance the storytelling.

* Well maybe not in Taro's other games from what I know

---

First up, it's amazing how constantly the game throws twists at you without ever getting dumb or gimmicky with them. There's literally tens of hours worth of your understanding of the world/character motivations being completely undercut yet it never stops being super effective and hard-hitting, while also tying in to and expanding upon the themes and concepts present. Thematically the game is some serious heavy poo poo dealing with a ton of philosophical concepts and properly burrowing into them rather than just doing the usual surface-level poo poo, yet despite getting super overt at times it never becomes tiresome even when the characters are literally explaining it to each other. Of course it helps that there's a healthy dose of humour and a playful undercurrent to so much of it. As with Lynch, you can go from giggling to feeling completely crushed and not have any cognitive dissonance - it all feels like part of the whole.

But it's still a character piece first and foremost, and there are a multitude of strong, emotionally resonant character arcs here. A2 is perhaps under-developed and rushed compared to others, but Pascal is wonderful, the stories for the twins and the resistance leader almost made me bawl, and then there's the leads. 2B throughout Route A felt quite blank to me, and also weirdly hypocritical with how she'd quash emotion one second and scream her face off the next, but reveals in later routes provide so much context to her every action and in the end she's completely fully-developed. And then there's 9S, who.....well, spoilers follow.

That poor loving kid. I'm not sure I've ever felt so much for a character in a video game, honestly. He's such a tragic character, and although there's ample reason to I just couldn't bring myself to hate him. The way he clings to his beliefs and hatred for the machines is rage-inducing, but it's also clearly the only way he can keep going after learning everything he has known and was created for is a bullshit lie. When I realised the significance of the nickname "Nines" and why he says people call him it despite him not having any friends it cut me like a knife. In the end, i wanted so so much to have him go off in the ark, but it was so obvious that his self-hatred crossed with realisation that his feelings of malice towards the machines were all for nothing meant that he would never choose that path.

---

Now I talk about the ending, although to be quite honest, VG summed it up so goddamn well that I don't know if there's anything I can add.

This is a game that broke me early and often, and had a ton of moments that were so full of despair it was hard to keep it together at times. Pascal's arc in Route C is the obvious one, but there's so many more that just show you how pointless and futile the whole war is, and how our characters are trapped in cycles, that for a long time I did see that as the predominant theme of the game. Showing how humans get trapped in their cycles and perpetuate misery. And in all fairness, it doesn't actively dispute that.....

....but it also knows humanity is far more than that. And it elects, in the end, to point to a better way, to say that love and selflessness conquer all, and that (to crib a little from one of said goon friends), being good to each other is the best possible thing we can do as human beings. And it sounds so goddamn cheesy to read but it isn't in practice, because it portrays it in one of the most effective ways I've ever seen in ANY medium, while also being something that no other form of art could ever even begin to realise properly.

These androids have gone through so much, suffered and died at the hands of so many manipulators (both in-game and outside of it), and then at the end, after they're all treated with terrible fates.....you get to free them. First from the people who wrote and coded this suffering, which permits the pods to free them in-game, and then finally......from you yourself. And not only are you freeing them from your control, but you're also doing it in order to help other people free their own 2B, their own 9S, their own A2. The use of network functionality during Ending E is nothing less than a goddamn stroke of genius. The second that first message of support came up I was a wreck. Knowing they were real people who had experienced everything I had, especially once you learn the choice they had to make in order to help you, is so incredibly, massively powerful, and one of the best examples of the power of decency and altruism I've ever witnessed. Like....it's final scene of Fargo powerful, and coming from me that's about the biggest compliment I could give. And then you literally watch your progress get deleted bit by bit in front of you, tens of hours worth at least, yet all there is is a peace. You're helping people. It couldn't be more worth it.

And then in the end, it works, of course. That last scene with the pods is very Eternal Sunshine, in the best way possible. Everything could happen again in exactly the same way, but it will always be worth making the leap. And then we're left, our grip from the characters relinquished, to hope that whatever comes next for them is better. It's an absolutely perfect uplifting end to a tragic story that doesn't lessen the impact of what's come before in any way, and is so in line with my personal ideals for myself and for humanity (although obviously I don't live up to them at all because I act like a dickhead a lot of the time).

In the end, I chose the message that most summed up both what I felt the game was trying to impart to me, and what I personally felt playing the ending after so much horror throughout the main story. I'll just quickly post it again.....

"This world is rife with hardship. Just remember, you�ve got us with you."

