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ramblyravingnnjashark · 5 years

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Nier Automata - Genius and Madness

the works of Yoko Taro are something that have eluded me for most of my life, and that I have given very little attention to. Probably for good reasons because from the outside, the gameplay of his games range from Mediocre to Average at best and I consider myself a very "gameplay First" person. Some of my Freinds would rave about Drakengard and how weird it is but that didnt quite convince me to look into them much further. However, one Fateful Day a little game called "Nier Automata" was announced, a sequel to Yoko Taros Xbox 360/PS3 game Nier with a little line of Text that would change things in an instant

"Developed by PlatinumGames"

now friends of mine will know that, PlatinumGames is one of my alltime favourite Game Devs for their Crazy High skill Character Action Beat em up titles, containing Larger than Life characters and great and tight Gameplay that owes their roots in the Arcade games of old, which is something I have a appreciation for.

So, with a combination like this I finally decided to take on this series, by means of watching Youtube essays about it because goddamn, the gameplay in these games can get rather mind numbing sadly but honestly? Yoko Taro mighta earned himself now a nice cushy place as one of my favourite Directors, right next to Hideki Kamiya and Hideo Kojima themselves.

But there is one thing I realised from watching these Essays and actually playing one of them it is one thing to watch a guy sum this series up for you, its a whole different thing to watch the Insanity for yourself

because the works of Yoko Taro arent stories about Heroic Knights slaying Demons and Evil Dragons, or Loving Fathers/older Brothers trying to survive the Fall of Humanity with their Daughters/Little Sisters

they are stories about Love, Hate, War, the meaninglessness of the Universe and the Hope growing from it, what it means to be Human, and what it means to lose all reason and go complete and genuinely Mad

(there will be spoilers, so be warned if you wish to expirience these games yourself!)

so originally, this was gonna be a brief recap of Drakengard and Nier, but then I realised I couldnt do these games justice so I just link this and this recap of these games that should give you a good idea what these games are about but to keep it brief

Drakengard is essentially to RPGs what Evangelion was to Mecha Anime, and thats a fairly approviate comparsion when you just look at, this

its also notable for how it handles its different endings, usually referred to as Ending A, Ending B etc, Ending E of the first Drakengard game was a Joke ending that nontheless became the basis for the setting of Nier, a ruined Planet Earth set hundreds of years after the Fall of Humanity about a Father (in the Western Releases) or a Older Brother (Japanese release) having to fend for himself and his Daughter/Younger Sister in a world under constant threat of creatures known as Heartless Shades

both these games are interesting, because their gameplay is nothing special, in the case of Drakengard its outright terrible,they got mediocre reviews and poor sales and yet these games have a dedicated Cult following and tons of Novels, Audio Dramas, Manga and even Stage Plays that expand the Universes of these games and its lore

and thats for a simple reason: these games may have mediocre gameplay but, their Stories, their Characters, their Art Direction is actually of fairly high quality featuring intriguing Characters and worldbuilding that makes you invested in them regardless I mean, theres a entire exchange in Nier thats entireley between two Magical Talking Books for cryin out loud, and its one of the best parts of the game!

however, these games have thus far had a life as just that, Cult Classics, that didnt manage to garner a mainstream audience due to its aforementioned quirks, the Gameplay just could never stand up to the well written stories of these games

this is where PlatinumGames comes into play

now, the gameplay of Automata I honestly felt like was more on par with what Revengeance offered: there is stuff you can do with it but all in all its below the likes of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry 3 but thats not to say its poor, of course not, it doesnt encourage you to try anything other than just Mash about, but thats Fine, theres also Chips that your characters can even equip Chips that enhance their abilities and giv e them new ones such as a Bayonetta style Parry and Witch time or give them Heals upon Killing the enemy and while the actual enviroments can be a bit of a chore to go through (until you get Fast Travel), it still felt good to Parkour your way through them, nice snappy and smooth which gives me hopes they take a cue or two from this game for Bayonetta 3 in that regard at least

another thing I loved is the Soundtrack itself. Now I dont consider myself a musical person, however I can tell when a Song is used perfectly, and in Automata? Every Song is used to actual perfection. Music to me can be the deciding factor wether a Area or Scene in a Game or Movie is Garbage, Forgettable or Legendary, and for Automata, every song makes each area fall niceley into the latter fortunatly. One Standout track for me is Birth of a Wish (Become as Gods) a retake of an earlier song that adds in additional Chorus, and the Theme for Pascals village which is a cute Melody involving Children singing.

now onto the game itself, Route A puts you in the sexy and Lucious Thigh High boots of YoRHa Unit 2B, whereas Route B puts you in the cute Boy shorts of her Partner and mostly Good Boy YoRHa Unit 9S both tasked with ridding the world of Machine Lifeforms and making Earth inhabitable for the Humans stuck on the Moon again Both Routes play out roughly the same, 2B plays like a Standard Character Action Heroine with Lights and Heavies and such, whereas 9S is mainly focused around his ability to hack enemies and engage into brief SHMUP segments.

of the two I felt like 2B was a little more fun to play all in all, the Hacking was fine but also felt a teeny bit like a pace breaker but not too much, at least until late in Route B the game throws curvebals and unique hacking segments into the mix

a thing Yoko Taro games have been very good at showing, is showing the process of a Person losing their mental stability and throwing it all away to become a one track minded Mad Man and I find that interesting.

Drakengard had a good example when the Character Inuart completley loses it and becomes obsessed with bringing back his Dead Love interest, causing here to turn into the monster posted above. Automata meanwhile, shows this also but with Machines, being that shouldnt even go mad in the first place but become Insane with concepts like Revenge, Fear or other. Now I am not a Psychology Major or anything but I cant help but feel "this is Intriguing", not sure if thats a bad thing or anything but thats how it is.

now, Route C is where officialy the PlatinumGame ends and the Yoko Taro game begins, in that things become utterly, utterly Bleak. Not to say it was happy funtime before, many of the sidequests end on a very sour or outright terrible note, but here? Shits gon Bad!

YoRHa falls, everyone on the Protagonists homebase dies or becomes infected with a Virus that makes them go insane, 2B dies and 9S is severeley wounded and has his mental state utterly ruined by seeing 2B, his Love interest, die. from this Point onward, you play as Either A2, a former YoRHa gone Rogue and 9S as he tries to kill every last Machine Lifeform, and as hes utterly loses his mind. Focusing entireley on his one Goal so that maybe, he can find Death and be with 2B in the Afterlife.

this is where the game really became interesting to me. Gradually 9S goes from this sweet pure boy to a Violent Mess that only wants to Kill and Kill and Kill, Over and Over, its a Interesting Development for such a Character I feel. A2 meanwhile, while still a Great Character and a Blast to play, I felt like was severeley underutilized, getting very little playtime compared to 2B and 9S, with most of her greatest character Development limited to a Japan only Stage play that got a short text recap on a terminal. and it just goes from there and it keeps going, plot twists happen, reveals happen, callbacks to the first Nier and Drakengard 1 happen, its just this huge Mountain of themes and stuff to uncover and analyse. references to old Philosophers and the Concept of Nihilism itself ebing explored, little details that popped up in the early game and now have much greater meaning, its....actually incredible?

I dont think I ever played a game that had so much going on, the last time I think I did was, Metal Gear Solid 3, maybe?! I think....this might actually be one of the best written games I ever played?

and there is still so much content I could go through, the Stage Plays, the Novels, theres probably a buncha Audio Dramas for it too already its like, Jesus christ. and then theres Ending E, which while rather difficult (and probably causes at least 4 people to fucking hate my Guts) was probably one of the best ending sequences I seen in recent years, I'm not gonna go into detail what it is because, it needs to be seen to be belived, but I find it genuiley incredible.

