i got this for Christmas 2022. i was a little nervous about playing it, because on the surface it really didn't seem like my type of game -- i'm not an action-RPG player, and i'm generally not a big fan of robots. but, a lot of my friends who have similar taste in games as me loved it, so i decided to give it a go ... and it was so, so worth it.

humanity has fled to he moon following an alien invasion. YoRHA units 2B and 9S fight in a proxy war between the humanity-created Androids, and the alien-created Machines, in an effort to reclaim Earth for humanity.

Nier: Automata plays with your expectations of what a video game can and should be. it's deep and philosophical and an absolute melting pot of video game genres. calling it an action-RPG is, while not inaccurate, also nowhere near representative of the gameplay. there's hack-n-slash. there's bullet hell. there's shoot-em-ups. there's platforming. there's visual novel segments. it's an absolute gesamtkuntswerk of a video game. the boss fights are -- and i do not use this word lightly -- epic. in any other game, the first boss fight -- where you beat up a giant mech with its own arm would have been the final fight. also, movement and combat is SLICK. it's so much fun just to run around in!

the game also has five official endings, A - E, all of which i highly, highly recommend getting. it's a testament to the quality of the game's storytelling that A ending feels like a prologue, despite being a cohesive standalone story in its own right. E ending made me absolutely bawl my eyes out, and it will probably do the same to you.

(a word of caution: when you decide to go for E ending, MAKE SURE your game / console is connected to the internet. trust me on this.)