4th Gen: Donkey Kong Country. Back in the day, it was an absolute mind-fuck that an SNES game could look this good. With its pre-rendered backgrounds and characters, it felt like a game from 10 years into the future had somehow been brought back into time and crammed into an SNES cart.
5th Gen: Gonna go with a lot of other folks here and say Mario 64. The sense of scope, freedom, and complexity it offered was staggering. A truly epic generational leap.
6th Gen: Again, like quite a few of you, seeing Rogue Squadron II running on the Gamecube for the first time. To my 12 year old's eye, on an SDTV, it truly looked like movie CGI quality in a video game, I could hardly believe what I was seeing.
7th Gen: Being introduced to motion controls in Wii Sports Resort. I didn't jump on the Wii train til 2009 so it was Resort rather than the original Wii Sports that was my entry point. And holy cow, it felt downright futuristic, like something out of Star Trek. Using my own movements to sword-fight with 1:1 accuracy was a generational leap to match the 5th gen's jump from 2D to 3D.
8th Gen: Breath of the Wild's organic interactivity. Before this gen started one of my great hopes for it was that game worlds would be packed with far more dynamic elements. Sadly this wasn't really the case overall, but with BOTW at least this dream came to fruition. Shooting a bomb arrow to set a patch of grass on fire which then created an updraft I could use to get a mid-air bullet-time kill was awesome in itself, but that same explosion coincidentally bringing down an apple tree and its apples rolling into the grass fire so that when it was over I had a bunch of roasted apples to pick up? Now that's what I'm talking about.
NES - Every thing was a wow moment because it was my first real home console and I just couldn't believe what I was doing.
SNES - The mother brain fight in Super Metroid. Just WOW! Never expected that. Never felt anything as intense since.
N64 - Mario 64 just because every moment felt like I had waited my whole life for it. Every level was a new high point in my life.
Xbox - Halo's seamless levels. So huge and no loading as you went from one giant area to the next. and The physics of explosives were like nothing I ever used.
360/PS3 - Red Dead Redemption was the chance I always wanted.. to be a cowboy and it felt so real.
Xbox One - Killer Instinct gave me what I waited 16 years for.... A console version better than the arcade. Shenmue 3 could top this as I've waited a long time for it.
snyps said: NES - Every thing was a wow moment because it was my first real home console and I just couldn't believe what I was doing. SNES - The mother brain fight in Super Metroid. Just WOW! Never expected that. Never felt anything as intense since. N64 - Mario 64 just because every moment felt like I had waited my whole life for it. Every level was a new high point in my life. Xbox - Halo's seamless levels. So huge and no loading as you went from one giant area to the next. and The physics of explosives were like nothing I ever used. 360/PS3 - Red Dead Redemption was the chance I always wanted.. to be a cowboy and it felt so real. Xbox One - Killer Instinct gave me what I waited 16 years for.... A console version better than the arcade. Shenmue 3 could top this as I've waited a long time for it.
You missed sunset riders in the Snes/Genesis era?
duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"
NES - The NES was the first generation I played as a kid. I don't remember one particular "wow" moment, but I do remember I was wowed by Super Mario Bros, Adventure Island (2?), Duck Tales and StarTropics. It was like the gate to another world for me and those memories (I never owned a NES, played at a friend's house) just sort of amalgamated in my head into a very special and adventurous feeling.
Megadrive - playing Streets of Rage at a friend's house in co-op mode. Really cool experience.
N64 - Playing Super Mario 64 for the first time at a friend's birthday. I remember the painting for Bob-Omb Battlefield looked so huge as did the level itself. We constantly fell off the bridge in the first stage and got killed by Goombas. I was so mesmerised by the game that I finally wanted my now gaming console, even though my mother hated them.
Gamecube - I remember reading about the Gamecube in the official Nintendo magazine. I was so awed by the graphics. Then, of course, getting the console as an early birthday present. Pikmin, Starfox Adventures and Luigi's Mansion looked insanely great to me, I couldn't believe it. Metroid and Sonic Adventure 2 were the first "cool" games I enjoyed and bought for myself.
DS / PSP - Playing Super Mario 64 on DS for the first time was insane. As was the Metroid Prime Hunters demo, which we played to death even though it was so short. And Wario Ware Touched was so awesome because of all the features of the DS it made use of. As for the PSP, I distinctly remember a friend of mine just putting his new PSP into my hands with porn playing on it. I was in awe, but not because of the PSP (that girl had a beautiful uh... cat). Later that day, I played GTA on it as well. The PSP gave me a very good first impression from all kinds of angles.
