The developer of Nier, Cavia, has a dubious record. Aside from mainly concentrating on popular anime titles, such as Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and Ghost in the Shell, Cavia is primarily known for its Resident Evil shooters (Dead Aim and Umbrella Chronicles) and the controversial action RPG hybrid series, Drakengard. Of course, controversy will follow when there is implied incest (don’t ask, please). However, it will be a shame for the developer that Nier, despite having some of the most unique ideas, implementations and story in JRPGs, is destined to fly under the radar as the mainstream media and audience that focus on the flaws and fail to ‘get it’.
Ugly caveman or androgynous dweeb?
Nier starts off with a man fighting off shadow-like creatures to protect his ill daughter. This brief sequence ends when the daughter accesses a forbidden tome, with for the game to fast forwarding about 1300 years into the future. Here, we’re presented with a similar looking man with a similar looking ill daughter. Living in a world where the human population is dwindling and struggling, having been severally overrun by the shadow creatures known as ‘Shades’, the father (named Nier, but you can pick a name), spends his days taking menial tasks to help make his daughter, Yonah, comfortable. Of course, things go to heck as Shades get bigger and badder, and you meet a talking book with magical attack powers and a dry wit, Grimoire Weiss, the gender ambiguous possessed underdressed hussy, Kaine, and eventually a boy with medusa-like powers named Emil. Together you form a rather rag-tag crew that at first seems to service your typical RPG romp. Nier and his crew have to save Yonah from the fatal Black Scrawl disease.
But all is not as it seems, as Nier presents an overall story with a much deeper meaning then it originally portrays. Sure, you’ll typically start at your home town, explore the overworld and other townships, and fight off bigger and badder Shades while trying to find a cure for Yonah. It isn’t until the end that you learn the true fate of humanity, as well as the fate of Nier and his daughter. However, it’s during the second playthrough that the game really takes a turn and makes you question, just who are the bad guys here? Nier has one of the most endearing stories to come out of Japan for a while, though the fact that it doesn’t really show it’s true colours until the second play through may lead to a lot of premature dismissals.
Part of the reason for the dismissal of Nier is the very slow start, as you spend the first couple of hours running menial fetch quests for your village. Collect 10 of this item. Kill 5 sheep. Rescue kittens. And so forth. It isn’t until your daughter wanders off to the Lost Shrine and you discover Grimoire Weiss that the action picks up, as ‘Weiss’ gives you access to magic. Beating bosses in the first half of the game will give you access to ‘sealed verses’, which are your spells. These spells are essentially a metaphysical collection of words used to create all sorts of attack implements such as bullets, spears, giant arms, shields and doppelgangers. It’s almost reminiscent of Bayonetta and her excessive locks of hair.
I'd like a copy of this book please.
The action orientated combat is solid through out, requiring you to really think about how to beat certain enemies, blocking and dodging is often a must, and you to beat some of very impressive bosses (particularly in the first half) with some reasonable strategy. Despite this, the combat will be off-putting for some, as it's a bad case of presenting false depth. You’re thrown a lot of terms and mini-tutorials for the things you can do, but this is still no Bayonetta or Devil May Cry (though Nier handles closer to Kratos, rather than Dante or Bayonetta), as slamming the X button, occasionally dodging or blocking and making use of the two or three useful spells are enough to get you through. This is more of a missed opportunity than a game breaker though.
Aside from the story, the best aspect of Nier is that it will throw a lot of variety at you. Occasionally, it will play as a bullet hell shmup (yes, you read that right), a Zelda styled dungeon puzzler, a Resident Evil homage, a text-based adventure (which, mind you, is extremely well written by JRPG standards) and even an isometric hack-and-slash. And you’re constantly thrown these curve balls through out the course of the game. Then you’ve got other mini activities, including gardening and fishing. So as far as refreshing changes of pace go, Nier sits at the top of the JRPG pile. Probably the best part about this is that even though the story is quite serious, all this mixing of gameplay styles is delightfully self-aware and often amusingly irreverent. Through out the course the serious adventure, you can still afford a few moments to just step back and smile at what’s on offer.
Something that may rile the fans of JRPGs is the ease of Nier. The first play through on normal difficulty will provide a couple of intense moments, but the generous checkpoints and potion drops will get you through. Furthermore, a lot of aspects such as party and item management are fairly simple and not always required. There are good and bad parts of having dumb but independent AI partners, as on one hand you only have to worry about yourself, but at the same time, you can’t really rely on them much. Questing does feel rather trivial a lot of the time and particularly late in the game requires a lot of backtracking and sometimes even item grinding. Speaking of the backtracking, for an adventure that will last around 15-20 hours for a once through, with another 10-15 more to get all endings (four in total), there is probably too much backtracking in general, coupled with terrible fast travel options. However, the good thing about this length is that it makes the whole story endings more accessible. While the gameplay variety helps, some more scenery variety would have been appreciated.
I command you to stop!
2010 has been a blockbuster year so far, so the aesthetics in Nier will likely put some people at the start. However, once you get used to the art style and direction, the game actually becomes very acceptable, as it handles the changes in perspective very well. Aside from load times, the game runs very well and looks quite good and distinctive. Apart from Nier himself that is. Sure, the gruff, grizzled warrior look is one thing, but damn is he ugly. Until the second half of the game, it’s extremely difficult to look at his face. While Square Enix are generally spot on with their sound tracks, the great surprise in Nier is the voice acting and dialogue. Original trailers be damned, Nier, Yonah, Weiss and Kaine are well characterised and fall well outside your usual stereotypes with some of the best writing and voicing in a JRPG for a very long time. For once, this compliments the orchestrated, eclectic and sombre soundtrack very well.
A weak start and reliance on questing belies the true nature of Nier. For those who get through it, you have one of the most endearing and thought provoking stories to come out of a JRPG for some time. Not to mention, the gameplay variety is a breath of fresh air, for not only a game that set itself up rather differently at the start, but for the action JRPG genre as a whole. Deficiencies and conventions aside, it’s just a shame that Nier will likely be dismissed by those that fail to have the patience to really get to the good stuff, as is likely to be reflected in consumer and media sentiment. However, while Nier is unlikely to revolutionise the JRPG, hopefully it will cause enough ripples to get things moving in the right direction.
Editor’s Note: Those who have done their research will have found that Japan has two versions of Nier: Nier Gestalt for the Xbox 360 and Nier Replicant for the PS3. Outside of Japan, every region received Nier Gestalt, with an older protagonist, simply as Nier for both Xbox 360 and the PS3. Both versions are fundamentally the same, with the only difference being that Nier Replicant has a younger protagonist who is looking to save his little sister rather than daughter.
Loading...
