NieR: Automata is a clunky and miserable experience. While I was barely captured by its graphical quality, everything else about the game is stitched together horrifically. Random, nonsensical game and RPG mechanics are strewn about wildly in the most frustrating and obtrusive way possible, never adding anything to the already braincell-killing core mechanical gameplay loop. Furthermore, once you get past the game's stunning beauty, it quickly degenerates into an ugly, meaningless story which tries very hard to be subtle/profound while rehashing absolutely dull ideas in a tasteless, brutish manner. I deeply regret spending as much time as I did on this game, mindlessly walking towards quest markers in a pseudo-open world and pressing the "X" button on my controller again, desperately waiting for the game to fulfill on a promise of becoming meaningful or engaging at any point. That point never came.