I actually really like the idea of a turn based game in the NieR universe. What ruins it is the random lottery characters and whatnot that plagues all ftp RPG’s. NieR with mechanics like Dragon Quest or FF would be amazing. Probably my favorite video game.
Technically Re[in] is a turn base combat. But it **VERY** much lacks the turn base mechanism. Like both games, only the skill/weapons are manually activated. But the rest is auto.
For me the fact that the game lets you unlock items to automatically seleect skills, companion skills, ultimate skills, etc (i forget the names), adn even includes a fast forward button, and a skip mechanic, just makes me automatically lose respect for the gameplay. Because if the devs already design the game to make me want to avoid playing, why should I even try to enjoy it? lol
I think the combat was a low priority compared to the story. The combat was added to make it slightly more interactive and "gamey" instead of just being a visual novel.
Ya. It's sad really. Would've been more fun and engaging. Maybe, only maybe that still makes both games alive and running. But that's a not going to happen.
I didn’t ever play it but from what I saw it used the ATB system like Final Fantasy right? Not 100% turn based but technically turn based? Haha. Real time watch gauges fill up sounds like ATB a bit.
You'd just watch your 3 characters' 3 attack bars fill up, and when they did you press the attack to queue it up. The enemies have their own upcoming attacks bar. Most of the time the game just involved letting your attacks fill up enough so you could throw a bunch of them at a time as a combo before the opponent could throw an attack to break up your chain. Each character also had a companion which could add a special attack.
That's it, that's the whole combat system.
Additionally, you could enable "auto" mode, which meant the game itself would press the attacks as soon as the weapon gauges were full (not character gauges though, those you still have to press yourself).
ATB is the most similar style, but Rein is an automatic ATB except for the gauges.
Like the original FFVII's ATB, but your only option is to use Limit. While the Limit gauge is not full, you don't get any options, the battle is completely automatic in ATB style. Once a character's Limit gauge is full, they keep fighting automatically, but you can decide that they should use Limit Break in a given turn. Make it so each character has 3 Limit gauges instead of one and you have Reincarnation's combat.
Was really bummed out when I heard it was one. I’m not even repulsed by mobile games, I played Dragon Quest on my iPad and loved it. But the gacha stuff just sucks.
Yea exactly. I love the idea of mobile games, especially if they're a game I can play on PC / Console / mobile, and cross save between them all. But I don't like gacha games, and sadly gacha games plague the mobile market alongside puzzle games I believe.
Have you played the Voice of Cards games? I think they were tangentially connected to the nier universe, iirc. But you won't see nier/drakengard characters or anything like that. They aren't too crazy or must-plays, but they're pretty cool, especially the last one, The Beasts of Burden, imo. Turned-based combat rpg, the cards are only used for its aesthetic, but it doesn't play like a card game.
I wanted to but was turned off by them being card games. I’m terrible at those so I didn’t even bother. If they’re just turn based RPG’s though then I might try them! Thanks!
I would like to play Voice of Cards but every time they go on sale on Steam I take one look at the store page and see all the DLC and just think “nope, fuck this”
The DLC are just comsetics that reference the Nier games (each VoC game references a different Nier game) and an alternate ost from nier. You can get a few different comsetics in the game itself for free that are cooler than the paid ones, imo. The DLCs are also fairly priced, so I'd say they're not too egregious when compared to other game's DLC. But above that, I'd just highly recommend not using any dlc at all, as it's better to play with the original VoC cosmetics and ost. If you are interested, the whole VoC trilogy is on sale on steam right now, so the 3 games without any dlc are 29,49 euros, which is normally the price of a single game. You can also get the trilogy with all dlc for 38,08 euros, but again, I don't recommend that
At least SiNo had the guild component which made for nice interaction away from the game too, but Re[in] felt like the same laundry list of chores while playing with yourself (r/phrasing).
Very much agree with you. Re[in] felt more of an offline game then online. Hell I don't even remember if you can make friends there, but for SiNo have a engaging community at least.
The only online portions of the game were the gacha pulls and the friends. But the friends thing was basically useless. You would send/receive stamina, but I usually sent 40 to receive 5. It was only really used as a daily challenge.
I still can't get over how almost cynically repetitive SINoAlice's gameplay was. I think the NPCs even repeated something like "everyone lets keep killing each other" or something, so it almost felt like it was supposed to be a parody... by just being a gacha game
They copied Persona; why would I waste my time with it? Yes, the actual gameplay on it is good, but it's because they copied Persona more or less. They can't fuck up something as good as Persona. The gacha aspect still ruins it. These types of games are literally daily and weekly chores to get the characters, and if you're unlucky, you might end up emptying your wallet. That's what they bank on, too. It's bad. Gacha is bad. Not fun at all.
As someone who has put literally thousands of hours into both Persona and HSR, this is a very misleading statement and they both play very differently
Persona is based on fast encounters and chaining together attacks in a high risk, high reward way with a well rounded set of skills in your party
HSR is about teamplay and synergies with more focused character designs, and counterplay for specific enemy gimmicks
You can say what you will about the gacha mechanics, they are predatory I wont even attempt to defend the egregious prices. But one gameplay aspect other things dont really offer that the gacha game model has is long term resource management, planning ahead what characters and builds you are lacking to defeat the challenge content, and working out unique strategies with the characters you do have to make up for your decision to not pull certain characters is a rewarding experience itself. Everyone's account is unique and people will create unique strategies depending on what they've chosen to pursue and there's some beauty to that. Personally enjoy it, it's hard to recommend to people that can't control spending and gambling urges but as a frequent but low spender, I enjoy the game a lot, I just wish that drop rates were a bit better to reduce the harsh grind for certain things and the prices weren't literal extortion lmao
What I will say though is that from my short time with Nier Rein, I do not feel this was done well, mainly because the combat just straight up sucked ass kinda lacks any form of real decision making in battle
>As someone who has put literally thousands of hours into both Persona and HSR, this is a very misleading statement and they both play very differently
It’s not just misleading it’s downright dumb. I guess every turn based game “copied Persona” lol
I never said clone. I said they copied Persona, or, to be specific, they copied the P5 homework a little bit. The elements cause a weakness break similar to weakness knockdowns in the Persona series, and the fluidity of the combat menu is pretty much something that they copied from 1 to 1. I'm not saying it's a 100% clone; I'm saying that they copied the right things. The good things. And that's why it's good, especially when compared to literally 99% of turn-based games on mobile, because they're the first to copy the fluidity of P5. I'm not saying it's bad either; it's a good game. But Mihoyo is known for copying trendy games. They probably saw Persona 5 Royal and said, "Yeah, let's do that like that, but with our own style." You'd have to be blind to not notice the similarities.
