One of the first games I ever played that made me reconsider how I think about art. I have played many since that I would consider better experiences in most regards, but I will always appreciate Nier Automata for being such a formative experience.

What is so surprising about Automata is its ability to tell a mature story while also maintaining many of the tropes of its genre. A character-action anime-inspired jrpg are not words that inspire confidence in terms of artistic merit, but here it works well.

I have noticed a trend in the games I consider excellent to adopt the languages of other mediums (typically cinema) in order to tell their narratives. Nier Automata is a game all the way down, and it is one the hallmark examples of medium as message.

And of course, the final credits are almost certainly the greatest moment in any video game to date.