Nier Review

By Chris Schilling Published 22 April, 2010

And yet so far.

Version tested:

One of the ongoing stories of this current console generation is Japanese publishers attempting to tailor their games to the ever-expanding western market in search of the sales needed to stay profitable. In Japan, Nier comes in two varieties: the PS3's Replicant features a more youthful, slimline avatar, while the Xbox 360's Gestalt is identical to the single and suffix-free western version. This time, it seems we're looking at a rare case of role-reversal, with the pre-existing older protagonist deemed to be an inappropriate match for eastern tastes.

The game's intro gives a clue to what Square Enix thinks English-speaking players like, as a female character yells a charming request: "Pull your head out of your goddamn ass and start f**king helping us." Throw in a grizzled, gruffly-voiced hero with a physique chiselled from the same rock as Conan, the buckets of blood spilled with every slice of his sword, and couple that with the combat-heavy early trailers, and you could be forgiven for expecting a Japanese take on God of War or a more focus-tested Bayonetta. And you couldn't be further from the truth.

Nier opens in a frozen, post-apocalyptic world, as an unnamed, grey-haired dad picks up a piece of debris to fend off the bizarre creatures threatening his daughter Yonah. It plays like an ultra-simplistic hack and slash, with seemingly endless waves of foes coming into being as our hero levels up every few swipes, unleashing powerful magic attacks alongside regular melee blows.

After a short cut-scene, we're rudely shunted forward over 1000 years, as a suspiciously similar-looking man tends to his identically-monikered daughter in a pastoral village hub straight out of the JRPG handbook. A few laborious fetch-quests and a couple of large enemies later, and it appears we're in Monster Hunter territory for a while, until the game eventually settles into a rhythm of puzzle and combat-led dungeons and myriad minor side-quests that for the most part feels very Zelda.

1

Dark Lance is a nifty ranged attack that's worth thinking about as one of your magical options.

This genre-hopping opening is a disjointed start to a game that you soon realise is rather deliberately playing with expectations. Early trailers suggested that nothing is as it seems in developer Cavia's decidedly mad world, and from the start onwards, Nier's mechanics do their very best to live up to the mysterious story. By two-thirds of the way through this twisted tale, you'll have experienced a bullet-hell boss, a rail-shooter sequence in a mine cart, and a fixed-camera exploration of a creepy, monochromatic mansion that screams Resident Evil.

Occasionally, you'll be yomping through a dungeon and the view will change to a top-down perspective, while a side-on 2D viewpoint is adopted when entering taverns or other town buildings. There seems to be little real significance to this, other than the developer changing things up because it can.

The gamble with attempting such a variety of gameplay types is that you risk mastery of none, and it's clear from the outset that Cavia's given itself too many balls to juggle. The opening sequence could well have players ejecting the disc before the game proper has even begun, the nameless hero hacking tirelessly at nondescript enemies as they continuously respawn for what seems like half an hour. Later, ill-advised moves into platforming territory fall hopelessly flat, partly thanks to one of the worst jumping animations you'll ever see. And though a few of the dungeons offer inventive puzzles, others lapse into block-pushing tedium, or introduce excessively punitive measures to extend the time spent solving them.

2

Weapons can be upgraded, but you'll need to grind quite a bit to get the necessary components.

Everything takes just that little bit longer than it ought to, particularly the side-missions, many of which involve a ludicrous amount of to-ing and fro-ing to fulfil the simplest of requests. Often, it's easier to simply accept as many quests as possible and hope you stumble across the right person, item or ingredients as you tackle the main story. Rewards are frequently inadequate recompense for the effort taken, especially on occasions where a mere ‘quest complete' message is all you get.

Inconsistency is Nier's main problem, with aspects of both the action and RPG elements feeling either overstuffed or undernourished. In theory, you can tailor the combat to your own preferences by allocating either melee or magical moves to the bumpers and triggers, but in practice, there are a mere handful of abilities that are worth sticking with. Blocking is ineffective against the majority of foes, so that's immediately out of the window, while melee combat is so simplistic you'll revert to spellcasting to relieve the boredom. By the halfway point, you'll have unlocked more magical attacks than you can possibly use at any one time, and a couple of those are almost game-breakingly powerful.

