Nier Automata

I feel another Nier: Automata thread coming on!

Did you watch the livestream? Are you excited for the newly-revealed pod combat? Boar drifting? Fishing? Grimoire Weiss skins? THIGHS?

Come shitpost about lost PS4 exclusivity, whether this is or isn't a "Platinum Game", floating swords, 8-4's localization efforts and Punished Taro's past games!

Speculate on unrevealed combat mechanics, undisclosed story connections, and whether Toobie has a dick!

Whine that we still don't know anything about the release or demo in the west!

We'll have so much fun together!

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=AzEraGFZWoM
youtube.com/watch?v=2K31Hj1Oz1g
youtu.be/OvyvQfn30uE)
store.na.square-enix.com/product/291360/nier-automata-ps4
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Those who missed it can watch an archive of the livestream here.

youtube.com/watch?v=AzEraGFZWoM

Gameplay starts at 19 minutes (before that they discuss the Black Box edition, and unless you speak Japanese it will mean nothing to you)

For those who care, but haven't been keeping up with the latest news, here's what's been recently revealed about the combat system:

>uses Bayonetta-based weapon system, where each of the two melee attack buttons (square and triangle) has its own weapon assigned. You can use the d-pad to swap to a secondary pair of weapons, even mid-combo without interrupt.
>Three types of weapons are revealed so far (short swords, large swords, and fists); recent screnshots show all of these combinations being dual-wielded as well
>The player can also switch instantly between 3 Pods, each with their own gun style (in the stream, they are "Gatling", "Laser" and "Missile").
>Each Pod has an assignable special ability from a list which is (at least) 17 entries long. These "Pod Programs" are very much like the Sealed Verses that Grimoire Weiss cast in Nier; spells with multiple charge levels that have unique functions in (and sometimes outside) combat
>You have the ability to control your direction of movement mid-dodge, to dodge in circular or other patterns. If you dodge into obstacles on the ground, you will stumble and roll, slowing you down.
>While you can use the lock-on function to automatically aim your Pod's gun or program skills, doing so will trigger a randomized spread on the accuracy, rather than the perfect accuracy of free-aimed shots
>Mounts (boars and other animals) not only do contact damage, you can fire from your Pod while riding them.
>Nier Automata "is an action game", so the easiest difficulty setting includes an optional "Auto Mode" to handle the action game elements. Unlike Bayonetta's Automatic Mode, Nier's is customizable, and can be configured to only handle certain aspects of combat (meleeing, dodging, or shooting) instead of all of them

What new stuff we've seen of non-combat gameplay so far:

>The game includes ledge vaulting, ladder climbing/sliding, and has been designed to allow a lot of vertical exploration (including rooftops and inside buildings)
>There are hidden items all over the place, many of them visible only by using special scanning spells with the Pod
>Visible accessories/outfits/gear for both the player and the Pod are confirmed to be in the game
>Animal riding is back, including boars, which can once again drift.
>Fishing is also back. Fishing is now done by sending the Pod into the water and calling it back when it has a bite
>The Pod has a toggleable flashlight which can be used to see in dark areas, like the sewer system underneath the city ruins
>The game menu shows 7 different "classes" of item that the player can have. Some enemy drops are collected automatically (like Halos or coins) but others must be collected manually by pressing O when near them.
>Certain sections of the game revert to 2D control, either top-down or side-scrolling. Most people saw this during the boss fight at E3 but it happens also just walking through certain areas in the game.

Thanks, will watch it now.

Sounds good

Never played a Nier game but this looks pretty fucking sweet

Never played Nier, what's it about?

Since I post it every thread, the full list of Pod Programs shown in the stream

R010 — Laser (fires a straight beam of energy)
R020 — Mirage (makes 2B invisible as she flies around attacking all enemies in a radius)
R030 — Hammer (summons a giant hammer that sends enemies flying
R040 — Blade (like summon swords or crow within feathers, surrounds 2B with a spinning blade)
R050 — Spear (makes rows of spears shoot from the ground which impale enemies and trap them)
R060 — M Shield (destroys all enemy bullets on contact)
A070 — P Shield (knocks back enemies who melee the player)
A080 — Wave (spawns an expanding ring of energy that damages grounded enemies)
A090 — Wire (a grappling hook like Monsoon's sai in MGR)
A100 — Decoy (spawns a hologram that attracts enemies, also acts as a stationary turret)
A110 — Slow (makes a sphere inside which enemies are slow but 2B isn't, like localized witch time)
A120 — Repair (heals 2B if she stands still directly under it)
A130 — Bomb (a volley of damaging shots)
A140 — Gravity (sucks enemies in toward a point and traps them)
A150 — Volt (stuns an enemy and deals damage, but ALWAYS leaves the enemy with at least 1HP... Why it's needed, we don't know)
A160 — Missile (like stinger, damaging super-sash)
A170 — Scanner (the pod will highlight otherwise-invisible items in the world

Don't know what separates A and R classes for these.

