Game: Nier
Platform(s): Xbox 360 (played on), Playstation 3
Nier, a game named after the noise you make when you can't make up your mind on something minor like what flavour of ice cream to get, actually turned out to be a pretty decent game. It's April 2010, everybody has just been whacked in the face by the substantially dull Final Fantasy 13. They have no trust in Square Enix whatsoever, as their running total of games that don't meet up to the standards of previous efforts continues to grow. Now, if you were at this point in time, would you purchase the next Square Enix epic that looks dramatically inferior to Final Fantasy and is not already part of the franchise? I guess not, because i don't think Nier sold too well. I cant say I helped the situation at all, purchasing the game pre-owned for £10 a month ago, but God Damn, Cavia, the team behind the Drakengrad have done a great job on this one! Being published by Square Enix could only of hindered how this game was recieved, as it is one of the most refreshing J-RPG's in years.
Let's deal with the
Narrative first of all, now I don't want to let too much slip, as it's a narrative with many subtleties. I have played the western version, for those that don't know, there are two versions of the game, Replicant and Geshtalt. I believe Geshtalt is the western one, and the main difference i can see is that the main character within it is a father, rather than a brother in Replicant to a character called Yonah. The tale in a nutshell in this version is one of fatherhood, as the protagonist tries to do whats best for his daughter as she has some sort of fatal disease.
I have to admit, the story doesn't really pick up until about half-way through because the
narrative sets itself up for you to explore the world before sending you all over the place quickly for narrative purposes. Either way, the narrative is thoroughly entertaining, if a bit cheesey at times. But hey, it's a J-RPG, what are you expecting? It not to have melodrama? Not gonna happen here unfortunately. Luckily these momments are short lived. An interesting point to bring up is that once the player has finished the central story, you can play through the game from around the half-way point 3 more times to uncover more story and lore behind the characters, and unlock the games final boss. Essentially, you could be playing this thing for months getting a constant influx of new content.
But no game can live on it's story alone, how's the
gameplay? Well, it's an odd mix of different things, but what i really want to address is the feel of the game. When wondering around the world i got a distinct Zelda vibe, hell, when you leave most area's is does the same fade to white as your character runs into the light thing Zelda did. But this is not in a way that screams stolen, no, they've taken just enough influence to make the world a joy to be in, and to explore, with landmarks of previous civilisations laying ruined around the landscape, the world is full of mysterious things just waiting to be uncovered, and it's a joy to explore using the mechanics available. At the beginning you have the means of travelling on foot, as always in a 3rd person action adventure... Rpg, there is a roll button which comes in hands when travelling long distances as you move slightly faster. You're also equipped with a double jump, which is odd for a game that feels like Zelda, but welcome nontheless.
Later on, through sidequests you can unlock a horn that lets you travel using boars found around the world. The boars are easy to control after messing around a bit, they don't turn like a car would, but can be turned with the use of the triggers as a drift function, and it's fun to drift around splattering any enemies you can find. Sadly, finding the quest that gives you the horn is not the most obvious thing, so just make sure you speak to all the villagers in town once the opportunity to do sidequests arises. The quest is to kill a boar, and it's also pretty damn challenging. But totally worth it.
Combat gameplay is my favorite portion of the game, there's the standard button mashing sword attack, a charged heavy sword attack, blocks and dodges. You can also equip a large selection of different weapons like greatswords and spears that don't dramatically alter gameplay, but offer some variety. The other half of combat is delievered through the games magic system, which is made up of many offensive spells, most of which are projectile based. You'll collect more and more powerful spells as you go through the game, each with it's own perks like range and damage. You can only equip up to two of these at a time, four if you want to remove the ability to block and dodge, but i don't recommend that. I found myself sticking with a high powered low ranged magic, and a low powered long range projectile throughout the game, but the combat remained fun throughout. A large amount of this is owed to the ability to jump. There's nothing funner than being up in a massive bosses face hacking away at him with all you've got whilst jumping and rolling out of the way of his attacks just in time. Yes, you could sit far away from the boss and just fire projectiles at him, but that would be boring, and i think that's why people think the combat is boring. The game rewards you for being in the fray simply by making it more fun. Most bosses can cut chunks of your health bar out at a time, but there are healing items, health increasing herbs and even a cleric companion later on to help with this.
Which brings me to the companions. You'll be seeing four other characters that join your party in the game, each with their own AI and perks. You have a book that likes to think it's an English gentleman and provides you with your magic abilities, a sword swinging badass who swears like a Tourette's victim, a small shy boy who has the medusa like talent of turning enemies to stone, and a powerful mage whose favorite past-time is to break down and make long speeches. You can command them through the commands menu, but you don't get any substantial control over them, hell, i used the command menu to summon random animals to come up to me than to control my companions. They function well enough on their own though, so it's all good.
The
Graphics... They aren't the best graphics around, for sure. But i gotta say, the idea's behind them are beautiful in themself. The world is stunning to look at, and had a feel of a wondorous place that i wanted to explore, the graphics are no worse than star ocean, and certainly aren't so bad that it could be on the previous generation of consoles. One thing that i've noticed people complain about in this department is the protagonist (wether he's called Nier or not i don't know if you were wondering), apparently he's much too ugly. All i can say is... Good. Everyone looks much to perfect in videogames anyway, besides, it's not exactly distracting, you'll be looking at the back of his head for more than 90% of the game. All the character models look great in the graphics style too. Perhaps an interesting point to mention, is one area in the game is entirely black and white. I'm sure this is to represent something, i didn't get the message, but it's nice to see the developers try and move things about. Oh, and an honourable mention to the game for just how good the massive bosses look, alot of them seem to fashion tenticles, but there's a really nice sense of scale without a sacrifice of graphic prowess of performance.
One of the best things about Nier is it's
Sound. The soundtrack, composed by Keiichi Okabe, Kakeru Ishihama, Keigo Hoashi and Takafumi Nishimura is just simply amazing. Each bit of music suits it's purpose and the area perfectly. You get a sense of adventure from the sounds of this that can only be compared to the Pirates of the carribean theme. The music is a mix of upbeat composistions and others that tug at the heartstings. Even some melodramatic momments come to frution beacuse of the amazing music. In alot of the tracks, there is a singer, i don't know what she is singing, but it really helps to give the track a very fantastic feel, and you'll come out of the game wanting to listen again. I'd recommend giving the soundtrack a listen, especially the song "Hills of Radiant winds". The whole feel of the game can be felt through this song. Best soundtrack i've heard in a game for years and years, masterful.
On the voice acting side of things, I had no problems, all the English voice acting suited the characters in question, and Liam O'Brien, the voice actor for Grimwoire Weiss, the aformentioned book companion, is halarious. He delivers his lines with great confidence, and the voice suits the role perfectly. He was the character i enjoyed the most because of the brilliant voice behind him. The others aren't bad, they're great. But O'Briens performance blows them out of the water.
Overall, i thought this game was brilliant, it was long and kept me interested enough for a second playthrough, perhaps even the thrid or fourth in the future. It's definitly worth checking out if you like third person action games, and sports one of the most realised and interesting worlds coupled with one of the best soundtracks in a game.Score:
Narrative: 15/25 - starts slow but picks up massively halfway through.
Gameplay: 22/25 - exciting and fun as hell, but some fights can cause frustration
Graphics: 20/25 - not the best, but present what they set out to wondefully
Sound: 25/25 - there is simply nothing wrong with the sound.
Total: 82/100
Advised stance: Buy it! Even if it was full price it's worth it!
-serde out.
image credit (2nd image onward): Kotaku.com, i.telegraph.co.uk
