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NieR Automata PS4 demo available now

HeelPower

Member
What's with the FFXV comparison? That's like comparing Zelda and the Witcher

Maybe you should stop playing FFXV as an action game.

The games are directly comparable.

Case in point the battle with the giant robot VS the Leviathan & Titan battles in FFXV!!

Both games had the same goals with these large scale battles.Its clear who failed miserably here.

You cant tell me they're not comparable.
 

score01

Member
Damn that was awesome. It's almost the MGS revengence sequel we've all been dying for with its awesome combat and over the top fights. Definately on my radar now.
 

silva1991

Member
And I finsihed the demo.. again.

Very hard mode isn't for me that's for sure.

one hit death+bullet hells is a very bad combinations.

This is fucking incredible.I aam shocked at how good this gameplay feels.

As much as I am happy to have this game,it made me even more painfully aware how fucking mediocre FFXV gameplay is.

& Dont tell me "different genres" just look how amazingly polished the sense of movement & attacking is in this game.

An action game simply has to feel good to the touch & FFXV fails miserably where this game excels.

FFXV is being mishandled by hacks...What a heartbreak.

Even the voice direction seems better in this.

Both this and KH 0.2 will make up for FFXV's gameplay shortcomings.

Not that FFXV's combat was bad, but it had issues alongside with some questionable enemy encounters.
 

farisr

Member
I hope the mecha part of the boss fight is not indicative of how most of the fights are going to go in it. Cause I want to be able to slash enemies while flying and maneuvering around with that thing rather than just shoot and wait till I get a separate giant arm to control or trigger a cutscene.
 

Vigamox

Member
Gameplay is great, my main problem is with some of the top down segments, where it's hard to tell what's going on and what the enemy is doing.

I also hope they vary up enemy positioning a little bit. Sometimes they just drop enemies down in a line, equally spaced out, and it feels a little... weird?
 

silva1991

Member
I hope the mecha part of the boss fight is not indicative of how most of the fights are going to go in it. Cause I want to be able to slash enemies while flying and maneuvering around with that thing rather than just shoot and wait till I get a separate giant arm to control or trigger a cutscene.

That's one of the reasons why I wasn't very impressed with the boss.

they give me an awesome mech that can do melee attacks, but the only actual options I had were to dodge and shoot bullets.

Also that space harrier section was way too short. Like what was the point of it then?
 
I hope the mecha part of the boss fight is not indicative of how most of the fights are going to go in it. Cause I want to be able to slash enemies while flying and maneuvering around with that thing rather than just shoot and wait till I get a separate giant arm to control or trigger a cutscene.
Agreed. "Stand on a ledge that overlooks this massive boss' upper half" fights are just no fun to me

The bullet hell stuff is cool but the "three at the front of the room, three at the back" design isn't interesting. The best part about bullet hell is the beautiful patterns you can make with it but if you're just dealing with straight lines that you can shoot with your gun it just feels a bit tedious. "Let me walk around this circular room slicing/shooting one at a time"
 

Vostranoid

Neo Member
Halp me I cannot stop playing the demo...!

QIrG872.gif
 
That's one of the reasons why I wasn't very impressed with the boss.

they give me an awesome mech that can do melee attacks, but the only actual options I had were to dodge and shoot bullets.

Also that space harrier section was way too short. Like what was the point of it then?
If you use the triangle attack, it fires a beam. Not much extra but adds variety to the mech. you can also use the Square melee to break the missiles before they hit you instead of dodging
 

Toparaman

Banned
Both this and KH 0.2 will make up for FFXV's gameplay shortcomings.

Not that FFXV's combat was bad, but it had issues alongside with some questionable enemy encounters.

Does the KH series have good, fun combat? Also is the story dumb fun like Metal Gear? Kinda need a new series to get into.
 
