Introduction

- The greeting upon beginning NIER.NIER is a third person uhh...well, I guess you'd call it an action-adventure game, not unlike Zelda...kinda...released in April of 2010 for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles by our old friends at Cavia Inc. In fact, NIER was their very last title before being shut down. Indeed, NIER is...sort of a sequel to Drakengard! (Shameless self promotion!) At least, it is in the same continuity as that game. NIER is an offshoot of Drakengard's Ending E to be precise. Better known as the greatest video game troll known to man...Oh... Nier (pronounced like "near") is the protagonist of the game, the barbarian looking chap up above there, who possesses a few anger issues and will stomp a mud hole in anyone remotely getting in his way in curing sick young daughter, Yonah. His name is actually left up to the player to decide and never said in-game. This makes titling the game after him a bit mystifying. But, NIER marches to the beat of its own drum.Not at all. Although Nier is made by the same director, Taro Yoko, and much of the same team as Drakengard, it only has the lightest of ties to that title. All you need to know is that in one of the endings of Drakengard, the hero and his dragon aborted the pregnancy of a giant cannibal space baby spawning pan-dimensional cosmic horror by slamming into it so hard it knocked them into another dimension. Our dimension... Shinjuku Tokyo, Japan to be precise.They then had a high stakes rhythm game battle above the skies of Tokyo wherein the giant mother monster was destroyed. The monster disintegrated and the day was saved. Also, the Japanese Airforce rolled in and shot down and killed the hero and his dragon with a missile strike. Said dragon's corpse was then impaled on Tokyo Tower. The End.Look, Drakengard was a really fucking weird game. What do you want out of me? All you need to gain from all that is introducing elements from a magical dark fantasy world with dragons, space babies, and shit to a non-magical ecosystem is really,bad for the environment as well as general health of the populace of that dimension.I will be making a decent number of Drakengard references though, so maybe you ought to go read up on that. Just don't play it...nobody deserves that dire fate...Cavia is a weird company. Over in Japan, the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 each have their own version of the game. Xbox360 has Nier Gestalt: basically the English version we got over here. Playstation 3 has Nier Replicant: an alternate version starring an anime pretty boy teenage Nier who is the brother, instead of father, of Yonah. This version is there to appeal to Japanese audiences since Japan is weird like that. They are largely the same, other than the hero and his relation to the girl Yonah. I'll be covering Replicant a bit. In sum: let us all just be happy we aren't playing as this colossal tool:In so far as doing all the sidequests and getting all four endings? Yup. If I did it for Drakengard, I can do it for NIER.Well, after Chrono Cross had every other page look like a damn CIA classified file, I was sick of looking at all that shit. Plus, Chrono Cross was ten years old. This game is barely 10 months out the door... And besides, this game actually has a plot that deserves not to be spoiled.Edit: Do not post links to sites filled with spoilers either. I'm aware Grimoire Nier translations exist, I'll be showing it off. I wouldn't think I would have to say that, but turns out I was wrong. Thanks!No. No it does not. Nier will not be going as far off the deep end in batshit crazy. It is still a strange game with some pretty fucked up shit that will go down. It goes down a much differentrabbit hole than Drakengard did. But, honestly this game is like a bizarro version of Drakengard.Drakengard was a repetitive grind that got old after about an hour of gameplay. Nier, while not brilliant with its gameplay, does frequently mix things up to keep it fresh. Drakengard had a dodgily translated, barely comprehensible at points plot, filled with a cast of utterly unlikable assholes that all had subpar voice acting. Nier has one of the best damn, natural sounding translations I have heard in a JRPG, has an interesting and coherent plot filled with a very likable cast of jerks with outstanding voice acting. Drakengard had a soundtrack of chaotic dissonance that was unsettling at best, ear raping at worst. Nier has a goddamn phenomenal OST that was so well received it got a second one released just last month.NIER was honestly my game of the year of 2010. There were prettier games, games that played better, and all that jazz. But fuck them, NIER was a memorable labor of love by a company (that still absolutely hates you, the player) that got its shit together at the end to pump out one really great game. So let's get started on this long, depressing road. Did I mention NIER was depressing...? No? Oh, well NIER will ruin your goddamn day by the end, friend. Ruin it and push you to drinking. So, with that in mind, let's get started!