Wii / Xbox 360 - Playing Wii Sports for the first time and then asking my parents to play it with me. I remember how much I smiled during my first round of Wii Sports. I knew this was a new generation of gaming. And playing Oblivion on Xbox 360 was just as impressive. I'd never played such a huge game on a console before. Also, playing Wii games with so many friends! The Wii truly was something special for social gaming. Such great memories!
PS4 / Wii U - Probably Uncharted 4. To be honest, PS4 and Xbox One haven't had any "wow" moment for me as much as other gens, as I've become used to graphics getting better. But Gamescom 2013 (?) was really cool. We compared PS4 and Xbox One non-stop and talked a lot about which controller was better, etc. As for the Wii U... lol, nothing. I disliked the console right from the start. Technically, I guess I was wowed by how stupid Nintendo was when they unveiled the controller. My friends asked me on WhatsApp how the console looked and I instantly said it was horrible.
Switch - Breath of the Wild. The first game that made me feel really excited about gaming in a long time. Also, the fact that the number of "gaming evenings" with friends has gone back up so much again with the Switch. Gaming with friends is so important to me, much more than graphics or playing alone. Even most of my female friends like to play Switch games. It's not quite on that same level the Wii was on, but it's close. Which reminds me that I promised to make a new Doodle survey to set the date for our next gaming evening with a group of old class-mates. Last time the three of them teamed up against me in Mario Kart but I still won lol. Awesome stuff.
This probably would've been mine if I'd started gaming in 2D like most SNES owners, but as Starfox was the game my SNES came with and hence the first video game I ever played, I didn't have a basis of comparison and therefore didn't realize at the time how revolutionary it was.
Gen 4: I started playing video games through this generation so I have four moments that I remember fondly. - Playing my first video game, Sonic the Hedgehog, on the Sega Genesis. I was immediately hooked by seeing how fast Sonic was running. It was a "WOW" moment. - Playing Super Mario World was another "WOW" moment for me as I played the SNES for the first time. - NBA Jam. I love basketball and it was my first basketball video game. Of course, the over-the-top dunks and "He's on Fire!" moments blew me away. - Playing Pokemon Red/Blue for the first time. I was immediately transported into the world of Kanto almost like the way my character was. Seeing these strange but powerful monsters, capturing them, and building my team to be "Very Best, Like No One Ever Was" made me a fan of the franchise to this day.
Gen 5: I have four moments here, with the N64 and Game Boy Color. - Playing Super Mario 64 for the first time. Just toying around with Mario and exploring Peach's Castle. The sense of freedom and movement Mario had back in 64 was amazing. - Defeating Ganon in Ocarina of Time and seeing the ending all the way through. In all honesty, this was the first time (outside of Pokemon) that I completed and saw the ending of a video game. The scenes, the graphics, the sound, the music, etc., all blew me away. Though it took me forever to defeat Ganon at a young age because I didn't realize the tail was the weak point. :P - Fighting against Red for the first time in Pokemon Gold. I felt this was like an ultimate test. In a way, I was fighting against myself and, at the time, the concept was awesome and I appreciate that moment.
- Star Fox 64's dialogue. The dialogue between the Star Fox team and its enemies was so memorable that I remember some of the lines after many years. Of course, the gameplay was also awesome.
Gen 6: Mostly played PS2 and GameCube, along with the Game Boy Advance. - Playing Smash Bros. Melee for the first time. The jump from Smash 64 to Melee was huge to me. - Watching DVDs on the PS2 (was not really interested most of the AAA games the PS2 had at the time)
Gen 7: I remember more of these video games as I was in high school at the time.. - Super Mario Galaxy. The gravity mechanics, the orchestrated music, and the level design all blew me away. - Mass Effect 2's Suicide Mission. An incredible experience. Fighting alongside the teammates you've built relationships with over the course of the game and having to deal with a life-or-death mission together was truly something special. - Batman: Arkham Asylum. Took me back when I was watching Batman: The Animated Series. The setting, the graphics, the combat, and the voice acting made me feel like I was playing an actual Batman game.
Gen 8: - Playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the first time. Whether it's finding my first horse (who was a 3 star), overlooking the world of Hyrule after getting out of the Cave of Resurrection, getting out of the Great Plateau, connecting the memories, discovering and losing to the first Lynel I saw, discovering random locations, or killing my first Guardian, the game just invited me into the HD world of Hyrule and I eagerly took it. Unforgettable. - Seeing Cloud confirmed as the next Smash Bros. DLC fighter for Smash 4. I was utterly shocked when Cloud was announced back in November 2015 during the Nintendo Direct at the time. I've heard a lot about Cloud from FFVII and their importance to the gaming industry and the history behind Square and Nintendo's breakup post-SNES. Now that FFVII is coming to a Nintendo console, for the first time ever, on the Switch, I think it's fitting.
