Nier: Automata spent the final week within the headlines, the results of a secret door that despatched the neighborhood right into a scramble. The thriller itself might have come to a sudden, shocking conclusion, however that doesn’t imply the bottom sport it was a part of ought to drop off your radar. Actually, it’s all of the extra purpose to revisit what many herald as the most effective action-RPGs ever.

That advice goes for everybody, by the way in which, whether or not you’ve hit the credit a dozen instances or have but to see firsthand what’s endeared Nier: Automata to so many individuals. Developed by PlatinumGames and first launched in 2017, Nier: Automata is an motion role-playing sport set 9,000 years sooner or later, whereby you play as a small contingent of battle-trained androids. It largely focuses on hack-and-slash fight, however there are moments the place it’s a straight-up bullet hell.

Nier: Automata’s essential gimmick—and what makes it stand out amongst a crowded discipline—is that it has a number of endings. Not simply two or three options both. All instructed, there are 26 totally different endings. Most of them are semi-serious at greatest (together with one the place you unequip an merchandise that particularly says will kill you should you unequip it). However 5 are legit, which implies you must play by its marketing campaign a number of instances, from totally different views, to get the entire plot.

Nier: Automata is a story tour de pressure in its personal proper, which can partially clarify its current cultural resurgence—once more, due to that secret door.

For the previous two months, devoted members of Nier: Automata’s on-line neighborhood had been piqued by a participant asking a few “church” that didn’t appear to match any identified areas of the sport. Some individuals referred to as bullshit, however video proof of the beforehand undiscovered space surfaced early final week. The door to the realm, although, curiously appeared accessible solely to at least one participant.

After every week of frenetic, community-fueled hypothesis, it turned out the entire thing was a viral marketing campaign for a brand new, doubtlessly game-changing set of modding instruments, whose designers say they’re planning on releasing the instruments to the general public quickly. In different phrases, Nier: Automata is about to be house to some really wild neighborhood creations.

That’s not all. In February, writer Sq. Enix introduced it’d produce an anime adaptation of Nier: Automata. (Particulars are presently scant.) Nier’s story is branching and emotionally devastating, however it’s additionally deeply private in the way in which solely video games will be. Irrespective of how you find yourself at its final conclusion, you most likely bought there by a special route than another person. The solely option to really measure the anime towards its supply materials is, y’know, to truly play that supply materials.

Additionally, c’mon: Although the discharge calendar is about to choose up steam quickly, it’s dry AF proper now. If you happen to’re trying to slot one thing within the first spot of your backlog, you’d be hard-pressed to do higher than Nier: Automata.

Some recommendation for the newcomers, although: Juggle a number of save information, and beware the fish.