Introduction
NIER is another one of those games that received moderate-level news coverage with absolutely no hype whatsoever, and when it finally came out it didn’t really seem to take off outside of Japan. It’s received average-to-poor reviews from games magazines, was slashed in price by nearly 40% about a week and a half after it came out, and seems to have been all-but forgotten already in anticipation for newer, better-looking games on the horizon.
Thanks to the lack of attention this game had, I bought it without expecting very much – to be honest, I had no real idea of what I was buying. The melee combat looked delightfully chaotic and bloody, I recognised most of the voice actors, and the music was absolutely spectacular. Not to mention Resonance of Fate was getting on my nerves by that point, and I was in need of something else to play on my PS3.
So, after getting it a few days after the launch day, and after playing it at the expense of absolutely everything else I’m currently playing, I am extremely glad I didn’t pass on it. It might just be the best game I’ve played so far this year.
So, read on for an in-depth review of what is probably going to be the greatest ignored game this year ♥
Storyline: 7.5/10
NIER begins in the middle of summer. It is snowing in an eerie twilight and in a seemingly derelict city a mysterious man and his daughter Yonah are stranded, trying to make their way in life as they are assailed on all sides by strange creatures known only as “Shades”. Yonah is ill with the Black Scrawl, a fatal disease and, as her condition worsens, the man struggles to find her some medicine. In his possession is a strange book, which he tells his daughter not to touch as he goes outside...and is instantly beaten back by a horde of Shades. In desperation, he reaches out to the book, crying out for power...which is then bestowed upon him, allowing him to beat back the Shades with minimal effort. However, it is all in vain, as Yonah steadily gets worse. Watching his daughter die before his eyes, the man cries out for help...
...fast-forward about 1300 years and another man is out to save his daughter, also called Yonah, also suffering from the mysterious Black Scrawl that is killing off people slowly but steadily. The world looks a lot better than what it did 1300 years previously, but it is still in decline: humanity are living in primitive, medieval villages, constantly in fear of the Shades that plague the world, the technology of the past long since lost to them. Our protagonist’s village (whilst you can name the protagonist, I’m going to refer to him as “Nier” from here on for the sake of simplicity) is relatively peaceful, and Nier is constantly taking odd-jobs for the townsfolk, whilst trying to find a way to save his daughter from her illness.
One day, he tells her a story of the Lunar Tear, a flower that can grant wishes. Yonah is something of an avid reader, and is always down at the library – much to her father’s dismay, who would prefer that she stay in bed – and it’s no big surprise she’s curious about this magical flower. However, the trouble starts when she suddenly goes missing. Turns out she’s gone to the Lost Shrine to look for one. Understandably distraught, Nier rushes after her...
...and things kick off from there. Shortly thereafter, Nier meets Grimoire Weiss, a mysterious book who supposedly has the power to cure the Black Scrawl...or, he would, if he possessed all of the Sealed Verses. For the first half of the game, the story is focused entirely on the acquisition of these mysterious Sealed Verses: travelling the world from place to place, reporting back to the village head, Popola, to get the next lead from her. Its typical Action-Adventure fare: gather up the magic items to save the world, and doing this is what drives the story. In this, Nier brings nothing new to the tables.
However, what makes NIER really stand out from other Action-Adventure games is the extremely dark tone it takes throughout the story. At the beginning of the game, Nier states that the world is in decline, and he isn’t kidding: events often take a traumatic and rather brutal turn for the worse, suddenly, and when you least expect it. NIER is a game that likes to reveal things at the very end (like many games these days seem to do) and the revelations are quite shocking and often entirely unexpected.
Whilst it is filled with surprising twists in the story, and very sudden and unexpected tragedies, NIER is very inconsistent in its delivery of them, and the way in which the story is told does nothing to inspire; it doesn’t leave you wanting to play more, to find out what happens. Your quest will progress smoothly and without event for a few hours, then all of a sudden disaster strikes, leaving you wondering just what the hell happened, and why it happened. The why of things is often left unexplained, especially if you play through the game only once. NIER is a game meant to be played many times, and in order to get a full appreciation of the story and the events that transpire, you need to play it through at least three times; more is revealed as you complete the game and continue into a new file – which is, perhaps mercifully, at a mid-point in the story when you start it.
Due to the lack the primary antagonist’s presence for the entirety of the game, the story quite often feels very directionless and of a very small scope – focusing entirely on Nier’s quest to save his daughter, and not looking at the larger picture, despite the fact that Shades accost you all the way through the game. At times, it feels a little random, and does nothing to correct this until very late in the game.
This is obviously something of a daunting prospect to the average person, who will play through the game once before moving onto something else, and playing the game through just once will leave you with a lot of unanswered and barely answered questions. The story is intricate and well thought-out, and with each revelation your perspective will change – it isn’t just small, inconsequential things that are revealed here – but it requires perseverance to fully appreciate it, which restricts its score from being as high as it might otherwise be.
Characters: 8.8/10
NIER has an excellent cast who, despite the dark setting of the game, provide some dryly amusing moments with incredible frequency as the story unfolds and you travel from place to place. Often, as you uncover a lead, complete a quest or acquire something, someone in the party (usually Weiss) will make a comment about it as you travel, often leading to a witty exchange between characters that are genuinely amusing to hear. It lightens the mood of what can otherwise be a very depressing game.
Nier is the primary protagonist, and his character is somewhat stereotypical: he is an altruistic man who is out to save his daughter through whatever means necessary, and he quite often goes out of his way to help others, as well. This sounds cheesy and highly cliché – and it is - but with Nier it’s infinitely more believable than it has been in the past with other games. The father-daughter relationship isn’t one utilised very often in video games, and it is perhaps because of this that Nier’s older, more mature character allows him to pull off the standard altruistic personality without being just another generic protagonist. The older Nier has been criticized to hell and back, especially in light of the even more generic (but infinitely better looking) younger version who stars in one of the Japanese versions; a young man out to save his sister. However, with this Nier it’s a classic example of not judging a book by its cover – he is, in many ways, a refreshing change of pace.
The second member of your party is Grimoire Weiss, a very highly-strung talking book who is basically a fusion between the “Elder” and “Sidekick” character archetypes. Weiss is quick to criticize and fire off a witty comment, making him quite an amusing character at times, especially in its conversations with Kainé.
Kainé is the third member of your merry little band, and she is anything but merry. Kainé has an explosive temper, and expresses it through excessive swearing. A character that swears is sure to raise a few eyebrows (as the first trailer of her English voice actor no doubt did) however, she isn’t as foul-mouthed as was implied by the trailers. Despite her explosive outbursts, Kainé is quite a reserved individual; she swears as would someone today – in large increments when she is angry, and occasionally to drive a point home.
...unfortunately, the detail of her being a hermaphrodite has been all-but erased from the localized version (it is implied at a couple of points, but if you have no knowledge of it beforehand you won’t see it as such) but she is still a very well-designed and unique character.
The final member of your party is Emil; a timid boy who appears to be slightly older than Yonah, who is afflicted with a curse that turns people to stone if they gaze into his eyes. Because of this, he wears a blindfold. Emil receives the most character development through the course of the story the first time through; he goes through several very traumatic events, which will leave you feeling quite sorry for him.
