Board 8 > Bit late to the party, but I am now experiencing Nier:Automata

(+) Yeah! (+)

Got beat up.

Ate a fish.

Watched various characters suddenly display emotion because plot.

Cue credits.

Been an enjoyable ride so far, I'll have to see what the further playthroughs do for the experience.

sounds like you got the gist of the game at this point

Hah, game was not joking about keeping settings adjustments recorded for future posterity. Kinda spooky watching past me toggle settings.

Yeah that part was neat. The second playthrough adds some neat flavor, but a fair warning that it does retread a lot of ground you've already covered. Just know it's absolutely worth powering through if you find yourself in a rut with it.

Ah, but you see, THIS playthrough I can open those cheeky little chests that were laughing at my inability to interact with them.

I actually enjoyed the second playthrough more than the first, although not many feel the same way.

1st playthrough is great
2nd playthrough sucks
3rd playthrough is great
optional super boss sucks

I'm liking what I've done of the 2nd playthrough so far. Feels a lot faster, and the game is wise to pepper in new bits to keep it feeling fresh enough to keep going. While I don't care much for 9S as a character, I do like his hacking minigame (especially the chiptuneified remixes of whatever theme is currently playing).

One small annoyance I have had throughout is that the button prompts are wrong for me. I'm using an 8bitdo controller, so for all the 'B' prompts, I've had to press the A button, and now with this hacking thrown into the mix I have to press X for the 'Y' prompts. Muscle memory sorts this out pretty quick, but more than a few times I've gotten puzzled when I clearly pressed 'B' and rather than acquiring useful items, 2B just leapt into the air.

Actually, now that I think about it, there are a lot of little annoyances I have. Sometimes it can be a bit awkward distinguishing between game environment and invisible wall territory. In hand with that, the map can be a chore to mess with and properly interpret. The camera insists that I want a lower viewing angle than I'd prefer, leading me to constantly fiddle with the right analog. Red dots keep being a thing, no matter how many I seem to squash down, like a hydra's head, a new quest appears.

All that said, none of it goes so far as to actually diminish the experience. Still having a blast exploding robots while listening to the lovely soundtrack. Heck, I've lingered in some areas just to soak in more of the ost.

Just did the forest kingdom bit...I found the cutaways to the past to be a little jarring and didn't really add much of value, although robots being derpy about human things is always amusing.

Was keeping an eye out for mushrooms and water too, as I've discovered that I need that for some reason to upgrade my pods. Thought I might have been able to progress the mysterious letter quest while I was here, but nope..,game still won't let me behind that door. Maybe playthrough 3 will shed some light on that. I'm thinking it is probably related to the master weaponsmith the refugee shop guy is convinced is hanging out in the forest.

[B] ending get!

Was a little awkward being the robot in the factory, although I discovered that if I used the evade button, it would jump backwards making for rapid transportation so long as I was facing the wrong way. Unfortunately, this also meant I was open to attack a bit.

Was definitely not shocked to discover that humanity had gone extinct. So much of the brief story I was given about how things came to be just screamed fake.

It has been kind of amusing to watch the B-side of the story play out...there were a few bosses I distinctly remember fighting as 2B, I instead got to hack into and learn more info as 9S. Definitely enriches the experience.

Got a bit spooked though, progressing the quest where you talk to that goliath. It asked me what night was, citing historical records of what it should be, but not having seen it itself. And I'm sitting here realizing that nope, the game has not given me any night scenes. Only time it has shown me stars was in the bunker, and I am 87% sure that place is fake. So I'm left wondering what the deal is here...is Earth tidally locked now? Are we on a different world altogether? Perhaps everything is a simulation?

Route C hype.

That twist is pretty easy to see coming if you played the original Nier, but it's still a pretty great moment.

It's one of those situations where the plot makes less sense if you know part of what's going on, because it seems to contradict what you think you already know. Until it turns out that the conflicting part is just lies, of course.

As for the day/night thing- Yes, Earth is tidally locked now. The official explanation is in the book Grimoire NieR, and like everything else in the setting, it's all Caim's fault.

Started on C.

Yorha decided to go for the 'evil empire' look out of nowhere, only for them to suddenly turn into an evil empire because someone had to go and pretend to be machine jesus.

I kinda figured the game would go in this kind of trajectory, as it is perhaps the most anime plot thing it could have done. I was thinking the commander was gonna be the final boss or something though, but nope...space station goes poof and suddenly 2B and 9S are the last best hope for...um...some forms of sentient life? I'm kinda at a loss for what I'm supposed to be fighting for here XD

....

wut

I'm just casually exploring the water zone looking for pure water when pod informs me that that wily virus has gotten into 2B as well. So as not to suffer robot death, I gotta make my way all the way over to the forest area before time runs out. Also half the time I'm forced to just walk. Also there are enemies. Also vision is distorted. Also virus infects faster as it goes.

Good thing I know my way around the city or else I'd have been toast...er.

But it turns out it didnt matter because the plot commanded 2B to die in the arms of A2.

Meanwhile, an earthquake decides to happen, because when it rains, it pours. Naturally, 9S sees 2B die, seemingly by A2's hands, for maximum drama. The goober does this while being positioned in a very not-good spot while the earth is shaking.

As if that wasn't enough, that weird matter city (?) seems to emerge and be a thing on the overworld. It is at this point, that I realize that...I have no damn idea where this game is gonna go anymore XD

ThANk you for... foR the FLOWErs.

Also that logo/title drop on Route C is so damn perfect. Best instance in the genre IMO.

Yeah, it happened and I was like 'um...so was I just playing the prologue before?!'

Got a bit busy with things, but I wanna get back to this soon.