Also it seems (though it's not really detailed) that these can be individually configured per-program to be aimed either like melee attacks (by pressing a movement direction) or like gun attacks (by aiming the camera).

In the TGS footage we see the Laser program being used to aim upward (perhaps this is lock-on at work) but in the stream, Taura points the camera at an enemy and uses the spell, only for it to miss because it fires where 2B is facing.

Later on in the stream he uses the Wire spell and aims it manually (before using lock-on to snap it to an enemy)

...

To explain it would spoil it, but a father/brother trying to protect his daughter/sister from a monster that kidnaps her, in a future world where humanity has gone essentially extinct and robots are using advanced science to repeatedly transfer human consciousness from one disposable body to the next.

EVEN BIGGER SPOILER AHEAD

As it turns out, the "monsters" are the result of this process breaking down over time and the lost fragments of duplicated consciousness gaining sentience without a body. The monster you're rescuing your daughter/sister from is YOUR broken soul, trying to keep her safe from you, the monster on a murderous rampage

And so obviously, the sequel is set 10,000 years in the future and is about android soldiers fighting robot aliens.

What I really want to see is the webm where Taura is demoing Gravity, and then goes back, assigns hammer to another Pod, and showcases using gravity to trap enemies, hotswaps to the other Pod, and then hammer-slams the defenseless bunch.

It's fun-looking, and it's a nice showcase that the team is giving consideration not just to the way these abilities help in combat, but the way they may have exploitable synergy.

Build-based combat always adds depth.

Sounds pretty good, might give it a try sometime, since the settings sounds like something i'd be interested in.

Preordered this last week. Every new thing I read about the game makes me even more excited. Can't wait for February!

The gameplay is widely regarded as mediocre and sort of boring, but the story and music are GOAT

The same is also true of Drakengard 1 and 3, which are set in the same universe as Nier and may have some connection to Automata as well

>different outfits for 2B
DEMO FUCKING WHEN AAAAAAA

Wait are preorders even open yet? It still doesn't have Steam page or western release date

It's not coming out in the West in February is it? Or are you betting on bad localization and trying to preempt it?

I live in Japan.

I seriously doubt the West will get the game simultaneously.

>boar drifting is shown
>"okay, you've seen it, you can stop watching now! Bye!"

I swear these fuckers know exactly what they're doing when it comes to Nier fans. They tease an image of 2B and a boar like 8 months ago, and then just wait, knowing that everyone wants the goddamn answer.

They've said they're shooting for a simultaneous release, but obviously no confirmation yet
Apparently the current plan is to do a dual-audio release.

I hope the game has a demon souls/dark souls situation where word of mouth carries the game far in terms of sales. Quite frankly, I might be setting myself up for blind disappointment, but it seems like the game's pretty much got every major aspect you could want in a video game (like gameplay, music, atmosphere, and yes, things like story as well) on lockdown for being good.

Quite frankly, I think the team they've got is perfect for the Drakengard/Nier series and I want more.

Once Automata becomes mainstream and popular, the original fans will hate it. Happens everytime a cult hit of something becomes popular.

TOOBIE BETTER NOT HAVE A FUCKING DICK!
I don't care if there is a kaine-character, but plz no toobie.

Ah, I see

I doubt it too

I hope so

Taro and Plat are such a perfect match for each other and I hope that they collaborate more in the future.

If 2b manages to come westside without any kind of censorship I'll be surprised, to say the least.

Those panty shots are not going to fly with current gaming press.

Does this have a pc release? Can I finally sell my ps4?

Because if there's one group of people who gives a single shit about the gaming press' hangups about human sexuality, it's Platinum Games

Yes.

I think they said, it'd come to pc.
But don't quote me on it.

It does, whether it ever comes out or runs well is debatable though.

The localization has been confirmed to be handled by 8-4.

One of the localizers is a Neogaf mod and has already talked about making changes to the script.

>making changes to the script
Wasn't it said Taro would be supervising the changes? What the fuck, man. Need a source for that.

>that glossy outfit
This is my fetish. The shinier the better

>One of the localizers is a Neogaf mod and has already talked about making changes to the script.
Fiirst I've heard of this, source?

>Neogaf mod
time to learn kana I guess

Google search "8-4 nier automata neogaf"and you'll find it. I don't want to link to Neogaf.

9S needs more love!

Blah blah blah, 8-4 did Metal Gear Rising and it was great, 8-4 did Nier and it was great, 8-4 is gonna do Metal Nier Rising just fine.