The biggest difference is that it's a gacha; each character has a special and an ultimate, if I remember correctly, which is very different from P5. But what I was trying to say is that it's a traditional turn-based RPG like Persona to an extent, and it felt a lot like it too, which is a good and modern thing. Something I wouldn't shame any other developers for copying either, because it's that good, but it originated from P5. They copied enough to be fairly obvious but not enough to call them a clone, and they're good developers, so it probably wouldn't be a bad clone if it were one anyway.
What are you talking about? HSR doesn't even have a combat menu, you only have 2 commands. And Mihoyo has been doing their elemental shenanigans since the HI3rd days (which is older than Persona 5 btw).
This legitimately sounds like you never played a turn based game before Persona 5 so now you think P5 invented turn based combat.
You're tripping. I'm not just talking about "elemental weakness." I think you're the one who hasn't played a Persona game and has no idea what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the elemental weakness being more than just doing "extra DMG" or being "super effective," like in Pokemon. I'm talking about the weakness of breaking enemies and skipping their turn once—that specific mechanic I have not seen in any turn-based RPG before Persona games, only after. And yes, in P5or any Persona game, the main point of weakness knockdowns is to get a once more, and do an all-out attack; in HSR, it's not the same reason, but the mechanic is blatantly similar, compared to an "elemental weakness" in any other game.
And the two-button menu in combat is still a menu, as if a menu in a restaurant was only two things. "Press X for sushi" or "Press O for fries." It's still a menu. Just because it's simpler and has overall fewer mechanics (less buttons to press) than P5 doesn't make it less similar to P5. The look of the menu in combat might look different, but it essentially works the same, which is what I already explained above. In HSR, you press Square to basic ATK, X to nothing, O to nothing, Triangle to cast skills, and a combination of R2 + 1 Face button for an individual character's ult. While in Persona 5, it's Square for Items, X to basic ATK, O to Guard, and Triangle for Personas. I can call it copied, and you can call it inspired, but the fact still stands: it's very similar.
It baffles me that you would disagree with me, constantly say I'm wrong, and put words I never said in my mouth. You're assuming too much, and all you're saying is that I'm wrong, with no intelligent words to back up those claims. You can disagree with me all you like; it doesn't make the things I explained not true.
Then why get involved in gacha? Sure it's NeiR, but if your firmly hate gacha then why play it. And Yoko did say something about being very displeased about gacha.
Well, ask Yoko Taro why he made it a gacha. It's a similar reason. If you get an opportunity to do something or try something (because it's free) that you're a fan of, you're going to try it. So yeah, I tried it because I am a NieR fan, which is the easy answer. Also, Yoko Taro probably got forced by publishers to make it a gacha.
To further explain your question, it has come to the point where I know that even if every other aspect of the game is good, I'll know without even trying the game that it can be better if it wasn't a Gacha game. Gacha systems add nothing of value (except to the greedy publisher's pockets) to any game genre, tbh.
Day 1 player here. The lore and design of the game was top notch, they even released like 3 soundtracks? They had Merchandise like postcards, keyrings and nendoroids, and there is a book coming out later this year, but since it was gacha it was doomed to fail.
I hated the 20 different types of materials just to upgrade a character or weapon. So you had to evolve, ascend, upgrade, exalt and rank up a character if you wanted full stats. Even then, sometimes it was not enough if your weapons and memories were trash. And don't get me started with Arena. In a way, it was pay to win. Too bad gems were ridiculously expensive. I only bought 10k gems for like 20 usd, they gave an additional 2k gems so 12k paid gems. Each gacha pull was 300 gems, so 40 pulls total but guess what? If you wanted to "pity" a character(buy it straight from the store) you needed at least 100 pulls. The game itself was free to play, but sooner or later they "forced you" into buying gems with limited characters/banners like The final fantasy Collab or Nier Automata etc.
So long story short, great game with excellent art, music and design, but it was managed by greedy individuals that did not know how to appeal to the fanbase.
I got 90% of what I needed without spending money, I did tons of the side stuff which gave boatloads of gems, but it is true that the chances to get what you wanted was best when spending, but didn't really need to.
The story and the soundtracks were amazing. They have released 3 cds, 2 being original, 1 being a lofi hip hop arrangement. I'm hoping they release a 3rd album for the 3rd portion of the game.
Played day 1 up to end of chapter 1. Game made me realize that a terribly boring gameplay loop and an awfully greedy pull system can suck the fun out of even the best story. I just could not bother picking it back up for chapter 2, and it just makes me disappointed that they decided to treat such an important part of the series lore as disposable garbage.
Most of it is on the fandom wiki for nier (just google nier reincarnatio and it should be one of the higher results). Otherwise nierrein.guide has a lot of it there too. There's some playthroughs on YouTube, and I hope to upload my gameplay footage to YouTube sometime soon too. I have the Japanese version too instead of English.
Blame Tencent, they forced the game into and out of existence. It's their typical scheme, they're basically saturating the market for mobile gambling games and killing each of them off again 2~3 years after launch.
