Hi guys,

So I am halfway through listening to the GOTY talks, and since the music category I am clear that I have to play Nier. For the music, world and story. The thing is though, I do not much care - or even actively dislike character action games. (I play strategy games 90% of the times, staring at maps.) As a consequence I am not really good at them. Can I enjoy this, or will this be total agony?

It's not that hard of a game IMO. Just put it on easy and you should be able to fly through it.

I can't really speak with 100% certainty, but if you really don't like character action games, I doubt you'll enjoy this since it is exactly that with some bullet hell mechanics mixed in.

You'll be fine. The game has several ways to which you more or less just have to spam a button.

I think it's a bit strange that there is so much focus on the game's mechanics standing in the way of enjoying it. At worst, I feel it's the exact same situation as Wolfenstein II: Just put it on easy and breeze through it. In my mind it's literally the same exercise.

Nier Automata is a character action game, but the previous Nier and Drakengard games were not. Platinum put some effort into making sure Automata would accommodate players without any experience at character action games. Set the game to easy, turn on some of the auto chips, and you should be ok.

Maybe just put it on easy and play it for the story

Even on normal, it's not an especially difficult game - but if you want to you can hop it down to easy, there are even auto-chips which will handle some of the stuff for you. They made it very accessible if you're purely interested in experiencing the world and story.

As others have said, it's a very easy game. Just remember to get involved with the chip system early on and tinker around with it whenever to get a high-level chip. If you do that, you should be fine.

The easy mode essentially plays itself, and even on normal you have easy access to limitless health items. The problem is whether that can keep you entertained for 30 hours or not. I dunno, give the demo a try and see what you think.

If you don't wanna play it but still want to see the story, there are let's plays out there. I'm watching that one at the moment. It's not that far along, but the dude playing has done some great let's plays in the past and should be able to do it justice just fine. He's played through the whole thing once already last year, and knows Japanese, so he can contrast and compare the translation. He's also not gonna spoil stuff.

You should have no problems with gameplay difficulty. I'm by no means great at games these days (...there was a time...) and I think I died once in 35 hours on normal.

I haven't played easy, but I wonder if it would get incredibly boring...

There's one part that came up in the GOTY deliberations that's kinda late in the game and involves walking. I didn't die, but I got lost and annoyed.

Oh, I'm not great with bullet hell gameplay either, but that kept me on my toes without being too challenging.

There's a lot of combat in this game so if that's not your thing you'll probably not gonna dig it.

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of character action games myself. Like you, I don't actively dislike them, but I generally don't care enough about them to seek them out.

Automata is still probably in my top 10 games of all time. So you can definitely enjoy it. I suggest starting out on normal before dropping to easy. You might actually enjoy the combat if you give it a chance, because I did. It's pretty lenient for a character action game and there's a good degree of RPG like customization.

It is more forgiving than some character action games, and you can switch it to easy, if you just want to be more survivable and just see all of the story content. If you're main concern is "Am I good enough to play NieR?" then that's my answer. If it's more of a "I'm not sure I will like NieR, because I don't like character action games" that's probably a harder sell. That game is a character action game with some RPG mechanics.

Personally, the gameplay ruins it for me. It is extremely one note and super bland. I surprised myself in actually beating all the ending only because I kept hearing how good it was. Did not stick the landing for me.

Just know that the first playthrough, which takes around 8-10 hours, can feel pretty boring and aimless. Stuff feels really disjointed, and the surface level plot isn't great. Playthrough B starts layering on context to stuff that makes the world more interesting, and C is when all the revelations start coming through.

It's an easy game on easy. You can kinda mash through it. The problem is more likely to be that you get bored of the combat.

I don't know. My brother bought it on release and went through it all. After hearing the GoTY talk about story and music, I gave in and tried it. I put about seven hours in (stopping after a carnival area, and onto a tree that's home to robots), and I think it's good, but I'm already at the point where I am not even sure I'll finish it all. The game also looks like it could be released on the Switch. The art is fine and runs smoothly, but otherwise, it isn't really a looker of a game, which is perhaps the biggest complaint I have (though, it's not a huge detractor). I kind of know some of the things that become revealed (kind of, maybe?), but hearing that you have to more or less replay the same thing over and over to get more story doesn't sound appealing to me. The music is good and I like how it dynamically changes, but I am not sure it's my favorite of 2017. Maybe I should finish it. Perhaps it'll drastically become some powerful fiction that I love, but right now, I have the feeling I'll end up just thinking once it's over 'Yeah, that was a thing. Onto the next.' I'm not excited to jump back into it. Good music, fine gameplay, and I don't know about the story yet. I just hope it isn't predictable.

@ntm: Its a Yoko Taro game so expect the unexpected and if you know a bit about Anime you probably know already what you're might getting into, too.

If you find it boring after playing it for like another seven hours and you still feel like you're not enjoying it, just move away from it and play it another time.

