Games similar to X

[Rapier]

You probably have beaten a game once, then felt an "existencial crisis" because it was such an unique experience that you won't go through again, or not the same way as the first time. We then wonder if there is another game similar to that one, that can give us another unique experience on its own way.

This thread is about recommending those alternatives.

I've finished Nier Automata a few days ago, and now I really miss its writing, ambience and OST style. The gameplay isn't very unique, but it is fun enough to be missed as well. I'd go and play Nier, but I don't own a PS3. Drakengard is an option, but from what I've seen of it in LPs, its gameplay is very bad and the storytelling's execution didn't attract me. So... I'm kinda at a loss for similar experiences.

[Zera]

I played a friend's copy of the original Nier for 3 hours, and concluded it was a 4/10 piece of junk. But the combat was kinda interesting. When I discovered you could erase projectiles with your sword, I thought, "Man, this is like a poor man's poor man's Sin & Punishment game. I know Nier Automata is a lot better, and now I really want to play it."

So maybe you'll like the S&P series. Maybe not. But that's the comparison that sprung to my mind.

I know Nier Automata has some RPG-like mechanics, so you might like Okami, made by Clover Studios (who are now Platinum Games).

[Reality]

4 hours ago, Rapier said:

I've finished Nier Automata a few days ago, and now I really miss its writing, ambience and OST style. The gameplay isn't very unique, but it is fun enough to be missed as well. I'd go and play Nier, but I don't own a PS3. Drakengard is an option, but from what I've seen of it in LPs, its gameplay is very bad and the storytelling's execution didn't attract me. So... I'm kinda at a loss for similar experiences.

I don't really like Nier Automata due to the gameplay necessarily being a little light in order to accommodate a mixture of genres .. It's beating a dead horse to point out more focused character action games (bayonetta/ devil may cry), any number of  more focused SHUMPs, or in the case of very specific Nier boss fights- the special games that combine light gun shooting into background with dodging in the foreground  such as Sin and Punishment (pretty much have to settle for the virtual console n64 or the wii game)  or Wild Guns (had a nice HD facelift available on steam, etc). 

 

If I had to think about it storywise- there are a limited number of RPGs (and occasionally puzzle games) with machine or machine races and their relationship to humanity or sentience/emotion as major themes. Of those that do, it tends to be side characters rather than main characters or else used as fodder for solving major conflicts.. 

A lot of games are handicapped in this regard either due to the machine characters having too small a proportion of screen time, or the plot being more interested in other ideas. I think this particularly would crush our hopes of finding a similiar narrative in say, Mass Effect 2-3(Most of the robots might as well be alien-robots and hence are definately intelligent already), or Xenosaga Ep1-2 (Realians already have equal status to humans at begining of story, so the question largely doesn't have to be asked except in cases of lower order machines which presumably can follow their lead anyway) I think we can leave out the whole "what is like to be an emotionless being" thing that's used in less ambitious RPGs (practically 90% of sci-fi rpg series, plus a handful of undead charathers, and in the rarest cases angels/heralds like in Lunar 2)

Only a handful of times when this is a larger focus of the game.

  Still it feels like a lot of a stretch to say something like "The Talos Principle" is  really similiar to Nier-Automata-  The machine theme is there, but since there are only really 3 characters and it's not dialogue based, it takes on an entirely different mood.

Also thinking about it- "Final Fantasy 9" Mostly in the main villian Kuja having parallels with the Nier charather A2 and the Genomes/Black Mages/ the creator figure of FF9, serving to drive the conflict in way akin to how the androids do so in Nier Automata. But the game takes it's time before getting to this stuff, and while it becomes increasingly sci-fi as you go on, the main part of the game uses a magical fantasy setting, and their is much more room for comic relief than in a comparable game.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Not sure I understand the topic since I never played Nier. Do you mean a game that has a whole new context on a second playthrough because things weren't what they seemed?

Metal Gear Solid, baby. This is a game in which you are an ex-super soldier sent to covertly stop a terrorist takeover of a nuclear facility by other super soldiers. Except, uh oh, you were actually sent in to spread a biological virus that genetically targets these other members of FOX, and then die yourself. Also, you were born in a laboratory as a clone of your father.

[Rapier]

By the way, this thread isn't really about me. Anyone who wants to get a game recommendation can ask without replying my post.

Ok. What I meant about "games similar to Nier Automata" was more regarding the gameplay and story structure (not necessarily about robots and androids, but something that writes characters and the background similarly, as well as share similar plot progression). The closest thing to it, other than Nier (well, obviously) is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (which is... ok in the story department and doesn't compare with Automata's quality in that aspect, but fine). Metal Gear Solid is probably a good idea.

The writing is what I miss more, to be honest.