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NieR Automata PS4 demo available now

Jiraiza

Member
Can someone explain the combat system to me please? I'm just mashing buttons and I really wanna get better at this game.

Well, start with stop mashing. Note that you can switch weapon sets mid-combo, and that you can jump mid-combo at any time to launch or do something else.
 

Gbraga

Member
Ok, tested the roundtrip bare fisted. She does the animation, but (obviously) doesn't throw the weapon. I tested it over and over again to see if at least the jump counted as a hit, nope. lol
 
Well, start with stop mashing. Note that you can switch weapon sets mid-combo, and that you can jump mid-combo at any time to launch or do something else.

How do you launch enemies? Just jumping and hitting them? I did this fancy launcher once (I think after a successful just frame evade) and haven't been able to recreate it again. Also, what does pressing the action button right as enemies die do?
 
Ooooh, I played it and I liked very much what I saw. Fighting epic machinery is always cool but it's rarely THAT visceral. Nice! :) The boss reveal was sooooo cool!
 

Jiraiza

Member
How do you launch enemies? Just jumping and hitting them? I did this fancy launcher once (I think after a successful just frame evade) and haven't been able to recreate it again. Also, what does pressing the action button right as enemies die do?

An immediate heavy after you jump; there's a specific window of height where you can perform the launch after jumping, otherwise it'll use the normal air heavy move. The properties of the sword matter as well as the state of the enemy (staggered or not). For example, if you try to launch with the small sword on the bigger robot, he won't get launched unless he's staggered (from multiple hits) or down.
 

Gbraga

Member
Loved how 2B says emotions are not allowed, gets overemotional about the other guy
got hit hard
.

But that's the thing, emotions are not allowed. Doesn't mean they don't feel them.

I actually thought the english dub didn't capture the evolution of her relationship with 9S very well. When she's saying "drop the ma'am", it still sounds robotic, like "it's a waste of time to use it, so don't, only say what's necessary", and 9S replying the way he does could only indicate his personality. Then when she freaks out at the end, it feels like it came out of nowhere.

In japanese, I feel like the way she tells him to drop the "-san" shows a little more emotion, like she's already trying to get closer to him, in her own way. Not to mention the implications of just calling someone by their name in japanese, with no "-san" or using a last name, it shows some level of intimacy you wouldn't for strangers. But "ma'am" can't quite capture that. Not 8-4's fault, it's just the way language works.

By the time 2B has her meltdown after seeing 9S all fucked up, in the japanese version it's very obvious that she was just following orders, not robotic herself. Even when she's cold at first, in japanese she sounded more like a person, in english she sounded like a robot.
 
Never played the first Nier and wasn't following this one closely, but that demo just got Platinum a sale. Don't think a Let's Play or any other type of marketing really could have gotten me as excited as being able to play through that. It was a blast and I can't wait for the full game.

Gravity Rush in January, Horizon in February, and Nier in March makes for a pretty nuts Q1 on PS4. Incredibly happy with the choice to upgrade to a Pro.
 
This fight pretty much ruined big bosses for me
6xBota7.gif
,
i hope n:a avoids them for the most part.
 

Gbraga

Member
English vs Japanese dub..... What are everyone's thoughts?

I prefer the japanese one, but I didn't dislike the english version at all, I thought it was pretty good. Might go with it for my first playthrough, in order not to lose the dialogue during intense gameplay moments.
 

Jiraiza

Member
English vs Japanese dub..... What are everyone's thoughts?

English seems pretty decent, though the localization seems a little questionable. 2B gives off a different impression in the English version.

On another note, it's pretty interesting how canceling your animations work, since your sword still continues to be active.

2lwQVJb.gif


Also, feel free to tell me to stop if this GIF spam is annoying or something. Can't help but post stuff that looks cool.
 

Gbraga

Member
English seems pretty decent, though the localization seems a little questionable. 2B gives off a different impression in the English version.

On another note, it's pretty interesting how canceling your animations work, since your sword still continues to be active.

Also, feel free to tell me to stop if this GIF spam is annoying or something. Can't help but post stuff that looks cool.

More like voice direction than localization in general, imo. Playing with japanese audio and english subs was a pretty smooth experience. Very different from FFXV, for example, where there are quite a few moments where you just have to go by ear, even if you don't speak japanese, because it's so completely different that it doesn't really matter. If you understand half of what they're saying, it's already more accurate.

