NieR

released on Apr 22, 2010

Nothing is as it seems in Square Enix's latest action adventure game, set in a crumbling world plagued by disease and dark, unrecognizable creatures. Players assume the role of the unyielding protagonist, NIER, resolute in his quest to discover a cure for his daughter, who is infected with the Black Scrawl virus. With powerful allies and a mysterious book, NIER encounters things that will confound even the mightiest of warriors. With NIER, experience seamless in-battle cinematics and explore hauntingly familiar lands, intense action-packed battles, and storytelling like only Square Enix can do


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A game with many flaws : repetetive levels and enemies , serviceable combat ,and a 3rd act full of performance issues...
That said ... Why Am I crying so hard?

I was so proud for buying this from my gamestop before yoko taro blew up. stellar game marred by gameplay

Games as art people are so fucking stupid. Imagine sucking the dick of a game that does Pokémon style “buy the game twice” bullshit just because you can pretend it’s deep lol

When NeiR was first released in Japan, there were two versions. The protagonist of the PlayStation version was a young man, and the brother of one of the main characters. The protagonist of the Xbox 360 version was middle aged and the father figure of that character. When NeiR came to North America - every platform got that 360 protagonist.

Also, when NeiR came out in April 2010 - I had been a father for less than six months.

Together, these facts made playing this weird and often clunky video game an extremely powerful experience.

The soundtrack and story elements of this game linger in my mind all these years later after playing it for the first time. The worldbuilding includes some of my favorite tropes that I won't dive into here because it is pretty late game spoilers. I'm uncertain if I would call this a must play given the rough edges when it comes to gameplay and requirements for seeing all endings being quite tedious at times. The primary difference between this version of NieR and the remake (Called Replicant ver.1.22474487139...) is the protagonist. While this version you play as a father attempting to save his daughter, the remake features brother Nier trying to save his sister. I find the former more compelling but do believe that Replicant is probably the version to seek out for a modern audience who may be coming to this game off the heels of a Nier Automata playthrough.

One of the best games of all time for me. The music is some of the most beautiful I've ever heard in a game. The story was extremely heart-wrenching and superbly presented and, above all, the themes dealt with here are very mature and really profound. The fact that you have to play through the game several times and that the playthroughs only differ minimally is a little annoying. The combat system was also ok at best and the graphics rather mediocre, but I don't give a damn :D A top 10 game for me at the moment.