Does the KH series have good, fun combat? Also is the story dumb fun like Metal Gear? Kinda need a new series to get into.
I hesitate to call it good, but relative to other action RPGs KH combat is good. The story is hilariously nonsensical in a way that I find a lot of fun, aptly comparatively to metal gear, just in a disney square enix way.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Yea not a big fan, the unnecessary upskirt shots are really off-putting, I cringed at the line "emotions are prohibited." and wasn't sure if I was supposed to care about what was happening to this due this character's just met. Not a fan of the camera angle change mid combat due to the pretty unintuitive lock on system. I did the design of the enemies and the combat aside from the lock on feels really nice. And the character animation during gameplay is on point.
 
Damn, demo was awesome. Just to mention my concerns up front, the environment was really samey the whole way throughout and the visuals are a bit eh in places. That out of the way though, the actual gameplay is fantastic. Super responsive, the encounter design is clever and keeps you guessing. I never played the original but the shoot em up influence really blindside me but Damn, is it a rush. End encounter was absolutely epic and even though I mentioned the visuals being a bit of a let down, in terms of sheer spectacle and awe, they really nailed it with that encounter.

Can't really say I was planning on picking this up but demo really makes a good case for it. Not much to go on story wise, did the first game have a good story?
 

HeelPower

Member
Does the KH series have good, fun combat? Also is the story dumb fun like Metal Gear? Kinda need a new series to get into.

Yes it does.

KH2 particularly has stellar combat.Story is mainly a long running(confusing but fun) plot thread + collection of straight forward disney side stories that wrap up individually & are well executed.

Its great.
 

Fbh

Member
Awesome demo..... man, I still can't even believe that this game exists.

Had been a bit dissapointed with Platinum recently. Haven't really liked any of their projects with activision (even found transformers to be pretty average), Star Fox Zero was also really average and the demos of Scalebound have looked less than stellar.
They went from a dev that could instantly sell me on a game to a dev that I sometimes like.

But this felt fantastic. The combat and the movement just feel amazing. The boss was also a lot of fun, specially for what I asume is an early boss in the game.
And it still has many of the things I loved about Nier like the music, the bullets/energy balls to evade and the changes of perspective (personally love how it sometimes goes to a top down perspective).

The only thing that I'm not sold about is lock on being taken away if you play in hard. It's such an useful game mechanic in most action games.... doesn't feel like taking something like that away is the right way to make a game harder


Some random thoughts:

- I wonder how long this will be. The original was like 20 hours long for the main story, but platinum stuff is usually under 10 and from what they have said this hasn't been in development for too long

- Lol the dark bars are back during cutscenes. Didn't like them in the original and don't like them here.... but they bring back fond memories of Nier 1.

- Saw some comments saying the music is bad. What?. Not too many tracks in the demo but was there was pretty solid and in line with the action themes of the original
 

convo

Member
Yea not a big fan, the unnecessary upskirt shots are really off-putting, I cringed at the line "emotions are prohibited." and wasn't sure if I was supposed to care about what was happening to this due this character's just met. Not a fan of the camera angle change mid combat due to the pretty unintuitive lock on system. I did the design of the enemies and the combat aside from the lock on feels really nice. And the character animation during gameplay is on point.

Good for you since if you hold it too long at a low angle the character will swipe the camera back up again.
 

silva1991

Member
Does the KH series have good, fun combat? Also is the story dumb fun like Metal Gear? Kinda need a new series to get into.

Combat wise KH1 is decent. KH2 is GOAT and BBS is very good.

The story is convoluted and thus I don't care for it.

Combat, Disney worlds/characters, bosses and music are what I love about the series.
 

fvng

Member
Yea not a big fan, the unnecessary upskirt shots are really off-putting, I cringed at the line "emotions are prohibited." and wasn't sure if I was supposed to care about what was happening to this due this character's just met. Not a fan of the camera angle change mid combat due to the pretty unintuitive lock on system. I did the design of the enemies and the combat aside from the lock on feels really nice. And the character animation during gameplay is on point.


Bro how are you expecting to care or have an emotional investment in characters in a demo? A demo gives you a taste of gameplay and design choices that's all.
 
