I’m not sure why KP was so sure in the last topic that this game wasn’t going to appear on the list, considering he was the one who got me into this game, and we talked about it a ton! In a generation that hasn’t had many standout JRPGs, Nier is a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, the game didn’t exactly get a great deal of press or praise publicly, so it’s flown under the radar, despite being published by Square-Enix. It took a lot of flack for its graphics, which while certainly not on par with the best this generation has had to offer, really aren’t that bad. Nier had a pretty low budget, which does show at times (like its relatively small world, in which you revisit a handful of locations multiple times), but it makes the most of what it has.
Nier has a unique situation with its main character, in more ways than one. The stereotypical JRPG lead is a bishounen guy in his teens, but in this game, the main character is a middle-aged man. However, the main character was originally designed to be a bishounen guy in his teens, but for whatever the reason, the developers decided to release an alternate version with a middle-aged guy because they thought he would appeal more to western audiences. Japan got both versions (with the 360 version getting old man Nier), while we only got old man Nier.
Regardless, he’s an interesting guy. He’s not really a deep thinker. He is focused on one thing and one thing only: Trying to find a cure for his daughter’s deadly illness, and he doesn’t care what he has to do to find it. While I generally admire that focus, it also kind of irritates me at times because he makes him come across as completely oblivious to the plotline. He has nothing to say about the major revelations that occur at the end of the game, and he throws out this doozy of an ironic statement to the Shadowlord during the last battle: “You want me to understand your sadness? You think I’m going to sympathize with you?” Well, you of all people should considering the Shadowlord is, well, you! I dunno, I felt like there were some missed opportunities by not having Nier react to those revelations.
The rest of the cast is pretty great, too. I talked about Grimoire Weiss in an earlier writeup on the characters list, but Kaine and Emil are great as well. They all work well together as a team, and they have some awesome banter. While the game’s sidequests are hit and miss (and miss more often than not), nearly each one has some sort of unique dialogue between the party, and they’re pretty great. Nier has some good dialogue and outstanding voice acting, and they bring life to the characters. Good chemistry among party members is a big thing for me when it comes to RPGs, and Nier nails it.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."