8-4's job is not to censor games, it's to do what the publisher asks them to do. Publishers like NoA ask for censorship so they get censorship. Nobody is asking for it here. Saito has gone on record as saying that they want to avoid the mistakes of Nier (changing the game to appeal to the west) and that they intend for the US and Japan to get the same game.

At worst, we'll get a localization that fails to capture certain aspects of the characters' personalities due to poor translation choices, or bad reinventions of Japanese puns for the English audience, because those are the kind of things a localization company can do by mistake while engaging in the job they're paid to do.

Fun fact: 8-4 will not have the ability, at a technical level, to swap out the 2B model or constrict the camera's range of motion, because they're plugging text into goddamn spreadsheets, not a team of game designers.

>it's real

>that's because there's a lot of concepts or ideas that only really the Japanese audience would understand

youtube.com/watch?v=2K31Hj1Oz1g

Well, I hope you're right user.

I know they did Nier and Drakengard 3, but that was before the whole gamergate/sjw bullshit came into full force.

>that's because there's a lot of concepts or ideas that only really the Japanese audience would understand
Like what? Genuine question.

That particular interview was talking about Nier and its localization, alongside Automata, and that they were basically aiming to replicate that. People tend to say that Nier has some of the best localization around so...

That, and if the game has as many blatant drakengard references as it appears it might, things (particularly names and some concepts) will need to get changed to stay consistant due to shit getting changed in the original.

Literally, literally, LITERALLY, LITERALLY a quote about THE ORIGINAL NIER. The interview cited was like, 6 years old, and it was about THE ORIGINAL NIER'S LOCALIZATION. You know, the one Sup Forums thought was incredible.

Holy shit the clickbaiting when that article came out was surreal.

>dat booty

the point I'm making is that it's bs to change an artist's vision, that's why I posted a video of brock from pokemon calling rice balls jelly donuts

For every "eat your hamburgers Apollo", there's one of these to match it.

Especially when wordplay-based humor or cultural references are involved it's fucking impossible to translate a work without making some changes.

Oh nah I agree. Sorry for the misunderstanding, quoting you made it seem like I questioned you.

Was curious, what are some Japanese concepts Westerners won't understand?

I get it when some things don't make any sense at all as literal translations, but I know better than to think that's all that these people change.

You do realize that these changes are made in concert with the directorial/production team of the game, though, right?

For example, 8-4 were the ones who wrote the entirety of Senator Armstrong's "fight their own wars!" monologue, because they thought the Japanese one didn't really fit with what a midwestern American senator would do.

They submitted the rewrite to Platinum who liked it so much they rewrote the Japanese dialogue to match it more closely.

That's how this process works. They don't just take the game, change whatever the fuck they feel like, and send it off to the printers without Squeenix/Plat being able to stop them. When they make radical changes to, for example, a Fire Emblem game, it's because, in their opinion, those changes are needed to make western parents (and ratings boards) consider the game appropriate for the target age group. Nintendo wants these games to be saleable to little kids without pissing off parents so they ask for those changes to be made.

Localization isn't covert game vandalism, it's a job you're hired to do. If you don't do it to the satisfaction of the person hiring you, you get fired. When major changes get made, they're changes that the developer agrees are important.

So if the studio and publisher behind this game have said "no, we aren't going to make those sort of changes in localization this time around", why would you assume 8-4 would be making them anyway?

If this game isn't the best game I've played in my life I will be disappointed
It's literally a gift of god in a sea of shitty games

I don't know man, maybe I'm just being gullible for that neogaf mod thing that the other user mentioned

Here's the actual post by the 8-4 guy that he's discussing:

>Yeah, Yokoo-san is talking about the first Nier's localization in that quote, FWIW. :)

>For the second one, we decided to translate everything literally word for word -- sorry, waado foo waado -- so that the 6 dudes who endlessly complain about this shit (and often complain about decisions we had nothing to do with) will be able to sleep at night. But don't worry, because it's all...

>[Keikaku Dory]


>;p

>Just kidding, obviously. In all seriousness, people have nothing to worry about. We work closely with Yokoo-san, and he often has a hand in the elements that go into the localized versions of his games. Random (fun) example: he sat in on some of the EN voice recording with us for the first game, and he's the reason the Western version opens up with that awesome Laura Bailey quote (youtu.be/OvyvQfn30uE) -- he was in-studio when we recorded it (she actually did that in one take, BTW), and he liked it so much, he decided to open our version of the game with it. He's awesome, his games are awesome, and the localized versions will be treated (as they always are) with the utmost care and respect.

