FINAL FANTASY XV AND NIER: AUTOMATA

You may not have realized this, but Square Enix is actually about to publish two really big JRPGs in the coming months. The first is Final Fantasy XV – you may have heard of this one – and it’s due out on September 30. We’re all familiar with the Final Fantasy series; each iteration is completely different from the last, and the games are mostly about embarking on an epic adventure with a misfit group of friends. Some feel that the Final Fantasy name has tarnished a little in recent years, but are hoping that Final Fantasy XV will bring the series back on track. Whether FFXV ends up being the savior of the series or not remains to be seen.

However, instead of pinning all your JRPG hopes on this one game that’s been through a decade of development hell and back, let me direct your attention to another interesting game that Square Enix is publishing…

NieR: Automata is set to be released in early 2017, and is being worked on by director Yoko Taro and Platinum Games. It’s the sequel to massively underrated and overshadowed NiER, which launched back in 2010. Unfortunately, NiER didn’t get a lot of attention due to its release being so close to Final Fantasy XIII, and this led to it becoming more of a cult classic. NiER didn’t exactly bring in the big bucks, but for those who actually played the game, it delivered a powerful and unique story, along with one of the best soundtracks you’ll ever find in video games.

Because NiER was so unpopular at the time, E3 2015 brought about a really big surprise when Square Enix announced that NieR: Automata was in the works, and Yoko Taro was back at the helm. With Final Fantasy XV being at the forefront of Square Enix’s marketing and advertising efforts, NieR has been overshadowed a little, and we haven’t gotten to see a lot of it. Without further ado, here’s why NieR: Automata may be more deserving of your attention as a JRPG fan than Final Fantasy XV.

NIER HAS YOKO TARO

If you haven’t heard of the name Yoko Taro, allow me to enlighten you. He created the Drakengard series and has directed three games in total thus far: the original Drakengard, NiER, and Drakengard 3. The interesting thing about all three games is that even though they’re action RPGs, they all tell wildly different and unique stories. Drakengard 1 told an extremely dark tale about an unlikeable protagonist who traveled with a child-eating demon and a pedophile. That game had no happy endings, very little sense of humor, and existed mostly to make players feel as uncomfortable as possible – and hell, it definitely succeeded.

NiER was a big departure from Drakengard in terms of tone, and it delivered a much more endearing and heartwarming, if not a little dreary, story. NiER was all about focusing on a father’s efforts to save his daughter from a deadly disease, and his struggles as he slowly discovers a shocking truth about the world he lives in. Unlike Drakengard, NiER threw in a bit more humor, as well as some really well-written and tragically relatable characters.

As for Drakengard 3, it could be described as the biggest slap in the face for NiER fans who were looking forward to more of Yoko Taro’s heartwarming stories and writing. Instead of giving us characters we could latch on to, Drakengard 3 presented us with foul-mouthed women with a taste for bad sex jokes, and a dragon with an unbelievably whiny voice. Drakengard 3 was nothing like its predecessor, and it certainly didn’t have the emotional edge of NiER. Not to mention, the game gives you a final boss fight that’s essentially an incredibly difficult rhythm game that’s meant to be deliberately unfair. Of course, you do get rewarded with a beautiful ending if you beat it, but that rhythm game is certainly nothing to joke about.

Here’s the thing about Yoko Taro: he’s a risk taker. He likes exploring the unconventional, and he definitely has a taste for the weird. And it’s precisely this quality of his that enables him to write such unique stories and allows him to never make the same game twice. Sure, NieR: Automata is already looking like it’s hitting all the beats that made the first game so great: fast-paced combat, astounding soundtrack, interesting character designs… but you can be almost certain that Taro will have more surprises in store for fans waiting for this game to finally be released.

On the other hand, Final Fantasy XV certainly doesn’t look like it’s breaking any new ground in terms of storytelling. Sure, it’s making a lot of changes in its gameplay and combat, but the story and tone of the game haven’t really deviated from the standard formula of the series. Of course, this is completely understandable. Final Fantasy is a big franchise, and Square Enix certainly isn’t going to take major risks with it and bring it to a completely new direction. Still, we already know what we’re in for with Final Fantasy XV. Why not pay more attention to NieR: Automata, Square Enix’s other JRPG that’s looking to be much more innovative and different from what we’re used to?

NIER: AUTOMATA’S COMBAT LOOKS WAY MORE POLISHED

One complaint I had with the latest Final Fantasy XV demo at E3 was that its combat and camera controls still felt as clunky as they did in the Episode Duscae demo, which was released a year ago. Locking on to enemies and hitting them felt unwieldy, and battling the Titan meant having to wrestle with a clumsy camera and imprecise button presses for quick-time events. Final Fantasy XV’s combat is worrisome, especially since it’s only three months away from official release.

NieR: Automata wasn’t playable, but it already looks like it’s going to have a far better combat experience than Final Fantasy XV. Square Enix and Platinum Games released a gameplay video of the two protagonists battling against a large machine boss, and we got a really good look at the smoothness of the combat and character motions. The characters were dodging and weaving in between the dangerous red orbs, executing big combo chains, Platinum Games-style, and alternating between their blades and bullet-shooting side mechs. In the middle of the battle, the fight suddenly turns into a bullet-hell segment where the characters have to jump between lines of red orbs as the camera shifts to a top-down view. The boss battle shown in NieR: Automata was pretty simple, and it definitely didn’t have the same scale of “epicness” as the fights we’ve seen in Final Fantasy XV, but this certainly looked far more interesting than the giant unwieldy monstrosities we’ve been facing in all of FFXV’s demos.

It’s also worth mentioning that NieR: Automata will run at 60 frames per second – something that’s deemed critical in many action RPGs these days, and also something that Final Fantasy XV, going by all of its demos and director Hajime Tabata’s comments, is not likely to have. Frame rate isn’t a big deal for me personally, but it’s still something to be aware of.

WHY NIER: AUTOMATA OVER FINAL FANTASY XV?

Make no mistake, I have no doubt that Final Fantasy XV will end up being another epic adventure that allows you to get to know Noctis and his friends, and get attached to them as they go on their anime boy road trip. Final Fantasy XV is checking off all of the things that you need in a modern RPG these days: it’s open world, it’s got side quests, it’s got cooking, it’s got collectibles… I could go on. It’s obvious that Square Enix is putting a lot of effort into making the best Final Fantasy game we’ve seen in years, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that it’s going to be another average action RPG that doesn’t do anything new or interesting.

Heck, even the original ‘star-crossed lovers’ story that was advertised in Final Fantasy Versus XIII got axed by the time the game was rebranded as FFXV. Given the amount of time this game has been in development, as well as the change in directors, story, and characters, Final Fantasy XV looks every bit as unwieldy as its combat controls and camera.

NieR: Automata, on the other hand, looks like it’s primed to be one of the freshest JRPGs we’ve seen in a while. Not only is it a follow-up to one of the wildest and most unique JRPG stories in the past decade, it looks completely uninterested in reviving any of the old characters we loved in the previous game, and instead chooses to serve up a setting and cast that’s entirely new. This means that even if you missed out on NiER for the PS3 and Xbox 360, you can jump into this one for a fresh experience. From what little we’ve seen of it so far, NieR: Automata isn’t afraid of taking risks and being different, and that’s precisely why this game deserves more attention than it’s getting.