This is pretty much exactly what I'd expect from a Nier sequel with Platinum gameplay.
It's solid but familiar, the problem with Platinum's combat systems I'm beginning to find is an overwhelming sense of familiarity across the board which in turn reminds me how certain titles don't stack up to the similar top tier of Platinum action games.
Having those Nier 1 nuances in there is good to give things their own feel but I got to admit, as I finished the demo having taken down another screen filling Platinum boss where I dodged out the way of moves telegraphed by a colourful "swish" effect I can't say I felt as hyped as I'd like to have been.

Should be a solid game when it's all said and done with the sum of its parts boosting it up like the original but I'm not sure this is gonna be a return to Platinum greatness as it's going to be a nice stopgap refresher after shitting the bed with the turtles game.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
The games are directly comparable.

Case in point the battle with the giant robot VS the Leviathan & Titan battles in FFXV!!

Both games had the same goals with these large scale battles.Its clear who failed miserably here.

You cant tell me they're not comparable.

Yep, especially with FFXV recently releasing. They are in the same group for sure. Fighting multiple enemies isn't as hectic in this game as well, it flows well, there's more attack buttons, there's a dodge which also acts as a run, and so much feels so right (especially compared to FFXV Judgement Demo for me). It also has a harder modes, I can see myself playing very hard in the future as well. SE could patch in a limited items mode for FFXV at least, they added the stop leveling ring at least. Imagine if FFXV had combat that felt this fluid and visibly easy to follow (camera).

I didn't even use the lock on in this game at first. Knowing the harder modes didn't have it I figured I'd get used to not relying on it.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Good for you since if you hold it too long at a low angle the character will swipe the camera back up again.
I didn't know that, that's good, but, can't control the cutscene camera. If everyone's supposed to be robots it'd be great to get actual robotic character design for more than just the enemies.
 
I didn't know that, that's good, but, can't control the cutscene camera. If everyone's supposed to be robots it'd be great to get actual robotic character design for more than just the enemies.
I don't think this game is for you fam. You kind of have to go into a Yoko Taro game willing to put up with some kookiness from the jump. He's a lot like Kojima in the same way that they build their worlds.
 
Switching to control Type B and mapping fire to L1 makes a huge difference

Fire on L1 and R2, evade on R1. You have access to both for simultaneous action and you can also just use R2 for solo fire
 

Ferr986

Member
Need to git gut at dodging bullets. Did a Hard run and got hit a lot by bullets. This game really throws more bullet hell to you compared to the first entry.
 

wrowa

Member
The games are directly comparable.

Case in point the battle with the giant robot VS the Leviathan & Titan battles in FFXV!!

Both games had the same goals with these large scale battles.Its clear who failed miserably here.

You cant tell me they're not comparable.

But FFXV's battle system is amazing.

I actually tried to warpstrike all the time when playing the Nier demo
 

pswii60

Member
The demo is awesome. It's totally my kind of game. Love the amazing music too, can't wait for the full game to release.

The mix of 3D and 2D gameplay is a nice surprise too.
 

Kyoufu

Member
The games are directly comparable.

Case in point the battle with the giant robot VS the Leviathan & Titan battles in FFXV!!

Both games had the same goals with these large scale battles.Its clear who failed miserably here.

You cant tell me they're not comparable.

FFXV is a mainstream title that was designed for millions of people of all skill ranges to play. NieR: Automata is a niche title that is clearly designed for a niche audience. I don't see how they're directly comparable in that sense.
 

Sami+

Member
I didn't know that, that's good, but, can't control the cutscene camera. If everyone's supposed to be robots it'd be great to get actual robotic character design for more than just the enemies.

From what I remember they're modern androids sent from the moon as opposed to relatively ancient technology like the more traditional robot-looking enemies.

The sexualization kind of annoys me as well but when they showed those two shirtless beautiful men androids I just inferred that all of them (male and female alike) were designed so they could be used as sexbots up on the moon and honestly seeing how quick we got VR porn that doesn't feel like a far-fetched justification to me. Still annoying mind you but not as egregious or stupid as "she breathes through her skin" so I can accept it.

That said I haven't played the demo yet so idk what the cutscenes are like.
 

Hektor

Member
FFXV is a mainstream title that was designed for millions of people of all skill ranges to play. NieR: Automata is a niche title that is clearly designed for a niche audience. I don't see how they're directly comparable in that sense.