The story and music are great. Other than that it's just another gacha game with boring combat. I refuse to spend real money on gambling for waifu trading cards when google images exists.
I was here for the stories, the characters, and the art. I honestly never really got the full grasp of the in and outs of the battle system. Mainly abused the element weaknesses and my number bigger than the recommended number. I think some parts of the game that required more effort and understanding like Subjugation, Record of Dusk and Fate Boards, I just put no effort into. Outside of the occasional in story event, combat was pretty repetitive from what I participated in.
I managed to finish the main story in the nick of time before EOS. Like many, I tried it out when it opened because of my love of Nier and Yoko Taro, but quickly grew bored and dropped it until I heard it was closing.
Ironically I think the EOS period was by far the best way to experience the game. They essentially gave away pulls and resources by then, removing the need for tedious expensive grinding. Only then I was able to plow my way through the story, which at the start was fragmented and vague—but it turned out to be rich, emotional, and satisfying, backed by gorgeous music and visuals. (I was very moved by the second part, Sun and Moon, which is in many ways a classic Nier style story in content and structure.) It also ties deeply into the rest of the Nier and Drakengard series by the end as well. Those parts alone are worthwhile and it’s a shame they are being lost, though many are archiving them now.
There was a great Nier visual novel buried under what was frankly a bad and greedy game. Only EOS made the “gameplay” bearable, and only because I could easily set up a OP party and run auto the whole time, and do other things until the battles finished. It’s not great when that’s the only way enjoy it, and it’s easy to see why it shut down. A real shame that such a great aesthetic experience had to be wrapped up in a poor package.
The EOS definitely would’ve made it painless but tbh keeping up with the main story during release wasn’t too bad compared to lots of other gachas. I grinded up a team in the first month of release and it carried me through the whole game with minimal upkeep. Wish I could say the same about FF7 Ever Crisis where the team I made in that same release period can’t beat the story content now (I deleted it lol).
Granted my Nier team was literally two whole weeks of grinding (I was in a two week work training where I could hit autobattle periodically during) so there was definitely a grind but it was more a one time thing.
I wanted to like it, but I couldn't even get through the prologue thanks to how bad the gameplay was. It was also melting my phone. I might've tried to play it anyway if it had a Steam version like Mobius Final Fantasy. I just hate the forced autobattle but I have to activate skills gameplay. I immediately dropped Digimon ReArise for that too. I wanted to play Nikke for 2B but I hated the gameplay and especially the aiming. Why do so many big mobile games have awful gameplay?
Because they are mobile games. By design, they have minimal gameplay and effort so that maximum profits can be retained when you inevitably spend far more on it than an actual video game. If you are asking for the gacha/live service style to get better, you are wasting your breath as we've only seen it go downhill more and more, and by design, they are predatory. The real thing to ask is, don't put all that stuff in a doomed game that, when shut down, nobody can ever access again. Instead, make a game so those who still want it, it can go find it again or those who are late to the franchise and want to experience it. You know, like we had till toxic game models became the norm.
I absolutely loved the story and all the side stories and info, but the actual battles were extremely boring after some point since I had tons of powerful characters and basically 1 shot everything (probably for the better to make it last shorter). But the story made it worthwhile, especially when a lot of the side stories directly contributed to the characters' main stories, events that happened before or after, or else, an alternate version. The music was also very NieR, and amazing. Some people may say it was overly grindy, but at the same time, that is extremely Yoko Taro, both Automata and Replicant have extremely grindy aspects to them, and in some ways, reincarnation was less grindy because of the skip tickets and frequent events that gave you boatloads of materials.
Yeah i didn’t like the combat system very much, i would have much preferred to have had manual control of all my party’s actions plus item management.
Funny enough i liked the battles the most when it was mandatory battles with a set party cuz of the dialogue between characters heightening the drama.
And oh man the gacha system, I don’t like gacha in the first place but having a party of random characters really took me out of the game whenever a battle happened cuz it felt more like I was being pulled out of the story going on for pointless busy work with characters and enemies uninvolved in the story being told, I think the one time it felt justified was the final boss since it felt like the player and their party were the deciding factor instead of a distraction.
Finally someone said it! I was getting tired of all the dick sucking. Like the thing was greedy as all hell, which is pretty common in any SE game, they had stupid systems after stupid systems and it was grindy as hell. Well thats how i remember it at least, i stopped playing after like 4 months after launch
Story was very good imo I genuinely love how they keep innovating in that regard and experimenting with it.
However I feel like even for turn based games the gameplay is just not very good
It's disheartening to see so many negative comments towards Re\[in\]carnation. Personally, I play NieR for its story, so I loved everything about it, but if you're more of a casual fan that just likes the combat, yeah, I can see how you'd be dissatisfied with it.
Yes, it was gacha. Yes, you *could* spend money on it if you *wanted* (key words here: *could* and *wanted*). But the main aspect of game was never pay-to-win or "trying to squeeze you dry" (in fact, I feel the game was too easy at times, exactly to accommodate players who just wanted to witness the story).
I never spent a dime and experienced all the content I wanted to experience at my own pace and with absolutely zero difficulties. Here's hoping they release an offline version in the future (...though that's quite unlikely since modern Square Enix is shit at making games).
Lets also be honest, if you come to the DrakenNier series as a whole expecting good gameplay you are barking up the wrong tree. Automata was an exception but even the Replicant Remake is kinda mediocre gameplay wise.
i beat like half of season 1 and in the 2nd half my performance was so bad at 3fps in lowest settings it was barely playable, this combined with the constant black enemy gates interrupting the story progress i just noped out and said ima watch the story on youtube
I played for like a month at launch, hit chapter 6, and got burnt out on the events they piled on that were all basically identical. I assume they were trying to catch up to JP, but it just kinda made it feel like there was nothing to do but grind, and I didn't even know what I was grinding for.
