NieR: Automata Game of the YoRHa Edition - PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

My kids have wanted this for some time now and did not disappoint.

I had seen this title when it came out and I was interested but I never pursued it. I was lending a hand at a local Comic-Con in Buffalo long before Covid hit and I recognized the cosplay (see attached photo). I asked them about the game and they had all played it and made sure to recommend the Game of the YoRHa Edition. With the twilight of the PS4 coming I'm always a bit cautious about purchasing old titles because you never know if they will release it on PS+. I haven't been disappointed but it is a real sci-fi title (read about gameplay and plot elsewhere). The Game of the YoRHa Edition is DLC so if I had purchased this used the download code would already have been used. That's why I purchased new. At the time of this writing Best-Buy was $10 less than the digital version available on the PS4 store.

I didn't care about the free code to get freebies on the game. I didn't care I was going to cry after another playthrough that was slowly descending me down a rabbit hole I could never go back to. I knew the moment I picked up this game first time on Steam and realized that it would be a sequel of another game I suffered back then and still I jumped back onto that feel train.... I did not regret it! Not even for buying it again for my family's PS4 collection. They knew that this game was going to stay in our game collection for the coming years. This series is one of the most philosophical ideas of what humanity could be and yet as a veteran, I knew it would give me choices that I wish I could take back. Even so, I tread on playing the game wishing, hoping if there was any path that would give me a different ending... And there was, Yoko Taro made sure we had PLENTY of endings to mess within this game. After playing this back during its release in 2015 I bought the soundtrack of the series. I never looked back because the game melded enough story, character quirks, and music to make me jump down this morbid rabbit hole one more time...

First off, I bought this game originally at release but wanted the YoRHa Edition too. This game is a 10/10, one of the best games of the last generation. There is so much to praise for this series that I wouldn't even know where to start. If you haven't played this by 2021, what are you doing! This game has one of the best narratives I've seen in the past decade, with 26 different endings (some are jokes, okay.) Yoko Taro paired with a developer that was able to show his vision shows us a masterclass in game design. -Story is amazing, even tear jerking at times. It is highly repayable. I could go back right now and would still enjoy it like I did on my first playthrough. -Music is THE best on the PS4 library, it's nearly perfect. (Look up 'A Beautiful Song' 'Weight of the World' or even 'Amusement Park' heck look up the OST!) -Characters are amazing, enough to even get attached to them a bit, there are recurring characters from the past (game is related to Drakengard) -Great open world game (for console) for a mid generation game with equally amazing graphics. I could go on, just buy this. It's not even $60 anymore, not to mention Nier: Replicant is coming out next month for the first time in the states as a remake. Sadly Platinum didn't develop it, but they were at least involved in overseeing it.

Nier: Automata combines great 3rd person hack and slash with bullet-hell twin-stick shooting segments to create a fun unique game. If you like the original God of War trilogy playstyle, I think you'll definitely be into this game. It's got a good length, took me 40+ hours to finish the story and side missions. The story is quite deep and captivating. Despite being a sequel to a spinoff, you don't need to have played previous games to make sense of it since it's its own standalone story. Even though the credits roll after reaching a certain point, you'll need to play through 3 times with different characters to get the full story. It's totally worth it though, and it's not just replaying segments but new story missions only certain characters can do. Oh, and the soundtrack is just amazing so you'll be listening to catchy music all the while. Game of the Yorha Edition comes with all DLC, but the DLC is rather mediocre and comes in a code, not on the disc. It's just fight arenas, costumes and a lite "out of body" segment. Not bad, but nothing really worthwhile. P.S. You'll need to be connected online at the REAL final credits to be able to actually finish the story (you don't need PS+, just have an internet connection).