6th Gen: Resident Evil 4. Being able to shut yourself in a house, push a cupboard in front of the door, blow a hole in the door, and shoot the baddies through it. But then you hear the window upstairs shatter. The amount of little things like this, kicking down ladders, shooting a weapon out of an enemy's hand or making them react differently and realistically based on where you shot them, etc that you could do was incredible, it felt like a next gen game come early.
7th Gen: Gears of War, Crysis, and Uncharted 2, all "WTF how are these graphics even possible in real time!?" moments for me, I was floored that video games could look so amazing.
What I'm referring to there about Nier are two specific parts of the game, and not the whole game overall, since the topic is asking about moments. The first is both gameplay and story related, and the second is only gameplay related, and yet it hit my feels harder than any story in any game ever has. Isn't that weird? A non-story gameplay mechanic made me feel more emotional than any game story ever has.
I can't really describe them much without spoiling it. But the reason I mention them is because they made such a strong impression on me. Up there with my favorite videogaming moments, that I'll always remember. And will compare other games to in the future.
AngryLittleAlchemist said: I see you write about this game a lot and admittedly I usually don't read the entire comments, but it's nice and admirable to see someone have so much passion for the game.
But everytime I start the game, I end up losing interest in a few hours. It's either just a case of bad circumstances (like rushing to catch up on DMC series to get to DMC5), or just the game boring me. And it's sad, because I want to really see the appeal of it 100%, but I feel like I only see parts of it.
To some extent it's my fault because I played the old demo when it released and it was just the first part of the game - which is so awesome and beyond flawless. I kind of figured it would be a highly polished linear game where the entire experience is hand-tuned to be as great as possible from start to finish, even knowing the history of Drakengard and Nier.
It's always nice to find a game that feels special that you're passionate about. But after I finished it, even though I had a lot of things I wanted to talk about, I didn't know where to begin of how to structure the topic. So I thought about making several separate topics. One for the music for example, because aside from having one of the best OST's I've heard, it does something very interesting with the music in that it has like 5 or more variations of almost each track, that change dynamically based on your actions. And then they did something interesting (also dynamic) with the music during the end that made the whole thing more impactful. But I ended up not making any of those topics. Maybe I will some day.
I also started off by playing the demo, and then I played through that same section in the full game, but didn't find any motivation to keep on playing. So I actually pushed it aside for over a year. I think my impression of the Demo section may have been different than yours, though I'm not sure. To me it was fun, and reminded me of games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. But I didn't see anything that made the game seem special. And that's fine. I love games like Devil May Cry, but I just wasn't in a particular mood for that type of game, at that time.
In fact, there were two things in the first section of the game (up until the bunker) that I didn't like, and thought it was poor writing. And I thought so throughout most of the game, and that was fine because it was one of few weak points in the story. But then after something gets revealed later on, it changed my whole perspective of those two scenes I didn't like, and I realized it wasn't poor writing. I had just picked up on a very vague hint about something that would be explained later. And I like that they leave those sort of very vague clues in the game that you can look back on. Persona 4 had something similar as well.
The reason I picked up the game again after a year was because of high praise I heard from people. Some specific things like "Nier: Automata gave me all the feels I expected from FFXV, but never got." And someone posting a screenshot with the caption "I never realized how beautiful the world is." Some of those things made me interested in pushing forward to see what the fuss was about.
And a few hours later into the game I realized it was much more of an rpg than I first realized. And became a bit more invested in the characters and story and wanted to see where it went. And then several hours further in I realized the game was semi-revolutionary.
If you've seen some of my comments about it before, you may have seen me recommend a particular review of it. But either way, I'll link to it again because I think he did a much better job at expressing his thoughts about the game than I can.
I always recommend it as it's a very good watch. And he's also someone who initially had no interest in the game, as he explains at the start.
AngryLittleAlchemist said: Of course I ended up getting it a few months later and realizing that a lot of it is a somewhat modestly budgeted semi-open world game. It wasn't a huge issue but it kind of got repetitive quickly and it felt like there wasn't a great plot thread to follow a few hours into it. Looking back on it, it's the kind of game where I can't tell how I even got a few hours into it because not a lot of specific things even happens in that time (not that that's bad necessarily, does make it hard to describe later on though).