Asides from the main cast, there are also a few minor recurring characters who will make frequent appearances in the game. Yonah, Nier’s daughter, features prominently (since practically the entire game revolves around saving her), Popola and Devola, the twins who run Nier’s village, will appear frequently, as you’ll go to the former for advice and hints each time you acquire whatever it is you’re currently collection, and the latter for quests as and when you feel like it. Other characters that you meet on your travels will play a minor role in the story and have a little story of their own: the two brothers at the Junk Heap, the King of the Masked People and one of his subjects, Fyra and, if you choose to do certain sidequests, other incidental characters you’ll meet, such as the old woman who manages the Lighthouse at Seafront, will get a little back-story as well. These characters having their own stories make the game feel a little less centred on the protagonists and make the game feel more expansive; that everyone is suffering in the world, not just the protagonists.
The primary antagonists in this game are practically non-existent; there is the mysterious Grimoire Noir, another talking book, who accompanies the mysterious being known as the Shadowlord. Both will make two appearances in the game: once upon the conclusion of finding all the Sealed Verses, and once at the very end of the game. Whilst this has worked for Action-Adventure games in the past, NIER’s story is considerably more developed than previous games of the genre have been, and the characters and the story suffer because of it. Again, there will be several unanswered questions about these two, particularly with Grimoire Noir; much of the Shadowlord’s background and motives you’ll be able to guess yourself.
Despite the fact that their character stereotypes have been played out dozens of times before now, NIER’s cast manages to be both refreshing and interesting, and they complement each other very well. Their reactions to the horrors that unfold around them are mercifully believable (as opposed to being ridiculously over exaggerated) and each one has quite a bit of development over the course of the game (although Kaine’s story is largely untold until you play through the game a second time) and a fair amount of back story. Everyone is hiding some sort of secret, which will come out later rather than sooner, usually in dramatic, shocking fashion and, given the magnitude of the things the characters reveal, this is quite appropriate.
Gameplay: 8.3/10
NIER is primarily an Action-Adventure game. Controlling Nier, you’ll run (he runs pretty fast for an old-timer, as well...the man is practically incapable of walking, in fact) through areas, slaughtering enemies with your weapon of choice in real-time combat. You can also jump, double jump, block (this can be timed so that you’ll send enemies reeling, as well) and roll your way through the many battles the game throws at you. The game also features a levelling system, meaning Nier will get stronger with each kill he makes. It takes a very long time for him to level up, however, and it’s doubtful you’ll be much above level 30 by the end of your first playthrough, assuming you do the sidequests or take some time out to train.
There are a LOT of battles in this game. If you don’t do any of the sidequests, you’ll be running from place to place, doing practically nothing but killing things. You can barely go thirty seconds on the field without being attacked by something, be it Shades (most common, as they materialized out of nowhere and come straight for you), robots, or wild animals. There is not a huge variety of enemies in this game, although they will come at you in large numbers quite often. You can just run straight by and ignore them most of the time, however. Until the second half of the game, when you gain access to a ferryman service, you must travel across the overworld from place to place. Areas are fairly expansive, and your next destination will be marked with a small red x on your map (assuming you have one, of course – if you don’t have a map for the current area, it’ll just be an x on a grey background with no details as to the boundaries, possible obstacles etc) so there isn’t any chance of getting lost, something that may greatly relieve some. You are free to go wherever you wish to; however, you aren’t set on a linear path. If you feel like completing sidequests before you advance the story, then you can do so.
Boss battles in this game are extremely memorable. They are often titanic, dwarfing Nier and his companions, and have a very surreal design: for example, one boss is comprised entirely of cubes that fire laser beams at regular intervals. Some of these require that you hit their weak point to kill – taking the former example again, you will do no damage whatsoever unless you hit the pink-coloured cubes, which will change to blue and be immune to damage at increasingly regular intervals – whilst others will require that you just slash away at them whilst involving their barrage of attacks (and this game loves to throw laser balls at you, it fills the entire screen with them at points) and, once you have hit them enough, hit their newly exposed weak point to finish them off. Once you have almost completely depleted a boss’ health, a small clock will appear over part of its (usually) prone body, slowly ticking down. This is your cue to rush in and hit that point with everything you have before time runs out, removing the symbols on the clock before the timer completes a full circle. Succeed, and Nier will execute a large, powerful attack with Weiss that will finish off his enemy once and for all. Fail and the boss will get back up again, up to a third of its health restored.
The game presents you with a few different weapons to help you on your quest, of course. To begin with, you’ll have only one-handed swords to kill enemies with. At the mid-point of the game, you’ll acquire two-handed swords and lances. Each comes with their own benefits and drawbacks; as you would expect, two-handed swords are fiendishly powerful, capable of killing smaller enemies with a single sweep and putting a serious dent in larger ones, but are horrendously slow. Lances are fast and inflict moderate damage, but can be highly inaccurate, and one-handed swords are accurate and fast, but fairly weak and need you to get up close and personal with your target. All of the weapons have three different types of attack: the standard attack (accomplished by pressing the square button: you’ll be doing this a lot) a heavier attack that does considerably more damage (accomplished by pressing triangle – doing this in midair will yield a different attack than pressing it on the ground, as well) and a charged attack, accomplished by holding the square button, something you’ll probably never use due to lack of time in battles.
As well as these three weapon types, you also have magic to help you. Calling on Weiss’ power, you can summon any manner of projectiles to send your enemies flying in a wonderful splatter of gore. Magic can also be charged to be all the more potent as you level up and increase your magic bar – unsurprisingly located below your health bar – and, when you do this, time will slow down, allowing you to take aim with a small crosshair in the manner of an over-the-shoulder third person shooter before you fire. As you unlock each Sealed Verse, and more of Grimoire Weiss’ power, you will acquire additional magic attacks, allowing you to vary your assault a little. No particular magic is particularly effective against any one type of enemy – I made it all the way through the game using Dark Blast, Dark Hand and Dark Lance, in fact – but some will come in handy in certain situations and boss battles, or will suit your personal play style more than others
NIER has quite a bit of variety, repeatedly changing its gameplay to prevent repetitiveness and the eventual boredom that comes from hacking away at things for hours on end. Sometimes when you enter a room the camera will give you a top-down or zoomed out view, forcing you to adapt your playstyle to meet the changed conditions. You’ll also frequently encounter the game changing perspective to be similar to a traditional side-scrolling platformer, where Nier must jump from platform to platform to progress. There are also a couple of moments where the game takes a top-down third person shooter perspective, where Nier will ride a mine cart and will be assaulted on all sides by cannon fire and robotic drones. The game also pays homage to classical survival horror games – once you enter Emil’s mansion, the scene will become a dingy greyscale, and you’ll walk from room to room, complete with Resident Evil-style diabolical camera-angles and all, and at points it even becomes an old-fashioned, text-only adventure, with the screen going entirely dark with text appearing on the screen. Whilst these changes can be occasionally frustrating, they keep the game from getting too repetitive and stale, and break up the mindless killing quite nicely.
