Not giving it an actual minus for Father Nier but I think it's slightly revolting that a change happened like this just out of the thought that westerners need to be catered to. And I'm not blaming the devs, especially since there is a meme aspect to it with Yoko Taro having funky ideas, but just a sad reminder of the perceiption of JRPG/Japanese games and content in the west and also how this is perceived in japan, leading to the decline of a lot of JRPGs later.
Great characters, story, setting, variety in storytelling, fun sidequesting (for me), farming, fishing, great atmosphere and music. I picked this up on a whim back then when I was frustrated with the state of the games, especially JRPGs on the PS3 and this instantly became not only my favorite on that console but in general.

This was once an underappreciated classic that got undeserved hate from professional reviewers back in the day but Nier Replicant exists now so everyone knows how good it is. Yeah it's obvious that the protagonist is supposed to be a young guy and the older Conan look comes off at times as unfitting but I still prefer Father Nier. I really liked the voice-acting for him and the father - daughter relationship had a more emotional impact than the brother-sister thing. And it's nice to see a fictional dad that isn't made to look an incompetent fool or comes off as soft. Regardless, either Nier is worth playing and the back-and-forth dialogue between Grimoire Weiss and Kaine never fails to be amusing.