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NIER
Developer Cavia
Publisher Square Enix
Platform 360 / PS3
Genre Action/RPG
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
While
other games
are happy to
borrow ideas
from outside
genres, Nier
is routinely
bold enough to
become them.
protagonists. But let it not be
said that you can’t teach an
old dog new tricks.
If there is one triumph to be
found in the overall experience
of playing Nier, then it must
surely be the reminder that
technology and innovation need
not be exclusive bedfellows.
Although it never fails to feel
familiar, even dated, trying
to pin Nier into a genre is
troublesome. Predominantly
a mixture of Zelda and roleplaying
formulas, it nonetheless
cherry-picks from multiple
other genres, plucking and
choosing as befits the mood
of the narrative, to a point
where it fundamentally defies
classification. While other
games are happy to borrow
ideas from outside genres,
Nier is routinely bold enough to
become them.
This is why you should
check Nier out. Not because
it was ever a realistic Game of
the Year candidate for 2010,
but because of its unfettered,
almost flippant approach
to experimentation: it sets
out to provide an interactive
adventure, and in order to do so
it staples gameplay elements
from bullet hell shooters,
classic survival horror, isometric
dungeon crawlers, and even
text adventure games onto the
core experience. The pacing
flounders around at times,
and the graphics, in particular,
betray a modest development
budget, but Nier is a game with
a fierce heart – an imperfect
yet ferocious experiment with
Japanese role-playing concepts,
complimented by a story and
cast of characters stronger than
many of its brethren.
It’s a game that does
remarkable things within the
restraint of having one foot
shackled in the past and, much
like the recent Persona titles,
radiates a conceptual beacon
of light for what JRPGs may as
yet become. It may not be a
great game, but it is one of the
most interesting ones of recent
years. Better to be left only
part-satisfied by something like
that than by Final Fantasy.
TIM HENDERSON
Australia’s best gaming
-zine
www.PIXELHUNT.com.AU
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