The thing about its smaller open world setting is that I ended up associating things to specific landmark locations, based on what had happened there. Which includes some side quests. And so when you pass by those locations again, you're reminded of those things. And that's an upside to centering the events around a few landmark locations. But having vastly expansive new terrain to explore like in Skyrim also has its upsides of course.
I don't recall at which point the game itself got me hooked, where I was not just trying to find out where the praise for the game was coming from. It might have been near the first ending. Which sounds late. But it's not.
AngryLittleAlchemist said:
The music is nice though a lot of it is just kind of there and the overall feeling of controlling the character is a bit of a double edged sword - on the one hand having the character feel weighty and having a delayed feeling to your movement feels great especially because the smooth animations don't make the characters feel too cumbersome. On the other hand having these large spaces you need to travel, as well as the game being somewhat close to a hack and slash combat-wise, makes the weight of the characters feel restrictive and a bit tedious.
I also feel like having the combat be based a lot what i presume to be JRPG elements (can't say I got in depth enough with it to say) like chips would probably be a detriment to making the combat fun. Can't comment on whether or not it's the case, but seeing how many options there are actually makes me want to invest in the combat less especially when it's so easy. I think this generation there's been a little too many compromises between RPGs elements and action games and it kind of feels like developers are scared to just do a straight up action game that actually feels like it's progression is made properly and naturally rather than just requiring you to look at a stats screen (and this is coming from a Souls fan).
Well there is fast travel some hours into the game. And some shortcuts you can activate (getting back to the village you get to after the amusement park for example) There are not many sections you have to walk to on foot more than once.
As for combat, I'd say it is pretty much a hack and slash, in spite of the rpg elements. Or perhaps because of them. One of the few issues I had with the game was that it became too easy on Normal, and yet the Hard difficulty was too hard for a long time, because bosses could just one shot you until you got a bit invested into the chipsets. But there are other ways to have fun with combat, even if the challenge isn't there, so I focused on that instead.
AngryLittleAlchemist said: Game also walks the line between beautiful and extremely ugly, it honestly changes a lot based on any given moment. Sometimes it's beautiful and sometimes it's ugly. The emptiness of the world can also be bothersome, though it's a bit more forgivable because of some of the secrets.
Yeah some areas in the main city look very monotonous and bland, and same can be said for most of the desert area. I was never bothered by it though. Maybe because of other areas in the game, and probably because of the music.
AngryLittleAlchemist said: There's a lot I like in the first few hours in the game - I love the opening, I LOVEEEE the fact that you can go back to the opening area and pick up your weapons and items and experience from your dead android self (i've seen very few games that hide the ability to go back to the tutorial and pick up your left over items - that's great!), I like the soundtrack to some extent (though honestly some of the themes get kind of grating), I like the weird android fight, I like the carnival somewhat, I like the robot sex scene, there's a lot to like. But with stuff like the occasionally ugly environments, the somewhat boring travel, the plot threads taking a while to be truly hooking after the first 30 minutes or so, and a lot of the "weird stuff" kind of just becoming normalized and rather standard in the game (both thematically and gameplay-wise, like the bullet hell elements), it just kind of is hard to play through the whole thing.
Not criticizing or disagreeing, just, seeing as how you've explained a lot about the game before I'm wondering: What is the appeal? And does it get better?
There's actually an email you get that suggests you go get the items you lost, but I think it was a bit vague. The game doesn't push you in that direction though, and it's very possible to miss it if you don't keep your eyes peeled. How did you come across it? Was it because of the email, or did you just find it randomly? Jackass will setup fast travel for you to access points (save points) a bit later, so that should prevent you from feeling bored due to traveling distance.
Did you get to the opera singer boss in the amusement park? I thought it was interesting how they made use of the camera there to force you to play differently a few times, mixing different game modes on the fly.
If you keep playing I'd suggest trying to do some side quests, because it helps with the world building. And some of them are more important to the story than others. For example I'd recommend doing "Lost Girl" when you get to the village after the amusement park. And one called "Amnesia", but you can't do that one until after you've seen the first ending.
As for "Does it get better." I'm not sure since we lost interest at different points and I'm not entirely sure where you are in the game and how much optional stuff you've explored. But that's not to say you wouldn't be interested in experiencing the things about the game that are thought provoking and revolutionary. Which are still there, no matter how you end up feeling about the combat and story, which picks up a lot as you move along. I can say that I now see what everyone was talking about, and the game did a good job at exceeding my expectations. Even when I was sure I had seen most of what was worthwhile in it, I wasn't even close. But I'd recommend checking out that video I linked as it does a much better job of explaining things than myself. It might tell you if you should continue or not.