There are numerous sidequests that you can undertake from the people you’ll meet in the various places you’ll visit, and the tasks are quite varied – you may have to deliver a package to someone on the opposite side of the map, wading through several hundred Shades without rolling out of the way or being hit, or you may simply have to find someone, or find some items. Rewards for these quests are often considerable, racking up as much as 50,000G in the later stages of the game, and quests become lengthier as you progress through the game. Quests are kept track of via Grimoire Weiss’ menu, who obligingly tells you when a quest is uncompletable, as well as what you have to do for your active quests in a small paragraph. Quests are accepted in one of two ways: either by speaking to the client – they’ll have a speech bubble above their head, instead of just the small marker others will – or by speaking to Devola, who spends her time singing the Song of Ancients in the village tavern
NIER features two mini-games: farming and fishing. The former is simple; outside Nier’s house is a small field (which can be expanded on once you complete certain quests) which you can plant crops and flowers in. After a set number of hours – it varies between plants, naturally – you can harvest what you’ve grown and sell it back to the one of the many shops for a profit. You can also fertilize plants to make them grow faster or increase their yield, and water them twice. You can choose to harvest the crop/flower you have grown, or wait longer and harvest the seeds instead. In the case of moonflowers, you can cross-breed them to create rarer, more valuable plants. This is one of the better ways to make money, since the game operates using the PS3’s internal clock.
Fishing, after an initial struggle, can be quite enjoyable. After finding a suitable place and selecting your desired bait, you cast the line, wait for the fish to tug on it, then pull the line taught with X and reel the fish in by depleting its health, which is accomplished by pulling in the opposite direction the fish is pulling in. To begin with, Nier will lose much of what he catches, which will prove extremely frustrating. However, by completing “The Fisherman’s Gambit” sidequests, Nier’s fishing skill with gradually increase, allowing him to catch bigger, more valuable fish. Of course, each fish has their preferred location and bait – some are even out in the desert, oddly – and pattern of attack: some will nibble on the line before tugging it, whilst others will tug immediately. Annoyingly, the developers saw fit to include the ever-present aquatic plants and rusty buckets, as well.
After you have acquired the Sealed Verse at the Junk Heap, you get the ability to upgrade your weapons. This costs 1000G, as well as certain materials, which you will find scattered around the Junk Heap, dropped from enemies, or at the various gathering points around the map – shown by an unmistakable white sparkle. Naturally, upgrading your weapons makes them more powerful, and the higher the upgrade level, the rarer the materials, and the larger the quantity required.
In addition to upgrading weapons through materials, you can also attach Words to them to give them special effects. Words are dropped by Shades that you defeat, and give various bonuses - +30% to experience points received, for example. You can equip a maximum of two words on each weapon, as well as on magic and even on the roll and block commands. As you progress through the game, you will acquire increasingly powerful (and more nonsensical) Words for defeating more powerful Shades, increasing your edge in combat
So, what are the main problems with NIER? First and foremost is the difficulty. Short of playing this on Hard and restricting yourself to using one-handed swords only, you’ll find this ridiculously easy, without any real challenge – and what challenge that exists is frustrating, because it is challenging due to Nier’s inability to walk or catch fish, not out of any real difficulty. Halfway through the game, the Shades get significant upgrades – they hit harder, are capable of a variety of different attacks, much more frequent in number, and some are even armoured. However, you also get a significant upgrade, in the form of lances and two-handed swords, which, when combined with Dark Hand, can plough through enemies with ease, regardless of what they are. Magic attacks from enemies can easily be repelled by swinging your weapon of choice to displace them. Without levelling up, its a very easy game. Healing items are dropped by Shades with almost every battle, and unless you’re in the Junk Heap, which doesn’t have any Shades, the odds of you running out of recovery items are very, VERY slight.
It is also an extremely short game. With sidequests, a single playthrough will probably take you around 25 hours, depending on how lucky you are with gathering materials. Ploughing straight through the game without undertaking any sidequests is likely to take you approximately half that time. A large percentage of the hours you can rack up on this game comes from the sidequests, and the fact that many of them can only be done before certain storyline events happen can only add to the frustration.
The world of NIER is also quite a small one, as well – there are but a few locations that aren’t fields to trek across, and each one will require backtracking to at least once during the course of the game, and in the case of the inventively named “Village” , you’ll be going back there practically every time you do something. There isn’t much in the way of variety to the locations, either – you have a city in the countryside, by the sea, in the desert, and by the cliffs. A couple of temples, a forest, and the Junk Heap. Plus, of course, the various planes you’ll need to trek across to get between them. When you list the locations, it’s a depressingly small list, and this game could definitely have done with a bigger world to explore
In terms of trophies, NIER is a very easy game to get a Platinum trophy on, just a time consuming one – there are several “time-attack” trophies that you’ll get for beating certain bosses in a set amount of time (you’ll start becoming extremely powerful towards the end of the game and, with a two-handed sword’s midair power attack, you’ll cleave off huge amounts of health off bosses) as well as trophies for completing quests. The only trophies you’ll struggle with are those that require you to upgrade 30 weapons – several weapons require very rare materials – harvest a White Moonflower – a long, time consuming process even with time-skipping - and catch one of every type of fish – starting off fishing is extremely tedious, and even at the highest level certain fish are extremely hard to find and reel in. All of these depend on how lucky you are with gathering/harvesting/fishing though, so they might not take you very long at all.
Overall, NIER’s gameplay is incredibly addicting, and surprisingly varied. It’s constantly breaking the monotony with small sections of gameplay associated with different genres, which is a nice touch. It brings nothing new to the tables, however – the appeal is in the presentation, as well as the surprisingly fluid combat system. Action-Adventure games similar to NIER often feature a targeting system, and are usually criticized if they don’t incorporate one. NIER doesn’t really need one, although this is both blessing and curse, for whilst this shows how much better than average the combat is, it also shows exactly how easy the game is. In bringing many different styles of gameplay together, it also suffers from their individual faults as well, mostly in the form of a poor camera angle that makes moving about somewhat awkward at times, and the old school text-only sections are bound to bore some people.
Controls: 9.6/10
As I have mentioned, NIER has a wonderful combat system, which is easy to learn and to master. Within the first couple of hours you’ll be rolling out of the way of enemy attacks with ease, and death will be a relatively uncommon thing. The camera in the game is fully controllable for the majority of the game, which will prove to be a blessing, as you’re quite often attacked from all sides. It also makes the game feel infinitely easier to manage. You are also given the ability to customize the controls to a degree, by assigning magic and/or the block/dodge commands to the L and R buttons.
However, Nier’s inability to walk unless you barely touch the control stick will prove infuriating at points in the game, and the fixed camera angles that spring up on you along with the changing style of gameplay are bound to aggravate. Boar controls aren’t as sharp as they could be, either; you’ll quite often careen wildly when drifting if you’re not careful
Graphics: 5.1/10
...and here is where NIER fails. The graphics are shockingly bad, almost to the point where you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a PS2 game. Whoever designed the graphics for this game was either partially colour-blind, or accidently turned the saturation up to maximum when the scenery was complete. For a dark game, NIER is horrendously, blindingly bright. The lighting in the game is absolutely awful, especially at Seafront, where you’re constantly blinded by a glare that would make you think the Sun was exploding, and not just shining. The effects of the sea are so dazzling that you’ll need to adjust the camera angle just to be able to see your fishing rod sometimes. It’s absolutely horrendous.
