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2 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 100.1 hrs on record (85.6 hrs at review time)
Posted: 18 Apr, 2019 @ 6:21am
Updated: 21 Apr, 2019 @ 10:05am

Background on my Playthrough
  • This is my first game from the Nier franchise
  • Pre-ordered for the Day One Edition on Steam
  • Purchased the DLC
  • Xbox 360 Controller
  • Japanese voices and English text
  • Highest graphics settings
  • Normal difficulty throughout the whole game
  • (Probably 100% Completion)

Gameplay 10/10
  • Fluid fighting mechanics and animations, feels very satisfying when fighting enemies
  • Decent variety of weapons
  • Simple combos during combat, there is a button for a light attack and one for a heavy attack
  • Normal difficulty makes the combat relatively easy which was enjoyable for me, though I've heard there's a huge jump in difficulty even at "Hard"
  • Firing the pod (a little robot that helps you fight) continuously requires you to hold a button down whilst in combat, can be a bit annoying
  • Evade can be abused and spammed

Visuals 9/10
  • Beautiful scenery and graphics, making it nice to take the time to look around
  • Very detailed character design and modelling, plus there's everyone's favourite android waifu 2B
  • Some textures are low res and pixelated

Audio 10/10
  • Entrancing soundtrack, really helps set the mood
  • I've idled in the place of memories just to listen to the music
  • Crisp combat sound effects brings life into the fights
  • Voice acting holds lots of emotion

Controls 9/10
  • Flawless controller integration and support, all the buttons worked and the controller vibrations enhanced game immersion
  • Difficult to play with keyboard and mouse, would recommend using a controller

Base Game Content 10/10
  • Captivating story with lots of subtle world building sprinkled into flavour text
  • Countless hidden things, encouraging thorough world exploration
  • Would recommend playing through the entire game, all the way until you reach the bullet hell credits
  • Not much replayability after achieving 100% completion

DLC Content 6/10
  • Includes a risque 2B outfit, though I still prefer her default one
  • Adds a few gladiator-esque fights, fun to some extent
  • Probably not worth the money, doesn't really add much to the game
  • Base game is where it really shines

Technicalities
  • There isn't a borderless windowed mode

Bugs I Encountered
  • If playing on fullscreen, tabbing out forces the game into windowed mode
  • Camera movement can be a bit buggy, there was a case in the Bunker where the camera did not follow my character at all, to the point where I could leave the frame of reference, luckily entering a room fixed that issue for me
  • Some kind of teleport bug
  • Cases where I can't talk to the Canyon Machine, but opening the menu for a few seconds seems to fix it

Miscellaneous
  • Was mildly disappointed when the Asia release was delayed by over a month back in 2017
  • There is a fair amount of progression into the game required before you can save for the first time, I'd recommend planning ahead 3 hours for your initial session of gameplay just to be safe
  • Unfortunately if you die/fail before the first save, you'll have to re-do everything from the start, yes this happened to me and I wasted 2 hours

Conclusion/TL;DR
  • Overall a very good game that's definitely worth playing
  • Very good visuals, soundtrack, story and controller support
  • 2B
  • A little buggy, DLC not great
  • Don't use keyboard and mouse if you can
  • Plan out 3 hours for your initial gameplay session to reach the first save point

Overall Score 10/10
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