There's this game that I've been playing on and off for about a month called Dolls Nest, developed/published by Nitroplus. I've seen the people in the Steam reviews call it a hybrid between Dark Souls and Armored Core and I think that's a pretty fair assessment. Your character is a customizable humanoid girl that you can outfit with a "frame". Frames consist of several modules such as a mobility unit, thrusters, a head, hangers, a utility module, and then your primary and rear weapons. There's a lot to keep in mind since certain parts might be better suited to a certain playstyle. For example, parts that favor speed and are lightweight are going to have poor defensive stats. The reverse is also true as heavy armor has incredible defensive capabilities but too much might hinder your ability to travel across the different zones. You can also customize your builds with different color schemes and save several presets.
I originally played the demo in February. It covered the tutorial area and featured no boss fight at all. It was definitely tuned to be more of a sandbox experience. It wasn't long before the demo was taken down for reasons. In March, Nitroplus announced that it would release on April 24, 2025. Despite my current backlog, I made time for the game because I thought the concept was interesting.
New Sub-Genre Just Dropped
Dolls Nest exists in sub-genre that I like to call "Automata-core". The automata-core genre is basically any video game with a story where artificial humanoid characters explore themes of existentialism and the human condition. It's possible that these games are lore-heavy, but they do not necessarily have to be. The exploration of the aforementioned themes does not have to be dense, either. I don't think that reading Nietzsche should be a prerequisite to understand the themes that a Automata-core game's story is trying to deliver. That being said, it could certainly help. I'm sure it's possible that people who were familiar with Nietzsche had a more fulfilling experience playing through Nier: Automata because direct references the game has to his work.
And yeah, Nier: Automata is the foundation to the automata-core genre. I'm sure there are other examples before Nier: Automata's time, but it's the game I'm using because a lot of people are familiar with it. Sort of like when people say Metroidvania, that's like two games in one name.
The automata-core subgenre isn't exclusive to video games, though. There have been many movies in the past few decades that are very automata-core, like Ex Machina, and Her. In the case of Her, I know that the female lead in that movie is more like an advanced personal AI assistant. However, while she might be missing the artificial body like the android in Ex Machina, she definitely has a personality that is human-like. And for me, that's enough to include Her in the automata-core subgenre.
If this still doesn't make sense to you, automata-core is essentially just media about androids/robots/AIs having feelings.
actual thoughts about the game's world-building
Back to Dolls Nest.
It was an interesting game because the premise is that your character is the offspring of a larger, more complex humanoid named Nehma that was left in a weakened-state. As you explore, meet NPCs, and read the descriptions of the many items you acquire, certain terms begin to make themselves more apparent.
Your character, along with the other humanoid characters that you encountered are called Nymphs.
Hod is the name of the massive crater that the game takes place in, it has many levels.
Anyway, there's a decent amount of world building that happens in Dolls Nest. So much, in fact, that I feel like the developers wanted to do more and couldn't.
When the player talks to Nehma in the Decaying Broodchamber (hub area), they can ask her about certain topics like factions, the different levels of Hod, and other in-world topics. While convenient, I don't think this style of storytelling is satisfying to me because it kills a lot of the mystique surrounding this world that I've been thrown into. It's also hard to criticize because a lot of the information Nehma provides doesn't affect the player directly. We're the newest nymph on the block and of course we have questions about this world we were brought into, but the world is also kinda ... over?
The Nymphs have their own societies too. They had wars, conflicts, betrayed each other, just like humans.
the vibe of Dolls Nest
There's mention of several colonies throughout Hod and other queens, but all we see throughout the game are ruins of a society that was highly dependent on machinery. Canonically, the humans that lived in Hod have gone extinct. The nymphs and machines took over once they died out.
That loneliness is represented pretty well in the game's several zones.
Between the skirmishes with enemies, sometimes the only sounds you can hear are the hum of your mobility unit carrying you to your next destination and the ambient noise. It's usually during those moments that I take in the scenery. Maybe I can see some enemies in the distance, but they're so far away that I don't spare them a thought. It's hard to believe that Hod was inhabited. I would think about the amount of people that had to be living in Hod to even justify the need to build things like a water treatment plant that's the size of a city. It reminds me a lot of that trend from a few years ago, liminal spaces. Exploring the different zones felt like that, often.
