The controls are so responsive and I'm happy that they are fully customisable.

Hope the general positive impressions of this demo lead to more sales, it is thoroughly deserved.

Don't really have any complaints about the demo, the lack of a dedicated combo system has been replaced with the skill input of timing and systems and in typical Platinum fashion, you're rewarded for not sucking.

I'd like to say that this takes the crown for combat in an action-rpg, but judging from the demo it plays more like an action game with a smattering of RPG elements, similar to Mass Effect 2 which was really a 3rd person shooter with RPG trimmings and that game wasn't bad at all!

2017 is looking to kill it in a different way to 2016 and I can't wait.

I feel like it's not trying to be either of those games. Bayonetta & Devil May Cry are in leagues of their own. NieR: A has a solid foundation that I imagine the full game will build on quite nicely, it being an action-RPG and all. If anything, it's a spiritual successor to Metal Gear: Rising.I don't think there were any RPG elements in this demo to say the least, apart from picking up random items, loot etc the demo seems to emphasise more the action part of the action-rpg. I didn't play the first NieR but apparently bullet hell is a staple of the series, so where Platinum may have looked at it and said "this stinks", Square probably said "but it's part of NieR's DNA".

Personally I have mixed feelings about bullet hell, could do without it as the most you can do so far is dodge, but to overcome it I found myself repeating the same patterns of jumping and launching the enemies because attacking them head on almost certainly means you'll be hit.After her dodge, she has I think about 3 options so far: light, heavy, shoot. We don't get much if any story in this demo, so it's hard to judge. But I agree about the enemy variety; nothing is too mechanically different and if her core abilities and the controls weren't so responsive and slick, it'd be far less exciting.

The demo is being carried by how good 2B feels to control, and I feel like that is one the most important things in this type of game. Excited to see how the rest of the game follows.

All I really got from the demo was two androids on a mission wrapped in all the anime tropes you can think of, "emotions are prohibited" she says, it doesn't really give an inclination of where the story is going, but if we're judging the story on what is strictly in the demo, then yeah, it's mundane.Barring Bayonetta 2 and to a certain degree in terms of depth Bayonetta 1, NieR is one of Platinum's tighter action ventures. Maybe responsiveness isn't the term I'm looking for, but more the transitions into certain moves.

In particular, the dash into run is something that none of Platinum's mainline games have ever done, especially the degree of control you get mid-dash which I imagine has been tuned to accommodate Bullet Hell, dashing around the flights of stairs as you turn into each flight, I think the fact that you can manipulate 2B to do hair-pin turns mid-dash is great.Not that I'm disagreeing, but it's hard to judge the depth of what NieR is trying to do on this demo alone. But from the demo alone, it's not in the same league as Bayonetta action-wise, that doesn't make it bad.

I think Square want it to be an actual collaboration and less a Platinum Game attached to a Square Enix IP.I mean, there are green areas in the game. Anyway, I feel like a lot of my answers are just going to revolve around "the game's not out yet".What game did you have in mind when thinking about deeper mechanics? At a fundamental level, what did you want the demo to do at the very least?

The bullet hell influence is the entire thing making NieR kinda novel. Although Furi does it too.

You're going to have to elaborate on what you feel like they compromised on?

Things can co-exist. The existence of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry doesn't somehow undermine the existence of NieR: A, it doesn't feel like a game so far that wants you to have long combo strings, but while you're comparing your feelings towards a demo against a pair of games that have been out for years and all their nuances explored, I'm not surprised you feel that way, but that doesn't mean it makes any more sense.

Would you believe that after I played the Bayonetta demo, there was nothing that made me want to go out and purchase the game at all?

I'm not saying you're wrong, but the misgivings you have towards the demo make little sense.

There are people out there who think Bayonetta and Devil May Cry play the same and at a surface level of hitting and shooting, they'd be absolutely right.