I managed to pick it back up about two days before eos and rush the story, but I'd still like an offline mode to go see some of the side content I missed. At least an English artbook and ost, c'mon.
Is it though? I tried to read up on the wiki and it's a mess, and I'm sorry, watching a youtube video of slides with text is.. counterproductive. What does 10H do again? Because the silent sea made her fate seem very not savior, as well as very incapable of fighting.
I'm still salty that they locked the sequel story to Automata behind some shitty mobile gacha. They could at least rip out the gacha part and put the game on steam or something for those who want to experience the story themselves. Fuck, I'll even pay for it. Not too much, but still.
Hard disagree. Never spent a dime, played casually on and off for a few months and had a more than capable team to beat the main story. Main story is what I was here for.
The game was an interactive storybook and it excelled in that regard. Were the auto battles engaging? No, but neither is walking around in the Stanley Parable but the lack of gameplay is overlooked due to the incredible dialogue and writing. No reason I can’t apply that to Reincarnation so
Walking around in the Stanley Parable is one of gaming's greatest examples of how to make a mundane action engaging. The walking is conducive to experiencing the environment and the story.
Rein, OTOH, built a full 3 character combat system and still somehow made it more boring than watching paint dry. The combat is a gate to keep the player away from the actual content of the game and to try squeezing some money out of them when they ran into fights that were too hard.
I would not put these two use of mechanics in the same bucket.
The idea that they could make a game, then remove it completely as soon as the story is done, with no offline ability even for a visual novel, is ridiculous.
Started playing Nier Automata for the first time 3 days ago and I'm already 40 hours in, so I guess I do enjoy it. The only thing I find really irritating in the game is the camera angles and the lock on system.
Im standing in front of a group of enemies, I press lock on and for some reason it locks on the enemy at the furthest back on the pack instead of the one closest to me or to the one I'm directly looking at. Half the time attacks come from off screen enemies and that's the worst part about the combat.
Yeah that games great this is about reincarnation, the shit predatory gacha mobile game that's a sequel to automata with (as is standard for a Nier game) a great story and soundtrack. It just got shut down yesterday.
I actually really like the gameplay, knowing what attacks to use in what order, and when to use them was a great way to keep me engaged in the combat (referring to fighting against the Cursed Gods). It was a combat format that allowed me to get hyper focused (Subjugation Mode) or use it as background noise when I'm doing the Event/Crossover Quests (besides the last EX quest) and the Hard and Very Hard modes of the story.
It reminded me a lot of FFXIII's combat, which was also divisive, but seeing as how I like that as well, it makes sense as to why I liked it.
Edit: coming from a FTP player who got very lucky with drops (Maxed 4 Star Alternate Battler 2B, Alternate Lad Brother Nier, and Divergent Sister Zero)
Unpopular opinion obv, but I hard disagree. Game was terrific.
I understand it seeming boring if you're a casual who never tried any of the challenging content and never had to learn what your characters or weapons did. If you actually delved into the gameplay it was quite fun and figuring out builds was neat.
Also the story was very solid.
? I could see you making an argument that the originals combat was crap. But replicant fixed a lot of things and reduced some of the most grind-e sections of the game.
Personally I feel replicant is a 9/10 and automata is a a 8/10
The old console games have shit combat because of technical or design limitations for that time. Reincarnation had shit combat to sell power ups.
There's no comparison to be made here.
If the Replicant remake was an UPGRADE in terms of combat to the original, I genuinely do not want to know how horrible the combat in the original was.
let’s be honest, if you bothered grinding as hard as the game demanded it, the game was fairly enjoyable
if you just played it for the story/plot, then yeah the gameplay was incredibly boring
🤷♂️
The grand gameplay experience of gambling for more build options and waiting for a 9 encounter autoplay to complete so you can get 1 of a special currency that will let you increase your overall force by 2 points?
no, the gameplay of learning when/how to dodge attacks from gods n stuff, it wasn’t all auto play
we all played the game the way we saw fit, for the ones that grinded/spent an absurd amount of time/money on the it tho? it was fun.
It could have been way better, however.
I agree. The Combat gameplay is very boring for both Re[in]carnation and SINoALICE. I can't say the same when it comes to the story on both games.
I actually really like the idea of a turn based game in the NieR universe. What ruins it is the random lottery characters and whatnot that plagues all ftp RPG’s. NieR with mechanics like Dragon Quest or FF would be amazing. Probably my favorite video game.
Technically Re[in] is a turn base combat. But it **VERY** much lacks the turn base mechanism. Like both games, only the skill/weapons are manually activated. But the rest is auto.
Yeah that’s what I was getting at, my bad. I like that it’s turn based but not that it gets muddled down by everything else.
For me the fact that the game lets you unlock items to automatically seleect skills, companion skills, ultimate skills, etc (i forget the names), adn even includes a fast forward button, and a skip mechanic, just makes me automatically lose respect for the gameplay. Because if the devs already design the game to make me want to avoid playing, why should I even try to enjoy it? lol
I think the combat was a low priority compared to the story. The combat was added to make it slightly more interactive and "gamey" instead of just being a visual novel.
> I think the combat was a low priority compared to the combat [lol](https://c.tenor.com/l9W0IjMDldgAAAAd/tenor.gif)
Why I shouldn't post when super tired lol.
Good point lol
Ya. It's sad really. Would've been more fun and engaging. Maybe, only maybe that still makes both games alive and running. But that's a not going to happen.
Shame. I thought they were going to make a stand alone offline version.
I wish they did. But the best we have is archiving then now... I miss Mama.
😔
It's *technically* kind of like xenoblade, but dumbed down further.
"Turn-based" is a bit of a stretch. In practice, it was a "real-time watch-gauges-fill-up" combat. Best real-time watch-gauges-fill-up game though
I didn’t ever play it but from what I saw it used the ATB system like Final Fantasy right? Not 100% turn based but technically turn based? Haha. Real time watch gauges fill up sounds like ATB a bit.
