Playing Nier Automata makes me sad for the sad state of combat in Western games

[MTZehvor]

Lawlight said:

MTZehvor said:

Setting aside the irrelevant commentary on the game's quality, there are numerous bosses towards the end deliberately designed to punish button mashing (i.e. Sundowner, where simply rushing up and mashing the attack buttons will result in you eating explosive shield, or a more spoilery example that comes equipped with a counter and command grab). The game is by no means difficult, at least on normal difficulty, but it's not a game you can simply beat by button mashing without giving the reload checkpoint option a serious workout. 

And yet I did without much reloading. Any reloading would be mostly due to Platinum Games wonky design.

Then I am going to conclude that you did not engage in nearly as much button mashing as you claim to.