I would have preferred "But remember", but thass okay.

(This kind of accidentally functioned as a rebuttal to Brightman's post, so let me know what you think if you read this, Brights!)

---

So where do I put this in my top games? The story, characters, music, and themes are to me almost completely unparalleled in the medium, and while they overshadowed the parts I found off-putting, that doesn't mean they cancelled them out completely. The gameplay is very bog-standard action-RPG, "good" but not special or interesting to me. Bullet hell orb dodging and hacking parts just weren't my thing at all, and I'm very happy the top-down sections were so minimal.

And man, there is just SO MUCH anime bullshit haha. I don't think the game properly interacted enough with the "commentary" side of female leads having sexualised outfits for it to not just come off like Taro loves to fap to it. And Adam and Eve, from their looks to the voices to their movements, were like everything I hate about the tone/style of anime and anime-esque media combined. But yet it's definitely one of the better stories ever told in this style, for me personally sitting probably just above Paranoia Agent as far as mixing intelligent, thoughtful storytelling with typical anime style goes.

In the end I can't quite put this in my top 5, but I think I'm happy with it in sixth place, behind BotW, San Andreas, Mario 64, Red Dead Redemption, and SotC. It's definitely a unique and incredible experience the likes of which I'm not sure we'll ever see again in gaming. At least not for a long time.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 02:06

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

Only thing I still need to 100% this game is a stack of materials that Emil only sells in his materials pool on the Resistance Camp Route

Spent 2 hours loading and fast traveling and he would only spawn that route about 10% of the time, and all 5 were the plugin chips pool :psyduck:

# ? Jul 7, 2018 04:36

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

Finished Emil's Determination. That was messed up!

The arena in the flooded city was also super hosed.

The revealing outfit is ridiculous. Is it a reference to something? One of the legs is covered in bandages

# ? Jul 7, 2018 22:04

chiasaur11: Oct 22, 2012

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

Finished Emil's Determination. That was messed up!

The arena in the flooded city was also super hosed.

The revealing outfit is ridiculous. Is it a reference to something? One of the legs is covered in bandages

Yep. It's Kaine's clothing from the first Nier.

# ? Jul 7, 2018 22:07

Senerio: Oct 19, 2009; Roëmænce is ælive!

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

Aw gently caress, I forgot they turned into zombies. Why did that happen again?

Eve went crazy

# ? Jul 11, 2018 21:36

foonykins: Jun 15, 2010; stop with the small talk

I finished ending A and moving on to the next bit but i can�t find the loving route to take with 9s so the screen doesn�t go black and say he up and hosed off to study machines forever. Literally any place I can think to move I get that ending and have to start with that dumb loving machine oil bit that I�ve played 10 times now.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 14:49

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

foonykins posted:

I finished ending A and moving on to the next bit but i can�t find the loving route to take with 9s so the screen doesn�t go black and say he up and hosed off to study machines forever. Literally any place I can think to move I get that ending and have to start with that dumb loving machine oil bit that I�ve played 10 times now.

I did exactly the same thing. Go toward the flight unit, not onto the crane.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:03

Regy Rusty: Apr 26, 2010

I don't quite understand how you missed that

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:04

LorneReams: Jun 27, 2003; I'm bizarre

I did the same thing multiple times :/

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:07

Escobarbarian: Jun 18, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I did it a couple times haha

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:09

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

Regy Rusty posted:

I don't quite understand how you missed that

IIRC you start off facing the crane platform, and if you drop down onto it there's a switch to lower the crane which makes it feel like that's definitely where you're supposed to be heading.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:38

LorneReams: Jun 27, 2003; I'm bizarre

It's great because you have to redo that stupid robot sequence every time you gently caress that up.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:44

RubberLuffy: Mar 31, 2011

Also the Pod straight up says "hey don't go that way"

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:47

RoadCrewWorker: Nov 19, 2007; camels aren't so great

RubberLuffy posted:

Also the Pod straight up says "hey don't go that way"

Yup

also theres a giant objective marker exactly on your flight unit

but hey, nobody ever looks at the minimap anyway

certainly didn't stop me from being an idiot the first time. Shut up pod, there might be a secret over there!

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:52

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

That's the only secret ending I found on my own, lol.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 15:58

Ainsley McTree: Feb 19, 2004

RoadCrewWorker posted:

Yup

also theres a giant objective marker exactly on your flight unit

but hey, nobody ever looks at the minimap anyway

certainly didn't stop me from being an idiot the first time. Shut up pod, there might be a secret over there!

