Game Reviews

Square Enix opted to release another game this spring, following the launch of their highly anticipated tactical RPG (or whatever you wanna call it) Final Fantasy XIII. NIER was developed by Cavia, a company with a long history and a lot of console games under its belt, not the least of which is last year's Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii). By the way, just so there's no confusion, NIER is also known as NieR: Gestalt in Japan, where it was launched as an Xbox 360 exclusive (Europeans and US gamers got both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions). Another interesting thing is that Cavia also released the game under the title "Nier Replicant," in which the main character is a thinner and younger than the one shown in the European and US versions. The developers felt a youthful male protagonist might appeal more to Japanese audiences and that the current older character would be better suited for Western gamers (well, they're probably right).

The game revolves around a valiant, mature-looking male hero called Nier who is struggling to survive in a tough world with his only daughter Yonah. The situation got worse when Yonah became a victim of the so-called Black Scrawl virus. The infection started to spread rapidly and pretty soon Nier heads on a desperate quest to find a cure for his daughter. It may not be the best story ever written, but at least it keeps things simple and a lot less baffling than in, say, Final Fantasy XIII.

In fact, NIER maintains this kind of simplicity in almost every aspect. In all fairness, I can't say whether this approach was the wisest of decisions. Gameplay wise, you'll find that things work similarly to your average 3rd person action adventure. The main character wields a variety of melee weapons (well, mostly swords), in addition to casting a range of deadly spells. Of course, the devs. didn't hesitate to throw in one or two RPG facets to make things a bit more interesting. You slice your enemies, gather experience and level up in time. As you make progress, Nier gets more and more proficient at using weapons and magic. Eventually, he'll unlock a diversity of combos and powerful spells to dispatch numerous foes simultaneously. Sounds very straightforward, doesn't it? The biggest problem with NIER is that it aims to attract gamers with simple gameplay mechanics and rather basic story-telling. Most of the characters you meet along the way convey a wholesome easy-going manner, as each and every one of them showers you with a number of optional tasks (i.e. side-quests). True enough, these tasks are good for one thing - brining in cash and you're going to need a lot of it, if you want to buy a decent weapon. Weapons can be upgraded with special items called words, to allow for extra damage. The same upgrade system applies to magic.