Recent reviews by Tasty Paintchips

I played the demo for approx 90 hours, it scratches the itch in my brain that makes me need to tetris everything just right in my inventory. Lots of different builds/combos. My single complaint is that the recipes menu requiring you to make an item before you can see how to make it is frustrating and doesn't really add anything.

Everything about this game feels right

Nier:Automata was a very special game for me. Rarely does a game grip me so much that I end up feeling compelled to play a game for multiple 8+ hour sittings, but this game absolutely blew me away every time I picked it up. Generally I attempt to avoid using the term masterpiece because I feel it has been overused, but this is very truly a masterpiece.

The story was absolutely brilliant with well-fleshed out characters and incredible world-building. There's so much care and consideration put into the worlds and the environment that I couldn't help but be amazed everytime I went to a new area of the map. The soundtrack is one of my personal favorite videogame soundtracks, both in tone and in game usage. The way that the game uses multiple versions of tracks ranging from quiet and subdued, to completely bombastic really does an incredible job of setting the tone. Even the sidequests, which I typically ignore or dislike because of being filler content, are so well fleshed out and play an important role in the game. This game truly is greater than the sum of its parts however, and simply describing them in isolation doesn't do them justice.

But as much as this is probably the best game that I've played so far in my life, I do have some nitpicks. Invisible walls take a while to get used to, especially given that you have incredible amounts of mobility with your charaters. Because of the structure of the game the midpoint of the story can feel a bit repetitive, but is still very interesting in its own right. There are a few other even more minor nitpicks, but in my experience they didn't contribute enough to diminish my experience of the game.

But to sum up, this is really a special game. After playing through this game completely, I felt that rare emptiness you feel inside when you experience a piece of art that has changed you on some level. The kind of feeling where you're so incredibly grateful that you could experience something of this calibur, but at the same time, so sad that your time with it is over. If you haven't played this game, this would be an excellent chance to have that kind of experience.

TL:DR - If you have 30-40 hours and you want to experience one of the best stories that videogames have to offer, look no further.