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.

Positives: easy gameplay, B+ storytelling, beautiful music and voice acting. Negatives: super repetitive fighting, multiple endings that also become repetitive if you really want to finish the whole game, and I was really tired of the annoying camerawork where you're looking up the main character's skirt whenever you're running so that means all the time. Obviously some people enjoy that and I'm not one of them. Overall, glad to have played the game once, but replayability? Nah, move on to better games.

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.

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...

One of the best looking PS4 games I've played so far. The combat is engaging, and the music is fantastic. Be prepared to play the game 3 times though to get your full money's worth though. That is what you need to do for the true ending. It sounds daunting, but it's worth it for the great ending. Each run is a little different, so it doesn't get dull.

Breathtaking graphics, beautiful music selections, and imaginative combat. In-depth story and enough secrets to warrant replay value.

I can’t believe that I’ve waited this long to play this game. Everything about it is great. Only complaint is that it’s not 4K optimized. But that really doesn’t matter. It’s beautiful anyways. If you like games like devil may cry you will love this game. It mashes a few genres together that you would think wouldn’t work and makes them play perfectly. Soundtrack is phenomenal. Story is good. And replay ability is great. When you think the games over it’s not. This game is definitely worth the money.