I guess I'll trust you on that then, still hoping for dual audio tho

Saito's official response on this is "we're working hard to accomplish it", ultimately it comes down to file size on disk for the PS4 release and royalties owed to Japanese VAs (meaning even if we don't, we may still get it as DLC)

If the dub was as decent as the first NieR's, I'll be happy. Though I wonder if they'll change Emil's VA.

>watching streams
>spoiling the game for yourself
You're all a bunch faggots.

Only spoils the gameplay aspects, user.

Masturbate to robots every day.

Why are they showing whole game in these videos? Nothing will surprise you now, you saw all the spells, all the characters, all the twists (Emil reveal, Devola\Popola, etc). At this rate they'll upload full walkthrough on youtube a week before release.

>Why are they showing whole game in these videos
Fair point. My only thought is that if Taro and the crew is confident with showing these videos to the public, then clearly that's not what all the game has to offer. They gotta keep the hype and interest up somehow.

Also keep in mind, they have been secretive of various other things too.

Gameplay elements shouldn't be "surprising" they should be fun. Knowing what's in the game won't make it less fun to use when you play the game.

>Knowing what's in the game won't make it less fun to use when you play the game
This. I used to watch a lot of God Hand videos, then I played it myself. Funnest shit.

What we saw in the stream was that there were a lot of potential synergy and builds you could have with the pod "magic". Should be fun.

That's not exactly correct.

I knew every weapon, accessory and technique in Bayo before I played it. It didn't detract from my enjoyment at all.

Wait, Since did a Nier game became a single platform only title? This was not even an exclusive game from the start.

It isn't single-platform, it's dual-platform, just like Nier

PS4 and PC

>all the twists
How is it a twist? A twist is something that happens during the game. Revealing a cast of returning characters isn't a twist.

No, just to you new age faggots. I still love DeS, and it's the least shitposted soulsgame.

he literally just said that

People doing what they think is right and fucking over everyone else because of it.

Which is why he said "mainstream and popular". You seem to forget DeS is only available on one platform.

>>Visible accessories/outfits/gear for both the player and the Pod are confirmed to be in the game

Then why bring it up? "since when is it single platform", nobody fucking said it was.

When it was announced, it was announced for PS4 only, then a Steam version was announced later.

>They're still using the debug menu to show off enemies and combat
I don't know why I like this, but I do.

I hope there's a pushbutton cheat code that unlocks it like in old 16-bit games

oh fuck this needs to happen, nothing has cheats anymore

So? It still broke into the mainstream, DaS was the response to the mainstream demand.
Nier did not, Automata absolutely might though, so there's no real reason why id start hating Nier - or Automata, as Automata is actually a response to the cult audience, SQ just wanted a platinum game

I'd love to spawn as much enemies so I can fill the screen with bullets.

Part of my interest in this game is due to the very attractive female protagonist. It does look like a good game though. I'm looking forward to it.

>a Fire Emblem game, it's because, in their opinion, those changes are needed to make western parents (and ratings boards)
As if I give a shit. If it's retarded then it's retarded.

Too thick!

Yeah because the combat is all we ever played Taro games for, and odour seeing the combat is the same as using it too.
I want you YouTube/stream addicted dumb newfaggots to leave.

And crash the game like at E3?

Sure, but then you need to blame the publisher or director, not the localization team. And you need to assume that bad localizations will come from that publisher/director in the future, not that localization team.

You can pre-order for both platforms on SE's online store if you really want to.

store.na.square-enix.com/product/291360/nier-automata-ps4

I'm worried we will really only play 2B for 95% of the game and 9S and A2 get mostly ignored.

>PC download

Fuck me senpai, where muh pc western black box

Better if 100% 2B

Maybe we'll get alternate endings through different character perspectives each time. We play 2B first, then the rest for the next playthroughs.

I don't think they'd have emphasized the 3 protags thing so much if it was only 5% of gameplay

I think it may play into the 'branches' or routes though, as in the second ary endings would come after playing entire parts with the other characters.

That seems extremely likely.

It's not like you spent a shitload of time in Nier playing as anyone other than Nier

Pretty sure we got DLC of that type to drakengard 3, and they did say 3 protagonists.
Would anyone call Ciri the protagonist of TW3 cause we had like a combined hour playing as her?
I wouldn't

I would call Nier, Emil, Kaine and Weiss the "protagonists" of Nier

'protagonist' doesn't necessarily have to mean 'playable character'

What the fuck is up with the giant babies?

Pretty sure they called it playable protagonists, and we saw them switch to 9s on the fly

Not that guy but no I don't accept that because its not always true. The Director/Producer can't give input or direction on every aspect of its localization . Especially when it comes to Square. Both XV and XIV have vast changes to scripts brought on by localizers that the Japanese devs weren't aware of. They just recently had the producer of XIV shit on one of the lead translators choice for a dumb translation choice they made for "authenticity".