Nier : Automata

Liyo Kikon Swinging sword and fighting giant robots is definitely my cup of tea and Nier: Automata certainly has that and a lot more! Brought to you by the genius director Yoko Taro, Nier: Automata brings life to a futuristic earth where humans have abandoned it to live on the moon several hundred years back and they left Androids behind to fight a war against an alien invasion. This game is titled as an Action Role Playing Game, but unlike most other ARPG, it does not focus much on character development and to be honest, I don’t think that is much of an issue, simply because this game has one of the best fight scenes in recent games and most of the time, it feels like you are inside an anime movie. The story is also very “anime oriented” since some enemies act like bratty teenagers from anime movies, but don’t let that little detail take you away from the main plot, which is actually rather interesting and since there are multiple endings to the story based on the decisions you make in the game, it gives the game a great re-play value. Aside from the main quest, there are several side quests which you can go through to help your fellow androids. These side quests mainly consist of kill missions or simple tasks which you need to perform. And along with the side quests, you can also do other things such as fishing and hunting to earn money which can be used to upgrade and customise your character. Our main hero is named “2B” and she is dressed up in a gothic attire and walks around like she’s a model on a runway but since this game is anime influenced, I guess that can be expected. 2B can be customised upto a certain extent as you would expect from an RPG, but unlike most other games of the same genre, I felt that this game does not focus much on customisation and is more action oriented. Sure, when it comes to battles, you will need to use different tactics to overcome your enemies and usually, the direct approach with your most powerful weapon may not be the best choice, but learning to combine different weapons for maximum effect quickly becomes second nature as you progress. Fighting the bosses is another matter entirely since most bosses are Massive, and it may take a few tries to bring some of them down, but again, finding the right weapon combination depending on the kind of boss you are fighting certainly helps. If you find yourself in a difficult position and somehow an enemy kills you, then you lose all your experience points and your pod’s installed chips if you can’t return to the place where you were killed and this can be frustrating at times, but this makes the game more challenging. The open world of Nier : Automata is beautiful and it has quite a few hidden surprises, but it doesn’t take long to explore most of the main areas and you will quickly know the map inside out, especially while doing side missions since they usually require you to go through the same areas again and again. But in this post apocalyptic world, with a surreal background music, one can easily find themselves admiring the beautiful graphics. And speaking of graphics, the action scenes are beautiful themselves, since 2B really knows how to make herself look good while kicking some robot butt, watching the sword trails and flawless acrobatic movements is certainly awesome. Along with the running and jumping around, the main character can also ride animals! Yes, according to the story, animals and birds have started to repopulate the desolate planet and once you get a hold of an animal you can ride on, it is actually fun, since you can cover great distances quickly as you smash through enemy robots and do a kind of drift atop the animal! I know, that simply sounds hilarious, but actually doing a drift while riding a moose is rather fun. The entire game is very polished and beautiful, but the one thing which drove me nuts were the cut-scenes, some of the cut-scenes are great, but the ones where they talk to each other can sometimes feel like they are taking forever, I mean I have no problems with dialogue since they are a vital part of the story, but they sometimes felt a bit too much like a text adventure at times. Apart from that, I found it hard to find any other issues with this game since the gameplay is smooth with some really awesome hack-and-slash type action, the storyline is great as you try to find out what happened to planet earth and the graphics are beautiful, so this makes Nier : Automata a great title which you must check out.