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Barozi on 29 June 2022
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Hiku said:
Barozi said:

Good game but not great.
Definitely too much backtracking. The game feels huge when you begin but it quickly turns out there are only a couple of areas that you will have to visit multiple times. Fast travel is only unlocked when you're already half way through route A.

It's also a little short when you consider all that backtracking and/or replaying the same areas during the other routes. I beat all three routes in about 18 hours.

After all the praise it got, it definitely left me a little disappointed.

Nier sets up a number of key landmark areas, and then reuses these spaces to tell different stories.
Which made me develop a familiarity with these areas that I achieve in few other games. Especially ones where you essentially go through each area once.

We're rarely connected to the environments we play in. But every return to a landmark reminded me of the two, three or five great moments I've had there before. I didn't mind the backtracking, because it made me nostalgic. It's rarely done for no good reason (like a fetch quest), but to set up another memorable moment.

Every time I pass the giant square right outside the base, I'm reminded of the giant mech I fought there, or when I flew through it in a bullet hell sequence, or when I fount to protect my squadmate from a group of androids gone haywire, etc.

Some may call that lazy design, but I think it's genius.
And this is exactly what I love about the level design in Yakuza as well. (Though it can definitely lose some of its appeal after multiple games in a row)

There are definitely games where I wish they had taken this approach. And not just to establish a familiarity with my surroundings in this way, but also because you can tell when they're cranking out new areas, just for the sake of it. The obligatory snow stage. The obligatory lava stage. Etc.

I'd much rather have this, but it's a matter of preference, like everything else.

Sounds like a lame excuse for bad game design honestly.

And no, hard disagree that the game reuses these spaces to tell different stories. The amusement park is only used properly once. Every time you visit it after that is just to get to the Machine Village. Complete waste of potential.

The flooded city area was even worse. Completely linear area and very short compared to other areas. Forced to go from start to ending twice within a short period of time when you follow the story.

That's just from the top of my head. I remember the desert being pretty useless as well.