NieR

[Forsaken Lover]

I've often heard NieR toted as having one of the best stories and soundtracks in JRPG history and certainly a Top Tier in the PS3/360/Wii generation.

Gameplay is so-so but I don't care.

So tell me - is the plot or characters that good? And music?

[Sephiroth]

The best RPG and story after Final Fantasy VII. Who cares about being (SPOILER)a clone? You still have your own life and purpose to live. And it may not be taken away from others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IEbfDtDaUc

Nuff said.

There is only one theme that can compete with Nier's OST, especially Shadowlord, and that is Sephiroth's Katayoku no Tenshi.

COFFVII
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Nier Gestalt (Father and Daughter version)
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FNCFFXIII
The rest.

There is literally no reason for this game to be good, ...

Except literally the story, the characters, their interaction, the soundtrack, et cetera.

[Forsaken Lover]

The fact you have FFXIII on that list and not Xenogears or FFXII is...troubling to say the least.

I'm afraid if NieR is considered to have the best plot in JRPGs alongside FFXIII then well...I'm worried about it. Very worried.

[Sephiroth]

The Ivalice Alliance is not even in my Top 10 of RPGs or overall stories. That'll be RPGs and stories like Final Fantasy VI, IX, X or Chrono Trigger, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, Silent Hill and all.

EDIT: Then just stay away from it, like you said in your deleted post if you are afraid of making a mistake. Concluding only one type of taste from my lists would be a very weak try of psychological conclusion so Final Fantasy XIII and Nier have nothing to do with each other and can be seen both without thinking about the other.

[Shauna]

I was not blown away by Nier.

The soundtrack is pretty. Until it becomes the most repetitive thing in the world - as it might do depending on how much you want to 100% all quests and stuff.
The story was fair enough, again, nothing I was blown away by.
The gameplay was basic hack-n-slash type fare.
The only character I really liked was Kaine. She was pretty cool, although, her character design with the corset butt was questionable.
Speaking of character design - Nier himself is awful. The ugliest main character to ever have graced a game. Old pants-face worst dad in the entire world.

It was... a strange love-hate I had with it. I had a bizarre drive to continue, despite how repetitive the gameplay was. It is nothing like FFXIII though, that is a bizarre thing to be compared to.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I loved the game, but I didn't try to 100% everything. If I had done that, it would have annoyed the heck out of me probably just with how repetitive the side stuff can be. I thought the story was decent the first time I played, but there are some additional things on a second playthrough that gives you some new perspective on the story that was really interesting. I hadn't seen something like that in a game before that I'm aware of, and the story went from decent to intriguingly excellent to me.

[Shauna]

I played it through the total of four times you need to, to get all the endings. But I vaguely enjoyed it, while also hatin' it.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I watched the other endings online because I knew that I would get annoyed doing the extra stuff for the other two endings, haha. I can see why you hated it honestly. It would have gotten insanely repetitive trying to get everything.

[Pete for President]

I've always had my eyes on this title but never actually got it. Maybe I'll scope the internet for a cheap copy.

[Dat Matt]

Nier was a running joke in our group. I picked it up from game stores, but never played it because pants face on the front cover put me off it. So our old flatmate played it and had a love hate relationship with it. Shortly afterwards, Shauna played it and had the same experience. So I had to see what the hype was about.

Nier is...boring. It's Dull, nothing happens in it and everything is basically a means to an end. You can finished the game start to finish in about 10 hours if you know what you need to do. All the "Side Quests" are meaningless missions that serve no purpose other than getting some money or items that will never really be used. All the weapons can be upgrades 3 times each which takes a stupid amount of resource farming and when you've upgraded your weapon of choice (in my case a spear) there is no point doing anything else.

But you do it anyway, and you like it.

There is literally no reason for this game to be good, but it is and it took me 2 lets plays from Shauna and Mary (Flatmate) and m own play through to find out why. Nier is super chill and relaxing. There is a fishing section of the game where you just catch fish to sell. Usually this is just for quests but the process of just throwing in a line and chilling to relaxing music while casting is something that you rarely experience. Just give it a go, take everything at your own pace and have a great old relax.

Music is super sweet too.

[Dat Matt]

So we just uploaded the whole soundtrack to Youtube.

You should click and mellow out with the best soundtrack ever.

[Vyk]

I tried it and could not get into it. There was no hook other than a confusing alternate start. I didn't play long enough to find out if it was an alternate dimension, previous life, past/future stuff, whatever

I was intrigued initially. But once you start playing, the game completely puts the breaks on. And I only put in a couple hours before deciding I was probably not going to enjoy it. Seems like a game you have to put in a few hours before it really "begins". And at the time, I was really...really not in the mood for that kind of JRPG trope. I still enjoy my JRPGs from time to time, but I'll probably never be in the mood for that trope again. I don't enjoy games enough as it is, I'm not going to slog through for hours not enjoying something, blindly hoping for a payoff that may not even exist. I hoped it was good. But did not have the patience

Had the same experience for Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant

[Shauna]

I don't think NieR took any time whatsoever to get started. What you get at the start is exactly what the game has to offer for the rest of it. Except you get dumb sidequests thrown into the mix. The gameplay doesn't get any more interesting (you do get different spells and weapon types, which add almost nothing to the overall way I played the game) as the game progresses. So if you didn't enjoy it at the start, I guarantee that the feeling would not change.

The entire game is strangely laid back. You say it put on the brakes immediately, and it did, but it never takes them off. It progresses in that laid back nothing-really-matters way.

[Vyk]

Wow I went in expecting typical RPG fare. Where some twist would happen to propel things into save the world fashion. Or at least save the girl. Even if not done very well I figured they'd at least try to make something feel urgent. Damn expectations and preconceptions. I may try again one day. And be more prepared for a relaxing trip lol

[Dat Matt]

The game is still "save the world from evil bad guy" but first thing on the list is going to catch sharks and hunt for items to upgrade weapons you'll never use. When you ignore the fact that the game has a pretty dumb story, and it takes 4 play throughs to see the ending its well worth the 40 chilled out hours I spent on it