When comparing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMIX Collection vs NieR: Automata, the Slant community recommends NieR: Automata for most people. In the question“What are the best JRPGs for PS4?” NieR: Automata is ranked 4th while Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMIX Collection is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose NieR: Automata is:
The combat in NieR: Automata is fantastic. It has a hack-and-slash feel to it, with an emphasis on agility and showy acrobatics. With the fluid and responsive controls, you can switch seamlessly from using swift attacks with your weapon to devastatingly strong attacks as you combo them together. You also use customizable ranged missile attacks from your personal robot pod, such as powerful laser beams or a giant hammer attack. It can be difficult to win battles sometimes, especially on the harder gameplay settings, but it's worthwhile to keep at it and watch yourself progress and improve.
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Pros
Pro Wonderful soundtracks
The soundtracks in the Kingdom Hearts games are incredible. Across all of the games, the music goes above and beyond to convey any given tone or theme wherever they play.
Battle and boss themes are catchy even in their classical influences, with epic final boss songs that tell a story about the main villain through music. Songs for Disney worlds stay true to their original material and are sure to make longtime fans nostalgic for their favorite movies and characters. Even the song that plays on the title screen, "Dearly Beloved", is a quiet but emotional song that stays in your heart. The composer Yoko Shimomura does a fantastic job with the music across the series, putting her background in classical music to use here in the best ways possible.
Pro Interesting premise of combining Disney and Final Fantasy characters in one universe
The idea of putting Disney and Final Fantasy together seems like it would never work, but it actually does here. While each of the settings are in many of the Disney worlds, the characters you meet along the way are from both Disney and Final Fantasy. Seeing Donald and Goofy interacting with Cid, Cloud, and Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII, for example, is entertaining because of how novel it is. Even villains like Maleficent have screen time with other Disney characters they'd normally never speak to in the canon lore, like Pete or Jafar. The whole experience is surreal in a good way, with plenty of possibilities for cameos from both franchises.
Pro Really good value for its price
With four playable games and two cutscene-only titles bundled into a single collection, this is a steal. Each of the games are full-length RPGs that will easily take you dozens of hours to complete, and the cutscenes-only ones are long enough to fill an entire movie on their own. Having everything on one disc for a single system is also convenient, since a lot of these titles used to be spread out across different consoles and handhelds. Along with inevitable price drops over time, you end up getting a lot of value for your money while getting caught up to speed on many of the Kingdom Hearts games.
Pro Tons of Disney worlds to play in
There are many authentic Disney levels in the games. They look like they were pulled straight out from the movies in how recognizable they are, too. Places like Agrabah from Aladdin, the Deep Jungle from Tarzan, the Olympus Coliseum from Hercules, the Pride Lands from The Lion King, and Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast are all fully-playable. Playing around with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and everyone else from the 100 Acre Wood of Winnie the Pooh, for example, is a great storybook adventure that feels like you're part of the cartoon itself. Experiencing these authentic worlds with their characters is great and feels true-to-life.
Pro Fun real-time action combat with keyblade swords
The combat in the games is a lot of fun with the unique keyblade weapons: swords that are shaped like keys. Attacking enemies with your keyblade feels swift and smooth, with plenty of abilities to help you dash quicker, jump higher, and more. Elemental magic spells are snappy and pretty to look at; leveling up unlocks cooler and more powerful spells, with giant flare explosions, thunderstorms, and blizzards with detailed particle effects. You also get rewarded for using certain magic spells, letting you chain faster, flashier keyblade attacks where you're practically invincible until the effect wears off. Combat is really enjoyable, especially as you unlock new skills over time.
Pro Heartfelt stories about the bonds of friendship
The story in all of the Kingdom Hearts games are strong because of how well they feature the characters. The main protagonist, a young boy named Sora, initially goes on a quest to find his friends, Riku and Kairi, while meeting Donald and Goofy along the way, who are looking for King Mickey.
Throughout Sora's journeys with Donald and Goofy, the three of them meet more friends who either stick with them and aid their quest, or turn against them in unexpected ways. Each of the characters' reasons for their choices and actions all revolve around friendship, usually with losing friends to the darkness in their hearts that they must somehow overcome. All of the stories across the series are touching narratives that know how to pull on your heartstrings.
Pro Fast-paced, action-packed combat
The combat in NieR: Automata is fantastic. It has a hack-and-slash feel to it, with an emphasis on agility and showy acrobatics. With the fluid and responsive controls, you can switch seamlessly from using swift attacks with your weapon to devastatingly strong attacks as you combo them together. You also use customizable ranged missile attacks from your personal robot pod, such as powerful laser beams or a giant hammer attack. It can be difficult to win battles sometimes, especially on the harder gameplay settings, but it's worthwhile to keep at it and watch yourself progress and improve.
Pro Unique storytelling with a real emotional impact
NieR: Automata's outlook on storytelling is incredibly special. To get the full experience, you have to run multiple playthroughs of the game, each of which offers a new experience and perspective. Your world view of the story events and characters expands drastically as you complete each playthrough, playing on your expectations to help you develop a deeper emotional bond with the protagonists and become invested in their plight.
