Zero Punctuation: Nier Automata

Silentpony_v1legacy

Alleged Feather-Rustler
Jun 5, 2013
6,760
0
0
I'm still on the fence about this one. Jim loved it, Yahtzee can stomach it. Not sure where that falls on the critical spectrum.
 

The Dead Singer

New member
Feb 19, 2014
35
0
0
Silentpony said:
I'm still on the fence about this one. Jim loved it, Yahtzee can stomach it. Not sure where that falls on the critical spectrum.
Considering that you can sense the Japanese by just smelling the disk case, the fact that he can even tolerate it says quite a lot
 

Arthain

New member
Jul 26, 2012
7
0
0
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.

Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
 

Aeshi

New member
Dec 22, 2009
2,640
0
0
Not sure there's enough meat to this one to justfying paying full price or not, but I definitely intend to pick this one up once the price drops a bit.
Arthain said:
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.

Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
And Drakengard itself is the sequel to Drakengard 3's first ending. And Drakengard 2 is a different sequel that takes place in an alternate timeline where Drakengard 1's first ending happened and oh dear I've gone cross-eyed.
 

Onliuge

New member
Aug 9, 2012
22
0
0
Hmm, genuinely surprised that Yahtzee didn't bring up that there's a fucking achievement for looking up 2-b's skirt.


I'm not even kidding with this shit..
 

KOMega

New member
Aug 30, 2010
641
0
0
Picked this game up on steam. I'm only a few hours in, and I've been taking my time walking around and doing side quests, but I'm enjoying it a lot already. The game has some network features where other player's dead bodies show up in your game. You can use them in a few ways.

I would highly recommend using a gamepad instead of keyboard though.

Also: for those who have the game, I find that the preset controller config C is the best one. fite me.
 

Smertnik

New member
Apr 5, 2010
1,172
0
0
Arthain said:
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.
Playing them beforehand is not necessary at all but it definitely enhances the experience, there's a decent amount of references and callbacks. Not to mention that they're all very unique and entertaining games if you like Taro Yoko's style, despite the flawed gameplay (Nier is actually fairly decent gameplay wise but the Drakengard games are very rough and you have to be very forgiving).

Arthain said:
Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
Drakengard's endings are "What if" scenarios and Nier picks up from the final "true" one. Nier basically only has two endings, which are determined by a choice in the very end, and as far as Automata is concerned the choice doesn't matter in the slightest. So it's all fairly straightforward.
 

WindKnight

Quiet, Odd Sort.
Legacy
Jul 8, 2009
1,828
9
43
Cephiro
Country
United Kingdom
Gender
Female
Onliuge said:
Hmm, genuinely surprised that Yahtzee didn't bring up that there's a fucking achievement for looking up 2-b's skirt.


I'm not even kidding with this shit..
Best part - at one point, 99% of the steam gamers had the achievement.

I wonder how many unlocked it 'accidentally' VS the people who saw it on the achievement walkthrough and went '(sighs) let's get this out of the way and never talk of it again'

(Side note: there's Gif out there where 2B will actually swat the camera away when you do look up, and there's also an achievement for making 9S walk around without trousers for an hour)
 

Imre Csete

Original Character, Do Not Steal
Jul 8, 2010
785
0
0
TNG for the characters and DS9 for the progressing worldbuilding and character arcs, thanks for asking.
 

crimson5pheonix

It took 6 months to read my title.
Legacy
Jun 6, 2008
36,113
3,283
118
Arthain said:
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.

Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
Automata is a sequel to pretty much any of Nier's endings apart from maybe Ending D(it's ambiguous), Nier is a sequel to Drakengard's Ending E (the weird one), Drakengard is a sequel to a combination of endings A-C of Drakengard 3 (no one of the endings actually lead to Drakengard, it makes more sense in context but is still loopy). Drakengard 2 is the sequel to Drakengard ending A, but D2 wasn't directed by Taro Yoko so it's shit and nobody talks about it.
 

KOMega

New member
Aug 30, 2010
641
0
0
Arthain said:
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.

Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
If you like endings, this game here technically has like.... 26 endings. Although only 5 or 6 of them are actual plot endings and the rest are joke endings you can get in various middle parts of the game. Make sure to save before doing any of them, since they will end your game still. The game was really explicit about telling me it doesn't auto-save.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
Legacy
Jul 18, 2009
19,568
4,371
118
I played it for a couple of hours, but I can't say anything about it is particularly hooking me. It has a certain charm, but not enough to have me munch through all the stale combat and environments.