Video games train you to explore every branch except the critical path if you want to get all the treasure so I feel like everyone falls for that at least once

# ? Jul 13, 2018 16:00

Kibayasu: Mar 28, 2010

Arist posted:

That's the only secret ending I found on my own, lol.

Didn't eat the fish? Shameful.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 19:48

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

How do you manage to get that joke ending more than once? Are you doing the same thing expecting different result?

# ? Jul 13, 2018 19:56

History Comes Inside!: Nov 20, 2004

WaltherFeng posted:

How do you manage to get that joke ending more than once? Are you doing the same thing expecting different result?

The first time I fell through a hole in the crane and figured that was what triggered it, the second time I went off the end of the crane after avoiding the hole.

The third time I noticed you could shoot out a thing that was holding up a bridge/platform just across from the crane so I shot that down and then tried to go over there.

I then tried a few different combinations of the above trying to work out what the gently caress because having the crane switch and the dropping bridge SURELY means that's the right path but no it's just Yoko Taro loving with me.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 20:00

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

Kibayasu posted:

Didn't eat the fish? Shameful.

I'm pretty sure I did eat the fish, I just found out about it beforehand.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 20:01

Tarezax: Sep 12, 2009; MORT cancels dance: interrupted by MORT

History Comes Inside! posted:

The first time I fell through a hole in the crane and figured that was what triggered it, the second time I went off the end of the crane after avoiding the hole.

The third time I noticed you could shoot out a thing that was holding up a bridge/platform just across from the crane so I shot that down and then tried to go over there.

I then tried a few different combinations of the above trying to work out what the gently caress because having the crane switch and the dropping bridge SURELY means that's the right path but no it's just Yoko Taro loving with me.

That crane shortcut is actually unlockable as 2B in the tutorial section. The dropping bridge is the one you shoot as 2B to cross that gap right after the first Marx fight. I don't blame you for not remembering that but if you had remembered it would have been pretty obvious that there was nothing special there.

# ? Jul 13, 2018 20:03

Smirking_Serpent: Aug 27, 2009

Two months later, I finally finished NieR. What a loving ride!

Long before I ever played NieR or Automata, I had been spoiled about the big twist at the end of the final ending. But it still packed a punch. Entering your character's name was really cool too. And the fact that they even delete your fishing records is brutal!

There was a bunch of trophies I didn't get, but I sort of feel like it was true to the game's themes to leave some things unfinished. I think if I had forced myself to spend weeks grinding in the junk heap I would have hated this game, and I didn't want that at all.

In my opinion, they could have added the extra Emil scene on Ending A, and then had Ending B have the big choice. Route B was awesome but I don't think 3 playthroughs was necessary.

Laura Bailey should have won some kind of award, I loved her performance. Kain� was a great character, but I have to admit that her outfit was aggressively distracting until the very, very end. I loved Weiss, Emil, and Nier too. It was such a great ensemble, even better than the Automata cast.

I do think it was a bit unfair that Automata got all the credit for the perspective changes and bullet hell when this game did it first. I can't believe everyone slept on this game when it came out. But I guess late recognition is better than no recognition.

Finally, I want to thank all of you guys in this thread. Nier fans are awesome. Here's hoping that someday we have a Nier 3 or a Drakengard 4 to look forward to.

:yokotaro:

# ? Jul 27, 2018 07:48

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

Hell I'd buy Drakengard 3 again if it ran at more than 5 fps

# ? Jul 27, 2018 08:00

Beefstew: Oct 30, 2010; I told you that story so I could tell you this one...

Yeah, between Kaine and the Boss from Saint Row, Laura Bailey is pretty much the definitive choice for funny foul-mouthed badasses in video games. Kaine might be the best vocal role I've ever heard in a game.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 08:04

Ainsley McTree: Feb 19, 2004

�poo poo hog? Oh come now, that�s not even a word�

I�d pay far too much money for a nier remaster. Hopefully they realize there�s free money in it after automata

# ? Jul 28, 2018 01:57

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# ? May 10, 2024 18:08

Beefstew: Oct 30, 2010; I told you that story so I could tell you this one...

Ainsley McTree posted:

�poo poo hog? Oh come now, that�s not even a word�

I�d pay far too much money for a nier remaster. Hopefully they realize there�s free money in it after automata

I honestly don't want a sequel to Automata. If the series must continue, I'd still like Automata to be the chronological ending. But man, a Nier 1 remake by Platinum would be the sickest poo poo.

# ? Jul 28, 2018 02:03

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