Early Automata impressions:
- For the record, the "GotY" edition is just the base game with a DLC voucher, so if anyone was hoping to have the extra content on the disc you're out of luck.
- Movement and combat feel decidedly better than they did in the first game - in significant part due to the (somewhat unsteady, but still welcome) frame rate upgrade - but still just a touch "off" to my fingers. Dodging, to wit, feels like it has to be activated
really early for the counter window to work; if you wait until an attack is actually happening instead of during the windup you're basically guaranteed to eat it. I also find it difficult to tell when an enemy will be staggered by an attack and when they'll just bulldoze through it (and me). The camera can still be a bugger at times too, though there are a whole bunch of camera options I'm still fiddling around with, so I'm grateful that this was at least addressed.
- Speaking of countering, I learned the hard way that doing so is
not always the best option, and sometimes you've just got to be a man and run away screeching like a startled toddler. Repeatedly. Especially since enemies hit pretty hard even on "Normal" and healing items are not as commonplace as they used to be (though you can hoard a lot more of them if you want). That said, during my learning experience I unlocked the much-coveted Ending W, 'cuz I'm just that awesome.
- There's a lock-on this time, which makes distance combat in particular much more feasible (perhaps a bit abusable, to be honest - since ammo is unlimited I find I can shoot my way out of most encounters if a close encounter goes bad), though the camera behavior while it's activated isn't optimal (maybe another setting I need to tweak?). The harder difficulties apparently disable it, and the hardest one features one-hit kills to boot; I dunno, is the game tuned tightly enough to really make such a mode feasible? I've taken enough "huh?" hits even this early on to seriously wonder...
- The game looks and sounds quite nice, though in fairness the first one also managed to do so in spite of various technical shortcomings, while this one obviously benefits from a larger budget and an additional console generation, though that's not exactly a "fault". Some of the perspective shifts and such can still feel forced, but I can't deny how neat (and rather surreal) it is to see an action-RPG open with a bona fide shmup segment.
- Obviously can't say too much about the story yet, but the MC seems to sometimes shift from emotionless to bleeding-heart at the drop of a hat with no apparent warning, which is rather jarring; while my companions so far are fine, I also can't help but miss the endearingly goofy buddy-movie ribbing of the first game's cast. It might be in part because I just played the original recently, but the sequel seems to beat the "something's screwy here" drum a lot more obviously, though I can't say I'm confident in knowing what's coming up, so we'll see how it goes.
even mean, though?!
)
