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Story
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This game takes place in a world that is in near destruction due to unknown circumstances. Nier, who is the father of Yonah, works hard to support his daughter and himself by doing odd jobs in his village. One day, his daughter venture off to a dangerous place, and Nier has to go there and save her. On his way there, he encountered a talking book by the name of Grimoire Weiss. By making an alliance with the book, Nier is able to use powerful magic to devastate his enemies. Little did he know that will set things in motion, a fate that will befall on Nier and his daughter, as well as his newly gained friends.
The story is extremely well-told, and it is pretty unique in RPG games. I don't think that many games that can rival this game's storyline, especially for it's great plot twists and multiple endings. Not only that, this game also has very likable characters, like Nier, Kaine, Weiss, Emil and many more. You may also find that this game will likely surprise you in many ways, where many of this game's story elements do not fall to standard RPG story elements, such as happy endings. In many ways, I can honestly say that I felt sorry in many characters in this game.
This game also features multiple endings, where one ending may or may not be related to each other. When you are playing New Game Plus for the second playthrough, you will be able to view lots of additional scenes that are not available during the initial playthrough. Many of these new cutscenes will make you feel emotional and sympathetic, in many ways. I felt that the developer made a clever design and usage on New Game Plus for multiple endings in this game.
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Gameplay
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NOTE: Some people are confused with Nier Gestalt and Nier Replicant. Nier Gestalt is the exclusive Japanese version for Xbox 360, but is available in English for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Nier Replicant is the exclusive Japanese version for PS3 only. The main character for both versions is different, where Nier in Nier Gestalt is an older man and the father of Yonah, whereas Nier in Nier Replicant is a younger man and Yonah's brother. In this review, the game that is being reviewed is Nier Gestalt in English version. However, it is titled simply as Nier in English version.
i) Progression Section
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To progress in the game, you need to travel somewhere, collect some stuffs, and give it to someone. You will also explore a number of dungeons in the game, where some of them have puzzles for you to complete. Most of the main game's objectives is to fetch some items, and give it to someone. Other than that, there is not many variety of progression elements. You can either walk, run, or use a boat to get to your destination.
You may also opt to do Side Quests in this game, and again, most of them require you to get something to complete it, or to kill a certain enemy. The reward of completing these quests are usually money, as well as weapons.
ii) Upgrading and Customisation Section
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Like many other RPG games, you can level up by killing enemies called Shades. As you level up, your stats will increase, such as HP, Attack, and other stats. Once you are powerful enough, you can defeat enemies much more easily in lower difficulty modes.
You may also opt to upgrade your weapons, by spending a fee and some materials. As you upgrade your weapons, they will be much more stronger, and can be useful to dispatch stronger enemies. However, materials can be hard to find, as some enemies will only drop certain materials very, very rarely. You can also find items at certain points in different areas.
You may also customise your weapon's, magic's and martial arts' abilities by Words. Words can give a variety of effects, such as increased EXP, and many more. Words are obtained randomly when fighting Shades, and some Words have stronger variations to be obtained in the game.
iii) Combat Section
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The combat plays like other action games. You can use either sword, heavy swords, or spears to attack enemies. You can also use a variety of magic to defeat enemies, as well as charge weapon attacks on enemies. Using magic will drain your MP, and it will restore itself slowly. You can also use items to restore HP or MP in combat. You can also dodge enemies by rolling, or block attacks. As you progress in the game, you will gain additional party members that are controlled by A.I. You can use certain orders to direct their behaviour.
You will fight a variety of enemies, such as Shades, robots and animals. Most of them have different appearances and attacks, and some can be easy to fight, others not so. For example using a long ranged magic like Dark Spear is effective against faraway enemies. Enemies can be fought during exploration on outdoors, as well as inside dungeons.
There is a variety of boss fights in this game, and they are fun to fight. Most of the boss fights in this game are varied, and require different strategies to fight. Unlike regular enemy fights, the boss fights are designed in a way that they can defeat you easily if you do know what to do in the battle.
iv) Gameplay Conclusion
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The gameplay unfortunately, fells short in being great or the very least of being good. The gameplay lacks any substantial or unique features that will differentiate this game than the rest of action RPGs. The backtracking is kind of tedious and repetitive, as the game's world is not entirely big or vast. Also, the game also lack of unlockable combat moves, and you will be using the same combo moves in combat all and over again. Customisation in this game is also lacking, where you cannot customise Nier's appearance or stats more extensively. However, the combat is pretty fun, great boss fights, and some entertaining throwback gameplay sections from past games that may be recognised by other people.
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Graphics
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The graphics in this game is not exceptional, but certainly not too bad. Character models look good at times during cutscenes, but not during exploration or gameplay. Environment designs are pretty bland, and most towns and dungeons in this game lack creativity or beauty for players to enjoy. No major technical issues such as bugs or glitches spotted while playing this game.
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Sound
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The soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal. It has a lot of memorable themes, such as Kaine's theme, Nier's village theme, and many more that is worth listening. Unlike other RPGs, this game is filled with lots of vocal songs, which are mostly made up from different languages like Gaelic and Portuguese. If I have the chance, I will definitely purchase the soundtrack because the soundtrack itself has many great compositions, styles and vocals.
