Review of the Nier Automata Switch: stunning... stunning
Our Verdict
Nier Automata is one of the best games from the previous generations of consoles, and it has made the jump to the Nintendo Switch in a mind-bogglingly impressive fashion. Little to no noticeable compromises have been made to get it onto a handheld system, and the magical, inventive nature of the thing sings just as loud as ever.
The majority of Nier Automata's tricks are confidently shown in its introduction. First up is a shoot-'em-up in the vein of Ikaruga, set in a futuristic world with crumbling structures and turbulent waters. Its main genre is not what your fingertips touch when you launch the game. This is very good and amusing.
After that, players get a taste of Platinum's fighting prowess with some side-scrolling action-platforming. It never stops, grinning gleefully as it shows you the world via a multitude of lenses. You most likely encountered a text adventure section by the time you completed one of the game's 26 major endings. This is an insane game.
This time, however, was different as I was able to take in this boisterous 45 minutes of horizontal genre switching. That is to say, I was playing on my Nintendo Switch while lying in bed, getting better from a bad cold I had contracted at EGX. I was spinning around, killing clown-faced robots, crazed from medicine. It was very wonderful.
Thus, Nier Automata is among the greatest action games of the last generation, in case you didn't know that previously. It was first published in 2017 and narrates the tale of a conflict between machines and androids in the year 11945, after the exodus of humanity from Earth due to extraterrestrial intervention. We're not really here for this background, however.
The three things Nier Automata is good at are fighting, philosophising, and being goofy. The latter fills all the bases, including spectacular genre leaps, captivating plot beats, and a constant sense of humour throughout. This game is full of ideas, without being too pretentious as to annoy, whether it's a huge set piece moment or a half-baked side mission.
Regarding philosophy, one may argue that Yoko Taro's dense concepts are a little pretentious; nonetheless, I believe the lighthearted allusions to Jean-Paul Sartre quickly dispel that notion. Yes, the narrative contains abstract thoughts like death, war, and awareness, but it does it via the noisy screeches of insane machines and the eyes of sour androids who develop feelings. All of this is a little too absurd to be very sincere, isn't it?
And there's the fighting. This is classic Platinum; you have a dustbin full of various augments to customise the combat to your preference, a floating device that can shoot a variety of projectiles, a light and heavy attack that you can combine into different combos, and a dodge that you can use to improve a combo when timing it just right.
We have now discussed the three key tenets of Nier Automata, in my opinion. You'll probably appreciate the game if you're a fan of one of these. However, none of the potential Switch buyers would find it very beneficial to delve deeply five years after the game's debut. delve read one of the many great reviews from when it was first released if you want to delve deeper. Rather, the main concerns in Nier Automata: The End of Yorha Edition are technical.
So, how does the port do considering the graphical limitations of the Nintendo Switch? Yes, it's pretty much ideal. It's astounding how readily a massive open-world game with intense action can adapt to a portable device. The action is heating up at every round.
Not much pop-in as you sprint over huge deserts or between houses covered with vines. I find it difficult to distinguish any variations between this and the original release—at least in terms of graphical fidelity—because the textures in both portable and docked modes are so realistic.
The portable resolution is one area where it seems to give up, but not to the point where it becomes a barrier. At least on the bright screen of the large OLED model, details are a little bit less clear than is comfortable if you look very closely. I played the most of the game out of the dock in spite of this—or maybe because of my sickness.
The resolution is much sharper when I place it in the dock. I think I sometimes get brief pauses in framerate or stutters while parked, but I can't be certain that's what's happening. It takes a lot of effort to locate any places where this port begins to falter.
The input latency, which to my fingers seems a bit flabbier than when I initially played the game, is another area you may examine closely. I'm not writing for Digital Foundry, however. I lack the tools necessary to adequately test the details. It may simply be the hyper-medicated hallucinations of some moron with a sore throat.
However, I draw attention to these minute imperfections to underline how little they are. I seldom noticed any glitches throughout my first ten hours of playing the game, and even the ones I did see were so fleeting that I couldn't be certain they weren't there. I've never seen a better Switch port than this one.
Visually, the transfer is fantastic, but what about aurally? Voices don't sound too compressed, which is a problem with large-scale, completely voice-acted games on the Switch, and Keiichi Okabe's music is as magnificently fantastic as ever. The game sounds fantastic. Good.
Thus, we get an incredibly fast-paced action game that is brimming with inventive concepts and authentic fun that has been expertly adapted for a portable system. So why should you play it here, is the question. I honestly can't respond to it. If you haven't had the chance to try it yet, the Nintendo Switch is a great platform to do so. Play it again if you've already played it and wish to do so while riding the bus! Ultimately, the choice is yours. But allow me to tell you a tale in the hopes that it may persuade you.
The weekend before this review, I attended the London gaming conference EGX. It was enjoyable for me. Video games can be a lot of fun. The next Monday, I felt a bit under the weather. My throat hurt a lot. By Tuesday, I was feeling very bad. I went to the doctor, took use of sick days, and was prescribed a large dose of penicillin to treat a persistent throat infection.
I was in bed. I received the email including my Nier Automata code. I got the game downloaded. I just continued after the exhilarating first section. I stayed up late playing this game. It was after four hours or so when I reached the part about the amusement park. After riding a rollercoaster with 9S and battling various mechanical foes, I came to the boss battle with Simone the Songstress.
To this day, this boss battle remains one of the finest action game experiences I've had. Automata is essentially an excellent game, even without its exciting genre-hopping, ethereal philosophising, and overall charming playfulness. On a basic, mechanical level, it contains some of the greatest gear available, even without all its crazy notions. Even so, I was happy to find myself laying in bed, surrounded by drugs, and gazing at a brilliant OLED screen in a completely dark room.
To sum up, Nier Automata: The End of Yorha Edition is one of the best Nintendo Switch ports out there—so good that it kept me up at night even though I was very sick. It's an easy suggestion if you're unfamiliar with this game and looking for something fresh for your handheld console. Alternatively, here is an excellent spot to return to that world if you're dying to. It's just very amazing.