Experience is handled invisibly, with merely a brief notification when Nier has increased a level, but it's hard to effectively gauge whether you're ship-shape for the next part of the quest. Defeated enemies sometimes yield note of an unlocked tutorial; while some of these are merely helpful info, incredibly, this is also how the game informs you that Nier has a new move or ability. You're then required to visit the relevant page on the menu screen if you want to know how to use it. The in-game map is similarly useless, failing to provide locations for quests other than the main story, with no notifications of where exits from each smaller area lead. Then again, I've never had the best sense of direction.

Yet for almost every glaring omission or downright baffling design choice, there's a good idea waiting in the wings. Fallen enemies sometimes cough up 'words', which essentially act as buffs for the game's weapons and magic. These fall into prefixes and suffixes, which can be combined to improve attacking or defensive powers, with added effects such as poison or paralysis or to increase the experience gained or the rate of item drops. And they effortlessly nab the 'crazy names for in-game objects' crown from Too Human: at one point, I was wielding a Pahi Otir Blade of Treachery and smashing enemies with my Gebi Lug Dark Hand.

That spell, among several less effective ones, comes courtesy of Grimoire Weiss, a talking, floating book who provides a sarcastic commentary on proceedings and completely steals the show. Any lapses into gaming cliché are effectively skewered by Weiss, and experienced voice actor Liam O'Brien - apparently channelling Alan Rickman here - is clearly enjoying himself. One minute, he's sneering at a boss ("Really? The mouth? Such an obvious weak point") and the next, he's sniping at Nier for sidetracking the main quest when taking on villagers' comparatively mundane requests.

3

Another nice musical touch has the current theme change slightly when you enter a building.

At times, you wonder if the scriptwriters aren't simply poking fun at the designers. Weiss criticises the unusual layout of a hidden desert city by claiming "they couldn't have made this more needlessly complicated if they tried," and even finds time to roll his eyes at the indecent attire of Nier's companion, profanity-spitting Lady Gaga-alike Kainé, "a boorish young woman who battles monsters in her undergarments". This begins to rub off on the other characters, too. Nier refers to himself as "just a big guy who kills things," and any time Weiss gets a little too loquacious or self-aggrandising, mighty hermaphrodite Kainé is always there with an amusingly curt put-down like "piss off, book".

It's an impressive localisation effort all round, particularly during a brief but exceptionally well-written sojourn into text adventure territory - no, really - with Weiss offering a fourth-wall-breaking admonishment of the unseen narrator. Incidental dialogue is mercifully brief but often amusing, and if some of the colloquialisms feel a little anachronistic (it's not often RPG barkeeps great the hero with a casual "'Sup"), the rest of the game is so determinedly bizarre that you simply accept them as yet another of its eccentricities.

4

Smaller animals are worth killing and stripping for their hide or meat, while wild boars can be mounted for a quicker way to get around.

The music deserves special mention, with a number of memorable themes, ranging from a quite beautiful plucked acoustic number that plays in the lighthouse of a coastal town, to an industrial dungeon soundtrack of percussive metallic clanks. Despite some inventive art design, the visuals don't fare quite so well; the more open areas are sparse and uninteresting, while towns and villages are lacking the attention to detail that characterises the best RPGs. For a Square Enix title, that's a little surprising, but then it does have its publishing rather than its development hat on this time.

Nier often makes up for its lack of lustre with the sheer, inventive brio of its stand-out sequences, including two or three thrilling boss fights you'd be wise to avoid reading about, as well as some bold and original puzzle design in its dungeons. Its story, too, is worth sticking with, and while ultimately things go deeper than just a father's love for his sick daughter, Nier's single-minded quest to cure Yonah's disease is sometimes disarmingly sweet.