This game slides just barely into mediocrity, because there are times that these abysmal visuals become something of an art form – this is particularly apparent at the mansion, which looks as though it has come straight out of a survival horror game, as the scenery goes into a fuzzy greyscale with the Shade patterning crawling around the edges of the screen. In the world of the Recycled Vessel game pack, it takes this “it isn’t not bad, its art” further by throwing the colour palette anywhere and everywhere. And, despite the generally crappy quality of the visuals, the games’ bosses still manage to look fairly impressive, character designs are not as bad as they could have been, and there are some very nice-looking cutscenes which are just about up-to-scratch.
Alas, for the most part, you’re going to be looking at some very ugly scenery.
Sound: 10.0/10
Definitely one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever, if not THE greatest video game soundtrack ever. From the very beginning (before it in fact, if you watch the opening movie) you’re treated to orchestrated masterpieces with haunting, dramatic and beautiful vocals in various languages
In many game soundtracks, vocals in tracks are one-off occurrences, for those moments of incredible drama, usually related with bosses or death. Not so with NIER; with the exception of five or six songs (less if you don’t count the remixes), every track in this game uses vocals in some manner, and it’s very rare you’ll have background music that isn’t a vocal track. You may think this is a tad excessive; however the vocals in this soundtrack often aren’t as blatant as what is normally used in video games. The use of different languages and vocal styles only adds to the variety – there are songs in three languages (English, Latin and German) and a made-up language at the very least, although a lot of the time it can be difficult to tell. They’re more of another instrument to add to the orchestra much of time, as opposed to the focus of the track. This is particularly effective in softer tracks, in which they are barely perceptible, but give the scene a remarkable tranquillity that wouldn’t be present otherwise. There are also a couple of tracks that have a very tribal feel to them, a style not used very often in video games. You may think that this removes that dramatic feeling to those vocal tracks used in boss battles, but this isn’t the case – when they take that familiar turn to the loud and dramatic in boss battles, it’ll still sound like something special, despite the fact that you’ve been listening to tracks that incorporate vocals since the beginning of the game.
There are several remixes of tracks (four remixes of three different songs, in fact), so if there was perhaps one complaint that could be uttered about this game’s soundtrack it could be its occasional lack of variety, but it’s not likely you’re going to notice this in light of the magnificence of the pieces on offer. Quite often the remixes are to best suit the scenario – Kainé’s theme, for example, has both a louder, more aggressive version for combat, and a softer, more vocal-focused version for those quieter moments. The Song of Ancients’ remixes incorporate different vocals and tempo each time, so it is only the actual lyrics and song title that the versions share – they sound like totally different songs. It isn’t just a straight remix in any case here, which is what will stop you from getting bored of the songs.
Voice acting is also top quality, and the characters all show a good variety of emotions. Despite Kainé’s fondness for cursing, her voice actress is capable of more than just blind rage and constant swearing, and manages to portray her as quite a reserved, melancholy individual – unless she’s pissed off, anyway. Whilst Emil has a very whiny voice, it isn’t out-of-place on him or excessively irritating (considering what he goes through over the course of the game, his weak voice does him credit) and Nier himself has a reasonably good voice as well. There is a fair amount of voice acting to the game as well, with many of the scenes being voice-acted, and there are plenty of party interactions to listen to, as well. Thankfully, you won’t hear the same ones twice.
Unique/Extra Features: 6.1/10
Whilst its gameplay is not particularly unique, the blending and variety it offers makes up for it. The story is much darker than most Action Adventure games (or, indeed, most games that aren’t horror games) and the soundtrack is definitely something special. Still, underneath all of the presentation, it’s still just an Action Adventure game, and it doesn’t bring anything new to that genre.
The DLC, the oddly-titled World of Recycled Vessel, takes you through a series of stages as the younger Nier, and is essentially a battle gauntlet: you fight through a series of battles, many of which are much more difficult than anything you’ll face in the main game, and then move onto the next. Whilst it makes references to Nier’s deceased wife, it doesn’t really do anything to enhance the story – which will be a blessing for those who disapprove of DLC being story extensions, and a curse for those expecting more content. The weapons you acquire as a result of completing the stages are game-breaking – the two-handed sword in particular, for it has 999 attack when fully upgraded and requires only a Damascus Steel for each stage (a relatively rare item, but the price is considerably cheaper than some other weapons in the game) and the costumes are quite nice, as well. More has been promised, so things can only get better...or worse, depending on your view of DLC. However, for what it is, it’s reasonably priced.
Replay value: 9.5/10
This game has fantastic replay value. With the option to carry over your data, as well as four different endings and extra story unlocked each time, to get the most out of this game you HAVE to play it more than once. In order to get each trophy in this game, you’ll need to play through the game four times; once for each ending, and probably a fifth time to get the trophy for finishing the game in less than fifteen hours. That the game doesn’t force you to start back at the very beginning and carries over absolutely everything only makes it more appealing; you won’t have to struggle to gather up materials or weapons or money, or complete tedious quests again.
So, where does this game lose out? Once you get the fourth ending, ALL your save data is deleted. Whoever thought of this made a grievous error, because after playing through the game three or four times it’s highly unlikely you’re going to want to do all of that again from scratch. It also seems somewhat pointless, and will come as a nasty shock (well, it would have) as well.
Overall Rating: 9.5/10
NIER is a highly addictive game that does its genre and Square Enix both credit and I would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in the Action Adventure genre. The storyline is dark, mature and filled with unexpected and genuinely emotional and shocking twists, and with each playthrough you’re treated to additional information about the world and the characters in it, further enhancing the experience. Clearly, a lot of thought has been put into the world and the characters and whilst it can feel directionless and pointless at times, due to the lack of a primary antagonist and the single-minded “save Yonah” mechanic, it more than makes up for it when things start happening.
Whilst it is visually unappealing - to say the least; it makes Dragon Age Origins look like Final Fantasy XIII - its soundtrack is without peer, and it’s interesting mix of gameplay means it doesn’t suffer from the monotony other games of its genre fall prey to. People may complain about not being able to play as the young Nier, however the older one makes for a much more refreshing and interesting change – the brother/sister relationship is one that has been used time and again in games – and the rest of the cast are all of excellent quality; even the minor characters that you will encounter on a regular basis in this game have detailed stories which intertwine with Nier’s own and make the game feel so much bigger, as opposed to being just an isolated story focused on Nier and his small band.
Anyone with impressive visuals first and foremost in their minds when they are looking for video games need to avoid this – I cannot stress enough how bad these visuals can get at times. Any Zelda fans will find this to be an interesting take on the Action Adventure genre (they’ll find the Zelda references to be quite funny, as well), and anyone with a casual interest should definitely give this a look-in; unlike many games that have been released this year that have had excessive coverage and advertising, NIER makes no pretences about what it is: it’s an Action Adventure game and, in making no promises, it more than fulfils expectations.
NIER has really suffered in the West from mediocre reviews; however, this shouldn’t deter you from trying it out. Overall, the pros of the game far outweigh the cons, and even if you only intend to play it once it is still an enjoyable, dramatic experience that manages to be both deadly serious and dryly humorous at the same time. Beneath the grime of the visuals, it’s a pure diamond.