It has 1,4 million views even though his channel only has 400k subs, for good reason. I'll leave this one quote form him that I like:
“I think the entire gaming industry, while celebrating Nier: Automata, is drastically understating how incredible and important it is. Nier: Automata is a rare breakthrough moment in the history of our medium.”
First of all I just want to say - thank you so much for replying and giving me a well thought-out explanation. This is exactly the kind of thing I wanted, and it was quite rude of me to take so long to respond. Partially it was because I was busy, you know, playing a lot of games, which I rarely do and it was quite refreshing to do so, and also it was partially because I just didn't feel like coming on this site much. But the few times I came on I should have responded to this reply instead. So thanks for your patience.
I know that you were talking very specifically about two separate parts - I just felt like asking because you seem to be (and going by this reply, are) very good at articulating your thoughts on games, and I've seen you use Nier as a reference point to games in general numerous times. So it seemed like a good time to ask why the game in general was held up so highly.
I also want to say I wasn't trying to imply that my problem was that the areas are too small, if anything, kind of the opposite, they're pretty appropriately sized but during the more subtle moments of the game traversing the world can be kind of boring.
As for the video: It's pretty good and I think I've actually seen it before, long ago. Granted, a lot of it kind of involved just using big words with heavy emphasis as descriptors and that got a little tiring after a while, some parts of video games are also just naturally very hard to describe and I got the feeling that Skill Up wanted to explain feelings that were just nearly impossible to explain (even before he came out and outright admitted it in the video). Overall while I wouldn't say I got anything new out of the explanation (since a lot of it chalks up to it being revolutionary, unique, and something that can only be done in games - which is naturally quite commonly mentioned when referring to Automata), it did remind me of why I am so eager to try out the title again, even if very much so on a surface level. It's hard to get into what makes a game like that brilliant without just going straight into spoiler-territory, and I actually found myself wishing he showed a little less in his video or didn't explain the fact that character-swapping happens each new campaign. I have to admit though half-way through the video I started to realize that this was the same guy I had listen to a few weeks earlier saying in his God of War review that the game took "lots of skill" and that in comparison Devil May Cry involved button mashing "a lot of the times" - which just brought back the cringe. It's funny to think about though and I don't have anything against him lol, just one of those things that was made light of on Reddit when DMC5 came out and I find it funny that midway through I just realized it was the same guy xD. I would also say his assessment of Dark Souls is sort of wrong in that regard, I seem to remember the original having areas that change quite a bit based on repeat visits but admittedly a lot of that was probably static and just a case of me waiting till I was a higher level to go back (though things like characters do change, even outside of Fire Link).
I must admit I'm a little bit scared of the definition of "revolutionary" though, because I find that this has been in pretty consistent use in the past few years, and it's usually too lightly. There's generally three ways you can apply that - how much it changes the industry, how much quality the product has, how unique it is in it's respective franchise, or how unique the product is. Often the mixture of these three elements make the use of the term very complicated, and when used wrongly, asinine to use. I was going to give examples in Breath of the Wild and Smash Ultimate - how those games are both very revolutionary and both very much not so for different reasons, but I've realized I do not want to delve too much into semantics.
I also have to say while you are right about the music I think this is something Platinum Games actually does pretty consistently and a decent amount of games have done it before and after Nier, though I will admit it's not done enough and it's a cool idea indeed.
I guess I will never know until I jump in and find out for myself - which means I'll have to play it, eventually. On the topic of how I found out about the dead body in the tutorial area - I realized that after exploring the part of the city you're first dropped off in, it's like to the left of where you start. I have a very bad habit of basically restarting a game any time I've been away from it for a substantial amount of time - which can include just a couple of days. I've basically replayed the first few hours of Automata probably around 8 or more times, maybe even up to around 12. Like I said it's a very bad habit of quitting and restarting, which probably doesn't help my motivation for seeing the game through.
Yes, I think I have gone past the Circus area before even.
There have been quite a few. But, my most significant would have to be playing Halo: CE do the first time on XB. My brother and I marathoned it over Thanksgiving weekend 2001. The graphics were amazing to me in many parts, and the gameplay, especially the gun play, was the best I had ever felt.
I had been gaming for nearly 20 years at that point. But, Halo really reignited my love for the hobby. Also, those times per the game with my little brother are among my most cherished memories
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