Nier: Automata too, is designed for people of all skill ranges to play.
 

Toparaman

Banned
I hesitate to call it good, but relative to other action RPGs KH combat is good. The story is hilariously nonsensical in a way that I find a lot of fun, aptly comparatively to metal gear, just in a disney square enix way.

Yes it does.

KH2 particularly has stellar combat.Story is mainly a long running(confusing but fun) plot thread + collection of straight forward disney side stories that wrap up individually & are well executed.

Its great.

Combat wise KH1 is decent. KH2 is GOAT and BBS is very good.

The story is convoluted and thus I don't care for it.

Combat, Disney worlds/characters, bosses and music are what I love about the series.

I'll give it a shot when the PS4 collection is released. 2017 is going to be an insane gaming year for me. Not complaining, because 2016 was super barren for me.
 
Well, that was a glorious demo. Can't decide if I like the English VA more or the Japanese VA, honestly. It's a fantastically controlling game that feels so tight and with a lot of customisation options at your disposal. This is going to be an incredible game if that demo is anything to go by. I say this as a huge fan of the first game, the combat is so much better here. I highly recommend listening to the menu music (sung by Emi Evans) on the Home screen of the PS4 (press down when highlighting the demo), that's a nice tease for the kind of music we might in store for us. Sounds very much like something from Nier 1 to me.

I'd say more like comparing Zelda to ICO/SotC or something. Bit of a stretched comparison but still fair since it's two different takes on the same genre.

Funny you should say that since Yoko Taro actually said on Twitter that Ico/SotC and Zelda were some of his influences when making the original Nier.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
I don't think this game is for you fam. You kind of have to go into a Yoko Taro game willing to put up with some kookiness from the jump. He's a lot like Kojima in the same way that they build their worlds.
Yea just realized he made Drakengard and I can't fucking stand the characters or cringe worthy dialogue of Drakengard 3.

From what I remember they're modern androids sent from the moon as opposed to relatively ancient technology like the more traditional robot-looking enemies.

The sexualization kind of annoys me as well but when they showed those two shirtless beautiful men androids I just inferred that all of them (male and female alike) were designed so they could be used as sexbots up on the moon and honestly seeing how quick we got VR porn that doesn't feel like a far-fetched justification to me. Still annoying mind you but not as egregious or stupid as "she breathes through her skin" so I can accept it.

That said I haven't played the demo yet so idk what the cutscenes are like.
What in the world is the story of this game?
 

Dio

Banned
Some random thoughts:

- I wonder how long this will be. The original was like 20 hours long for the main story, but platinum stuff is usually under 10 and from what they have said this hasn't been in development for too long

25+ hours. If you 100%, like 40-50. Source: the dev team.
 

HeeHo

Member
Combat wise KH1 is decent. KH2 is GOAT and BBS is very good.

The story is convoluted and thus I don't care for it.

Combat, Disney worlds/characters, bosses and music are what I love about the series.
Strongly disagree with the bolded but I guess it's just a matter of preference. KH2 feels chaotic in a bad way and battles seems to end relatively fast regardless of skill and kind of leaves me feeling like 'wtf just happened'.

I agree with you about the story though and in all honesty, for anyone that is new to the series, I would just wait for KH3. The thought of replaying or someone playing through these games convoluted story for the first time makes me feel sorry for them. The stories seems so dumb in hindsight.

Anyway, I plan on downloading this ASAP when I get home. I remember playing the Bayonetta demo quite a bit just cause the combat felt so great. It's kind of weird that I'm not actually that hyped for this game despite me thinking it will be very good.
 

Sami+

Member
Yea just realized he made Drakengard and I can't fucking stand the characters or cringe worthy dialogue of Drakengard 3.


What in the world is the story of this game?

Drakengard 3 looked really bad to me too lol. I was interested after NieR but didn't bother after I saw footage. Looked a bit too out there for me.

And man idk, I honestly haven't followed it super closely since it looks like something I'd like anyway. Loved the story of NieR so I'm just gonna get it and judge, so I might be misremembering the premise.
 
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