NIER is another one of those games that received moderate-level news coverage with absolutely no hype whatsoever, and when it finally came out it didn’t really seem to take off outside of Japan. It’s received average-to-poor reviews from games magazines, was slashed in price by nearly 40% about a week and a half after it came out, and seems to have been all-but forgotten already in anticipation for newer, better-looking games on the horizon.
Thanks to the lack of attention this game had, I bought it without expecting very much – to be honest, I had no real idea of what I was buying. The melee combat looked delightfully chaotic and bloody, I recognised most of the voice actors, and the music was absolutely spectacular. Not to mention Resonance of Fate was getting on my nerves by that point, and I was in need of something else to play on my PS3.
So, after getting it a few days after the launch day, and after playing it at the expense of absolutely everything else I’m currently playing, I am extremely glad I didn’t pass on it. It might just be the best game I’ve played so far this year.
So, read on for an in-depth review of what is probably going to be the greatest ignored game this year ♥
Storyline: 7.5/10
NIER begins in the middle of summer. It is snowing in an eerie twilight and in a seemingly derelict city a mysterious man and his daughter Yonah are stranded, trying to make their way in life as they are assailed on all sides by strange creatures known only as “Shades”. Yonah is ill with the Black Scrawl, a fatal disease and, as her condition worsens, the man struggles to find her some medicine. In his possession is a strange book, which he tells his daughter not to touch as he goes outside...and is instantly beaten back by a horde of Shades. In desperation, he reaches out to the book, crying out for power...which is then bestowed upon him, allowing him to beat back the Shades with minimal effort. However, it is all in vain, as Yonah steadily gets worse. Watching his daughter die before his eyes, the man cries out for help...
...fast-forward about 1300 years and another man is out to save his daughter, also called Yonah, also suffering from the mysterious Black Scrawl that is killing off people slowly but steadily. The world looks a lot better than what it did 1300 years previously, but it is still in decline: humanity are living in primitive, medieval villages, constantly in fear of the Shades that plague the world, the technology of the past long since lost to them. Our protagonist’s village (whilst you can name the protagonist, I’m going to refer to him as “Nier” from here on for the sake of simplicity) is relatively peaceful, and Nier is constantly taking odd-jobs for the townsfolk, whilst trying to find a way to save his daughter from her illness.
One day, he tells her a story of the Lunar Tear, a flower that can grant wishes. Yonah is something of an avid reader, and is always down at the library – much to her father’s dismay, who would prefer that she stay in bed – and it’s no big surprise she’s curious about this magical flower. However, the trouble starts when she suddenly goes missing. Turns out she’s gone to the Lost Shrine to look for one. Understandably distraught, Nier rushes after her...
...and things kick off from there. Shortly thereafter, Nier meets Grimoire Weiss, a mysterious book who supposedly has the power to cure the Black Scrawl...or, he would, if he possessed all of the Sealed Verses. For the first half of the game, the story is focused entirely on the acquisition of these mysterious Sealed Verses: travelling the world from place to place, reporting back to the village head, Popola, to get the next lead from her. Its typical Action-Adventure fare: gather up the magic items to save the world, and doing this is what drives the story. In this, Nier brings nothing new to the tables.
However, what makes NIER really stand out from other Action-Adventure games is the extremely dark tone it takes throughout the story. At the beginning of the game, Nier states that the world is in decline, and he isn’t kidding: events often take a traumatic and rather brutal turn for the worse, suddenly, and when you least expect it. NIER is a game that likes to reveal things at the very end (like many games these days seem to do) and the revelations are quite shocking and often entirely unexpected.
Whilst it is filled with surprising twists in the story, and very sudden and unexpected tragedies, NIER is very inconsistent in its delivery of them, and the way in which the story is told does nothing to inspire; it doesn’t leave you wanting to play more, to find out what happens. Your quest will progress smoothly and without event for a few hours, then all of a sudden disaster strikes, leaving you wondering just what the hell happened, and why it happened. The why of things is often left unexplained, especially if you play through the game only once. NIER is a game meant to be played many times, and in order to get a full appreciation of the story and the events that transpire, you need to play it through at least three times; more is revealed as you complete the game and continue into a new file – which is, perhaps mercifully, at a mid-point in the story when you start it.
Due to the lack the primary antagonist’s presence for the entirety of the game, the story quite often feels very directionless and of a very small scope – focusing entirely on Nier’s quest to save his daughter, and not looking at the larger picture, despite the fact that Shades accost you all the way through the game. At times, it feels a little random, and does nothing to correct this until very late in the game.
This is obviously something of a daunting prospect to the average person, who will play through the game once before moving onto something else, and playing the game through just once will leave you with a lot of unanswered and barely answered questions. The story is intricate and well thought-out, and with each revelation your perspective will change – it isn’t just small, inconsequential things that are revealed here – but it requires perseverance to fully appreciate it, which restricts its score from being as high as it might otherwise be.
Characters: 8.8/10
NIER has an excellent cast who, despite the dark setting of the game, provide some dryly amusing moments with incredible frequency as the story unfolds and you travel from place to place. Often, as you uncover a lead, complete a quest or acquire something, someone in the party (usually Weiss) will make a comment about it as you travel, often leading to a witty exchange between characters that are genuinely amusing to hear. It lightens the mood of what can otherwise be a very depressing game.
Nier is the primary protagonist, and his character is somewhat stereotypical: he is an altruistic man who is out to save his daughter through whatever means necessary, and he quite often goes out of his way to help others, as well. This sounds cheesy and highly cliché – and it is - but with Nier it’s infinitely more believable than it has been in the past with other games. The father-daughter relationship isn’t one utilised very often in video games, and it is perhaps because of this that Nier’s older, more mature character allows him to pull off the standard altruistic personality without being just another generic protagonist. The older Nier has been criticized to hell and back, especially in light of the even more generic (but infinitely better looking) younger version who stars in one of the Japanese versions; a young man out to save his sister. However, with this Nier it’s a classic example of not judging a book by its cover – he is, in many ways, a refreshing change of pace.
The second member of your party is Grimoire Weiss, a very highly-strung talking book who is basically a fusion between the “Elder” and “Sidekick” character archetypes. Weiss is quick to criticize and fire off a witty comment, making him quite an amusing character at times, especially in its conversations with Kainé.
Kainé is the third member of your merry little band, and she is anything but merry. Kainé has an explosive temper, and expresses it through excessive swearing. A character that swears is sure to raise a few eyebrows (as the first trailer of her English voice actor no doubt did) however, she isn’t as foul-mouthed as was implied by the trailers. Despite her explosive outbursts, Kainé is quite a reserved individual; she swears as would someone today – in large increments when she is angry, and occasionally to drive a point home.
...unfortunately, the detail of her being a hermaphrodite has been all-but erased from the localized version (it is implied at a couple of points, but if you have no knowledge of it beforehand you won’t see it as such) but she is still a very well-designed and unique character.
The final member of your party is Emil; a timid boy who appears to be slightly older than Yonah, who is afflicted with a curse that turns people to stone if they gaze into his eyes. Because of this, he wears a blindfold. Emil receives the most character development through the course of the story the first time through; he goes through several very traumatic events, which will leave you feeling quite sorry for him.
