Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Incline Nier!

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
In its defense, the side-quests were boring -because- they were making fun of that dumb RPG design - you have a pressing objective but here you are, fishing? At one point they even banter about that. Cavia was so good at using gameplay mechanics to tell a story. It did things games don't dare (because it scares away all reviewers and customers: ) they fucked with your saves, constantly made you inflict suffering, tortured you with lovingly crafted discordant music or even made you change genres on the fly, just because the mere act told a story. All these indie "games are art" faggots and the art was right there; they just didn't know about it because they don't know shit about games.
 

Durandal

Arcane
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
2,117
Location
New Eden
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
In its defense, the side-quests were boring -because- they were making fun of that dumb RPG design - you have a pressing objective but here you are, fishing? At one point they even banter about that. Cavia was so good at using gameplay mechanics to tell a story. It did things games don't dare (because it scares away all reviewers and customers: ) they fucked with your saves, constantly made you inflict suffering, tortured you with lovingly crafted discordant music or even made you change genres on the fly, just because the mere act told a story. All these indie "games are art" faggots and the art was right there; they just didn't know about it because they don't know shit about games.
I agree, there's not many other developers that try to fuck with the players' expectations and the existing conventions in games.
Even in Drakengard 1 the constant monotonous murdering was intentional to give you that feeling of being in the shoes of a homicidal maniac. That did not change the fact that the gameplay was incredibly dull, however. In Drakengard 3 the protagonist would often complain about boring platform puzzles, although this self-awareness comes off as sad when you realize on what kind of a limited budget the developer was operating on. I don't think revealing Zero's true intentions past the first ending was the smartest moves. It's like how people only read the first chapters of Berserk and think of Guts as an unlikeable murderous douchebag. Which is why the Golden Age arc comes soon after, to give some more depth to his character. At first players will think of Zero as nothing more but an unlikeable murderous douchebag, and after getting the first ending most will put down the controller.
It's a very daring move from Taro, albeit incredibly reckless. You're already nearing bankrupcy, and you decide to spit in the face of your customers regardless. That's probably one of the reasons why I like Yoko Taro's games so much, he doesn't do it for profits, he just doesn't give a fuck about stepping on anyones' toes. So we end up with fairly unique games, bugged down by poor production values.
 

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Yes, he's great. I'd shake his hand but he'd probably spit on his first.
 

cruel

Cipher
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
856
So... I liked Nier: Automata so much (GOTY 2017 for me), that I decided to pull a trigger and buy original Nier for PS3. Amazon has it for like $28 with shipping included.

And I must say - if somebody owns a PS3, this is an absolute must play. I was very afraid about all the talk about the game being very rough, lacking polish, mediocre combat etc - but as soon as you start playing, you just don't care about all of this. There is just so much else this game has to offer - story, characters, atmosphere, music, and some WTF moments. I'm in the middle of my second playthrough now, but I'm already very happy about playing this. Without spoiling anything, going into the manor for the first time - one of the best experiences in gaming I had in a while.

If you consider yourself a smart person, you should play this. If you consider yourself a weird person, you should also play this.


Also, I'm not sure if everybody is aware - there was a reprint, and this can be bought directly from Square Enix store for like $19,99 (euros or dollars). So you don't need to hunt for used copies on ebay etc.
https://store.eu.square-enix-games.com/eu/nier
https://www.amazon.com/NieR-Playstation-3/dp/B002BRYIJY
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Nice to see some love for this bad boy. I absolutely fucking thrived on playing it, thought it was nothing short of fantastic tbh.
 

cruel

Cipher
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
856
What's really interesting is how this game plays with player expectations, on many different levels.

(slight spoilers below)



Poor two boys, her mommy was so brave and went ahead to get some scrap in a dangerous place, let's help here. Oops, wrong!
Let's visit those two brothers and see how they are doing. Well, not as well as you would think.
I'm wondering what will I get for chasing this annoying guy and making him go back to his parents. Oh, surprise.
You want to fight a big bad shadow next door? Sure, only if you push some boxes around. Because, why not.


Plus, all those funny conversations between Nier and the book.

- some random guy: my girl has so much class! She won't even talk to me if I don't buy her stuff. So can you get me this expensive crystal for her? Maybe she will let me hold her hand for a moment.
Weiss: Hmm.... Do you think it might be possible that this girl might be USING him?!
Nier: (silence).... Well. It is possible.