I dont think theres a single game in the Drakengard and Nier series I would actually consider my "Favourite Game", maybe Nier Automata but thats up for consideration still, but I think I can safeley say that both games story as a whole is easily up there with Metal Gear as one of my favourite Game stories out there, and friends and followers of mine would know by now how much I love that Franchise and its wacky insane story, Drakengard and Nier are special little series that you dont see enough of these days, but maybe thats for the better

I'm not gonna say "Nier Automata rekindled my love for video games" or anything, but I am glad I got to expirience these two series.

#Recent Ramblings #Ramblings #Ninja Original

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ramblyravingnnjashark · 6 years

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Breath of the Wild(Switch) - Link come to Town to Safe the Princess Zelda

so this Blog is gonna be just me rambling about assorted bullshit I like or maybe not like,and what better way to kick things off than by going over a Game I just Finished, dont expect any Hot takes or anything however

Me and the Zelda series is a bit of an odd thing, I played Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Link to the Past, Link Between worlds, Skyward Sword, Minish Cap and Twilight Princess and I do really like most of these games, even Skyward Sword despite its flaws, yet part of me never felt like an Uber Fan of this Franchise. Dont get me wrong, I really do like Zelda and everytime I play one of these games, I am having a great time but I feel like I should be a bigger fan of it than I am because its just such a fun series full of adventure.

and despite WW and LttP being two of my favourite titles, I always had a greater affinity towards the Design of the Adult incarnations of Link, it was mostly the design of "cool Swordsman who plays the Flute and Travels the Land all by himself" that struck me as extremley cool at the time, and it still is a strong aesthetic, but maybe it was also some inner feeling of "this is what I want to be when I grow up" with a dash of me really liking it seeing a Child Character become Adult and have even better adventures, a sentiment I felt with Goku at the end of the original Dragonball series too, or maybe it was the gay voice in me making first contact telling me "you really wanna bone that, trust me"

either way, aside from OoT noone of the other Adult Link based games really reasonated with me as well unfortunatly, I tought Twilight Princess would be the one and while I think that is a good game, it just didnt leave quite a huge impression on me, and Skyward Sword, while I still really liked it, was a bit too Flawed in its mechanics at times and Hyrule Warriors is Non canon even tho that Link has one of the best designs anyway.

so now here we are, with Breath of the Wild, the most recent (as of the time of this writing) entry in the series, beloved by everyone and a Smashing success, so what do I, a random shmuck nobody cares about, think of it?

of course I loved it, even if I have some issues with it

.starting off with what I liked

-the Sandbox itself

Back in the Day, when I played the shit out of LttP on GBA, the Hyrule Map felt so huge and full of mystery and secrets to me, I would always run around looking if I can discover new stuff or use what little time I could go on the internet and find out that there is a whole bunch more stuff to discover, more items, more treasures, it made the game feel much bigger and the adventure much grander than it actually was, a feeling that was only increased Tenfold with Wind Waker, where a whole ocean full of secrets and islands full of treasures were waiting for you to discover them

alot of this of course had to do with me being a Child, but Botw to me brought back alot of these memories of just traveling to a random spot on the map and then walking around to see what I can find around here, helped by the fact that there is tons of grea setpieces in the form of pretty forests, amazing mountain ranges, or beautiful Grassy fields. There is few other feelings to me than just exploring around minding your own Buisness and then seeing this Gigantic Dragon Spawn somewhere in the Distance, not knowing whats going on or what that is, or going through the Korok Forest only to be greeted by the Deku Tree and the Master Sword itself, all aided by a nice, if simplistic, soundtrack that always niceley ets the mood for the current location

-The Sheikah Slate, Paraglider, Champion Abilities and the Runes

the Sheikah slate is your all in one buddy for this game, from being a map, a camera, to an instant teleportation device and thats rad

runes meanwhile are basically the replacement for traditional items such as the Hookshot, boomerang etc, and while I think the Cryosis Rune was rather underutilized, the other runes are still tons of fun to use and mess around with

