Dear Internet,
Well, I
am a day late and a Gald short. I said
that I would usually post these reviews on Friday, and here it is Saturday. I was up late yesterday in an attempt to
finish off "Nier" so that I could write a full review. By the time that I had finished "Nier,"
it was too late to write a final review.
I think we can all learn something from this experience. I need to start these reviews earlier so that
I can make sure I have enough time. And
you need to remember the definition of "usually." But I jest, unlike "Nier."
"Nier"
is a game that takes itself too seriously.
From the story to the message that it wants to impart on the player,
"Nier" does not know how to lighten up until it absolutely has
to. Everything is taken with the same
layer of dark narrative and done so poorly at that. Take how the game handles the quest to cure
Yonah and how it attempts to force the audience to care. We know as an audience that Nier cares deeply
for his daughter. He is constantly
trying to find a way to save her from a death sentence. That is the whole point of the quest that he
sets out on from early on in the game.
However, there is little to no emotional bond that occurs between the character
of Yonah and the audience because there is little to no attempt to create that
bond. Early on in the game, there is
next to no interaction with her as a character.
We only get a few lines of dialog here and there with a few fetch side
quests thrown in. We are meant to care
for her not because we have grown fond of her from a depth of interaction with
her but because she is a plot item. She
is there as a reason to go around and explore.
The player does not have to even interact with her at all beyond a few
forced dialog bits. We know she is most
likely going to be OK by the end of the game in one way or another since
denying this would be one amazing anti-climax.
There is not a real threat of losing her at all, just missing her a
little while. Unlike a game like
"Valkyria Chronicles," where having one of your soldiers fall in
battle can risk them dying permanently and you will never use them again,
"Nier" cannot reproduce this effect by just telling the audience that
they are supposed to care about the plot character. I cared more about the super minor characters
in "Valkyria Chronicles" way more than Yonah because there was a real
threat of losing the character. It made
me want to protect and keep those characters safe because it would have been my
own fault for losing them.
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| It does not help the fact that the game openly denies interaction with her. |
There
is a scene in "Nier" where a certain character permanently changes
their physical form significantly, to the point that they look more like a monster
than human. They naturally freak out at
such a change, breaking down and crying a little. Less than two minutes later they say about
the transformation, "I was terrified at first, but I think I'm okay with
it." This kind of turnaround of
emotion within a short amount of time and with so little force to do so is a
reflection of the game's poor story pacing.
The character lost their mortal body but was perfectly alright with it
mere minutes later. The whole transformation
felt unneeded to the plot, instead feeling as if the development team had
created a character design that they did not want to go to waste. In fact, Nier himself receives a redesign
after a time skip in the game which feels more like forced implementation of
unused art assets. I say this because
prior to the time skip he receives immensely physical wounds through his upper
body and abdomen, but after the time skip he is wearing an eye patch. His eye had not been damaged. Is the eye patch supposed to illustrate how
battle weary he has become since before the time skip? It only brings forth the question of how he
lost his eye since it was not injured when we last saw him. If the aim is to show the character's culmination
of his battle exploits that have formed him into the character that we see
after the time skip, how about we see him with the scars of the battle that we
saw him fought, not the ones we did not see?
Every time we would then see those scars, we would remember the incident
that formed them, reminding us of a specific even in the game's story. Instead, we get an eye patch because eye
patches means he is a tough guy.
 |
Then
there is the death of a side character that cannot be avoided no matter what
which should come as no surprise to anyone who plays the game. I say this because the opening movie that
plays every time the game is launched clearly shows the character dying. This is not the only spoiler that occurs
within the opening movie. All one has to
do is watch the movie just once for a number of images to keep popping into
their heads as they play the game to have a number of plot points lose their
impact when they finally occur. This is
not something that is unique to "Nier." A number of Japanese games that I have played
like to do this. They take all of the
game's highest quality cinematics and mash them together to form an opening
movie. This is not something all that bad
in upon itself. One usually wants to put
their best foot forward when showcasing the game in an effort to pump up the
player and get them excited to see what the game has in store for them. However, when the game throws together the
most pivotal scenes into that mash up and includes plot hints as well, it
becomes a ruining experience that devalues the game's story.
I said
last about mentioning the game's fishing and farming aspects. Let me just say that there are extensive
fishing and farming mechanics. You can
fish in a number of locations that even include quicksand. You can farm anything from wheat to
flowers. It can even be enough to be a
game on itself, especially considering that there are a few difficult goals within
those aspects of the game. I only have
one problem with these things. What in
the world do they have to do with the core game? Absolutely nothing I tell you. You only have to fish once in the game, and
you do not even have to farm to complete the game. Neither of these things have got anything to
do with the core game mechanics. Reeling
in a major catch does nothing to make you hit harder. Growing a tulip will not make your magic any
better. Or at least I am not aware of
such things. I do not mind a small
diversion in some games, even if it is to break the monotony that some can fall
into. But when there is such a large side
game that does nothing to correlate itself to the main game, it just feels
silly to include it. I would rather go
play a "Harvest Moon" game or "Fishing Resort" at that
point. If the diversion is to the point
of being another game itself then it would be better to just go play a game that
does that diversion much better.
I will
end just saying that the game world is recycled fluff. There are only about five or six dungeons that
get revisited a number of times, too many times in my opinion. Sure, when you revisit one or two, you will
get an added room or corridor to explore but this is the same problem that
"Skyward Sword" suffered from.
Both games have a few giant worlds that take a while to get from one end
to another, which highlights their size, but both games end up feeling empty
due to a limited number of locations that matter which are visited way too
often.
"Nier"
is not a bad game. It is just
generic. It is another one of the
multitude of Japanese games that have got more angsty and brooding characters
than substance. There is even the token
city that gets destroyed completely. The
central gameplay is fine, just underdeveloped for the most part. I looked forward to some of the enemies whose
attacks made the battlefield resemble a bullet hell game. The multiple endings are not all that
interesting other than the extra backstory of Kaine. The only thing that I would say is worth its
weight is the game's soundtrack. The
soundtrack alone is worth listening to even without playing the game. But I cannot go recommending a whole game on
just one single aspect. The game is an
alright diversion for a while, but I cannot think of dumping more time into it.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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