PS3 Review: Nier

Square Enix is the latest in a relatively short line of Japanese videogame companies who have been aggressively acquiring Western studios to expand their portfolio of titles, and perhaps more importantly customer numbers.  If you had told me a year ago that I would have played three Square Enix published games in the space of a month I would have probably laughed and gone back to an Activision or EA title.

But after Final Fantasy XIII and Just Cause 2 (from the purchase of Eidos) comes Nier, an action RPG that is clearly showing the veteran Japanese publisher trying to find a market that likes Japanese games, but would rather have more action than RPG.
The game is published by SE, but has been developed by Cavia, a studio probably best known for Dragon Ball Z and Drakengard titles along with some Resident Evil lightgun shooters.

The game focuses on the title character Nier, a man searching for a cure for the killer Black Scrawl virus that has infected his daughter Yonah.  During his search early in the game Nier encounters a magic book named Grimoire Weiss (voiced by a man doing what appears to be a very good James Mason impersonation) who has a semi-beige alignment as you are never quite sure whether his motives are good or evil.
You also soon team up with a fellow warrior named Kaine with a penchant for bad language and also happens to be a hermaphrodite.  So not exactly your typical bald space marine companion.

As with so many games these days, you begin with all of the games available magic powers, fighting off hordes of enemies known as Shades, only to have everything taken away from you as the action shifts to a completely different locale and you have to learn the basics of combat until you encounter the book with all the answers.

During these early stages you are introduced to the world of Nier through a thankfully short series of fetch quests as you run around your home town hub world, before heading out into the wide green yonder.  On the first quest I had to pause the game and actively think whether I have ever had to kill sheep to further my progress in a game before.

Once you pick up Weiss after a relatively linear dungeon crawl the world opens up, offering typical fetch or assassination side quests to build up gold and items to supplement the main storyline.

Much like the recent Darksiders game from THQ, Nier takes a number of elements from different genres and presents a sort of mash up of action game, RPG, puzzler, and even top down/side scrolling shooter.  It results in a game that is slightly unsure of what it wants to be, trying to please different categories of gamer rather sticking to one or even two of them.
This also means that the game doesn’t particularly excel in any one particular area.  The combat is enjoyable but feels far looser than a game such as the sublime Bayonetta or God of War III.  Nier is something of a jack of all trades/master of none experience at times, but none of its elements can be described as being bad.

Navigating around the world will be frustrating for some, as the wide open spaces need to be backtracked several times during the course of the roughly thirty hour main game experience.  The game world isn’t exactly pretty either, it’s probably best described as functional.
But at least this means there isn’t any slowdown, and the game moves along a fair pace.  Functional is a word that can be used to describe a lot of things regarding Nier as a complete package.  It lacks the spit and polish of a truly flagship Square published title, and looks something like a title that was conceived and developed during the transition from the Xbox/PS2 generation to the 360 and PS3 versions that have been released.  Nier isn’t a particularly pretty game, but where is does truly shine is the soundtrack.

Nier contains some of the most memorable music I have heard in a game for a long time, and it seamlessly blends depending on which environment you are in.  Choirs sing and chant in the peaceful areas, string guitars play in the quiet library.  The score complements the action perfectly, and while you will hear it played over and over again (particularly some of the chants) it never grates to the point that you want to switch it off.

While the game isn’t what you would call a Triple A top tier developed title, that’s not to say that it’s a bad game.  Far from it, I’ve played far, far worse titles than this and Nier tries extremely hard to change things around while you are playing to keep you interested.  Walk into your house and the action flips from free roaming 3D to a side-on view.  During some of the combat sections the camera moves to a top down shot, then blending seamlessly back to regular action when you move onto the next section.

Ultimately I admire Square Enix for publishing a title like this, and stamping their name all over it.  It’s good to see what are typically such stanchly Japanese companies trying things out in an attempt to obtain a wider audience.  Nier tries hard to appeal to a broad range of people, but the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.
So as a third person action game is pales compared to its luminaries, and isn’t hardcore enough to be classed as a typical RPG.  Does it do enough to make me recommend it?  Yes, primarily because the game tries so very hard and the story is actually rather compelling.  It might not be the prettiest game around, but Nier sounds great, has decent voice acting and is a fun enough way to spend thirty hours.  Plus unlike Final Fantasy XIII, you don’t have to wait fifteen hours for the action to start.  Nier is worth taking a look at.

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Category: Reviews, Videogames