You'd just watch your 3 characters' 3 attack bars fill up, and when they did you press the attack to queue it up. The enemies have their own upcoming attacks bar. Most of the time the game just involved letting your attacks fill up enough so you could throw a bunch of them at a time as a combo before the opponent could throw an attack to break up your chain. Each character also had a companion which could add a special attack. That's it, that's the whole combat system.
Additionally, you could enable "auto" mode, which meant the game itself would press the attacks as soon as the weapon gauges were full (not character gauges though, those you still have to press yourself).
I used to play Seven Deadly Sins Grand Cross a ton and even it was more complex than that. Didn’t know it was so hands off.
It was a terrible idle game propped up by the story, setting, and franchise it belonged to.
I believe it.
ATB is the most similar style, but Rein is an automatic ATB except for the gauges. Like the original FFVII's ATB, but your only option is to use Limit. While the Limit gauge is not full, you don't get any options, the battle is completely automatic in ATB style. Once a character's Limit gauge is full, they keep fighting automatically, but you can decide that they should use Limit Break in a given turn. Make it so each character has 3 Limit gauges instead of one and you have Reincarnation's combat.
Ahhh okay. Thanks for the explanation 💙
Yea Gacha sucks as a concept for games, especially games like these.
Was really bummed out when I heard it was one. I’m not even repulsed by mobile games, I played Dragon Quest on my iPad and loved it. But the gacha stuff just sucks.
Yea exactly. I love the idea of mobile games, especially if they're a game I can play on PC / Console / mobile, and cross save between them all. But I don't like gacha games, and sadly gacha games plague the mobile market alongside puzzle games I believe.
🙏
Have you played the Voice of Cards games? I think they were tangentially connected to the nier universe, iirc. But you won't see nier/drakengard characters or anything like that. They aren't too crazy or must-plays, but they're pretty cool, especially the last one, The Beasts of Burden, imo. Turned-based combat rpg, the cards are only used for its aesthetic, but it doesn't play like a card game.
I wanted to but was turned off by them being card games. I’m terrible at those so I didn’t even bother. If they’re just turn based RPG’s though then I might try them! Thanks!
I would like to play Voice of Cards but every time they go on sale on Steam I take one look at the store page and see all the DLC and just think “nope, fuck this”
The DLC are just comsetics that reference the Nier games (each VoC game references a different Nier game) and an alternate ost from nier. You can get a few different comsetics in the game itself for free that are cooler than the paid ones, imo. The DLCs are also fairly priced, so I'd say they're not too egregious when compared to other game's DLC. But above that, I'd just highly recommend not using any dlc at all, as it's better to play with the original VoC cosmetics and ost. If you are interested, the whole VoC trilogy is on sale on steam right now, so the 3 games without any dlc are 29,49 euros, which is normally the price of a single game. You can also get the trilogy with all dlc for 38,08 euros, but again, I don't recommend that
At least SiNo had the guild component which made for nice interaction away from the game too, but Re[in] felt like the same laundry list of chores while playing with yourself (r/phrasing).
Very much agree with you. Re[in] felt more of an offline game then online. Hell I don't even remember if you can make friends there, but for SiNo have a engaging community at least.
The only online portions of the game were the gacha pulls and the friends. But the friends thing was basically useless. You would send/receive stamina, but I usually sent 40 to receive 5. It was only really used as a daily challenge.
Thats why I can't remember about it.
I still can't get over how almost cynically repetitive SINoAlice's gameplay was. I think the NPCs even repeated something like "everyone lets keep killing each other" or something, so it almost felt like it was supposed to be a parody... by just being a gacha game
I have up on it, I'll watch a you tube recap of the story and enjoy it 100x more
I just say the same for every turned based gacha rpg.
Honkai: Star rail?
They copied Persona; why would I waste my time with it? Yes, the actual gameplay on it is good, but it's because they copied Persona more or less. They can't fuck up something as good as Persona. The gacha aspect still ruins it. These types of games are literally daily and weekly chores to get the characters, and if you're unlucky, you might end up emptying your wallet. That's what they bank on, too. It's bad. Gacha is bad. Not fun at all.
As someone who has put literally thousands of hours into both Persona and HSR, this is a very misleading statement and they both play very differently Persona is based on fast encounters and chaining together attacks in a high risk, high reward way with a well rounded set of skills in your party HSR is about teamplay and synergies with more focused character designs, and counterplay for specific enemy gimmicks You can say what you will about the gacha mechanics, they are predatory I wont even attempt to defend the egregious prices. But one gameplay aspect other things dont really offer that the gacha game model has is long term resource management, planning ahead what characters and builds you are lacking to defeat the challenge content, and working out unique strategies with the characters you do have to make up for your decision to not pull certain characters is a rewarding experience itself. Everyone's account is unique and people will create unique strategies depending on what they've chosen to pursue and there's some beauty to that. Personally enjoy it, it's hard to recommend to people that can't control spending and gambling urges but as a frequent but low spender, I enjoy the game a lot, I just wish that drop rates were a bit better to reduce the harsh grind for certain things and the prices weren't literal extortion lmao What I will say though is that from my short time with Nier Rein, I do not feel this was done well, mainly because the combat just straight up sucked ass kinda lacks any form of real decision making in battle
>As someone who has put literally thousands of hours into both Persona and HSR, this is a very misleading statement and they both play very differently It’s not just misleading it’s downright dumb. I guess every turn based game “copied Persona” lol
Pfft Persona just copied SMT smh kids these days
Persona? In what universe is HSR a Persona clone?