Stasis+ is obviously the most fun of the bunch if only because you can just freeze a Enemy on the spot for a few seconds but Magnesis is also lots of fun to mess around with and the Bomb Runes helped me tremendously in the Trial of the Sword maps, whenever I had no weapons at hand lastly, there is the Master Cycle Zero, added to the game via DLC and basically a Motorbike for Link and by the time I got it, I had even less reason to actually use actaual Horses outside of the Final Boss Fight its Fucking Sick

then there is the Paraglider, obtained early on in the game and pretty simple, you just glide with it and by the time you get enough stamina, all you gotta do is find a high enough place and you can basically glide wherever, its kinda dumb but I like it.

the Champion Abilities you get for Freeing their respective Divine Beast meanwhile are basically a throwback to the Goddess Abilities from OoT, and while I wished there was a better UI solution for their icons, they were still a neat Addition to the game, especially Revalis Gale which works wonders for Exploration and Combat

-Character Customization and Cooking

I am a bit of a fan of customizing your character in games, but I dont see myself clamoring for it when said character is a established one such as Link and yet, I am not gonna say no to being able to dress up Link however I want for this game or make him run around naked which is pretty fun too I am sure.

in addition to all that, instead of relying just on the Master Sword and Hylia Shield you get a ton of neat weapons to use (for a while....) and I think thats a really neat idea, giving the play more ways to express themselve and not just having to rely on the Master Sword

the Cooking system, while a bit Clunky, was also a neat addition to the series if only because I enjoy cooking myself. it does get kinda simplistic once you got the needed resources to constantly cook Heart/Attack/Defense/Stamina boosting foods, but its also fun to just chuck random foods into the pot and see what comes out.

-the Divine Beast Dungeons and Hyrule Castle

the Divine Beasts act as about the closest thing you get in this game to traditional Dungeons, except that instead of using an item to solve the puzzles presented within it, you use not just your sheikah slate but the Beast itself to solve the Puzzles at hand, and I REALLY liked that. The Dungeon itself would constantly twist and turn in various ways, which in turn changes how you gotta approach things and thats really great I thought.

Hyrule Castle Meanwhile, didnt have that, but instead it truly felt like you are hitting the finale to something Big. a densely Layered...well....CASTLE full of Treasures, tough enemies and Calamaty Ganon himself waiting for you at the end

sure you can cheese the area easily with just the Zora Tunic, but you do miss out on a really neat area and tied with Eventide Island and the Yiga Hideout as some of the best Content in the game.

-Link, Zelda and their Relationship

this intepretation of Link and Zelda is probably my favourite in a while, Link (Simliar to Hyrule Warriors but thats non canon) is already a expirienced Swordsman who gets the weight of the World put on his shoulders so his lack of speech is a coping mechanism to deal with the entire situation, which I find very interesting. Not to mention that in the Japanese version at least Link adds his own thought on the various quests in the game, its not much but I like that added touch and its a shame its not in the Localized versions

Zelda likewise, has some confidence issues, being Pushed by her Father to concentrate on nothing but Awakening her Goddess powers, and actually failing to do so until after Ganon has already mostly won anyway

its a shame that Ganon in comparsion is reduced to being a Raging Eldricht monster, which does have its Charm aswell but I feel for one of Nintendos longest lasting Antagonists you coulda done better

now with all that Gushing, there is some issues I have with this game

-Weapon Degradation

you know what this is about, it sucks, for fucks sake

-the Champions

the Four Champions introduced in this game are honestly some of my new favourite side characters in the Zelda series, they all have great designs, cool abilities and are fairly interesting.....but the problem is you dont really get to see much of them.

