8 Fatal Flaws That Stop Nier Automata Being A Masterpiece
7. ... And They Absolutely Kill The Pacing
At its best, the latest Nier can be exhilarating and impossible to put down, as you race from one story beat to the next facing off in huge battles against the backdrop of the title's pitch-perfect score. However, right when it seems that you're about to build some genuine momentum and be properly sucked into Automata's world, the game crashes to a halt to give you a smattering of new side quests to do instead.
And sure, you might already be feverishly pointing out that "the side missions are optional!", but in a game like this they're really not. If you only rush through the required missions in Automata you're only going to get the cliff-notes of what the story is actually about, missing out on vital information about the world that the title's final moments rely so heavily on you being invested in.
So sure, you don't technically have to do all ten of the fetch quests the game throws at you, but if you skipped them you'd be overlooking the game-changing clues and interesting stories that make an RPG like this worth playing in the first place.