Nier Automata has done the classic JRPG trick yet again: a game that will really impress you on a first playthrough and who's ending will stick with you for like a week or two, but after half a year, you'll start to wonder what even made you like the game in the first place. Its kind of tricky to write a review like this because its been a while since I last played the game, so many of my criticisms are based off only hazy memories of what actually happened, but I feel that for my own sake, I at least should set the record straight on how I feel about the game until I play it next time.

My opinions on Automata may have changed, but to give some credit, one thing that for sure hasn't is how visually and audibly beautiful this game is. The best parts of Automata are when you're simply walking around the world, absorbing and soaking in the quiet, desolate environments with the music playing when there's just a faint hint of a melody: it hits me perfectly. It evokes this weird bitter-sweet nostalgia and emptiness, as if there's something still beautiful here but knowing well its only going to be a short lived leftover of what used to be here, which is so perfectly fitting with this game's themes. Automata feels like a unique game during these moments, but that unique feeling is spat on and kicked to the side when you remember that this is meant to be a hack n' slash.

The best way I've seen Automata's combat be described is as "an action game for people who've never played an action game". It has the appearance of Bayonetta or [insert any other Platinum game here], but with absolutely ZERO sauce behind it, only attempting to tick boxes and be nothing more than serviceable slop that works as a distraction from its strong elements. There's the common defense in games like these that "its about da story doe!!", and I'd be cool with that if not for the fact that the game is insistent on wasting your time with the combat, so much so that some segments can go for longer than 20 minutes. It reeks of wasted potential, because I think Automata shouldn't have even been about combat at all. The combat to me feels like the game is afraid to take an artistic risk with making a more reserved kind of game, reflecting a problem in the entire industry where developers conflate entertainment with catharsis. Automata to me should've fully embraced its quiet moments in its gameplay instead of trying to portray itself as really badass.

Like the combat, the story itself also suffers from a lot of typical trends that I commonly see in videogames, but its weird because simultaneously, it feels much more competent than most videogames in general. I applaud that Automata is a game that bothered doing its philosophy homework and seems to have a strong understanding of existentialism, but when it came time to actually write a paper, it got nervous and kind of fumbled the bag. A usual problem I notice with video game writing more than any other medium is how many games seem to only get their stories going super late into the game, but Automata takes that to the next level, by being boring for two entire playthroughs, where nothing of substantial impact really even happens. Its also disappointing how its great ideas are used on overdramatic and tropey characters. I get that these are meant to be androids and not humans, but I barely felt any empathy for them. They go through painfully predictable arcs, none of them have interesting personalities besides screaming very dramatically when the story demands it, and never did I feel like I resonated with their motivations.

I heavily respect the work of Yoko Taro. He's a weird guy who makes weird games for weird niches and I'm glad he's found success. I may not like Nier that much anymore, but I see potential in his work. I just hope that in whatever he works on next, he can take some more creative risks.

Persona 5 is what would happen if Drake was manifested into a videogame. Persona 5 is the type of game where a main character would confront a main villain and say "this isn't like you." Persona 5 is the type of game where a character slaps his friend and says "that's for almost almost getting us killed!" Persona 5 is the type of game where the characters are looking at the news and say "you might wanna check this out". Persona 5 is the type of game that has really weird and gross behavior with hot 16 year olds. Persona 5 is the type of game to have the main characters split up at the end of the second act only to rejoin at the final fight with the main villain and say "you didn't really think we'd let you die, did you?" Persona 5 is the type of game to have an animated dance party sequence at the ending. It would do all of that without a hint of irony and believing itself to not be unintentionally hilarious.