Yeah, it's probably more fun when you actually listen to this.
 

cruel

Cipher
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
856
And another magical moment, going back to Aerie during second part of the game, and getting the Sacrifice Key. What happened, the reaction, music, atmosphere, how all nicely connected - magnificent.

Man, either average gamer is stupid, or somebody did a VERY bad job on marketing original NieR. I would have no idea this game exists if it wasn't for Nier: Automata. Such a shame.
 

Saark

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
2,205
A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
One thing I never understood about Nier is how a game with such a fairly low budget managed to get some of the best VA I've ever got to experience in any game.
 

AbstractKazzy

Novice
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
23
Glad to see other people here love this game. Bought it on release date and enjoyed it immensely. Just got done with a replay and saw a conveniently timed thread here. The only bad thing is it really gave me big hopes for the sequel that was unfortunately much weaker in my opinion.
 

KlauZ

Educated
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
93
I don't even get why the game gets a "rough" diamond reputation. Combat is above average for its genre, story is good, visuals are okay and sometimes very nice, cutscenes are great, music is legendary. It has some issues but they arent in any way worse than in most modern acclaimed games.
 

hexer

Guest
Did anyone else get Planescape Torment vibes from the original Nier?
Love both games, very original and fun!
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,514
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Did anyone else get Planescape Torment vibes from the original Nier?
Love both games, very original and fun!
Not PS:T vibes, but I would put in in the ”strange in a good way” category that I put PS:T. Some other examples I put in that category: Oddworld, Legacy of Kain series and Primordia. They evoke a certain feel and atmosphere that is beyond other games.
 

hexer

Guest
Not PS:T vibes, but I would put in in the ”strange in a good way” category that I put PS:T. Some other examples I put in that category: Oddworld, Legacy of Kain series and Primordia. They evoke a certain feel and atmosphere that is beyond other games.

Some might be a stretch but these are the parallels I made...

TNO = Nier
TTO = Shadowlord
Morte = Weiss
Annah = Kaine
Dak'kon = Emil (both in a way wield the ultimate weapon)
Deionarra = Yonah (ghostly female character, source of protagonist's worries/guilt)

Also there are shadows as a threat.
 

yellowcake

Arcane
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
2,898
Location
Alas! in my skull
Done Nier: Automata last year, felt the itch needed scratching again. Found the ISO floating high seas, got rpcs3 working and BAM! The game is great. Clocked 10 hrs last two days. Music is obviously outstanding, visuals and art direction are great. Fetch quests start to tire me a bit but I got nothing better to do anyway. I appreciate how Automata is a very similar game in most ways. I already joyfully anticipate going in another evening.
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
One thing I never understood about Nier is how a game with such a fairly low budget managed to get some of the best VA I've ever got to experience in any game.
Hmmm, there's no way of knowing for certain without backroom details but I imagine that its a combination of Square publishing it and the very size of the project. You got all the infrastructure for a 50+ character enterprise being focused to a much smaller cast.
 

CthuluIsSpy

Arcane
Joined
Dec 26, 2014
Messages
7,940
Location
On the internet, writing shit posts.
In its defense, the side-quests were boring -because- they were making fun of that dumb RPG design - you have a pressing objective but here you are, fishing? At one point they even banter about that. Cavia was so good at using gameplay mechanics to tell a story. It did things games don't dare (because it scares away all reviewers and customers: ) they fucked with your saves, constantly made you inflict suffering, tortured you with lovingly crafted discordant music or even made you change genres on the fly, just because the mere act told a story. All these indie "games are art" faggots and the art was right there; they just didn't know about it because they don't know shit about games.

Yeah, its the same with Nier Automata.
I normally don't follow the whole games are art thing because it tends to be a load of pretentious wankery, but that game actually lives up to it.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Done Nier: Automata last year, felt the itch needed scratching again. Found the ISO floating high seas, got rpcs3 working and BAM! The game is great. Clocked 10 hrs last two days. Music is obviously outstanding, visuals and art direction are great. Fetch quests start to tire me a bit but I got nothing better to do anyway. I appreciate how Automata is a very similar game in most ways. I already joyfully anticipate going in another evening.
I did mostly the same thing, game is quite a lot of fun, despite simpler combat and movement.

I failed the fishing so bad the game timeskipped me ahead though. I also suspect I'm going to want to cheat my way to upgrade materials at some point...
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom