NieR To The Heart - Opinion Piece

A new year is right around the corner and with it comes a slew of new games that the video game community is already giddily awaiting. Of course, there is the dreaded first quarter. Usually, anyone familiar within the video game community knows that most triple A titles will be coming out sometime in the Q3, leaving Q1 looking a bit sparse. Just look at 2016 as an example. Three major shooters all came out one after the other for a few weeks and it can create some discord; getting to all those games can be difficult. With 2017 on the way, though, things are already looking a bit different. Q1 is looking more fleshed out with titles and one of those titles is Nier: Automata , not a triple A, but worth all the attention.

As a series, it has managed to keep up with the times in good stride ( even if it got weirder along the way ). Nier and its predecessor Drakengard were both superb reflections of their time. Nier: Automata is already looking to address certain themes all too familiar for the times right now. Again, making a giant leap into the future, possibly to speak on what technology means for the world. How it shapes and effects our lives. It will be interesting to see where Automata goes because it will be the first game without human protagonist. Heroine 2B looks female, but like her counterpart S9 (looks male), they are both fully functioning machines. Not a single human thing about them, aside from looks (they both look dope). It will also be a game without blood, as far as what has been shown. Surprising as this series oozes blood; even the shades in Nier spouted fountains of gore. Yet even this design choice of focusing more on explosions than gore is important. Giving pause to thought, maybe Nier: Automata is saying something about our world in a clever way that is built into its world.


Soon we'll be able to play the demo of the game ourselves. It will be released for PS4 on December 22nd , while the game will release in North America on March 7th, 2017, while Europe will get it on March 1

On paper, Nier sounds like a strange game. It's an action RPG where the player controls the titular protagonist who is on a quest to cure his daughter Yonah from a disease called Black Scrawl and takes place 1312 years after the year 2049. Nier is accompanied by a talking floating book known as Grimoire Weiss, "female" warrior Kaine with a mouth that could make a sailor blush, and Emil, who has something in common with gorgons and ends up looking like something retrieved from the nether regions of Tim Burton's mind. This game is actually about as weird as it sounds, but that is part of the charm that has made the title nier and dier to many gamers. The emotional story, memorable characters, humorous dialog and fantastic soundtrack have made it a cult hit among action RPG fans, and because of this there is a certain level of excitement over the upcoming Nier: Automata, which recently received a playable demo.


NieR: Automata was not playable at the show, but what was was showcased on stage was plenty to make it up for that. The return of beloved characters from the first game was great, but when we saw actual gameplay, many jaws drop

The demo for Nier: Automata is contained to the mission inside the factory and took about an hour to complete, though 45 minutes is probably more accurate if the player isn't constantly taking screenshots. During the demo 2B has only one companion that only communicates with her a few times. The humorous bickering among NPCs in Nier automata collectibles|Https://nierautomatafans.com/ was something enjoyable about that game, but I must stress that just because it was absent in the demo does not mean anything regarding its absence or inclusion in the final game, though it would be disappointing if we do not get anything comparable to Grimoire Weiss and Kaine going back and forth. Nier is a personal favorite from the previous console generation, but looking at it objectively, it did have a few rough edges. A game cannot be judged on a single level demo, but the content of the demo indicates that Nier: Automata will present a world that is different from its predecessor but will retain its essence but with more refinement. The odd motif of covered eyes seems like it will be more prominent, and the graphics look to be of a much higher relative quality than the original. The overall soundtrack cannot be judged based on a single level, but what was included in the demo sounded like the natural progression of its predecessor's score. So nier, far, wherever you are , if you were a fan of Nier, this demo indicates that we can be optimistic about the upcoming sequel.

But alas, we have only one award to give, and Battlefield 1 's absolutely stunning and extremely fun desert map brings it home. And the horses... oh the horses... They're unbelievably fun. If you see one available on the battlefield, grab it.

This award is also special, as it comes with a second meaning, representing our respect for taking a decision that certainly mustn't have been easy, and that most studios and publishers probably wouldn't have had the guts to take.