I never said clone. I said they copied Persona, or, to be specific, they copied the P5 homework a little bit. The elements cause a weakness break similar to weakness knockdowns in the Persona series, and the fluidity of the combat menu is pretty much something that they copied from 1 to 1. I'm not saying it's a 100% clone; I'm saying that they copied the right things. The good things. And that's why it's good, especially when compared to literally 99% of turn-based games on mobile, because they're the first to copy the fluidity of P5. I'm not saying it's bad either; it's a good game. But Mihoyo is known for copying trendy games. They probably saw Persona 5 Royal and said, "Yeah, let's do that like that, but with our own style." You'd have to be blind to not notice the similarities. The biggest difference is that it's a gacha; each character has a special and an ultimate, if I remember correctly, which is very different from P5. But what I was trying to say is that it's a traditional turn-based RPG like Persona to an extent, and it felt a lot like it too, which is a good and modern thing. Something I wouldn't shame any other developers for copying either, because it's that good, but it originated from P5. They copied enough to be fairly obvious but not enough to call them a clone, and they're good developers, so it probably wouldn't be a bad clone if it were one anyway.
What are you talking about? HSR doesn't even have a combat menu, you only have 2 commands. And Mihoyo has been doing their elemental shenanigans since the HI3rd days (which is older than Persona 5 btw). This legitimately sounds like you never played a turn based game before Persona 5 so now you think P5 invented turn based combat.
You're tripping. I'm not just talking about "elemental weakness." I think you're the one who hasn't played a Persona game and has no idea what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the elemental weakness being more than just doing "extra DMG" or being "super effective," like in Pokemon. I'm talking about the weakness of breaking enemies and skipping their turn once—that specific mechanic I have not seen in any turn-based RPG before Persona games, only after. And yes, in P5or any Persona game, the main point of weakness knockdowns is to get a once more, and do an all-out attack; in HSR, it's not the same reason, but the mechanic is blatantly similar, compared to an "elemental weakness" in any other game. And the two-button menu in combat is still a menu, as if a menu in a restaurant was only two things. "Press X for sushi" or "Press O for fries." It's still a menu. Just because it's simpler and has overall fewer mechanics (less buttons to press) than P5 doesn't make it less similar to P5. The look of the menu in combat might look different, but it essentially works the same, which is what I already explained above. In HSR, you press Square to basic ATK, X to nothing, O to nothing, Triangle to cast skills, and a combination of R2 + 1 Face button for an individual character's ult. While in Persona 5, it's Square for Items, X to basic ATK, O to Guard, and Triangle for Personas. I can call it copied, and you can call it inspired, but the fact still stands: it's very similar. It baffles me that you would disagree with me, constantly say I'm wrong, and put words I never said in my mouth. You're assuming too much, and all you're saying is that I'm wrong, with no intelligent words to back up those claims. You can disagree with me all you like; it doesn't make the things I explained not true.
Then why get involved in gacha? Sure it's NeiR, but if your firmly hate gacha then why play it. And Yoko did say something about being very displeased about gacha.
Well, ask Yoko Taro why he made it a gacha. It's a similar reason. If you get an opportunity to do something or try something (because it's free) that you're a fan of, you're going to try it. So yeah, I tried it because I am a NieR fan, which is the easy answer. Also, Yoko Taro probably got forced by publishers to make it a gacha. To further explain your question, it has come to the point where I know that even if every other aspect of the game is good, I'll know without even trying the game that it can be better if it wasn't a Gacha game. Gacha systems add nothing of value (except to the greedy publisher's pockets) to any game genre, tbh.
Yeah.. I'm with you, played for the story but the gameplay was nothing but a drag-on
I see what you did there
;)
ah HA!
Day 1 player here. The lore and design of the game was top notch, they even released like 3 soundtracks? They had Merchandise like postcards, keyrings and nendoroids, and there is a book coming out later this year, but since it was gacha it was doomed to fail. I hated the 20 different types of materials just to upgrade a character or weapon. So you had to evolve, ascend, upgrade, exalt and rank up a character if you wanted full stats. Even then, sometimes it was not enough if your weapons and memories were trash. And don't get me started with Arena. In a way, it was pay to win. Too bad gems were ridiculously expensive. I only bought 10k gems for like 20 usd, they gave an additional 2k gems so 12k paid gems. Each gacha pull was 300 gems, so 40 pulls total but guess what? If you wanted to "pity" a character(buy it straight from the store) you needed at least 100 pulls. The game itself was free to play, but sooner or later they "forced you" into buying gems with limited characters/banners like The final fantasy Collab or Nier Automata etc. So long story short, great game with excellent art, music and design, but it was managed by greedy individuals that did not know how to appeal to the fanbase.
I got 90% of what I needed without spending money, I did tons of the side stuff which gave boatloads of gems, but it is true that the chances to get what you wanted was best when spending, but didn't really need to. The story and the soundtracks were amazing. They have released 3 cds, 2 being original, 1 being a lofi hip hop arrangement. I'm hoping they release a 3rd album for the 3rd portion of the game.
Played day 1 up to end of chapter 1. Game made me realize that a terribly boring gameplay loop and an awfully greedy pull system can suck the fun out of even the best story. I just could not bother picking it back up for chapter 2, and it just makes me disappointed that they decided to treat such an important part of the series lore as disposable garbage.
I'm in the exact same boat. Can I find the story written down somewhere or on YouTube?
Most of it is on the fandom wiki for nier (just google nier reincarnatio and it should be one of the higher results). Otherwise nierrein.guide has a lot of it there too. There's some playthroughs on YouTube, and I hope to upload my gameplay footage to YouTube sometime soon too. I have the Japanese version too instead of English.
Blame Tencent, they forced the game into and out of existence. It's their typical scheme, they're basically saturating the market for mobile gambling games and killing each of them off again 2~3 years after launch.
6/10, needed more redhead waifus
Or whiteheads waifus, or just more waifus!
The story and music are great. Other than that it's just another gacha game with boring combat. I refuse to spend real money on gambling for waifu trading cards when google images exists.
