New to NieR. Going in Blind

#1

So with Nier now on Xbox I have purchased it without knowing very much at all. I’m not 100% sure I even know what the game actually plays like as I’ve actively avoided spoilers or any discussion of the game other than GBs GOTY podcasts and the spoiler free chats from Waypoint.

So should I know anything before going into this? Should I look up the story for the past game?

Side note: I heard there are some characters named after philosophers? if so that will make the £36k student debt worth it as a philosophy graduate who can say ‘I’ve heard of them’.

Hey, Xbox Nerds, This Is Your Reminder to Play 'Nier: Automata'
#2

Run while you still can is my advice it’s not a game I have a high opinion of. As for real advice just play it on easy and save yourself the pain of the awful check points

#3

The story for OG Nier is only really there for side dressing. Like with the original the lore of the world is only really there for people who want to go story dumpster diving and as such you’re totally fine not knowing anything about old characters since they don’t really factor into the story outside of fanservice.

#4

Ahh… I could have sworn I heard people say the difficulty after the intro was too easy. I must be going insane. Other than the checkpoint system how come it didnt click with you?

@Lilly oh cool, so I can go in blind without worrying about backstory, thats good.

#5

Oh the game is very easy but the few times it’ll hit you with a difficulty spike are the times where the checkpoints suck the worst

#6

When you say difficulty spike, I take it it’s a complete blindside that’s not hinted at?
Also the checkpoints? are they just few and far between?

#7

Mostly it’s things like one of those tedious shoot em up segments or some " T H E M A T I C " walking sequence that if you fail it because of the unique way it is bullshit sends you back like twenty minutes. Being on easy should help you avoid failing one of those at least

#8

I disagree completely. The few difficulty spikes in that game were the only point where I felt like I had to actually engage in the combat system. I played it on normal but I wish I played it on hard in retrospect.

#9

I understand theres multiple playthroughs, can you switch difficulty between them?

#10

There’s not really multiple play troughs it’s just different chapters. You do basically repeat the first part of the game twice with slight variation as a different character but even then it’s a shorter playthrough of that stuff. Though no where near as short as it should be

#11

Yeah I phrased it wrong, I knew there was a credit sequence/curtain fall but thats not the games end.

#12

You’re probably gonna come across a lot of qualifiers as to how you should play, but if you ask me, you should just dive in, warts and all. I mean, I have a laundry list of things that I could tell a newcomer to smooth out their experience, but the same could probably be said of any game. As for preliminary stuff, most of the concepts and stuff will be presented to you in the game. The way that the first game and this game connect, however, makes it easy to search through the wiki without feeling like you’re walking through a spoiler minefield.

You can switch the difficulty at any point IIRC.

#13

Well even so you can bump up the difficulty when ever you feel like it as far as I know but as someone who normally plays games on hard I found the combat very lackluster past a point and not worth the effort anyways so I would still advise not worrying about trying to get the most out of the combat. I just don’t think there’s much to get out of it

#14

I played it blind with no knowledge of the first game and I think it was the best game of last year, so I’d say go “hog wild” with it. It does have manual saves though, and that can take a bit of getting used to, so watch out.

#15

I would’ve loved to do this, but I made a mistake of remapping the controls so that lock-on was on the right-stick a la Soulsborne, so by the time I was eager to raise the difficulty, I felt like losing that was too weird. Shoutouts to being able to completely remap the controller, though. A very rare and very welcome addition.

#16

Ahh so I dont have to worry so much about spoilers looking up the originals story, thats decent.

@VulpesAbsurda Fair enough, the real draw for me has been hearing the gushing for the story, soundtrack and environment anyway so hopefully theres enough to keep me onboard through the combat.

@Snerkus I cant wait to dive in, i’ve got one more night shift then 3 days off where i’ll dive deep. With the manual saves is it just a matter of remembering to save?

#17

If there is ONE thing I will say that’s kind of a mechanical-spoiler-or-whatever-you-wanna-call-it, 2B has a mechanic where she can taunt machines by strobing her flashlight in their faces, thus making them easier to take down but more aggressive and strong. The game tries to tell you this with a tutorial, but the way they explain it means that most probably go without knowing how to do it, which is a shame. It’s a lot of fun, especially later on when you might want more out of the game’s combat.

#18

Ahh nice one mate. So just clicking the flashlight off and on enrages them?

#19

Yep! You simply flash the light a couple of times as if they’re oncoming traffic and they get angry.

#20

I agree that the biggest issue with the game is that the combat balance can get real wonky because of the RPG progression mechanics. If you do as much side content as I did (most of it) you’ll end up real overpowered.

Like other people in this thread, I kiiinda wish I had played it on hard. Despite that stuff, it was an easy GOTY for me in a year packed with great games.