Nier - Xbox 360

    Nier is an Action Role Playing Game created by Cavia and published by Square Enix. The game saw release in 2010 on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. With a mixture of witty banter, mature story themes, and numerous references to other game series and styles, Nier is an incredibly enjoyable adventure.

   Nier takes place over a thousand years after the fall of the human race. The world has mostly returned to its wild state with ancient ghosts of ruined buildings and bridges visible here and there. The game's story revolves around its protagonist and namesake, Nier, who's daughter, Yonah, is infected with a rare and fatal disease. Nier's quest centers around finding a cure for Yonah's deadly illness. When investigating a possible clue to a cure, Nier encounters Grimoire Weiss, a talking book with magical powers. Grimoire Weiss joins with Nier, allowing him to harness the magic of the book and wield powerful supernatural attacks.

    Eventually, Nier learns that the keys to curing Yonah's illness are scattered about the world in the form of forgotten passages once present inside Grimoire Weiss. In order to unlock these scriptures of power, Nier must defeat the world's most powerful shades which hold the knowledge secret. Shades are monsters which live in the world of Nier and prey on travelers and villages. Throughout Nier's quest, shades will be the main enemies that stand in his way of finding a cure.

Apparently shades are just hungry, look how skinny that poor thing is!

     Nier will be joined in his quest by two other humans. I won't spoil anything, but both party members become valued friends and come complete with tragic back stories which explain why they are willing to give up everything in order to help in the fight against the shades. The help and friendship these two provide are key to Neir's survival as his story takes a turn for the worse and leads him into an adventure over a thousand years in the making.

    It is interesting to note that Nier was changed heavily between release in Japan and the game's release in the West. In Japan, the game's protagonist is much younger and is Yonah's brother. Cavia felt that Western audiences would react better to an older protagonist so they changed the main character to being Yonah's father. This older protagonist is definitely a change to the usually ambiguous teenage male main characters seen in many other RPGs.

    Nier's gameplay is very similar to other Action RPGSs. Nier can move about the world freely, jump, climb, dodge, attack, block, and use magic. Nier gains experience from enemies and levels up, making him stronger. Weapons in the game come in three varieties; one handed swords, two handed swords, and spears. Each weapon type has different pros and cons depending on the type of enemy you are facing. New magic spells are gained as the forgotten passages are restored to Grimoire Weiss. Similarly to weapon types, magic spells have many functions and advantages in different situations. Magics and weapons can be switched on the fly, allowing Nier to best use his resources against the myriad enemies he faces. Additionally, Nier will find words of power which can be added onto weapons and magic for added effects such as poison, or an upgrade to the weapon's power.

I call this my fist of fury!

    Throughout the game, references to other popular game series, styles, and gaming cliches are made, adding a good bit of humor and interest to the game. At one point, Grimoire Weiss makes a quip about the clothing worn by the female party member noting that it is "quite the outfit" while it is pretty normal for the genre for women to be dressed in such a manner. There are numerous Zelda references in the game, one being so obvious that Grimoire Weiss just has to make another comment about the similarities. As for other game styles, Nier tosses the player from the normal Action RPG gameplay into a top-down shmup (google Gradius if you aren't familiar with the genre), a mansion containing keys reminiscent of Resident Evil, a 2D platformer, a text-based adventure, and an isometric view dungeon crawler. Clearly Nier doesn't take itself too seriously, even though the game has an extremely serious story.

    Themes explored throughout Nier include life, death, dying, love, and what it means to be human. The game contains numerous side-quests to take up in order to make some extra money or to gain some more experience. It is these side quests which really introduce the player to the world of Nier and causes you to care about villagers which wouldn't normally be important. Nier is not a happy game. Sure, there is a good bit of helping villagers and saving people, but there are also quests which don't end joyously at all. Death is not an uncommon visitor in the world of Nier. It is this bleakness which makes your victories in the game so much sweeter.

    Without contest, the best part of the game is the story. The game features four different endings, each which fill in a little more about the world and its inhabitants. In my opinion, the story is not fully told without completing the game twice for endings A and B. The second playthrough features additional cutscenes and back story which will completely change the way that you felt about the game in the first playthrough. Endings C and D add a little more story to the end of the game, and are worth watching, but really two playthroughs are the must for this game.

Even the happy wedding of the pyramid-head wanna-bes can't be watched without a
feeling of dread in the back of your mind that something bad is going to happen.

    Luckily for us gamers, Cavia built Nier in a way that makes multiple playthroughs much less tiring. For one thing, after beating the game once and loading the save will start you out halfway through the game. This means that you only have to beat the game in its entirety once. Additional little shortcuts, such as just giving you an item that you would have had to run through a dungeon for, are added to the subsequent playthroughs. This feature is something that I really appreciated. Without doing any sidequests, Nier will likely last only around 8 hours. I completed a HUGE number of sidequests on my first playthrough and finished the game at around the 25 hour mark. There is lots to do in the game outside of the story including fishing, farming, and questing.

    I'd also like to note that Nier's soundtrack is surprisingly good. Most songs in the game are atmospheric vocal tracks which really work to set the tone of the game world. I did find myself getting tired of one song in particular, but mostly the game's music was very enjoyable.

    Now for the things that I didn't like so much about the game. Probably my biggest annoyance with Nier is the fact that even the tiniest shade can hit you and knock you backwards through the air. Even when the attack barely does any damage to you at all, you still have to wait for the landing and getting up animations to complete before getting back into the battle. I know that this may seem like a small issue, but add in the fact that you get knocked back nearly EVERY time you get hit, and it can be incredibly annoying. Another thing that I didn't like about the game was the fact that one of your party members continuously spouts obscenities at a rate which would make a sailor who just hit his thumb with a hammer blush. I have no problem with a little bit of cussing, in fact, I feel that it makes media truer to life as that is how most people seem to speak in our society, but this level of cursing feels overblown, as though it was done just for reactions or to make young children think that the character is super tough. The second playthrough explains why the character puts up such a coarse exterior, but I still feel that it could have been played down just a little bit. My final gripe with the game is that the combat system is very simple. Don't get me wrong, it gets the job done just fine, but I was told by the game that there were certain techniques I could use that when I tried them repeatedly I couldn't get them to work (I'm looking at you, wall kick). This reduces fighting to hack and slash gameplay with a few spells thrown in for flavor. Not the biggest list of cons to a game, I know, but they are still annoying.

At least with his hack and slash skills Nier can make some sushi!

    Nier's achievement list is pretty doable. There are the expected story-related achievements as well as achievements for getting each ending. Random tasks such as catching a legendary fish, or growing a legendary flower also result in unlocking achievements. There are a number of time-trial like achievements for defeating each boss in the second half of the game under a specified time limit. These are actually much easier to unlock than it may seem, and will likely be done without trying in your multiple playthroughs. The one achievement on the list that I hate is for completing the game in under 15 hours. I absolutely detest when developers make speed run achievements. Sure, gamers can choose to ignore the achievement and take their time, but for those who are obsessed with achievements this can cause players to rush through a game and not enjoy the experience. Clearly since my first playthrough was over 24 hours I chose to ignore the achievement.
 
     Nier is an under appreciated game that is often overlooked due to its somewhat aged graphics and simplistic combat. The game's story makes up for both of these issues and more. I have only played one other game that made me care about the characters as much as Nier did, and I've played a LOT of games. I cannot stress enough how much I recommend playing through this game twice. The Nier experience is not complete without getting the rest of the story fleshed out through the additional endings. I would also recommend doing as many of the side quests as possible as they round out the world and allow the game's true character to shine through. Nier is definitely a game worth experiencing!

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