I've heard it said that you need to dig through the game to get to the good stuff, but I'm at an age now where I have zero tolerance for games (or movies etc) that require me to put in more effort than that the title is providing me with engagement/fun.
 

Igor-Rowan

New member
Apr 12, 2016
493
0
0
I've heard the names Nier and Yoko Taro and didn't get interested, I heard the name Platinum games and this thing suddenly jumped high on the priority list along with Zelda and Persona.
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
crimson5pheonix said:
Arthain said:
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.

Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
Automata is a sequel to pretty much any of Nier's endings apart from maybe Ending D(it's ambiguous), Nier is a sequel to Drakengard's Ending E (the weird one), Drakengard is a sequel to a combination of endings A-C of Drakengard 3 (no one of the endings actually lead to Drakengard, it makes more sense in context but is still loopy). Drakengard 2 is the sequel to Drakengard ending A, but D2 wasn't directed by Taro Yoko so it's shit and nobody talks about it.
Ow. My brain. And people say the Metal Gear and Legend of Zelda timelines are convoluted. You know what would be a great retro-review episode? Drakengard. It would be worth it just to hear Yahtzee go completely mad.
 

crimson5pheonix

It took 6 months to read my title.
Legacy
Jun 6, 2008
36,113
3,283
118
Darth_Payn said:
crimson5pheonix said:
Arthain said:
I heard a lot of good things about Nier: Automata, but I'm one of those weird individuals that can't jump into a game without first playing the prequels. Even if Nier: Automata is largely disconnected from Nier and Drakengard, the fact that I know I'll be missing hidden meanings by not playing those two first would drive me bonkers.

Although... when it comes to sequels wasn't Nier the sequel to Drakengard's 4th ending while Nier: Automata the sequel to Nier's 5th ending or some convoluted BS like that?
Automata is a sequel to pretty much any of Nier's endings apart from maybe Ending D(it's ambiguous), Nier is a sequel to Drakengard's Ending E (the weird one), Drakengard is a sequel to a combination of endings A-C of Drakengard 3 (no one of the endings actually lead to Drakengard, it makes more sense in context but is still loopy). Drakengard 2 is the sequel to Drakengard ending A, but D2 wasn't directed by Taro Yoko so it's shit and nobody talks about it.
Ow. My brain. And people say the Metal Gear and Legend of Zelda timelines are convoluted. You know what would be a great retro-review episode? Drakengard. It would be worth it just to hear Yahtzee go completely mad.
Well if you want rage, he could get to the final final boss. Then we can point out Yoko "improved it" in D3.
 

JUMBO PALACE

Elite Member
Legacy
Jun 17, 2009
3,552
7
43
Country
USA
Can't wait until I have a little more free time and can snag this one. I'm a little disappointed Yahtzee spoiled the multiple endings thing. I didn't know that and it would have been a neat thing to discover.
 

Catfood220

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 21, 2010
2,098
357
88
Onliuge said:
Hmm, genuinely surprised that Yahtzee didn't bring up that there's a fucking achievement for looking up 2-b's skirt.


I'm not even kidding with this shit..
In fairness he didn't mention the one in Lollipop Chainsaw either. I think he must lump it all under "Oh Japan!" and gets on with it.
 

Erttheking

Member
Legacy
Oct 5, 2011
10,845
1
3
Country
United States
Ok, can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on with it being a sequel to Neir and whatever the fuck Drakenguard is supposed to be? I don't know a whole lot about Neir, but I do know that humanity somehow being able to get into space after the first game is utterly freaking impossible considering the state they were in, IE,
turned into shadow monsters because spoiler warning, humanity were the bad guys all along and the people you thought were humanity were just bodies that the real humans were going to posses and got really pissy when they developed sentience.

EDIT: Also I just read a quick plot summary of Drakenguard and I'd like to know where summoning magical creatures and a little girl that will blow up the world if she dies come into the equation.
 

zombiejoe

New member
Sep 2, 2009
4,108
0
0
erttheking said:
1. Might want to use the actual spoiler tags, friendo.
2. Without revealing much, Nier Automata explains the connection between the it and the original Nier.

EDIT: Got rid of the exact quote so I could hide the spoilers a bit better.