At least, the zones would do that really cool Souls game thing where you unlock a shortcut and loopback around to a resting spot. That feeling never gets old for me. I think overall, the draw of Dolls Nest for me was equal part exploration and the customization of our characters and frames. And I'm glad! Because I personally feel like it falls short in terms of gameplay.
actual thoughts on the gameplay (it's okay 5/10)
The gameplay loop is pretty basic. You explore a zone, defeat a boss, unlock a new resting spot and repeat. The bosses themselves aren't difficult at all if you've ever played an action video game before. A lot of them repeat a couple of basic attacks and maybe a flashy attack on loop until you defeat them. Honestly, there was a bit of an initial challenge going in blind. My primary weapons were mainly assault rifles, which got the job done, with a couple of artillery options as my rear weapons.
Resource management is a very important aspect of this game, but I don't think the weapons were balanced well enough for that to matter. On the HUD, the bar in the middle represents "BP", otherwise known as your ammo. Every time you reload or use a rear weapon, you consume BP according to the cost per round. If you reload, I believe that all the ammo in the magazine is taken from your total BP. In the case of rear weapons, you lose BP immediately after every shot of artillery or missiles.
You can only replenish BP when you're at a resting spot or if you use the "Supplement" consumable item, which partially restores a total of your BP. Even then, the amount of supplements you can carry is capped.
Ideally, this system would push me to think more critically about the weapons that I want to use. Running out of ammo in the middle of a zone with no option to teleport back to the last resting area really sucks. The hunter becomes the hunted and you're suddenly trying to maneuver your way back to safety. Unfortunately, this wonderful concept is completely negated by how cheap and powerful SMGs are. Sure, they're attack power drops significantly starting at mid-range, but the benefits are way too good. SMGs can melt just about any enemy. In the late-game, you might find yourself using up an entire magazine to kill an enemy but with how little resources they use up and the time it takes to reload, SMGs are really hard to beat.
It doesn't help that a lot of common enemies (and even bosses) are just stupid. Many enemies will "overheat" after attacking you once. They'll throw a whole barrage of bullets towards you and then take a century to reload. You can use this time to get away or maneuver behind them and just unload your entire mag at their weak spot. Like I said earlier, the combat isn't difficult.
There are some enemy placements that are very "troll-y", like self-destructing enemies that fall down from a ceiling, enemies hidden in the foliage, things like that.
Even this won't really present itself as a challenge if you're careful.
All to really say that the combat is kinda average and doesn't pose a challenge. And just to be clear, I only started to use the SMG late in the game. Most of the game I was several combinations of primary weapons, I even went pure melee too. Melee is satisfying in it's own way, but having a cooldown per swing is very annoying. This is remedied by having two melee weapons as your primary, but then your ranged options are limited or non-existent if you value your mobility.
music
One final stray thought about Dolls' Nest. While many of the tracks feel inspired by the Nier series, several of them are able to stand on their own. The track below is a boss theme and also plays in the Steam trailer. I'm glad Nitroplus decided to used this track for the trailer because it has a lot of personality. It's chaotic, the vocals have that android feel, yet sound chaotic.
other thoughts
Coincidentally, Nitroplus is the developer of Full Metal Daemon Muramasa and other cool visual novels. There's actually a crossover content planned in a future update where one of the frames available will resemble Muramasa in her tsurugi form.
I might boot the game up again to check it out. To be totally honest, one of the only reasons I bought Dolls' Nest was to fund the next installment of Muramasa, Project Vermillion. I hope they can see that there's some interest in the series. I actually never heard of Nitroplus developing a game that isn't a visual novel ... Wait, nevermind, how could I forget about Nitroplus's other major release this spring, RUSTY RABBIT?
That's the second time I get whiplash from hearing Kiryu Kazuma's voice actor in something else other than the Yakuza series. The other time I recognized his voice when I was fighting a boss in Atelier Yumia, which released the other month as well. I hope he's been doing well. But yeah, Nitroplus is exploring new territory with these games. People might point out that they have collaborated with other companies and groups in the development of other games, but this is different. Both Dolls Nest and Rusty Rabbit are 100% in-house projects. It's really cool to me that they're trying out different things. Dolls Nest is very rough around the edges. Honestly, it feels a lot like an indie game with the amount of jank it has and the amount of times the game crashed on me. I really hope we're in Nitroplus's training arc right now. They've got some interesting ideas, some talented writers, but I'm expecting there to be a lot of growing pains as they move away from making the visual novels that everyone knows them for.