NIER

Preview:

When Nier was first announced last year, there was some confusion over what it actually was. Early reports called it an action game in the vein of God of War, and that impression seems to have become ingrained as time has gone on. Square Enix has been trying to change that though, and it's started the process by showing me a demo with as many RPG elements as possible. I was left with the firm realization that, yes, Nier is indeed an action-RPG. The remaining question is whether or not it'll end up being a good one.

The story begins in a grim, post-apocalyptic world in which the majority of humanity has been infected by a nasty plague. The intended cure ends up making the disease even worse, and the result is a virus that turns its victims into creatures called Shades. After a brief glimpse of the character Nier and his daughter -- who has been infected with the virus -- we're thrown ahead more than 300 years, only to find that not much has changed. Nier's daughter is somehow not only still alive, but still sick with the virus. At that point, the game begins in earnest.

At least part of the story is set in what appears to be a medieval village that serves as a hub for a variety of missions. The mission that I saw was a fairly simple fetch quest that required Nier to go out into the country and kill some sheep. Not the most inspired quest, but there will apparently be longer quest chains as well. The reward for completing these missions will be items that can be used to craft new weapons, and special words like "Gebi Solir" that add new spells and abilities.

These words are significant, because Nier gets his power from a special book that hovers at his side at all times. The Grimoire Weiss, as it is called, not only lends its powers to a variety of attacks, but it has a bit of an attitude. This book adds some intrigue to the story, since it's not entirely clear where Nier got it. We only know that it's dangerous because he won't let his daughter anywhere near it.

The demo ended with a battle against a giant Shade that attempts to destroy the game's hub village. The ensuing fight brings to mind the giant Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, which destroys the Destiny Islands from the first game. In that game as in this one, there isn't much more to the battle than to slash at the creature's ankles with a variety of attacks and try to bring it down.

Actually, the fighting in general is reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts. Less involved than God of War or other pure action games, defeating Shades is a matter of hacking, slashing and using a variety of magic attacks. The battle mechanics are perhaps a hair more involved than Kingdom Hearts, as the variety of attacks is somewhat wide, but it still leans much more toward "RPG" than "action game."

In the end, a lot of what I've seen suggests that Square-Enix is trying to give Nier some of ever-elusive crossover appeal by featuring a more mature protagonist, and a more action-oriented approach. Hopefully someone at Square-Enix will realize that achieving such success is about more than superficial elements -- there needs to be some depth as well. The version that I saw was quite early though, so there's plenty of time to polish things up. We'll see how the developers do when Nier hits later this year.


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