I'm loving the gifs, btw :p
 

Jiraiza

Member
More like voice direction than localization in general, imo. Playing with japanese audio and english subs was a pretty smooth experience. Very different from FFXV, for example, where there are quite a few moments where you just have to go by ear, even if you don't speak japanese, because it's so completely different that it doesn't really matter. If you understand half of what they're saying, it's already more accurate.

I'm loving the gifs, btw :p

Well, take for example, the part where 9S says he'll send a map to 2B. In Japanese, she simply goes "ryoukai", which really should've just been a "roger that", "copy that", "affirmative" or what have you. In English, she sounded pretty authoritative, going "Do it" instead. I think that falls under the localization umbrella. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, just different.
 

Gbraga

Member
Well, take for example, the part where 9S says he'll send a map to 2B. In Japanese, she simply goes "ryoukai", which really should've just been a "roger that", "copy that", "affirmative" or what have you. In English, she sounded pretty authoritative, going "Do it" instead. I think that falls under the localization umbrella. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, just different.

Hmmm, you're right. I guess I was just assuming most people playing it in japanese will be able to make little corrections like that in their heads while playing, but they shouldn't have to.

Yea this can lead to some ridiculous burst damage

giphy.gif
.

Wait, what's going on here? I honestly can't tell.
 
Hmmm, you're right. I guess I was just assuming most people playing it in japanese will be able to make little corrections like that in their heads while playing, but they shouldn't have to.



Wait, what's going on here? I honestly can't tell.

Looks like the player threw the huge sword with Sprint+Heavy Attack, then continued attacking with Light. Since the sword was spinning in place, it made quick work of the claw's "diggers" taking chunks of the health.
 

Gbraga

Member
Looks like the player threw the huge sword with Sprint+Heavy Attack, then continued attacking with Light. Since the sword was spinning in place, it made quick work of the claw's "diggers" taking chunks of the health.

I see, I couldn't tell by the animation, it looked like regular /\ with the big sword, but that's probably because it was spinning in place then.

Thank you!
 
This fight pretty much ruined big bosses for me
6xBota7.gif
,
i hope n:a avoids them for the most part.

Man, the Bayonetta 2 boss fights were incredible. The spectacle of Glamor's fights were another favorite of mine. W101's bosses were amazing, too. (I hope W101 ends up on the Switch, it deserves so much love. Bayo 1/2, too. Gimme all the portable Platinum.)
 
Gave it a quick whirl. It's real smooth alright! But I wasn't quite feeling it as, say, MGR. I doubt I'll get this day one what with it probably dropping in price 2 weeks later, but it seemed kinda fun. Just not other P* game fun.

Music was good. Drab brown is, well drab but suppose that is the world of Nier.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I'm going to have a mighty laugh when I hear people talking about how the combat isn't deep or complex enough when we the game releases and the last boss is an RTS battle or a cart racing game that has no connection to the gameplay of the rest of the game. The reactions should be glorious. I'm also hoping Yoko Taro implements that boss that purposefully tanks the frame rate into a slide show during the fight just to piss off the players.
 
Wait, what's going on here? I honestly can't tell.
I just use heavy forward , cancel the animation into light attack string,end that string with the weapon throw out, switch weapon sets now to avoid the pause when switching , and finish with light attack.

Cancelling the animations after weapon throws, is what makes the burst damage so high, since the sword stays out.
 

Gbraga

Member
I'm going to have a mighty laugh when I hear people talking about how the combat isn't deep or complex enough when we the game releases and the last boss is an RTS battle or a cart racing game that has no connection to the gameplay of the rest of the game. The reactions should be glorious. I'm also hoping Yoko Taro implements that boss that purposefully tanks the frame rate into a slide show during the fight just to piss off the players.

Unfortunately, so many years of QTE final bosses in gaming will make it not have nearly as much impact as it should :p

I just use heavy forward , cancel the animation into light attack string,end that string with the weapon throw out, switch weapon sets now to avoid the pause when switching , and finish with light attack.

Cancelling the animations after weapon throws, is what makes the burst damage so high, since the sword stays out.

