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Write-Up:

This past week as I played Nier, several of my friends asked what the hell is that and what kind of game is it? Initially my response was something to the effect of it being an Action game with RPG elements but after completing it, I’d say it is a whole lot more. The story that is unfolded and the mysteries that keep you guessing even beyond the ending really are something special. Now the game is rated M for Mature for a reason, as it’s loaded with hilarious profanity and very intense acting. Hell, the first thing you hear is a string of profanities that really catches you off guard and gets you pumped to kick some ass. Released on April 27th for the Xbox 360 and PS3; developed by Cavia and published by Square-Enix, this is Nier.

To me, the story is the most important aspect of Nier. While the game is loaded with action, you’re going to be presented with a wonderful adventure with more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese. Essentially you are shrouded in mystery throughout your journey and most of your questions won’t even be answered until you beat the game three times. That’s right, your questions are answered on additional play-throughs.

The game opens in the year 2049 where you, the father, defend your deathly sick daughter Yonah from some monsters that have appeared. The world appears in shambles and is very alone. After touching an ancient book, you gain magical powers that help you fend off the monsters and then the game fast-forwards 1300 years where you and Yonah are the same age in what looks to be a medieval Earth. Wait, what?

Shortly thereafter you find that there are two books that have something to do with the sickness known as “The Black Scrawl” that is infecting the townsfolk, including your daughter. Both books are alive and can speak, cast spells and float around. The good book, Grimoire Weiss, grants you magical powers and accompanies you on your adventure as you hunt lost sealed verses from his pages to help you destroy the bad book, Grimoire Noire. By the time the game is completed, only a few of your questions will have been answered and you’re still going to be wondering what the fuck just happened. If you want to know the entire story, you’re gonna need to play it again.

My first play-through took me about 24 hours to complete on the Normal difficulty and that was only something like 20% of the side-quests in the game. It seems that everyone has little tasks for you to do that mainly involve collecting items, killing key monsters or delivering things to other towns but personally I didn’t feel that the side quests offered anything to the story, so I just didn’t really do many of them. From the start you’ll be presented with an option to install about 4gigs of data to the hard drive; which I recommend as it greatly speeds up the loading times. The game is single player all the way through and there is an option for downloadable content which I’ve read that developer Cavia is actively working on as you watch this.

Most of your time in the game will be spent fighting off monsters and exploring dungeons, but you are actually provided with a pretty wide variety of game-play mechanics. Some portions of the dungeons will switch to a birds-eye view and offer puzzle solving, while others will switch to a 2d side-scroller and provide platforming challenges, so you’re always going to have something different to keep you entertained. You’ll begin the game with the ability to use one-handed swords, but eventually will be able to wield two-handers and spears, all of which are upgradable if you take the time to hunt down the components necessary for the forging. You will also gain 8 different spells throughout your adventure, though I really only found 3 of them necessary. As you fight monsters Weiss will learn “words” that are used to enhance your weapons and magic, essentially buffing your stats. In addition to Weiss, two more allies will join you throughout the game and they kind of just do their own thing. You have the ability to issue orders to them, but I found them useful enough that I didn’t have to.

In addition to fighting off the baddies and solving puzzles, you’ll get to ride a boar for fast transportation across the world, as well as farm crops for significant amounts of cash and even go fishing. Now, I’m not gonna lie; I can’t stand when I have to fish in a game. I can’t think of any reason why I would ever want to do this in a game. It’s boring enough in real life, let alone be required for certain story elements. Maybe I’m just bitter because it took me 45 minutes to realize I was fishing in the wrong damn spot to advance the story. All in all, the game-play mechanics are really fun and should keep you entertained without getting repetitive for at least your first play-through.

Initially, I thought that the graphics and especially the spell effects were rather bland, but they really grew on me and the art style of the game was really neat as it really helped with the overall presentation of the story. There are also a lot of cut-scenes and they actually reflect your characters’ emotions which is nice as you really have a pretty dynamic bunch of people who will travel with you.

The voice acting of each character is top notch but I think the real star of the presentation is the soundtrack. Each track is truly unique and interesting, and lots of times extremely soothing. In fact, early in the game as I was walking around town I actually fell asleep because I just got too comfortable sitting on the couch and enjoying the music.

So after playing through Nier, it turned out to be nothing like what I thought it was going to be. The combat, magic and puzzle mechanics are quite fun, but the true star of the game is the plot twisting story. Seriously, after beating the game I still have no idea what the hell just happened. When you load your cleared game it actually starts you about half way through, so you don’t really have to play the entire thing again. It kind of places you right at a key point in the story. Nonetheless, if you are looking for a good amount of content for your money, and like to beat up monsters, stare at half-naked women and try to figure out what is going on in a sketchy story, it’s probably worth your time to check this out. Have any of you played through a second or third time? I’d love to hear your thoughts on some of the plot holes. Leave your questions and comments below!