“Lured in by the anime booty and 2B’s thick thighs, ended up pondering the meaning of existence and life.”

In true PlatinumGames fashion, in the first 30 minutes of NieR: Automata you fight a gigantic robot 50 times your size where you beat it by tearing off its own arm and smashing it to death with it; and that’s not even craziest thing that happens.

NieR: Automata’s setting is 10,000+ years in the future where Earth has been invaded by aliens and humans were driven to the moon. Now the aliens and humans wage war on Earth by creating machines and androids to fight for them. It’s never quite explained in-game why all the androids fighting for the glory of mankind are cute anime girls wearing gothic skirts, but that’s Japan for you. Some of the robots look pretty adorable too.

As for the game’s actual plot, NieR: Automata is a story driven by its characters. 2B and 9S, the duo protagonists of the game steal the show with one of the cutest relationships you’ll ever see. They’re the typical anime girl and boy in nearly every single aspect. So much so that NieR: Automata might as well be called “anime: the videogame” with its over-the-top action, cheesy voice acting and fan service (there’s literally an achievement for looking up 2B’s skirt and dressing 9S in incredibly tiny shorts). The relationship between them is the story; as the game goes on it becomes clear that the story isn’t as much about the war between machines and androids, but how 2B and 9S handle the events of the world they live in.

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NieR: Automata’s story is an overall framing device for its overall themes, the plot is excellent and over-the-top as you’d expect from a Japanese game but it’s more of a setting in exploring the games themes of existentialism and what it means to be human. Games over the years have explored these themes with various degrees of success; from pretty good in the Deus Ex games, to laughably clumsy in Detroit: Become Human, the “machines have feelings and emotions” trope is one that can either make your game look like a work of art or pretentious drivel. It’s a fine line to tread, but NieR: Automata does a masterful job at handling these themes in a way it weaves in seamlessly with its world and story without feeling like a clumsy attempt of its writers wanting to appear smart.

Gameplay in NieR: Automata is a blast; if you enjoyed PlatinumGames’ previous works Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance you’ll enjoy the combat here. It doesn't have the sane complexity in combo’s and moves as previous games, but hacking and slashing your way through robots is still immensely satisfying. All the craziness and absurdity you’d expect from the Platinum is still there, you don’t quite punch the final boss into the sun like you do in Bayonetta but the completely over the top action is here in all it’s glory. The downside of the RPG nature of the game is the difficulty scaling; it is very easy to end up over-levelled if you do all the side quests (which all have excellent writing and are worth completing for the story, even if many of them are escort/fetch quests), making some fights too easy.

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As with all PlatinumGames’ work, the soundtrack is an absolute banger. From the boss fights Platinum does all too well to the exploration of the open world, every moment of the game has one of those songs accompanying it that when you’re listening to it outside the game, you can picture the moment in the game. From the epic orchestral music playing in the over-the-top as ever boss fights, to the quiet ambient tunes as you explore the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Earth (and of course the incredible end credits song), NieR: Automata’s soundtrack is one I’ll be listening to for a long time.

For added enjoyment, I’d recommend reading/watching the story and lore of the previous game’s in the series, namely the storyline of NieR which this game’s story continues from and to a lesser extent the Drakengard series. That being said, NieR’s lore is convoluted and confusing as hell, after first watching a video of the game’s lore I came out even more confused than before. You won’t be completely lost by starting jumping straight into NieR: Automata, but knowing the story of the previous game, as well as the backstory of some of the characters from the previous game that appear in Automata massively helped my understanding of some plot points, so at the very least I’d read/watch a plot summary of NieR before playing this game for an enhanced experience.

Explaining why NieR: Automata is so incredible without spoiling it is impossible, it is one of those games where the story is one that could only have been told through a videogame. What makes it a masterpiece for me was the story and themes, 2B and 9S, gameplay and one of the best endings of all time. One of those game’s that’ll stick with you for a long time.

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