Asides from the main cast, there are also a few minor recurring characters who will make frequent appearances in the game. Yonah, Nier’s daughter, features prominently (since practically the entire game revolves around saving her), Popola and Devola, the twins who run Nier’s village, will appear frequently, as you’ll go to the former for advice and hints each time you acquire whatever it is you’re currently collection, and the latter for quests as and when you feel like it. Other characters that you meet on your travels will play a minor role in the story and have a little story of their own: the two brothers at the Junk Heap, the King of the Masked People and one of his subjects, Fyra and, if you choose to do certain sidequests, other incidental characters you’ll meet, such as the old woman who manages the Lighthouse at Seafront, will get a little back-story as well. These characters having their own stories make the game feel a little less centred on the protagonists and make the game feel more expansive; that everyone is suffering in the world, not just the protagonists.
The primary antagonists in this game are practically non-existent; there is the mysterious Grimoire Noir, another talking book, who accompanies the mysterious being known as the Shadowlord. Both will make two appearances in the game: once upon the conclusion of finding all the Sealed Verses, and once at the very end of the game. Whilst this has worked for Action-Adventure games in the past, NIER’s story is considerably more developed than previous games of the genre have been, and the characters and the story suffer because of it. Again, there will be several unanswered questions about these two, particularly with Grimoire Noir; much of the Shadowlord’s background and motives you’ll be able to guess yourself.
Despite the fact that their character stereotypes have been played out dozens of times before now, NIER’s cast manages to be both refreshing and interesting, and they complement each other very well. Their reactions to the horrors that unfold around them are mercifully believable (as opposed to being ridiculously over exaggerated) and each one has quite a bit of development over the course of the game (although Kaine’s story is largely untold until you play through the game a second time) and a fair amount of back story. Everyone is hiding some sort of secret, which will come out later rather than sooner, usually in dramatic, shocking fashion and, given the magnitude of the things the characters reveal, this is quite appropriate.
Gameplay: 8.3/10
NIER is primarily an Action-Adventure game. Controlling Nier, you’ll run (he runs pretty fast for an old-timer, as well...the man is practically incapable of walking, in fact) through areas, slaughtering enemies with your weapon of choice in real-time combat. You can also jump, double jump, block (this can be timed so that you’ll send enemies reeling, as well) and roll your way through the many battles the game throws at you. The game also features a levelling system, meaning Nier will get stronger with each kill he makes. It takes a very long time for him to level up, however, and it’s doubtful you’ll be much above level 30 by the end of your first playthrough, assuming you do the sidequests or take some time out to train.
There are a LOT of battles in this game. If you don’t do any of the sidequests, you’ll be running from place to place, doing practically nothing but killing things. You can barely go thirty seconds on the field without being attacked by something, be it Shades (most common, as they materialized out of nowhere and come straight for you), robots, or wild animals. There is not a huge variety of enemies in this game, although they will come at you in large numbers quite often. You can just run straight by and ignore them most of the time, however. Until the second half of the game, when you gain access to a ferryman service, you must travel across the overworld from place to place. Areas are fairly expansive, and your next destination will be marked with a small red x on your map (assuming you have one, of course – if you don’t have a map for the current area, it’ll just be an x on a grey background with no details as to the boundaries, possible obstacles etc) so there isn’t any chance of getting lost, something that may greatly relieve some. You are free to go wherever you wish to; however, you aren’t set on a linear path. If you feel like completing sidequests before you advance the story, then you can do so.
Boss battles in this game are extremely memorable. They are often titanic, dwarfing Nier and his companions, and have a very surreal design: for example, one boss is comprised entirely of cubes that fire laser beams at regular intervals. Some of these require that you hit their weak point to kill – taking the former example again, you will do no damage whatsoever unless you hit the pink-coloured cubes, which will change to blue and be immune to damage at increasingly regular intervals – whilst others will require that you just slash away at them whilst involving their barrage of attacks (and this game loves to throw laser balls at you, it fills the entire screen with them at points) and, once you have hit them enough, hit their newly exposed weak point to finish them off. Once you have almost completely depleted a boss’ health, a small clock will appear over part of its (usually) prone body, slowly ticking down. This is your cue to rush in and hit that point with everything you have before time runs out, removing the symbols on the clock before the timer completes a full circle. Succeed, and Nier will execute a large, powerful attack with Weiss that will finish off his enemy once and for all. Fail and the boss will get back up again, up to a third of its health restored.
The game presents you with a few different weapons to help you on your quest, of course. To begin with, you’ll have only one-handed swords to kill enemies with. At the mid-point of the game, you’ll acquire two-handed swords and lances. Each comes with their own benefits and drawbacks; as you would expect, two-handed swords are fiendishly powerful, capable of killing smaller enemies with a single sweep and putting a serious dent in larger ones, but are horrendously slow. Lances are fast and inflict moderate damage, but can be highly inaccurate, and one-handed swords are accurate and fast, but fairly weak and need you to get up close and personal with your target. All of the weapons have three different types of attack: the standard attack (accomplished by pressing the square button: you’ll be doing this a lot) a heavier attack that does considerably more damage (accomplished by pressing triangle – doing this in midair will yield a different attack than pressing it on the ground, as well) and a charged attack, accomplished by holding the square button, something you’ll probably never use due to lack of time in battles.
As well as these three weapon types, you also have magic to help you. Calling on Weiss’ power, you can summon any manner of projectiles to send your enemies flying in a wonderful splatter of gore. Magic can also be charged to be all the more potent as you level up and increase your magic bar – unsurprisingly located below your health bar – and, when you do this, time will slow down, allowing you to take aim with a small crosshair in the manner of an over-the-shoulder third person shooter before you fire. As you unlock each Sealed Verse, and more of Grimoire Weiss’ power, you will acquire additional magic attacks, allowing you to vary your assault a little. No particular magic is particularly effective against any one type of enemy – I made it all the way through the game using Dark Blast, Dark Hand and Dark Lance, in fact – but some will come in handy in certain situations and boss battles, or will suit your personal play style more than others
NIER has quite a bit of variety, repeatedly changing its gameplay to prevent repetitiveness and the eventual boredom that comes from hacking away at things for hours on end. Sometimes when you enter a room the camera will give you a top-down or zoomed out view, forcing you to adapt your playstyle to meet the changed conditions. You’ll also frequently encounter the game changing perspective to be similar to a traditional side-scrolling platformer, where Nier must jump from platform to platform to progress. There are also a couple of moments where the game takes a top-down third person shooter perspective, where Nier will ride a mine cart and will be assaulted on all sides by cannon fire and robotic drones. The game also pays homage to classical survival horror games – once you enter Emil’s mansion, the scene will become a dingy greyscale, and you’ll walk from room to room, complete with Resident Evil-style diabolical camera-angles and all, and at points it even becomes an old-fashioned, text-only adventure, with the screen going entirely dark with text appearing on the screen. Whilst these changes can be occasionally frustrating, they keep the game from getting too repetitive and stale, and break up the mindless killing quite nicely.
