Nier:Automata at first glance may look like a regular Hack and Slash game, But let me tell you…, To me, this would be one of the best games to come out in the last decade or even in history! Inspite it being a sequel to the game “Nier”[en.wikipedia.org], which by itself is a spin-off game of “Drakengard”[en.wikipedia.org], Nier:Automata can be played as a stand-alone game as all the necessary information is provided to the player while they progress through the story.

Yoko Taro is a GENIUS! His way of the direction and how the story unfolds is brilliant! How it starts off as simple mission of eliminating a target which then starts to evolve and branch out into a far more complex and engaging story. The story is brilliantly written and it isn’t something I can explain that easily…so go ahead and PLAY it for yourself.As a side note, the prologue is one of the hardest prologue missions I have ever played! :P

The gameplay is like a any other RPG game, where you keep grinding and leveling up your weapons and character. There are quite a few side quests which can be skipped but, I’d recommend you play them (The hardest boss in game is part of a side quest). One of the most impressive part about the gameplay is how the game transitions from a Free Cam Third Person game to a 3D side-scroller, sometimes even a bullet-hell-shooter, according to the area or mission you are in. This is done so well that the controls doesn’t feel weird or out of place. The narrative structure is a bit different than usual and to get the main and final ending requires you to play through it three times. These give you the main ending (5 of them) but excluding those there are 21 endings. While this may sound hectic but trust me it is not! The mini game to get the final ending of main story impressed me a lot XD

The characters are written really well. The character development throughout the game is amazing! The game structure makes the character development more convenient. Even the side characters have a story to tell which greatly helps in developing the game world. There are some reoccurring characters from the previous installment “Nier”.

The map is not a huge map like many other RPG games but, each of the location in this world are very memorable especially with the OST playing in the background. There are a lot of weapons to collect, side quests to play and characters to interact with.


Keiichi Okabe created one of the greatest video game OSTs ever! The track for each and every location in the map is unique and memorable! You can picture the location just by listening to the OST. The ending song is available in 3 languages and all of them are really good. The DLC ending song by amazarashi was a great song as well!

Being a degenerate weeb myself, I played it with Japanese voice, which had some great voice acting imo (Some very notable Japanese Voice actors were in the cast). But I wouldn’t recommend this to a non-native speaker as it would mess with the immersion when they talk during a heated combat and end up missing the subtitles. So, stick with English as the voice acting was great there as well!

As I said earlier this is a game that every gamer should play and experience. Even though I was pretty late to play the game, it still holds up in terms of graphics and story. The 80+ hours I put into the game was totally worth it!

Final Score: 10/10

Issued by YoRHa
For the Glory of Mankind