Nier is very difficult to dislike, even as you curse the quality control that lets the game oscillate wildly between the fiercely inventive and the utterly generic. Yet while it's hard not to admire a game that dementedly throws so much at the player in an attempt to make something stick, Nier's faults are too many and too severe to wholeheartedly recommend.

6 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Chris.

About Chris Schilling

Chris Schilling writes about video games for a living, and knows an awful lot about Pokémon. Ask him anything. (Though he may have to confer with his son.)

Read more articles from Chris by visiting the Chris Schilling archive page.

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Comments (66) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Beano #1 2 years ago

    I expected a Nierne

  • RedPanda #2 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • menage #3 2 years ago

    Bargain bien!

    Could be fun for 15 bucks

  • CaptainQuint #4 2 years ago

    I reckon the reason some reviews are delayed on EG is because the writer hasn't come up with a good sub heading pun yet.

  • Goodfella #5 2 years ago

    Yet another Square Enix failure.

    The day Enix merged with Squaresoft was the day JRPG's stopped being good.

  • rodpad #6 2 years ago

    Nein ref.

  • Dizzy #7 2 years ago

    SE continues its march into mediocrity sadly.
    Edited by Dizzy at 22/04/10 @ 11:04

  • tomjoadsghost #8 2 years ago

    in an ideal world the back of the nier box would read :-

    "I am very excited about this thing It is very nice and wonderful.I think it could be a lot of fun and enjoyment - Jack Warnel, Eurogamer.net"

  • Widge #9 2 years ago

    I might grab this, I like the fact its taking a stab at something a bit different.

  • uiruki #10 2 years ago

    You get cavia to make you a game, this is what happens.

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #11 2 years ago

    @Goodfella Wasnt a fan of SO:TLH or Last Remnant? They were pretty good imo. FFXIII not so much. I think ill get this just to see what its like.

  • andywilkie35 #12 2 years ago

    Sounds like something I'll pick up when its a tenner

  • GreyBeard #13 2 years ago

    Yep, it is Drakengard 3 basically, complete with mad as a bag of spiders multiple endings.

    Allegedly one even deletes the save file after you view it! (fortunately saves aren't locked to machine on PS3).

  • metalangel #14 2 years ago

    Never even heard of it until now. Certainly sounds interesting but the risk of a flawed game is you either love it utterly or despise it totally.

  • siro #15 2 years ago

    Since the first screenshot came up, this game had 6/10 all over it. Kind of hoped it would do better.

  • Beano #16 2 years ago

    At least we don't have to discuss which version is the best.

  • alimokrane #17 2 years ago

    So a Good game buried under faults which if you are willing to look past you'll end up enjoying. Sounds like me. Wont buy at launch though, I will wait for the price to dip a bit sub £25... which I reckon would be quite soon!
    Edited by alimokrane at 22/04/10 @ 11:32

  • tomkuryakin #18 2 years ago

    It certainly sounds different and interesting enough to be worth a gamble. I may well pick this up at some point.

  • anomagnus #19 2 years ago

    Yet another poor japanese game. They no longer know how to make games for a western audience. I finished FF13 recently, and my only feeling was one of relief. The thought that i'd never have to play this game again. Don't get me wrong, i had a lot of wow moments during the game, but mostly at some CGI scene. The combat, the story and the characters were just terrible.

    I'm currently playing valkaryie chonricles, and while brilliant, why is there a flying pig in it? What is it about japanese games developers that many of their games are so utterly childish.

    Another big japaense game i finished with recently is bayonetta. While the game play was brilliant, to an extent, everything else was so childish, if it were a story, it would be fanfic.

    There are two sections, basically to a game. The mechanics, and the story (setting, character, etc), and japanese games developers are standing still with the mechanics, and just going back wards with story. I used to love JRPG's, but only because i knew no better. But now i know better, with the exception of Street Fighter, if i see a game is coming from a Japanese developer, i tend to think twice about the purchase. Thats not good.

