The Bottom Line: Nier is a somewhat frustrating below average action game with RPG elements. Your mileage may vary (though the current price is definitely a mitigating factor). This seems to be somewhat of a love it or hate it game.
C-
What to Expect:
* Nier is a bit of a strange game. It has nods to other genres like text adventures, "bullet hell", platformers/puzzle and RPGs. Some people say that the experience is better than the sum of its parts - i disagree. i found the lack of cohesive and standard game play elements problematic and/or frustrating
* Many of the boss fights are multi-staged and annoying.
* Hack and slash: basically, fights are wearing out the X button (attack) or the bumpers (for magic)
* Characters: they aren't really memorable...
- you have the dad character (with an annoying voice) who is the one you actually play as- he is a devoted (allegedly) father and a horrible character model
- the odd female(?) character who wears odd clothing and swears all of the time (NPC who is with you for much of the quest
- a kid who you meet near the end of part 1, he can at least heal you a little from time to time
- a talking book that follows you (and allows you to use magic)
* You controll the dad (whatever you named him). The other characters do not seem all of that useful in a fight (except for their scripted parts). So there really is no party - it is just one character with others occasionally around
* You fight mostly Shades and robots throughout the game. There aren't a ton of different enemies.
* Sidequests that usually give out money - a couple or few give out weapons. There are about 70 side quests in total. None of them are ultimately necessary.
* a game split into two parts - a first part to set things up and a second part that finishes the story up. In the first part, you only have access to one of the three types of weapons (one handed swords)
* 30 weapons total that can be upgraded to level 4 at only one place in the game world. This is acutally one of the worst crafting systems in recent games compounded by the problem of variable drop rates - and one resource in particular, Eagle Egg, that is only available from one specific drop point that eventually vanishes as the story progresses. You will be "grinding" for many of the upgrade resources.
* Fishing and Harvesting: two unnecessary parts of the game. In fishing you basically ignore the directions they gave you - and figure out that some fish will bite on the third pull - then you have to use the analog stick to lean while the fish's HP runs out.
* Inventory: you actually use the start button to find (or up on d-pad for items, other three main directions are for weapons, eventually). For some reason you are only allowed 10 of each type of recovery item (though you can have 99 of resources).
* Graphics: Nier doesn't look horrible, but it isn't exactly raising the bar. It looks somewhat mediocre and occasionally looks a little washed out.
* Soundtrack: Nier actually has a pretty good soundtrack from what i've listened to.
* Game Plus: the game plus inexplicably starts from near the start of part 2. You keep your weapons (and their level) and your level - i forgot to check items. i wish there were an option to start the game over in game plus from the beginning
* Story: a dad trying to save his daughter from a myserious illness, of course not everything is as it seems. Mediocre in my opinion.
* After you get ending D, the game will actually delete your game saves.
Achievements:
- Nier has a horrible achievement list in my opinion. Half of the achievement points are for seeing the four endings. So you need three game + plays after you finish the first time. Though they will probably go faster in subsequent runs - as you might have less extraneous activities (like quests and upgrades) and are higher levels. i had 370/1,000 gamerscore after my first playthrough (and 38 hours in).
* There are collect achievements: weapons (including all upgrades), all of the fish, all of the words
* Timed boss fight achievements
* Quest achievements (though not for the full 70, thankfully)
* Story related achievements (but not enough of them are)
* Beat the game under 15 hours.
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