I also didn't actually notice what this thread was about.
I just did and voted NieR: Automata. I'll try to explain.
Grimoire is just too disappointing on too many levels. The music, the art, the UI, the monster design, the design decisions, the character creation, the lack of portraits... there are too many things holding it back to even consider it a viable choice unless you are edgy -- or REALLY love Wizardry-like games and were starved for one, but let me and Roguey assure you, there are quite a few better ones if that's the case, like Elminage: Gothic.
Original Sin 2 I haven't played so it wouldn't make sense to pick it for me, but it looks good. Writing seemed better than other Larian games from what little I have seen, which was always the thing that held them back a lot; that and uninteresting encounters.
ELEX I truly loved and adored. Once. I will never touch it again. It just has nothing long-term going for it. It's great because it's the closest thing to Gothic 2 we're gonna get in a long time. Maybe that's why Grimoire has so many votes: closest we'll get to Wizardry 7 in a long while. I can see that, even if I disagree.
Now, NieR: Automata.
That game has so many problems: the presentation is very anime, the story takes a long time to become engrossing, the game requires a lot of trust and patience from the player, and unless you get invested in it, it will do nothing for you. There are technical issues with the port and no real patch in sight, nor will there ever be because SQUEENIX is a soulless megacorp.
However, and of course I will get bad ratings for this from the usual suspects, the game is a masterpiece despite its flaws. Unlike ELEX it has substance. A real soul. If you are a human being with healthy emotions, NieR: Automata is an experience you're not likely to ever forget. It's a a grand work of art in the sense that I will never have to replay it, not even once, and yet will always remember its twists and the story it told, and the earth-shattering conclusion.
Yoko Taro has built up many expectations over the years of delivering a 'weird' or 'strange' experience, with a big 'fuck you' to the player. But in this game, he doesn't give the player a 'fuck you'. He gives us a 'fuck you, Square-Enix' and that alone is a stroke of genius that only Yoko Taro can pull off. Never have I been happier to delete a game and my savegames from my hard drive as after this game. It pulls off that thing at the end far better than sometimes overhyped (but still quite good) Undertale does, narratively, and that in itself is impressive.
To be honest, that fact that Yoko Taro can still surprise me after all the shit he pulled is saying something in itself. I know nobody who can pull off this theme so consistently and yet manage to still shatter everything I expected by the end of it. The moment the game previews the third part is incredible, or the third title drop, or the credits, or the whole system issues, or even all the little questions it gleefully asks.
Not to mention the chip-upgrade mechanics are sound, the combat technically flawlless and the boss fights intense and interesting.
So I am gonna have to give it to NieR: Automata and just suck up that people are gonna disagree. (By which I mean, be wrong.)
Edit: also NieR shouldn't be on the list -- despite RPG mechanics, it's an action-adventure, with RPG elements. But since it's on the list... If it weren't I'd vote Elex, even though I think it was ultimately shallow. But it is miles better than Elex, and I liked Elex.
, surely you didn't do it on purpose. Please fix these summaries as well !
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