But it's almost as if you completely missed what I said, and that's fine. I feel like we're about to start going in circles anyway.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No. No. You don't get to say on the one hand I keep repeating how good it is, but on the other hand I don't sound super excited about it.

As it is an action-rpg, the prospect of things I haven't unlocked excites me. The game has a solid foundation as I said before, and me understanding that it is an action-rpg and that there should be more to come makes me excited for the game.

When I said:I was referring to my sentence regarding me playing the Bayonetta demo and then playing the game. I had zero interest in the demo, I played it once and then deleted it. It was on the off-chance that my brother bought the actual game that made me give it another shot and I'm glad I did because the game elaborated on a lot of things that the demo gave me no idea of.

I'd be very surprised if in NieR's case the game ends up being just what was featured in the demo.

For instance:Is a chipset feature that can be removed/destroyed in the game's systems but is automatically enabled for the demo and is likely something you have to obtain in the campaign. The feature is automatically disabled in Very Hard mode. You can also unequip all your weapons and go in all fists, have one weapon set as fists and the other set as swords and you can mix it up quite a bit on the fly.

Like anything with nuanced combat, the longer you play and the more you ramp up the difficulty, the more you reveal from the available systems.

To summarize, I'm not saying that it is impossible for you to dislike it, I'm saying there are aspects of what you're mentioning that confuse me. But I guess if you find the core gameplay loop boring as fuck and can't see any way they could expand on it believing that the game will stay at relatively the same beats as the demo, I can only reference my feelings regarding Bayonetta and how that game didn't open up until you started unlocking more weapons and moves in the retail release and finally learned what dodge offset was.So, what exactly were your hopes for the demo when you downloaded it?

The games I've enjoyed have never been completely beyond reproach, Bayonetta is a fantastic game with rich mechanics, but fails in environmental interaction where Ninja Gaiden excels at, and Ninja Gaiden has good mechanics but sometimes you're left to the mercy of whether or not the A.I is in a screw you mood and it can become less about skill(Awakened Alma on anything higher than Hard springs to mind) and more about luck.

Devil May Cry has an incredible focus on high combo strings and points and demands you maintain it without getting hit, but the game is too dependant on lock-on sometimes and lacks the free flow of Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden.

Now with NieR, yes, the demo has a few shortcomings, the enemy variety so far is paltry when compared to the vivid angelic designs of Bayonetta, or the demonic otherworldly enemies of Devil May Cry, the dodge into counter is visually rewarding but doesn't feel as satisfying as MGR's parry into counter.

The real question is how much the reservations you have concerning a particular game actually bother you? I do have reservations about NieR and when I get the game, it could just very well be what they have in the demo and I'd be disappointed if it didn't expand on that. The foundation is solid if a little plain, but as 2B feels great to control and the fact that it is Platinum, I have confidence that the game will expand.I don't like to sound like a PG apologist, but I don't think they've designed a bad game in earnest. They've made no secret about their licensed games being strictly pay cheques (if I can find the interview, I'll post it). Then they rescued Metal Gear: Rising from development hell and got an 8/10 game on the shelves in about 2 years.

I don't even see NieR as a return to form, but more business as usual, I'll start worrying about Platinum if the full NieR game sucks and Scalebound turns out even worse than its most recent showing.

You're entitled to your opinion, but there was obviously a reason you posted it on a gaming message board and I don't imagine it was to appease yourself.

Another thing I actually don't like about this demo is the fact that there is no distinct visual communication as to what weapon set you're using, switching between weapon sets need to have a striking visual confirmation so that it feels natural, Bayonetta has vivid colours for the weapons and unique designs which communicate this as does Devil May Cry, but NieR actually doesn't do it, so there are moments of hesitation when changing weapons which ruins the flow a tiny bit.

Also, and I imagine it is part of NieR's style, but this game has a depressing colour palette. I thought it might be because of Platinum's engine but this tiny gif I shamelessly stole from whomever sourced it on neogaf shows just how colourful it can get and it's an awesome fight in Bayonetta 2.