Things take a real turn on your third playthrough, putting you on an emotional roller coaster all the way to the true ending. The plot twists and knocks on the fourth wall elevate the story to a truly unique place. Getting all the way to the very end can be a religious experience from how much heart and meaning you discover in the symbolism.
Pro It's got a hauntingly beautiful environment
NieR: Automata is set in a post-apocalyptic landscape after Earth has been overrun by hostile machines, and the artists really nailed what that would feel like. Abandoned and overgrown cities litter the landscape along with old refineries, graveyards, and eerie forests. When you add the beautiful soundtrack to the experience, it fills you with a bittersweet mix of loneliness and hope.
Pro Varied genre-spanning gameplay elements
NieR: Automata has different types of gameplay to keep things interesting. From the very start, you're on an on-rails bullet hell section, and then you switch over to the more traditional action RPG style of fast-paced combat. Things change up again not long after with some side-scrolling platforming from a 2D view. Later on in the story, there's a hacking mini-game where you navigate a tiny ship through a short puzzle, with the music changing to a charming retro sound to fit the theme and mood. This is a game that doesn't stay boxed in a single genre.
Pro An incredible amount of content
Outside of the main story, there's plenty of optional content to dive into. The side quests are the best way to get to know the characters and lore of the world, with some of them giving clever and subtle foreshadowing of the game's most critical events. There are also weapons to collect and upgrade, each of which offer nice little tidbits of lore after you get them to max level. And after reaching a certain point in the story, you get access to Chapter Select that lets you go back and replay whatever you want. You can easily spend 60+ hours exploring the world and still have much more to do.
Pro Gorgeous, ethereal soundtrack with amazing vocals
NieR: Automata's music is out of this world. It's so stunning and elegant in a way that nothing else can really live up to. The soundtrack manages to emotionalize the game through music, from the action-packed tracks with hard-hitting wind instruments and percussion, to the softer, somber songs that encapsulate the hauntingly beautiful environments and story moments you encounter. Vocals in the lore's indescribable language makes the music even more memorable, adding to the ethereal quality of the sound. This soundtrack is definitely one that you can go back to again and again without getting sick of it.
Cons
Con All of the lore and mythos can be hard to keep track of
It's clear that the writers didn't plan on the whole series from the start, making things hard to follow or remember over time. Plotlines get introduced out of nowhere in sequels and characters get retconned left and right. Despite how well-executed the storylines are on their own, as a whole, everything is a jumbled mess and would take a long time to explain. If you're thinking of jumping into the Kingdom Hearts series, be prepared to be confused.
Con Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories changes up the gameplay too much
In Chain of Memories, you fight with decks of cards instead of your keyblade. While this sounds interesting, it's not that great in execution. The cards determine how strong your attacks are and which spells you get to cast, and sadly a lot of it comes down to random luck. Even worse, you sometimes need certain cards to get into rooms to progress the story, which feels way too unfair if you don't have the right cards. It's unfortunately more frustrating than fun.
Con Some annoying JRPG tropes get in the way of the story
There are some JRPG tropes that bog down the storytelling. The most prominent one is the idea of the characters coming together to defeat gods with the power of friendship. There are a few other ones that will only get on your nerves depending on how much you either tolerate or enjoy the tropes.
Con Awkward voice acting at certain cutscenes
Con Limited open world
Even though NieR: Automata is technically an open world game, it doesn't always feel like it. It's more that there's a big open space in the center of the ruined city you explore, with branches that lead off to vastly different environments, like a desert, a village, and a few other places. These locations aren't that spacious, either, and it's a bit of a stretch to even imagine all of these places being so close together in the first place. It's not too much of an issue as long as you find the story and combat engaging enough.
Con Second playthrough can get repetitive
Once you get to Route B, your second playthrough, you may find that too much is the same. There are some big differences, such as the new way you get to see things play out, but a lot of it rehashes Route A, your first playthrough. There's a ton of hacking you have to do as well, which gets pretty boring after repeating it over and over again. But if you stick with it, Route C and onward are absolutely worth the time spent getting to that point.
Con Some boring fetch quests
The pacing gets messed up when you're forced to run certain fetch quests near the start of the game. This is somewhat forgivable after the fun and action-packed introductory level, but the quests themselves are still a drag to play through. Some of the side quests can also boil down to the same thing. Even though these quests give a lot of useful information about the world, they're not all that fulfilling, and you may dread having to repeat them when playing through the game again.
Con Buggy on PC
Some players complain about the game crashing, freezing, their save files mysteriously disappearing, and more. As of June 2018, over a year after the game's initial release, there is still no patch to fix these problems. Not everyone on PC will have these bugs, but it's still quite prevalent. If you continually run into issues, your best bet is to find a mod or play the console versions instead of waiting on an official patch that may never happen.