most of their screentime is via Flashbacks and outside of one Memory and one cutscene in the Champions Ballad DLC, you dont get to see them interact with each other much and thats a Huge Shame. Urobosa in particuler seems to have alot going on with Zelda herself, being somewhat of a surrogate Mother to her and a close friend of her Dead Mother. But unfortunatly all the Champions are dead by the time the game takes place, by which their point in the story boils down to "guide Link through the Divine Beast, give him your Sick Ability, then Fire Laser at Hyrule Castle to weaken Calamity Ganon"

it bums me out because with this Link + Zelda + Four Champion and their Mechas setup you could have a fucking awesome setup for another game or Saturday Morning cartoon, featuring some shitkid Sidekick and Epona who for some reason acts like Scooby Doo

to a extend this also applies to the Champions Modern Day Counterparts, where only really Sidon and Yunobo have any sort of huge involvement in their respective Divine Beast Quest, and even then they stop being involved at all once the Quest is over, and thats a Huge shame because Sidon is really hot and a neat character.

-Enemy variety

99% of the time you will Fight colored variants Bokoblins, Moblins and Lizafos or Stal- variants of them at night, and while overworld "Bosses" like Guardians, Hinox, Talus and the Lynels offer a nice challenge in the early stages, they are very far and few inbetween unless you activeley seek them out so all you're left with are various Wizzrobes, Octoroks and Keese, and thats not too great considering that this franchise went on for over 30 years and amassed a great variety of neat enemies to fight.

this extend to a certain degree to the actual Main Bosses too, in the Divine Beasts you each get to Fight Four Elemental Blight Ganons, each having their own gimmick and even making use of the Enviroment for their boss fights but I feel like design wise they are a bit too derative from each other and seem to have little personality outside of "spawn of Calamity Ganon", compare that to Koloktos and Helmaroc King it feels a bit underwhelming

Kohga, Monk Maz Koshia and Calamity Ganon himself were probably the best bosses I felt, Kohga being funny and having a neat gimmick, Koshia for being a nice curveball on the Sheikah Monks and being great to fight and Calamaty Ganon for being also great to fight, a Interesting Design and being a nice sendup to Ganondorf himself.

but then the latter is followed up by Dark Beast Ganon who,despite being impressive in Scale, ends up as being essentially a Victory Lap to close off the Adventure, so I thought that coulda been better.

-Lack of Dungeons and the Shrines replacing them

Shrines are a mixed bag for me, I did like alot of the overworld Based Shrine quests and thought they were really neat, especially Eventide Island, and alot of the normal Shrines were kinda cool to play through, especially the shrines added for the Champions Ballad DLC, but it doesnt make sense for them to be there instead of Dungeons to me?

alot of these Shrine Puzzles just plain felt like something that you could take a couple of, put them together and make a proper Dungeon out of them, putting them as one room challenges all over the map just feels like padding to me, not to mention the reward for clearing them all is, underwhelming.

I think you could easily retool this concept and add Heart Containers/Stamina Containers as treasures for clearing them? or add Heart Pieces as overworld Treasures, because just getting a Spirit Orb from them doesnt feel super rewarding, and even the treasures in the form of weapons feel pointless eventually as you gain better equipment yourself.

I get that in previous games Dungeons were a way of getting better equipment for clearing Puzzles and such, and that this games big thing is changing things up, but I feel like the Shrines offer very little aside from Padding the game out with little reward in exchange.

and the funny thing is, despite these complaints, I still honestly feel like BotW might be up there as new favourite Game of mine, because the Positives still outweight the Negatives and if I had to give it a score I would probably give it a 8 or 9 out of 10? Altho I can see why some people go ahead and just give it a full 10 but pissing over Numbers is meaningless in the end

I loved the world, I loved the gameplay, I loved the music, I loved the characters it introduced, it felt like the New Definitive Zelda game, except where the fuck is Tingle, stop doing him dirty and get over it!

but more than anything however, I feel like BotW makes for a great basis for Future titles in the Franchise, The Gameplay mechanics are honestly Perfect here for the series, so if they were to iron out these last few flaws to an otherwise great game, you got not just a Fantastic Game but a game that you could actually call Legendary.

heh, "Legend"ary, I am fucking hilarious

#Recent Ramblings #Ramblings #Ninja Original

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