Thank you, I'll try it tomorrow. I never noticed the damage potential of switching weapons as you have a weapon throw attack out. Most enemies die very quickly anyway, but maximizing damage should still be a major thing in Very Hard playthroughs.
 

e_i

Member
Wow, I love her black dress. I didn't expect the game to go
Bayonetta
or for her to be
nuked
at the end. Great demo.
 
Man, the Bayonetta 2 boss fights were incredible. The spectacle of Glamor's fights were another favorite of mine. W101's bosses were amazing, too. (I hope W101 ends up on the Switch, it deserves so much love. Bayo 1/2, too. Gimme all the portable Platinum.)

This is what "boss setpieces" should aim, that gif was probably one of the highest points in any action character game ever.
 

Izuna

Banned
This. Game. Is. Fucking. Insane!

That was some of the best gameplay in 2016. I'm so salty that I don't own this PS4 I just played on.

god damn

holy christ

good chicken

god damn

Absolutely AMAZING

They need to fix that colourless stuff when you're nearly dead affecting cut-scenes etc.
 

Baalzebup

Member
I see ya'll just discussed what I was about to post about, namely the tonal differences of the English and Japanese dialogue. The English one isn't necessarily inherently worse in any notable way, but there definitely are plenty of noticeable differences between the tracks. The "drop the ma'am" as opposed to "don't add '-san'" being a rather prime example of it. It also ties in with my pet peeve of all subtitles in dual-audio releases being actually dub-titles and thus sometimes having very little to do with what the characters are actually saying. FF XV being a great recent example.

Now, I'm well aware of the need for the localization to adapt the scrip to fit the language into something that actually resembles proper speech instead of google-translated jumble and that creating multiple different subtitle tracks to fit every audio / text combination would be a needless expense, but it is still something that irks me. I don't expect them to really do anything differently though, so at the end of the day it is just something to occasionally bitch about.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I have to admit people bitching about the art style of the game and environments had me a bit worried but while they're rather mundane settings I do enjoy the way a lot of the industrial environments feel. They don't feel like real warehouses and industrial settings but like a giant playground. Sure it can be a bit drab but its nice enough looking in the way its presented that I don't find it distracting or ugly.
 

jwk94

Member
So anybody have some tips? I see everyone doing these cool things, meanwhile I'm just pressing buttons or dodging. What's this about switcing weapons? I thought we only had access to the two swords?
 

Satch

Banned
SO WHEN ARE WE GOING TO START PHOTOSHOPPING 2B'S BLINDFOLD ONTO OUR AVATARS?

every other game gets a dumb avatar trend and when im finally ready to participate in one, nobodys doing it. its time yall

i need to get a new avatar first..
 

Baalzebup

Member
So anybody have some tips? I see everyone doing these cool things, meanwhile I'm just pressing buttons or dodging. What's this about switcing weapons? I thought we only had access to the two swords?
Well, for one, each of the two swords have completely unique set of attacks depending on which slot they currently are at, except for the dodge follow-up move which is always the same for each particular weapon. You can also remove one or both from either set by equipping your bare hands from under the general list of 'gauntlets' for some punching and kicking action.
Nah, no one reads the OP, so I'll just keep adding :p
Well, that one is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy when the OP has a decent chance of nuking the browser with all dem .gifs :D
 
So I'm looking for a cheap copy of Nier on the PS3 and do you think I can find one? There were loads of copies that no one wanted back then but now it seems they have all disappeared and everyone is charging a premium for it. Anyone know where I can get a reasonably cheap copy? Figured it would be easier to ask in here than start another thread or what have you.
 
I'm going to have a mighty laugh when I hear people talking about how the combat isn't deep or complex enough when we the game releases and the last boss is an RTS battle or a cart racing game that has no connection to the gameplay of the rest of the game. The reactions should be glorious. I'm also hoping Yoko Taro implements that boss that purposefully tanks the frame rate into a slide show during the fight just to piss off the players.

hell yes, i'm in for some cart racing.
 

Baalzebup

Member
So, why does 2B wear high heels? It seems extremely impractical while fighting to say the least.
Its also pretty impractical to fuck up robots with a katana when you have flying robots of varying sized with seemingly inexhaustible reserves for their guns, but I don't see people making that comment very often.

It is a stylistic choice as the heels clearly don't hinder 2B in any way or form. Consider her being masterful enough that her attire is not an issue.
 
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