So, I'm playing through NieR: Automata and I've been having a blast - just a really great, really unique experience.
However, straight out of nowhere the game upped and gave me the middle finger and I'm very seriously wondering whether I'll ever go back.
To explain: I'd just reached the
and encountered a fairly considerable difficulty spike in the hacking mini-game, which up until then I'd managed quite comfortably.
It was pretty frustrating but after dozens of tries I finally powered through. A hell of a challenge, but there was a sense of achievement in it which all good games aspire to.
Now, it's worth noting that the nearest save point at this juncture requires a considerable backtrack filled with fiddly lift-calling and a short trek across the over-world - it's not a notion that would immediately spring to mind.
So, I press on keen to follow the building - excellently-paced - narrative. In the next area a cut-scene, tension building, and a boss. A boss who proceeds to one-shot me in a single move and bounce me back to the title screen with absolutely no ceremony.
All those tedious and frustrating mini-games that I'd battled through and managed to overcome by sheer determination and a whole lot of luck were now reset, waiting to be redone over.
I put the controller down and said 'no'. It felt like a massive fuck you from the developer and I'm inclined to say the same right back.
I'm keen to see how the story plays out, sure, and every other part of the game has been a blast but Yoko Taro is too experienced and too meticulous to have made such an obvious blunder.
No prior enemies had ever had the power to one-shot and the hacking mini-games had never been quite that difficult. Ordinarily, I'd bump the difficulty down and say 'two can play at that game'. But no, the hacking games aren't altered by selecting a lower difficulty - there's no way to ignore them and push past. No I'll have to repeat them, but honestly it's already severely damaged my experience.
Even at thier most notoriously sadistic, I can never remember games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne dumping on me like that - once you overcome a challenge, the victory is yours to bask in - this was different and it makes me disinclined to persevere.
Has anyone else ever had this? A moment when the game says 'fuck you' and you shrug your shoulders and walk away?