  • telboy007 #20 2 years ago

    Out of all the JRPGs I've bought for the 360, only lost odyssey and resonance of fate have impressed me. Last Remnant was pretty good but not a patch on the other two. The connection between LO and RoF? Neither are SquareEnix games. Sad really.

  • miiiguel #21 2 years ago

    Totally my kinda game and what I expected, esoteric; a bit weirdo. Glad I pre-ordered it.

  • PotajiTo #22 2 years ago

    It's worth playing just for Weiss voice actor and the music.
    The game itself is pretty mediocre, I agree.

  • HermitArcader #23 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Ninja_Tino #24 2 years ago

    Everyone is gonna be using that subheading. Ign AU did it too.

  • spekkeh #25 2 years ago

    I don't think it's as much Squeenix marching into mediocrity, as it is western developers starting to understand the medium better and Japanese devs stalling.

  • GeeMacca #26 2 years ago

    Got mine yesterday alongside Dead to Rights: Retribution, which will probably get a similar score, and I love them both. Some parts are repetitive but the great bits easily outweigh the bad.

  • BBIAJ #27 2 years ago

    @Ulruki:

    Yeah, that's why we ended up with both Umbrella and Darkside Chronicles on Wii, you fool...

  • rudderless #28 2 years ago

    The platforming sections are infrequent. Warrants a mention, but it's only a very small amount of the time you'll spend playing the game.

  • Instinct #29 2 years ago

    Such bizarre Square Enix criticism, both in the review and the comments. Cavia developed this game, SE merely published it, and for all the Square-Enix merger ruined my life comments, Cavia were making terrible games way before SE's merger. It's strange that that so many people decry publisher interference, only to attack the publisher Square Enix for having the gall to publish someone else's 6/10 game. What did you expect them to do, buy the IP, yank it off Cavia and develop it themselves?

    They aren't good developers, 6/10 isn't exactly a failure and personally, this game looks interesting, but any credits or criticism this game receives should go to Cavia and Cavia only.

  • uiruki #30 2 years ago

    BBIAJ:

    They also came out with Beat Down, Zegapain, Bullet Withc, Winback 2, Drakengard and other assorted half-baked toot. The Resi Chronicles games were only popular because of the masses of fanwank accompanying them. As light gun shooters, they don't stand up to Sega or Namco's examples at all.

  • Machetazo #31 2 years ago

    I plus'd the comment above mine (32), but with a subtle caveat; that I'm not convinced at all, that Square-Enix did all it could to present the game clearly, or give it much wider exposure (pre-launch coverage has been intermittent and some times vague, or through disconnected trailers - maybe intentional, but... ).
    I just think, overall they could have communicated far better and with a focused message to benefit of the game.
    So, to suggest they're immune to criticism on this, is wrong.

  • galerian86 #32 2 years ago

    I'm confused. So territories outside of Japan have only one type of Nier?

  • BBIAJ #33 2 years ago

    @uiruki:

    Both SEGA and Namco's lightgun games are arcade shooters through and through, Cavia's take on the Resi games practically required that they include more tactical and strategic elements to them, so shouldn't even be compared to the likes of HotD, and Time Crisis.

    Oh, and for what it's worth, Bullet Witch wasn't that bad, in my personal opinion, of course.

  • uiruki #34 2 years ago

    BBIAJ: I'm not sure I follow what you mean about tactics and strategy. All lightgun games past Vritua Cop have had locational damage and shooting out the scenery for bonuses, and modern Time Crisis games place a premium on weapon choice and ammo conservation.

    I'm not trying to be contrary, but I honestly didn't enjoy the shooting in UC at all due to the frame rate affecting controller cursor lag, the muddy indisctinct visuals and the plodding pace.

  • Crunchers #35 2 years ago

    Oh well. I hear their PS1 library is pretty decent.

    Great times.

  • HermitArcader #36 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • darc #37 2 years ago

    "Often, it's easier to simply accept as many quests as possible and hope you stumble across the right person, item or ingredients as you tackle the main story."

