A few hours ago, the official Twitter account of NieR Automata revealed that the action RPG game had sold over 7.5 million copies to date.
NieR Automata was released over six years ago. A sequel to 2010's NieR, itself a spin-off of the Drakengard series, it was developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix. Series creator Yoko Taro was both its director and writer.
The game's success ended up saving PlatinumGames, at least according to company co-founder Hideki Kamiya, who publically thanked Yoko Taro for it.
The game was also extremely well-received by critics. Our Kai Powell praised it at length in his 9.2/10 review:
Platinum Games’ signature action is on full display in NieR Automata. Taking that high-paced action and infusing it into a full-length RPG has been something I’ve wanted from the studio for years, and NieR Automata certainly hits all of the right marks in terms of style and finesse. Main heroine 2B has access to a pair of load outs with two weapons and assisting Pod that she can swap between mid-combo for a bit more style. The other characters in Automata each have their own unique quirks, with the first such character trading in their secondary weapon slot for a unique ability to hack the enemy, suddenly changing the combat into a brief top-down shooter.
What makes NieR Automata’s combat shine so brilliantly is how flexible the playable androids perform in combat. In addition to the various weapon styles to swap between, each android has their own logic board of Plug-In Chips that can be swapped out (up to a certain memory threshold that can be upgraded at one specific shop on Earth). These Plug-In Chips can typically boost characters’ stats in predictable ways (melee damage and health increases come to mind), but also with a number of elements that can directly change how combat works. It isn’t until the latter half of 2B’s route that players might come across Chips that offer Counter or Overclock which directly can be attributed to abilities in other Platinum Games’ titles, MGR’s Parry and Bayonetta’s Witch Time respectively. NieR Automata continually surprised me with adding additional layers of depth as 2B’s adventure expanded.
You’ll laugh; you’ll cry; you might even contemplate whether androids are capable of feeling emotion at all or if they’re merely going by what they were programmed to do. NieR Automata rewards long-time fans of Yoko Taro’s works with an experience that transcends any single genre. Although it might not be a perfect game, the sum of NieR Automata’s unique storytelling meshed with Platinum Games’ style of action meld together into a title well deserving of being one of my personal Games of the Year, not for the story being told but rather HOW 2B’s story was told.
A sequel hasn't materialized yet despite Square Enix softly confirming they were working on a new game in late 2017. NieR fans did at least get a remaster of the first installment, Replicant, released two years ago on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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