Loop E is what really got me.
If anyone’s interested, here’s the best explanation I’ve seen of everything building up to the Nier Automata. Granted, it’s still Yoko Taro so just be aware that shit’s confusing and plot holes abound.
(Infinite spoilers, don’t watch if you don’t want to be spoiled on Drakengard 1-3 and Nier Replicant/Gestalt)
sooo - a question:
how important are the sidequests? i made it through Loop A and i’m at Pascal’s Village in Loop B. i kind of want to just do the main quest this time, but will i be…missing something integral, if i skip sidequests?
Not really? I mean, a couple of the sidequests fill out the main story a little bit, but not much. They mostly fill out the world itself, so you can skip them.
Also, as I know I have said here and some other people have said, the game makes it really easy to go back and get the ones you missed before all is said and done if you want to (you don’t have to, the completion does not effect the ending at all).
so far the melodrama has come close but hasn’t actually worked on me (halfway through second loop, Kaine’s story).
I’m reminded a lot of Terranigma; a bottled-souls cosmology. Quintet could figure out how to apply abstract characterization into something more universal, though, and the specificity of the anime-ness is probably dragging this down; I bet I’d like it a lot more as a pre-PS2 action-RPG.
you should play the sequel now that you’ve gone and figured out what all that was about! it’s significantly better executed!
gosh maybe I will once I put all this work into this game!
For me the emotional highs on the B route was the Gretel fight and the Machine Factory for me. After that it was fairly standard fare but still a wonderful tumble towards the end of the world.
Yeah, that was nice. I could figure out what the Shades were partway through the first time but it makes a difference to see them talk, and I like them hammering-out DUDE’s bloodlust.
So I’ve just found the giant Emil heads in the desert and even knowing what it was it still freaked me out. Poked around a bit just in case something happened, but no luck so far. Will go back there for sure. I also found a lunar tear in a corner of the amusement park. Don’t think it has any game effect, but it made a little bit sad.
i totally get the criticism of ‘over the top or bad anime writing’ in these games but the writing of characters in the first game, just the incidental conversations between them, is what makes it so special for me. i think automata improves significantly the world building and general quality of almost every other aspect, but nothing hits quite like those throwaway lines in the first game do for me.
they should’ve just told someone else to do an alan rickman impression
The dearth of incidental dialog in general is really the biggest knock against the game. Yelling at the pod in loop C is about as close as the game gets.
There are a handful of Lunar Tear locations. After a certain point, you can start a sidequest that involves checking each.
I’ve spotted a few “Lunar Tears” around the game so I can’t help but imagine there’s some sidequest waiting for me to do something with them. Had an operator casually say how the lunar tear would make a cute accessory to 2B but I’d never use it. I hate the flower and it’s false promises.
which is a high point, too
True
Other than the material rewards, I think the biggest reward for some sidequests is either the exclusive music tracks or the incidental dialog you get after you finish it. Most quests end with 2B and/or 9S commenting on what they went through or how they observed what they saw take place.
I am bored silly by most side quests in games, but I guess I love the world and the writing and the use of space in this game. I’m never even after rewards, I just like being in the game and engaging with it.
i may have said this before, but most of the side-quests end in awkward, slightly off-center, sometimes pleasantly unsatisfying ways. they are more worth doing that side-quests in other games, but not worth doing if you’re a vehement anti-sidequester.
if you’re side-curious though, i’d say give a few a try.