    An interesting point; this is a trap that so many non-linear RPG's fall into. It's a glaring problem in Dragon Age - and even moreso in the Awakenings expansion - despite Bioware's great reputation for RPG design.
    Edited by darc at 22/04/10 @ 14:50

  • darc #38 2 years ago

    "only lost odyssey and resonance of fate have impressed me"

    I loved Lost Odyssey despite having no interest in the genre, and have been looking for something to take its place ever since I finished it. Regrettably, took a chance on FFXIII and find that completely intolerable. I think I might take a stab at Resonance of Fate.

  • michaelius #39 2 years ago

    Hmm looks like 10 pound bargain bin game for me.

  • enfilade #40 2 years ago

    Lost Odyssey really was brilliant, wasn't it? And who made that? Mistwalker Studios: the people who left Squaresoft and the Final Fantasy team after the merger to become Square-Enix. Hmm, funny dat.

  • anomagnus #41 2 years ago

    @telboy007 - you've made a fool out of me, i had forgotten about lost oydessy, the best JRPG, and one of the best RPG's i have ever played. It was a perfect example of how to use the japanese stereotypes and make you care about them. The flavour fo the game, the utterly perfect lost memories and the intersting though simple game play made the whole expereince a joy.

    Sadly rare though.

    i shudder when i think of the MGS 'story'

  • Hypercube #42 2 years ago

    I'm oscillating on this one - the non-linearity is appealing, but the odd design in parts makes me hesitate.

    As for the wisecracking floating sidekick - what was the name of the sarcastic skull in Planescape: Torment?

  • telboy007 #43 2 years ago

    It wasn't on purpose. Thought LO just need some love in this thread. :)

  • anomagnus #44 2 years ago

    @darc

    i never had that problem with DA:o, and even though i am expereinced rpg player (lol), i couldnt see how that could be a problem. The journal was well laid out, and the side quests were of little import to the game itself. But i'll admit, that the game, for me, didnt come into its own until my second playthrough.

    As for your FF13 experience, i fully understand. Multiple times i was playing the game, spending minutes killing trash and asking myself, 'what the hell am i doing?'

    The boss at the end of chapter 11 was one of the biggest pricks i ever played against, and made me resent the game, as i had to spend 5 hours walking around the FF13 safari park killing beasts for no reason.

    And to top it all of, i was expecting a mammoth ending, lasting half an hour, and it was over in 5 minutes. Though i had to admit, the race course cut scene was amazing

  • 43n1m4 #45 2 years ago

    trying very hard to get through FF XIII to get that game out of my life (and write a scorching review) - this game sadly doesn't seem to improve the already fading JRPG genre. And I agree that Lost Odyssey is one of the better JRPG games this generation, and I'm prepared to give Resonance of Fate a go, when the price drops. Nier, however, seems to be yet another game from Square Enix that reeks of desperate air.
    Edited by 43n1m4 at 22/04/10 @ 16:36

  • miiiguel #46 2 years ago

    I'm completly the oposite of anomagnus, I - usualy, though I never say never - find "photorealism" or any atempt at ultra-realism boring.
    I love them flying pigs; Dali paintings and neon-lights.

  • alcides #47 2 years ago

    Europeans are beefy barbaric bloodthirsty oafs
    Japanese are slender ever-youthful transexuals.

    Stereotype much?


  • trip919 #48 2 years ago

    Definitely going to try this out as it sounds intriguing if a little wonky.

  • TRUTH #49 2 years ago

    All rpg/adventure/action/dungeons and dragons lovers - TorchLight, The Horde...both coming this year. TL has been very well praised on PC, and The Horde has a fairly good history of previous dungeon action-adventure-Rpg games.

    Both coming to 360 & PS3.

    More games like Demon's Souls pleeeease - not shit like this.
    Edited by TRUTH at 22/04/10 @ 21:59

  • super_monty #50 2 years ago

    6 /10 and i can see how he got there from the text, but I have just read the VideoGamer review they seem to like it rather a lot and gave it an 8/10, the text is rather good.

    I am starting to think that to be a Eurogamer reviewer you have to start playing the game in a completly negative frame of mind.