I was here for the stories, the characters, and the art. I honestly never really got the full grasp of the in and outs of the battle system. Mainly abused the element weaknesses and my number bigger than the recommended number. I think some parts of the game that required more effort and understanding like Subjugation, Record of Dusk and Fate Boards, I just put no effort into. Outside of the occasional in story event, combat was pretty repetitive from what I participated in.
The story was good it carried hard
I managed to finish the main story in the nick of time before EOS. Like many, I tried it out when it opened because of my love of Nier and Yoko Taro, but quickly grew bored and dropped it until I heard it was closing. Ironically I think the EOS period was by far the best way to experience the game. They essentially gave away pulls and resources by then, removing the need for tedious expensive grinding. Only then I was able to plow my way through the story, which at the start was fragmented and vague—but it turned out to be rich, emotional, and satisfying, backed by gorgeous music and visuals. (I was very moved by the second part, Sun and Moon, which is in many ways a classic Nier style story in content and structure.) It also ties deeply into the rest of the Nier and Drakengard series by the end as well. Those parts alone are worthwhile and it’s a shame they are being lost, though many are archiving them now. There was a great Nier visual novel buried under what was frankly a bad and greedy game. Only EOS made the “gameplay” bearable, and only because I could easily set up a OP party and run auto the whole time, and do other things until the battles finished. It’s not great when that’s the only way enjoy it, and it’s easy to see why it shut down. A real shame that such a great aesthetic experience had to be wrapped up in a poor package.
The EOS definitely would’ve made it painless but tbh keeping up with the main story during release wasn’t too bad compared to lots of other gachas. I grinded up a team in the first month of release and it carried me through the whole game with minimal upkeep. Wish I could say the same about FF7 Ever Crisis where the team I made in that same release period can’t beat the story content now (I deleted it lol). Granted my Nier team was literally two whole weeks of grinding (I was in a two week work training where I could hit autobattle periodically during) so there was definitely a grind but it was more a one time thing.
I wanted to like it, but I couldn't even get through the prologue thanks to how bad the gameplay was. It was also melting my phone. I might've tried to play it anyway if it had a Steam version like Mobius Final Fantasy. I just hate the forced autobattle but I have to activate skills gameplay. I immediately dropped Digimon ReArise for that too. I wanted to play Nikke for 2B but I hated the gameplay and especially the aiming. Why do so many big mobile games have awful gameplay?
Because they are mobile games. By design, they have minimal gameplay and effort so that maximum profits can be retained when you inevitably spend far more on it than an actual video game. If you are asking for the gacha/live service style to get better, you are wasting your breath as we've only seen it go downhill more and more, and by design, they are predatory. The real thing to ask is, don't put all that stuff in a doomed game that, when shut down, nobody can ever access again. Instead, make a game so those who still want it, it can go find it again or those who are late to the franchise and want to experience it. You know, like we had till toxic game models became the norm.
It was alright. Suffered from Japanese gacha pitfalls, such as too many currencies and feeling unrewarding.
i thought that said replicant and this was gonna be a much angrier comment lmao
The gameplay was meh The story? Peak NieR
I'll just wait for [EruptionFang](https://youtu.be/9WU1mvH6bqo?si=KoPzFIoFRpKn1BNQ) to update his video on the Nier timeline. If he do it at all.
I absolutely loved the story and all the side stories and info, but the actual battles were extremely boring after some point since I had tons of powerful characters and basically 1 shot everything (probably for the better to make it last shorter). But the story made it worthwhile, especially when a lot of the side stories directly contributed to the characters' main stories, events that happened before or after, or else, an alternate version. The music was also very NieR, and amazing. Some people may say it was overly grindy, but at the same time, that is extremely Yoko Taro, both Automata and Replicant have extremely grindy aspects to them, and in some ways, reincarnation was less grindy because of the skip tickets and frequent events that gave you boatloads of materials.
Yeah i didn’t like the combat system very much, i would have much preferred to have had manual control of all my party’s actions plus item management. Funny enough i liked the battles the most when it was mandatory battles with a set party cuz of the dialogue between characters heightening the drama. And oh man the gacha system, I don’t like gacha in the first place but having a party of random characters really took me out of the game whenever a battle happened cuz it felt more like I was being pulled out of the story going on for pointless busy work with characters and enemies uninvolved in the story being told, I think the one time it felt justified was the final boss since it felt like the player and their party were the deciding factor instead of a distraction.
It's sad that the best stories within the franchise are all part of a Tencent gambling scam.
Finally someone said it! I was getting tired of all the dick sucking. Like the thing was greedy as all hell, which is pretty common in any SE game, they had stupid systems after stupid systems and it was grindy as hell. Well thats how i remember it at least, i stopped playing after like 4 months after launch
Story was very good imo I genuinely love how they keep innovating in that regard and experimenting with it. However I feel like even for turn based games the gameplay is just not very good
It's disheartening to see so many negative comments towards Re\[in\]carnation. Personally, I play NieR for its story, so I loved everything about it, but if you're more of a casual fan that just likes the combat, yeah, I can see how you'd be dissatisfied with it. Yes, it was gacha. Yes, you *could* spend money on it if you *wanted* (key words here: *could* and *wanted*). But the main aspect of game was never pay-to-win or "trying to squeeze you dry" (in fact, I feel the game was too easy at times, exactly to accommodate players who just wanted to witness the story). I never spent a dime and experienced all the content I wanted to experience at my own pace and with absolutely zero difficulties. Here's hoping they release an offline version in the future (...though that's quite unlikely since modern Square Enix is shit at making games).