Also regardless of what others have told you, you're not exactly replaying the game. Go and ask your brother how if he has liked it!

@dray2k: I know, you're experiencing it with different characters, and seeing new things. It's not just restarting the game over with 2B. I know that at least. I like it and am not bored with it, I didn't say/mean that, it's just that I am not very excited about playing it. It's a game, so far, that I am already looking into other things to play rather than jump back in. I'll probably finish it at some point.

@ntm: As someone gives no damns for anime, I loved Nier. On my first playthrough, I did hit a slump and just ignored sidequests for a good long while.

The game picks-up, and is very much worth it.

Yeah, it could be a lot tighter, but pushing through (it wasn't even a slog, it just sometimes felt...numb?), I really enjoyed what I got out of that game.

It's bananas to say, but the third playthrough is where I really fell for the game.

I know most modern games would rather put 100% of the advertisement effort into online ads, but there's actually a demo you can try out. That's what I did before I bought it.

My Dad has got through to Ending C and he has severe issues with controlling 3D cameras in games. He's even been playing on Normal, and has found that the reassurance of the option of the auto-chips on Easy is enough to get him through some of the tougher parts. Knowing that he played it, someone who would ask me to complete specific jumps/bosses for him in Ocarina of Time or Tomb Raider games when I was a kid, gives me the confidence to say that Nier Automata is an incredibly inviting character-action game.

If you have difficulty with these kinds of games, the chip system, camera setting controls, and easy difficulty can be altered at any point in the game without any punishment (including making the game harder if you would prefer). For most players even tangentially experienced with 3D action games, they'll probably only find issues when either: 1) trying to complete every side-quest as it unlocks (some unlock early that are level-balanced for much later - especially follow-up parts to previous side-quests that you are expected to be able to complete); or 2) choosing to ignore all side-quests and run past enemies to see the story - over time, this can leave you underlevelled towards the end. Still, even if you run into those, dropping the difficulty will be more than enough to off-set it.

One thing that will also make this easier. Some enemies drop things called Machine Cores. They sell for _15 THOUSAND_ and I've found no other use for them yet being most of the way through route B (detouring for all the side quests). This makes things way easier as it lets you buy the chip slots/etc to give more power/options.

@westernwizard: If you upgrade the "Machine _" weapons or the "YoRHa Issue Blade" to Level 2 (i.e. first special abilities) they give you shop discounts (at robot shops in the former, and resistance shops in the latter case) which stack even when not equipped. Sell anything labelled "can be sold for money". While there are two cases of items with that label being useful in side-quests, you can easily get them in less than 5 minutes when asked.

Selling those items gives you a lot of money (especially if you take a little time to fish) and those discounts allow you to buy chips easily. It effectively makes the death punishment a non-issue as there is always a minimum level of competent chips you can buy even if you lose the ones you have.

Also, not only do shop items and item drops get better each chapter, but so do the value of items for selling: so don't worry about if the start of each new route seems like a huge difficulty spike - you'll quickly catch up.

@westernwizard: The game labels everything that has no purpose except to be sold for money, the cores included. The labels are honest, it's not trying to subvert anything.

Biggest gameplay barrier to my enjoyment of Nier was doing the sidequests. There are far too many fetch quests and walking from point A to point B back to point A. Note for your sanity if you decide you do want to do sidequests: the game has a fast travel option that only becomes available fairly late into the first playthrough. I takes so long for fast travel to become available that I was questioning whether the game would have fast travel at all, and ended up wasting way more time doing sidequests than I needed to. Even with fast travel, doing the side quests is still a laborious process, but without fast travel, it's truly painful. Do not bother doing any side quests until fast travel opens up.

Oh I know they're labeled Can be sold for money. I'm just paranoid :)

@wuddel:

As others have said, absolutely, just play on easy. I sort of think everyone should play N:A, though, so I'm a bit biased. Look, there are parts of this game that are probably going to turn you off if you're not into this type of game. I'm of the opinion that your ultimate takeaway from the experience will be more than worth it.

If your only concern is difficulty, don't be concerned. Play this. (And know that you'll encounter enemies in your first playthrough that you're not really meant to beat the first time around--you'll know because you'll do next to no damage to them. Save these for later. You can bypass the sidequests that don't interest you in the first playthrough as well, but know that a few of them are pretty great, so you may want to give them a go later.)

P.S. Most of all, totally ignore that irritating clown escort quest when it pops up. You won't be able to do it until much later.

Difficulty won't really be a problem. But as someone who loves this game, and enjoys character action games, I found the combat tedious at times.

Wow I'm an idiot, I never sold a thing back to stores.

Play? Sure! Enjoy? I'm not so sure...

I quit the game in the middle of the 4th boss fight today (or the one in the ocean with the EMP shield). The boredom finally broke me. The janky/empty world finally broke me. The horrible camera angles finally broke me.

The game is rather easy to play if you can get through it. I beat a side quest against a level 40 robot when I was level 15. Took time but it wasn't difficult.