NieR:Automata
Intense overall intensityWhat's in it
Sustained existential bleakness centered on death, futility, mass killing, grief, and loss of identity across a ruined post-human world.
Fast hack-and-slash combat against robotic machines and humanoid androids; androids bleed red and machines leak oil during frequent on-screen fighting.
The humanoid machine characters Adam and Eve appear fully nude without explicit genital detail, presented in a stylized artistic way.
Some unsettling, dreamlike sequences and disturbing body-horror imagery around the Adam/Eve enemies.
Androids use a self-destruct ability and several characters choose self-sacrifice; suicidal despair is a recurring theme.
Android bodies are dismembered in combat and cutscenes, with limbs severed and figures torn apart, including via self-destruction.
Occasional profanity in dialogue between characters.
Wild creatures like boars and moose can be fought and ridden as an ordinary gameplay mechanic.
Mild suggestive tone through 2B's revealing design and occasional flirtatious or innuendo-laden dialogue; no depicted sex.
Who can reach your kid
What it is
NieR:Automata is a single-player action role-playing game in which you control combat androids fighting to reclaim an abandoned Earth overrun by alien-built machines. Play is fast hack-and-slash swordplay backed by a ranged support drone, mixed with occasional shooter and other genre segments, and the world is explored across multiple playthroughs that reveal more of the story each time. On-screen combat is bloody but stylized against robotic and humanlike foes, with some dismemberment. Beyond the action, the game leans heavily into somber, philosophical subject matter about death, purpose, and loss, including recurring depictions of suicide. There are no microtransactions, and the only online element is an optional, silent system for retrieving other players' fallen characters.
How it's framed
The game treats its violence and bleakness as the vehicle for a meditation on what makes life worth living and why beings choose to kill; death, despair, and self-destruction are presented seriously and mournfully rather than for shock or reward.
Details
- Developer
- Square Enix
- Publisher
- Square Enix
- Released
- Mar 17, 2017
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