There are numerous sidequests that you can undertake from the people you’ll meet in the various places you’ll visit, and the tasks are quite varied – you may have to deliver a package to someone on the opposite side of the map, wading through several hundred Shades without rolling out of the way or being hit, or you may simply have to find someone, or find some items. Rewards for these quests are often considerable, racking up as much as 50,000G in the later stages of the game, and quests become lengthier as you progress through the game. Quests are kept track of via Grimoire Weiss’ menu, who obligingly tells you when a quest is uncompletable, as well as what you have to do for your active quests in a small paragraph. Quests are accepted in one of two ways: either by speaking to the client – they’ll have a speech bubble above their head, instead of just the small marker others will – or by speaking to Devola, who spends her time singing the Song of Ancients in the village tavern
NIER features two mini-games: farming and fishing. The former is simple; outside Nier’s house is a small field (which can be expanded on once you complete certain quests) which you can plant crops and flowers in. After a set number of hours – it varies between plants, naturally – you can harvest what you’ve grown and sell it back to the one of the many shops for a profit. You can also fertilize plants to make them grow faster or increase their yield, and water them twice. You can choose to harvest the crop/flower you have grown, or wait longer and harvest the seeds instead. In the case of moonflowers, you can cross-breed them to create rarer, more valuable plants. This is one of the better ways to make money, since the game operates using the PS3’s internal clock.
Fishing, after an initial struggle, can be quite enjoyable. After finding a suitable place and selecting your desired bait, you cast the line, wait for the fish to tug on it, then pull the line taught with X and reel the fish in by depleting its health, which is accomplished by pulling in the opposite direction the fish is pulling in. To begin with, Nier will lose much of what he catches, which will prove extremely frustrating. However, by completing “The Fisherman’s Gambit” sidequests, Nier’s fishing skill with gradually increase, allowing him to catch bigger, more valuable fish. Of course, each fish has their preferred location and bait – some are even out in the desert, oddly – and pattern of attack: some will nibble on the line before tugging it, whilst others will tug immediately. Annoyingly, the developers saw fit to include the ever-present aquatic plants and rusty buckets, as well.
After you have acquired the Sealed Verse at the Junk Heap, you get the ability to upgrade your weapons. This costs 1000G, as well as certain materials, which you will find scattered around the Junk Heap, dropped from enemies, or at the various gathering points around the map – shown by an unmistakable white sparkle. Naturally, upgrading your weapons makes them more powerful, and the higher the upgrade level, the rarer the materials, and the larger the quantity required.
In addition to upgrading weapons through materials, you can also attach Words to them to give them special effects. Words are dropped by Shades that you defeat, and give various bonuses - +30% to experience points received, for example. You can equip a maximum of two words on each weapon, as well as on magic and even on the roll and block commands. As you progress through the game, you will acquire increasingly powerful (and more nonsensical) Words for defeating more powerful Shades, increasing your edge in combat
So, what are the main problems with NIER? First and foremost is the difficulty. Short of playing this on Hard and restricting yourself to using one-handed swords only, you’ll find this ridiculously easy, without any real challenge – and what challenge that exists is frustrating, because it is challenging due to Nier’s inability to walk or catch fish, not out of any real difficulty. Halfway through the game, the Shades get significant upgrades – they hit harder, are capable of a variety of different attacks, much more frequent in number, and some are even armoured. However, you also get a significant upgrade, in the form of lances and two-handed swords, which, when combined with Dark Hand, can plough through enemies with ease, regardless of what they are. Magic attacks from enemies can easily be repelled by swinging your weapon of choice to displace them. Without levelling up, its a very easy game. Healing items are dropped by Shades with almost every battle, and unless you’re in the Junk Heap, which doesn’t have any Shades, the odds of you running out of recovery items are very, VERY slight.
It is also an extremely short game. With sidequests, a single playthrough will probably take you around 25 hours, depending on how lucky you are with gathering materials. Ploughing straight through the game without undertaking any sidequests is likely to take you approximately half that time. A large percentage of the hours you can rack up on this game comes from the sidequests, and the fact that many of them can only be done before certain storyline events happen can only add to the frustration.
The world of NIER is also quite a small one, as well – there are but a few locations that aren’t fields to trek across, and each one will require backtracking to at least once during the course of the game, and in the case of the inventively named “Village” , you’ll be going back there practically every time you do something. There isn’t much in the way of variety to the locations, either – you have a city in the countryside, by the sea, in the desert, and by the cliffs. A couple of temples, a forest, and the Junk Heap. Plus, of course, the various planes you’ll need to trek across to get between them. When you list the locations, it’s a depressingly small list, and this game could definitely have done with a bigger world to explore
In terms of trophies, NIER is a very easy game to get a Platinum trophy on, just a time consuming one – there are several “time-attack” trophies that you’ll get for beating certain bosses in a set amount of time (you’ll start becoming extremely powerful towards the end of the game and, with a two-handed sword’s midair power attack, you’ll cleave off huge amounts of health off bosses) as well as trophies for completing quests. The only trophies you’ll struggle with are those that require you to upgrade 30 weapons – several weapons require very rare materials – harvest a White Moonflower – a long, time consuming process even with time-skipping - and catch one of every type of fish – starting off fishing is extremely tedious, and even at the highest level certain fish are extremely hard to find and reel in. All of these depend on how lucky you are with gathering/harvesting/fishing though, so they might not take you very long at all.
Overall, NIER’s gameplay is incredibly addicting, and surprisingly varied. It’s constantly breaking the monotony with small sections of gameplay associated with different genres, which is a nice touch. It brings nothing new to the tables, however – the appeal is in the presentation, as well as the surprisingly fluid combat system. Action-Adventure games similar to NIER often feature a targeting system, and are usually criticized if they don’t incorporate one. NIER doesn’t really need one, although this is both blessing and curse, for whilst this shows how much better than average the combat is, it also shows exactly how easy the game is. In bringing many different styles of gameplay together, it also suffers from their individual faults as well, mostly in the form of a poor camera angle that makes moving about somewhat awkward at times, and the old school text-only sections are bound to bore some people.
Controls: 9.6/10
As I have mentioned, NIER has a wonderful combat system, which is easy to learn and to master. Within the first couple of hours you’ll be rolling out of the way of enemy attacks with ease, and death will be a relatively uncommon thing. The camera in the game is fully controllable for the majority of the game, which will prove to be a blessing, as you’re quite often attacked from all sides. It also makes the game feel infinitely easier to manage. You are also given the ability to customize the controls to a degree, by assigning magic and/or the block/dodge commands to the L and R buttons.
However, Nier’s inability to walk unless you barely touch the control stick will prove infuriating at points in the game, and the fixed camera angles that spring up on you along with the changing style of gameplay are bound to aggravate. Boar controls aren’t as sharp as they could be, either; you’ll quite often careen wildly when drifting if you’re not careful
Graphics: 5.1/10
...and here is where NIER fails. The graphics are shockingly bad, almost to the point where you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a PS2 game. Whoever designed the graphics for this game was either partially colour-blind, or accidently turned the saturation up to maximum when the scenery was complete. For a dark game, NIER is horrendously, blindingly bright. The lighting in the game is absolutely awful, especially at Seafront, where you’re constantly blinded by a glare that would make you think the Sun was exploding, and not just shining. The effects of the sea are so dazzling that you’ll need to adjust the camera angle just to be able to see your fishing rod sometimes. It’s absolutely horrendous.