    Probably still wait for this to hit the bargain bin, the amazing Dragon Age only got 6/10 and is only £15 now, so this should drop in price quickly.

  • Heartz_Fear #51 2 years ago

    can't believe this is just a 6! well, i will buy this, anyway!

  • icelt #52 2 years ago

    I just can't take a game seriously where the protagonist fights in sandals... seriously.

    @Hypercube

    It was the GREAT Morte!
    Edited by icelt at 22/04/10 @ 23:36

  • FortysixterUK #53 2 years ago

    Wait for it to go bargain bin.

  • guernican #54 2 years ago

    Wasn't Yonah the name of the hedgehog in Watership Down?

  • guernican #55 2 years ago

    "What is it about japanese games developers that many of their games are so utterly childish."

    Perhaps it's a, y'know, cultural thing.

  • Slipstream #56 2 years ago

    I pitched this as utterly generic from the bland, textureless initial screen shots, guess it didn't change much at all.

  • Kaddiska #57 2 years ago

    i knew this game was going to be very average...BTW is this the same Square (without the Enix) that made good old games of my youth like Crono Cross and Parasite Eve? i think they have really lost it

  • darc #58 2 years ago

    @anomagnus, please don't get the wrong idea, I really enjoyed DA:o. I just think that, particularly where side quests are concerned, it's pretty easy to acquire them as a matter of course, and resolve them half by accident as you're progressing through the game. This impression may be exacerbated by the fact that I'm playing Awakenings now, and the whole package feels somewhat more slapped together than Origins, at least thus far.

    FFXIII... what can I say? Not my genre, and admittedly I haven't scratched the surface, but shouldn't a game at least make you *want* to scratch the surface. It strikes me as if the designers had set out to create a parody of everything that was ever wrong with JRPGs, and if that is so, they couldn't possibly have done a better job.

    No character should ever call himself a "hero" more than once. Zero times is the ideal target. Unless said character is wearing a cape, maybe.

  • Badassbab #59 2 years ago

    Looks like a load of cliche pointlessly complicated confusing puddle of averageness

  • DanWhitehead #60 2 years ago

    The fishing mini-game in Nier is horribly fiddly and you have to play it to continue the story. It's one of the worst pieces of brick wall game design I've seen in an RPG.

  • rudderless #61 2 years ago

    @Dan - I thought that at first, but I was standing in the wrong patch of water. Go to the X and fish and it's much easier. Press the button when the rod bends quite noticeably - usually on the third bite - and don't forget to push down on the analogue stick (which the game doesn't tell you) to reel it in, while moving the rod in the opposite direction to the fish.

  • RazedInWhite #62 2 years ago

    @Dan - It actually lets you skip if you fail enough times, although given how often I failed without seeing anything of the sort, I dread to think how many times it requires before that triggers.

  • bloodflowers #63 2 years ago

    The fishing isn't very difficult, as soon as you've done it just -once-. Until that point it's insanely frustrating, they should have put a proper tutorial in for that.

    Just finished it plus the extra playthroughs of the second part (rushed them) to see all the endings. Really is a mixed bag, some parts are fantastic, some are highly irritating, but it's definitely saved by the dialogue and the boss set pieces. I think Tesco already reduced it by the way.

  • riz23 #64 2 years ago

    Bought this online at GAME yesterday for 14.98

  • FortysixterUK #65 2 years ago

    GAME have got a stock clearing special on at their website, this is going for £14.98 on xbox.
    Purchased :)

  • apoc_reg #66 2 years ago

    Wow

    Picked this up for £9 off amazon and I really like it. Only played 3 hours but it's soo much better than the reviews made me think.

    Great soundtrack, nice feel to the character and terrific enviorments. The textures may not be great but the lighting and wind effects etc make it look great in a lot of the locations lilt the temple and wind city.

    Reminds me of shadow of the colossus.

    I'm not suggesting it's a world beater but certainly more than worth a go if you like jrpgs.... better than FFXIII so far