Buy It!: Buy Nier Now »

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Nier isn't a game I'd recommend without reservation, and it's certainly not suited for every type of gamer. I can't even say if I would have bought it by myself, but I got it as a present, almost immediately fell in love with it - and at first I wasn't even sure why I felt so attracted to it. I know now though, and that's why I'd like to give a very underrated and often strongly criticized game the spotlight I feel it deserves.

Nier is an action RPG which could be compared to games such as Zelda concerning gameplay and controls. It's a lot darker and more serious though, with less gadgets and much more story. Initially, the plot seems as simple as can be. You're playing as Nier, father of a young girl called Yonah, and you're trying to find a cure for her chronical and probably fatal illness while surviving in a world filled with strange, dark monsters known as Shades. There are only a few human settlements left, and they're mostly under attack by the Shades. So far, so easy. Soon after setting out on his journey for a remedy, Nier finds a talking book called "Grimoire Weiss" and the two of them team up against the Shades, resulting in Nier being able to use magic in addition to his melee attacks. As the story continues, Kainé joins you - a girl who looks like she's wearing panties and negligée while kicking ass in combat and cursing like a sailor. Last but not least, you'll get to know a little boy named Emil, who suffers from a strange condition that makes him petrify everyone he looks at.

This concludes the members of your party, and boy, what a party it is. The conversations between the four of them are among the best I've read and heard in a while, with excellent voice-acting and believable character motives. Nier, completely focused on his goal of saving his beloved daughter, follows a very simple way of life: if something's in the way of that goal, he'll kill it. Grimoire Weiss, on the other hand, adds dry sarcasm and a big portion of arrogance to the conversation; whereas Kainé, as foul-mouthed as she is pretty, desperately yearns for revenge and harbors a dark secret. Emil, despite his young age, is often the one with meaningful thoughts and quite a sad history of his own. I won't spoil much more, but whoever put those four together and wrote the scripts is a genius - I really felt for the characters and what they're going through in the course of the game.

The story picks up speed and drama very fast and wouldn't be truly Japanese if it didn't surprise you with twist after twist which you'll sometimes have to think about twice to fully understand. And talking of twice - you'll only really grasp the whole story if you're going through it more than one time. Nier offers a remarkable New Game+ mode starting from a checkpoint halfway through the game. You not only get to keep all your levels and items, but will experience additional cutscenes and dialog (even with the bosses!). This adds so much more depth to the story that I strongly recommend investing those few more hours after having finished the game once. Nier is not very long if you only follow the main plot (around 10-15 hours depending on your play style), but that's if you skip most of the optional side quests. And unless you're a completionist - like me, hehe - I'd actually suggest not doing most of them, because sadly, they are quite time-consuming, boring and completely ruin the pace of an otherwise well-written game experience.

While we're at it, let's look at some reasons why you maybe DON'T want to play the game, even if you might be intrigued by now. Unfortunately, Nier is flawed in many ways - there's no point in denying it. If you've got the hots for shiny graphics and detailed surroundings, this game might not work for you at all. It looks very, very outdated and the world often feels bleak and empty. It's not a large world either, so you're forced to revisit old areas over and over again while fighting a rather limited array of monsters. I personally found the presentation of the world strangely endearing. Somehow it all (including the color palette) reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus, one of my all-time favorite games back from the PS2 days... I guess that's why I'm very forgiving, and I honestly don't need perfect graphics and world design to enjoy a game. But as I said, this might be one of the things bound to really put you off.

Secondly, the combat will not be to everyone's liking. Sometimes it's quite hard to target the enemy you want to kill, especially with magic or spears. There's no auto-targeting or press-a-button-targeting, so you'll actually have to get your character to face the monster you wish to aim at. However, during charged magic attacks, time slows down and you'll get a crosshair, which comes in especially handy when fighting one of the impressive and huge bosses. Man, I loved those epic boss fights! I also didn't have a problem with fighting once I got used to it, but you'll definitely have to adjust if you're used to more comfortable controls, especially since the game sometimes throws you into isometric perspective, where everything seems slightly different when it comes to steering your character.

Having said that, you've been warned about the drawbacks of this game! Now back to something truly outstanding - the soundtrack. I'll add an example of one of my favorite battle songs as comment to this article, should you want to treat yourself to a little spoiler. To really enjoy it, you have to like Japanese music at least a little, because very often the songs will be accompanied by a female Japanese singer who you might grow tired of if you don't like the style. However, most themes for the different areas and battles are plain beautiful and gave me goosebumps more than once, especially in the later parts of the game. I'm not so into some of the choral-like choirs in some dungeons, but it's still very fitting and provides nice variety.

For you fellow achievement hunters and completionists, bring patience and time rather than impressive skills if you want to complete this one. You'll get about 80-90% of the achievements rather easily, but the last 100-150G require lots and lots of farming and a few tricks to speed things up.

All in all, Nier is quite a ride, wrapped in a fresh and unique story with amazing characters and some daring design elements, and I'd recommend it under four conditions. One, you'll either have to be very patient with lenghty grinding trips or just skip most of the sidequests and enjoy the awesome main plot, which is what I did on my first playthrough. Two, you're able to look beyond outdated graphics and surroundings and are not offended by lots and lots of swearwords. Three, you have a thing for slightly twisted Japanese stories and like reading, because not everything will be presented to you via cutscenes and dialogs - some of the most memorable moments appear in text form only, which might be hard to appreciate for some. Lastly, and I mean it, you must not be chronically depressed, or this game might just drag you down into the abyss - it's quite melancholic and will often leave you pondering if what you just did was a good thing or not, especially on later playthroughs.

On a small side note, this game was released in two versions in Japan - "Nier Gestalt" for Xbox 360 and "Nier Replicant" for PS3, with the main difference being the age and looks of the protagonist, and whether you're the father or brother of Yonah. The one I played and reviewed is actually "Nier Gestalt" which features an older and more rugged looking main character.

I'd give Nier 7/10 points, but it wouldn't be fair compared to other great games to rate it with more than 3 stars. It's probably one of those games you'll either love or hate. I know I love it.