Lets also be honest, if you come to the DrakenNier series as a whole expecting good gameplay you are barking up the wrong tree. Automata was an exception but even the Replicant Remake is kinda mediocre gameplay wise.
i beat like half of season 1 and in the 2nd half my performance was so bad at 3fps in lowest settings it was barely playable, this combined with the constant black enemy gates interrupting the story progress i just noped out and said ima watch the story on youtube
I played for like a month at launch, hit chapter 6, and got burnt out on the events they piled on that were all basically identical. I assume they were trying to catch up to JP, but it just kinda made it feel like there was nothing to do but grind, and I didn't even know what I was grinding for. I managed to pick it back up about two days before eos and rush the story, but I'd still like an offline mode to go see some of the side content I missed. At least an English artbook and ost, c'mon.
I sleep playing reincarnation
At least I can still get Mama in ffxiv, I like how simple her design is
Is it though? I tried to read up on the wiki and it's a mess, and I'm sorry, watching a youtube video of slides with text is.. counterproductive. What does 10H do again? Because the silent sea made her fate seem very not savior, as well as very incapable of fighting.
Yall haven't played drakengard3 and it shows, you want boring gameplay?? It's not in reincarnation, it's in drakengard lmfao
Drakengard 3 has mediocre gameplay. Reincarnation has actively malicious and predatory gameplay. There's a massive difference
I'm still salty that they locked the sequel story to Automata behind some shitty mobile gacha. They could at least rip out the gacha part and put the game on steam or something for those who want to experience the story themselves. Fuck, I'll even pay for it. Not too much, but still.
Hard disagree. Never spent a dime, played casually on and off for a few months and had a more than capable team to beat the main story. Main story is what I was here for. The game was an interactive storybook and it excelled in that regard. Were the auto battles engaging? No, but neither is walking around in the Stanley Parable but the lack of gameplay is overlooked due to the incredible dialogue and writing. No reason I can’t apply that to Reincarnation so
Walking around in the Stanley Parable is one of gaming's greatest examples of how to make a mundane action engaging. The walking is conducive to experiencing the environment and the story. Rein, OTOH, built a full 3 character combat system and still somehow made it more boring than watching paint dry. The combat is a gate to keep the player away from the actual content of the game and to try squeezing some money out of them when they ran into fights that were too hard. I would not put these two use of mechanics in the same bucket.
I agree. Don’t care for Stanley Parable but yeah this was essentially a visual novel for me and a great one at that
It's a story that could've been told in a real game incapable of being killed by its publishers.
The idea that they could make a game, then remove it completely as soon as the story is done, with no offline ability even for a visual novel, is ridiculous.
Do you get anything out of saying this?
This can be said for the whole franchise honestly, just change "aight" to masterpiece.
Started playing Nier Automata for the first time 3 days ago and I'm already 40 hours in, so I guess I do enjoy it. The only thing I find really irritating in the game is the camera angles and the lock on system. Im standing in front of a group of enemies, I press lock on and for some reason it locks on the enemy at the furthest back on the pack instead of the one closest to me or to the one I'm directly looking at. Half the time attacks come from off screen enemies and that's the worst part about the combat.
Yeah that games great this is about reincarnation, the shit predatory gacha mobile game that's a sequel to automata with (as is standard for a Nier game) a great story and soundtrack. It just got shut down yesterday.
I actually really like the gameplay, knowing what attacks to use in what order, and when to use them was a great way to keep me engaged in the combat (referring to fighting against the Cursed Gods). It was a combat format that allowed me to get hyper focused (Subjugation Mode) or use it as background noise when I'm doing the Event/Crossover Quests (besides the last EX quest) and the Hard and Very Hard modes of the story. It reminded me a lot of FFXIII's combat, which was also divisive, but seeing as how I like that as well, it makes sense as to why I liked it. Edit: coming from a FTP player who got very lucky with drops (Maxed 4 Star Alternate Battler 2B, Alternate Lad Brother Nier, and Divergent Sister Zero)
Too easy. Do Drakengard 1 next
That would be "no", then a blank last panel.
Unpopular opinion obv, but I hard disagree. Game was terrific. I understand it seeming boring if you're a casual who never tried any of the challenging content and never had to learn what your characters or weapons did. If you actually delved into the gameplay it was quite fun and figuring out builds was neat. Also the story was very solid.
[the Nier reincarnation build making experience](https://www.casino.com/ca/)
The build making skills: 💳
Sure buddy
? I could see you making an argument that the originals combat was crap. But replicant fixed a lot of things and reduced some of the most grind-e sections of the game. Personally I feel replicant is a 9/10 and automata is a a 8/10
Nvm it's resurrection, I can't read
You still can't read to be fair, it isn't resurrection either.
Lmao fair replicant rocked
The old console games have shit combat because of technical or design limitations for that time. Reincarnation had shit combat to sell power ups. There's no comparison to be made here.
Wow it's almost like most modern games have progression systems in them because they are games
Yeah, I'm not sure why so many people seem to think that the monetization model isn't a core design decision, either.
If the Replicant remake was an UPGRADE in terms of combat to the original, I genuinely do not want to know how horrible the combat in the original was.
*find strongest spear available * Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle, jump, Triangle
let’s be honest, if you bothered grinding as hard as the game demanded it, the game was fairly enjoyable if you just played it for the story/plot, then yeah the gameplay was incredibly boring 🤷♂️
The grand gameplay experience of gambling for more build options and waiting for a 9 encounter autoplay to complete so you can get 1 of a special currency that will let you increase your overall force by 2 points?
no, the gameplay of learning when/how to dodge attacks from gods n stuff, it wasn’t all auto play we all played the game the way we saw fit, for the ones that grinded/spent an absurd amount of time/money on the it tho? it was fun. It could have been way better, however.
> spent an absurd amount of time/money on the it tho? it was fun This guy is actually going out and announcing this of their own free will
It's really sad if you have to spend money to enjoy a game.
not sure who/what that is but okay
Grinding never makes games more enjoyable.
maybe not for you. some find it enjoyable. I did, sue me 🤷♂️
Alright, my lawyer will call you
I plead the fifth
Every game in the series
I mean... Duh. Automata was a fluke. No one goes to DrakenNier for solid gameplay.