This game slides just barely into mediocrity, because there are times that these abysmal visuals become something of an art form – this is particularly apparent at the mansion, which looks as though it has come straight out of a survival horror game, as the scenery goes into a fuzzy greyscale with the Shade patterning crawling around the edges of the screen. In the world of the Recycled Vessel game pack, it takes this “it isn’t not bad, its art” further by throwing the colour palette anywhere and everywhere. And, despite the generally crappy quality of the visuals, the games’ bosses still manage to look fairly impressive, character designs are not as bad as they could have been, and there are some very nice-looking cutscenes which are just about up-to-scratch.
Alas, for the most part, you’re going to be looking at some very ugly scenery.
Sound: 10.0/10
Definitely one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever, if not THE greatest video game soundtrack ever. From the very beginning (before it in fact, if you watch the opening movie) you’re treated to orchestrated masterpieces with haunting, dramatic and beautiful vocals in various languages
In many game soundtracks, vocals in tracks are one-off occurrences, for those moments of incredible drama, usually related with bosses or death. Not so with NIER; with the exception of five or six songs (less if you don’t count the remixes), every track in this game uses vocals in some manner, and it’s very rare you’ll have background music that isn’t a vocal track. You may think this is a tad excessive; however the vocals in this soundtrack often aren’t as blatant as what is normally used in video games. The use of different languages and vocal styles only adds to the variety – there are songs in three languages (English, Latin and German) and a made-up language at the very least, although a lot of the time it can be difficult to tell. They’re more of another instrument to add to the orchestra much of time, as opposed to the focus of the track. This is particularly effective in softer tracks, in which they are barely perceptible, but give the scene a remarkable tranquillity that wouldn’t be present otherwise. There are also a couple of tracks that have a very tribal feel to them, a style not used very often in video games. You may think that this removes that dramatic feeling to those vocal tracks used in boss battles, but this isn’t the case – when they take that familiar turn to the loud and dramatic in boss battles, it’ll still sound like something special, despite the fact that you’ve been listening to tracks that incorporate vocals since the beginning of the game.
There are several remixes of tracks (four remixes of three different songs, in fact), so if there was perhaps one complaint that could be uttered about this game’s soundtrack it could be its occasional lack of variety, but it’s not likely you’re going to notice this in light of the magnificence of the pieces on offer. Quite often the remixes are to best suit the scenario – Kainé’s theme, for example, has both a louder, more aggressive version for combat, and a softer, more vocal-focused version for those quieter moments. The Song of Ancients’ remixes incorporate different vocals and tempo each time, so it is only the actual lyrics and song title that the versions share – they sound like totally different songs. It isn’t just a straight remix in any case here, which is what will stop you from getting bored of the songs.
Voice acting is also top quality, and the characters all show a good variety of emotions. Despite Kainé’s fondness for cursing, her voice actress is capable of more than just blind rage and constant swearing, and manages to portray her as quite a reserved, melancholy individual – unless she’s pissed off, anyway. Whilst Emil has a very whiny voice, it isn’t out-of-place on him or excessively irritating (considering what he goes through over the course of the game, his weak voice does him credit) and Nier himself has a reasonably good voice as well. There is a fair amount of voice acting to the game as well, with many of the scenes being voice-acted, and there are plenty of party interactions to listen to, as well. Thankfully, you won’t hear the same ones twice.
Unique/Extra Features: 6.1/10
Whilst its gameplay is not particularly unique, the blending and variety it offers makes up for it. The story is much darker than most Action Adventure games (or, indeed, most games that aren’t horror games) and the soundtrack is definitely something special. Still, underneath all of the presentation, it’s still just an Action Adventure game, and it doesn’t bring anything new to that genre.
The DLC, the oddly-titled World of Recycled Vessel, takes you through a series of stages as the younger Nier, and is essentially a battle gauntlet: you fight through a series of battles, many of which are much more difficult than anything you’ll face in the main game, and then move onto the next. Whilst it makes references to Nier’s deceased wife, it doesn’t really do anything to enhance the story – which will be a blessing for those who disapprove of DLC being story extensions, and a curse for those expecting more content. The weapons you acquire as a result of completing the stages are game-breaking – the two-handed sword in particular, for it has 999 attack when fully upgraded and requires only a Damascus Steel for each stage (a relatively rare item, but the price is considerably cheaper than some other weapons in the game) and the costumes are quite nice, as well. More has been promised, so things can only get better...or worse, depending on your view of DLC. However, for what it is, it’s reasonably priced.
Replay value: 9.5/10
This game has fantastic replay value. With the option to carry over your data, as well as four different endings and extra story unlocked each time, to get the most out of this game you HAVE to play it more than once. In order to get each trophy in this game, you’ll need to play through the game four times; once for each ending, and probably a fifth time to get the trophy for finishing the game in less than fifteen hours. That the game doesn’t force you to start back at the very beginning and carries over absolutely everything only makes it more appealing; you won’t have to struggle to gather up materials or weapons or money, or complete tedious quests again.
So, where does this game lose out? Once you get the fourth ending, ALL your save data is deleted. Whoever thought of this made a grievous error, because after playing through the game three or four times it’s highly unlikely you’re going to want to do all of that again from scratch. It also seems somewhat pointless, and will come as a nasty shock (well, it would have) as well.
Overall Rating: 9.5/10
NIER is a highly addictive game that does its genre and Square Enix both credit and I would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in the Action Adventure genre. The storyline is dark, mature and filled with unexpected and genuinely emotional and shocking twists, and with each playthrough you’re treated to additional information about the world and the characters in it, further enhancing the experience. Clearly, a lot of thought has been put into the world and the characters and whilst it can feel directionless and pointless at times, due to the lack of a primary antagonist and the single-minded “save Yonah” mechanic, it more than makes up for it when things start happening.
Whilst it is visually unappealing - to say the least; it makes Dragon Age Origins look like Final Fantasy XIII - its soundtrack is without peer, and it’s interesting mix of gameplay means it doesn’t suffer from the monotony other games of its genre fall prey to. People may complain about not being able to play as the young Nier, however the older one makes for a much more refreshing and interesting change – the brother/sister relationship is one that has been used time and again in games – and the rest of the cast are all of excellent quality; even the minor characters that you will encounter on a regular basis in this game have detailed stories which intertwine with Nier’s own and make the game feel so much bigger, as opposed to being just an isolated story focused on Nier and his small band.
Anyone with impressive visuals first and foremost in their minds when they are looking for video games need to avoid this – I cannot stress enough how bad these visuals can get at times. Any Zelda fans will find this to be an interesting take on the Action Adventure genre (they’ll find the Zelda references to be quite funny, as well), and anyone with a casual interest should definitely give this a look-in; unlike many games that have been released this year that have had excessive coverage and advertising, NIER makes no pretences about what it is: it’s an Action Adventure game and, in making no promises, it more than fulfils expectations.
NIER has really suffered in the West from mediocre reviews; however, this shouldn’t deter you from trying it out. Overall, the pros of the game far outweigh the cons, and even if you only intend to play it once it is still an enjoyable, dramatic experience that manages to be both deadly serious and dryly humorous at the same time. Beneath the grime of the visuals, it’s a pure diamond.
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