Recent reviews by sil3nt

Was very impressed by this game, great story, some interesting philosophical choices are made. Unfortunately due to the medium and the limitation it presents, the situations aren't always presented accurately, but I understand that there has to be some creative license in order to make it viable as a game.

The most annoying thing about the game is the Main Character's inability to understand the situation, and their pure selfishness in some of their actions.

Everything else aside, it has a great world, it has awesome atmosphere, and is one of my most favorite recently released games.

I only wish I could experience it again as if it was the first time.

To start this review off, the director is Yoko Taro, the notorious troll dev who likes to punish players (see the Drakengard 3 Final Boss fight if you are not familiar), and he is back at it again with NieR: Automata. The prologue is well known to be trollishly annoying on harder difficulties, especially if using a mouse and keyboard. I highly recommend using a controller if you have one available, as it will make the prologue far easier as the controls on the keyboard and mouse are quite frankly atrocious.

The prologue features no checkpoints, a unskippable introduction cinematic, and about a 30-50 minute completion time, if you die at any point, the end credits roll, and you must start the game over from the main menu screen again.

This can be very frustrating, as not all of the controls are very well explained, such as the infinitely spammable dodge button (that on K&M requires a double tap in the direction you wish to dodge, whereas on controller it has a dedicated button) which gives you a significant about of I-frames, essentially making your character invincible from melee attacks as long as you keep spamming it, to the point that you can continually dodge boss attacks while your model is clipping as long as you keep spamming dodge.

As well as enemies can often have attacks that you may have never seen them use in combat before, that are capable of insta-killing you (such as the Engel bullet spam, which on my first playthrough was the first attack it used, killing me instantly), potentially sending you all the way back to the main menu after another scroll of the end credits.

I feel like the director intended this to be annoying to the player, when it could have very easily been rectified so that it was not as much of an annoyance for the player (an access point located shortly after the first buzzsaw fight, as well as one located just before the Engel fight would have alleviated a lot of player frustration and would not have interfered with the story). Instead it feels like the director intentionally chose for it to be this way which, considering Drakengard 3, does not surprise me all that much.

Post-prologue the game improves significantly, access points are often accessible, allowing the player to quick save frequently, reducing the amount of game time lost in case the player dies, significantly reducing player frustration.

Considering the availability of access points later on in the game, it further reinforces that the prologue's lack of access points is wholly intentional.

I have enjoyed the game a fair bit since overcoming the prologue, but I feel like that should not detract from how terrible the prologue itself is.

After the prologue the game has excellent intensive combat, and the player death mechanic is very reminiscent of Dark Souls, a personal favorite of mine. Death is punished, but not too harshly, allowing the player to regain XP, gold, and the chips that they had equipped from when they died.

I think that the game can be very enjoyable for those who have the wherewithal to endure the prologue, despite the difficulty. However, if you cannot overcome the poor dev choices that became the prologue, I do not recommend the game at all, as it will lead to a significant amount of frustration, leaving a rather bitter taste in your mouth.