Gaming off the Beaten Path

  I hope I got my point across in part one. But if I didn't, I'll reiterate here: Nier: Automata set the new standard in video game storytelling. Not necessarily the story itself, but how the story is told. That's all well and good, but now it's time to talk about the gameplay. Because unlike other media formats, you can have the absolutely best storytelling of all time ever and still have it ruined because of awful controls or game breaking glitches. Fortunately, Nier: Automata doesn't have either of those things. But it does come from a series known for less-than-optimal gameplay. Full disclosure, I have never actually played the original Nier or any of the Drakengard games, so I can't really comment on it personally. Any time I see someone call the controls in an old game "wonky" it arouses suspicion, that's in the same category as "aged poorly" for me. What does "wonky" even mean? Sure, if you back it up with details that...

  Let's start with a question. Why are you reading this review? You are just wasting your time. Why am I writing it? In fact, why either of us playing video games at all? None of it means anything. In fact, forget video games. Nothing means anything. Nothing at all. Why bother with life, you may as well just...yeah, I think I need to stop there. Saying that would get me in trouble and besides, who decides what means what anyway? I am going to keep the modern game train running, because I finally got a chance to play yet another one of the internet's favorite games. I have read a lot, like, a lot, about how amazing Nier: Automata was, how it was on a different level in terms of storytelling from just about every game that's ever existed. I've heard it called "the most profound video game ever" and "a truly classic humanist fable." There are countless articles, videos, podcasts, whatever covering just how deep and philosophical the game is. Stop me if ...

  I mean, you had to know this was coming, right? You know how I love to do my comparisons, and this was just too easy. You could see it coming from a mile away. Of course, that's something you definitely can't say about the SMRPG remake itself. It's a few months later and I already finished the game, but it still doesn't feel like a reality that it actually exists. Even with all of the remakes that we see nowadays, I am really surprised that this game got the treatment. A lot of things had to align and, allegedly, a lot of bad blood had to be sorted out for it to happen. But here we are, we have a shiny new Super Mario RPG remake for the Nintendo Switch with updated graphics, music, translation and just about everything under the sun. Before anyone asks, I had originally planned a 10-Round Fight for this, it seemed logical at first. After playing Final Fantasy VII Remake and seeing how different it was from the original, I kind of had in my head that all remakes would ...