>On hard, large shades take a thousand cuts to beat and kill

Now you know people shit on Automata's gameplay too. They didnt fix many issues the first game already had, aside from streamlining the quests.

>>376874416
Now you know why*

Nier isn't really known for its stellar gameplay/combat OP. The main appeal is the story and characters. There's little reason to play on hard when some parts of the combat can be a slog.

Normal is the way the game was intended to be played. Hell, being able to viciously cut through shades in a second reinforces some story concepts and characterization of Nier himself later on.

>>376874617
SPOILERS AHEAD, OP. I'M A DUMB PHONE POSTER AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY SPOILER TAG. I SUCK COCKS. SKIP MY MESSAGE IF NOT THROUGH ROUTE B AT LEAST.

Seriously. I'm in route B right now. I just finished the aerie part. I felt terrible and it totally clicked, thematically, why Nier is so feared and viewed as such a monster. I just chopped through all the innocent people in that town like butter while they begged me to stop.

Also, rip Beepy ;_;

this game is a masterpiece.

>>376874617
You may be right. Too easy is better than too hard, anyway. Time to stop the self punishment. Normal it is.

>>376875234
You're at the same place as me. How long Kalil sitting there crying over his mom, anyway? And I still don't quite understand what the eyeball in the Aerie is.

>>376875449
Glad someone else is in the same spot as me. It seemed to me like the shades we murdered in the aerie were coalescing into one blob, like the souls were combining. But that's just my theory. It didn't seem to know what it was anymore than we do. "Where am I? Who am I?" and all that.

>>376875234
Wouldn't say a masterpiece really, but it does tell an effective story without telling you all the facts. It was fun to kinda put it all together, and then for it to unfold during the other routes.

>>376875449
Yeah, especially since you have to play at least two times, possibly three or four if you don't save in the right spot. It's a game you play for the story, not for the mashy combat. Though the shmup aspects of it are neat.

And the eyeball thing is just a huge mass of shades I'm guessing. Considering the variety you've come across, it's not hard to just chalk it up to another weird form they can take when packed together.

>>376875449
>>376875780
According to the Grimoire Nier, the eyeball is "an aggregation of ‘gestalts’, but it has also absorbed the consciousness of the replicants, who were supposed to be no more than pseudo-personalities. Because of that, it no longer has reason or identity, and its words were a jumbled mess. It has transformed into a lump of hatred, spitting out curse-like words as it moves along. Its name comes from the heroine in “Peter Pan.”

Don't know if that actually explains much though.

Just play on normal.

Stats are fine for the first playthrough and you're supposed to be steamrolling shit on B-D. Its thematic, and practical considering you're retreading.

File: 1490110887365.jpg (294KB, 700x990px) Image search: [Google]

294KB, 700x990px

>>376874156
I played on easy anyway.

Got really tired of grinding in the junk heap.

I'm at 95% quest completion and having a hell of a time finding the last few quests. I hit the 51% before the time skip so I'm pretty sure I'm not locked out of any...

Is there any sort of reward for 100% completion in this game?

>>376879860
Hard mode gives the best drop rates, plus once you start farming items for all the weapon upgrades you'll be tearing through everything like paper regardless. Unless of course you started farming while still going for Ending A.

>>376880189
Aside from a platinum trophy, no. But you don't have to actually get true 100% completion because that would entail collecting every single word and that's more than anyone is willing to put up with. If you're actually determined to grow a lunar tier and max every weapon then the farming for items is worse than Demon's Souls pure bladestone.

>>376874156
I played on hard and had little trouble throughout most of it. getting different endings made enemies a bit too spongy though.