The voice acting is great, with great performances by all voice actors around, such as Jamieson Price, Laura Bailey, Liam O'Brien, Julie Ann Taylor, and many more. Laura Baliey's performance as Kaine should be commended, as she voices a totally unique character that will surprise most people in an RPG game. Try and compare her voice as Kaine in this game and Serah from Final Fantasy XIII, and you will get what I mean.
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Replay Value
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This game has good replay value. You can play the game in New Game Plus mode to obtain all Endings, or do side quests. Unfortunately, most of the side quests are highly repetitive, and it is unlikely for average players to complete all of them due to repetitiveness. You may also plant some vegetables or flowers for income, or fishing. If you are also looking for more challenging gameplay, try out the Hard difficulty mode in New Game Plus or in a new playthrough.
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Conclusion
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I can honestly say that this is an RPG game that I enjoy a lot despite some of it's major issues like gameplay and graphics. This game has an exceptional and plot-twisting storyline, great characters, masterpiece soundtrack, and good voice acting. I highly advise people to try out this game for it's great story exposition, characters, and soundtrack. It has fair share of it's flaws, but not all games are perfect.
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Pros and Cons
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Pros
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- Excellent story.
- Well-used plot twists.
- Many emotional and surprising moments.
- Great characters, both good and evil characters.
- Excellently developed characters.
- Great character relationships.
- Masterpiece music.
- Great voice acting.
- Good replay value.
- Mildly fun combat.
- Epic boss fights.
- Clever tribute or throwback on certain past games.
- Has multiple endings.
- Cleverly-designed New Game Plus mode to accommodate multiple endings.
Cons
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- Mediocre graphics.
- Gameplay lacked innovation.
- Lack of combat moves.
- Very few customisation options.
- Repetitive objectives.
- Repetitive side quests.
Get ready to embark on a journey filled with monsters, magic, and overpowered haircuts, because this list features the best JRPGs on the PS3.
There wasn't that many. Thanks to the west's criticism. It was definitely lacking compared to every other ps system. Dont get me wrong there were a few good ones i know that.
Nier, Valkyrie Chronciles, Tales games , Ni No Kuni, Resonance of Fate, FF13’s, Ys8 just a few off the top of my head and there were a lot more.
Not nearly to the degree of PS1 and PS2.
@shinoff2183 makes a good point that around the PS3/Xbox 360 gen is when the genre wasn’t as prevalent and began to shy away from turn-based. There’s some standouts for sure, but look at the PS1 and PS2 JRPG library and then compare that to the PS3 and PS4’s.
Theres definitely a decline in a selection of titles. Even worse was the quality seemed to take a massive hit as well. I think Lost Odyssey was a huge standout for that gen when you look at production values, then you look at something like Fairy Fencer on the PS3 and it’s kind of depressing.
But by that generation there was a shift from western developed games overtaking Japanese developed games. Back from the NES to PS2 Japanese games were the cream of the crop… I don’t know what happened but like midway into the PS3/360 life-time they became less so.
Compared to the ps1 ps2 and he'll even ps4 ps3 doesn't hold a candle to either imo. It's also when turn based damn near disappeared. Again thanks to the west's criticism
Crimson I'd put money on the west being at fault, guys like Phil phish, and numerous others at that time were attacking jrpg and Japanese games in general pretty hard.
Ni no kuni was probably my fav jrpg back then , and the blue dragon
Tales got kinda lucky here. When they took a chance and finally brought tales of graces f over west it sold like 250k lmao a lot of jrpgs did 500k or below. Disgaea was worse i think. Bamco decided to keep bringing more games over though.
Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II were the best RPGs on PS3 made by Japanese developers. Everything else just fell short always. Ni No Kuni was a full package, an okayish game as well. Nier and Drakengard III had superb writing, setting and voice acting, however, the performance was a real drag on the gameplay. Traditional RPG-wise I'd actually say 360 had better JRPGs, and think that Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were the best traditional JRPGs of the era. PS3 Valkyria Chronicles was okay, but it is closer to an SRPG.
Ryu Ga Gotoku games were also solid, they were still finding their footing and breaking new ground with new cities and formats.
PS3 was the era that almost made me quit gaming and I started playing on PC because I could not find good performance nor games on the system. PS4 got me back into it, and now PS5 is a mix in and between, I just play my PS4 library on the PS5 and rest on PC, just like during the PS3 era. The only new exclusive Sony JRPG is pretty much FFXVI and it is so streamlined and simplified from the normal RPG experience that I can't fit it into the genre anymore. Dragon Quest XII hopefully remedies all of this, but it is just one game.
These new games will all be on PC (while it does take 2-3 years to wait, and 6-12 months from launch to have them patched + fixed by modders) and they perform better on it. The only point in owning a PS5 is to play games a couple of years earlier, but for a hard-working family man like me, the quality of the experience is more important than playing it as soon as possible. And I can't do modern games at 30fps 720p after playing 120fps at 4K. For older games, that's okay.
PSX and PS2 though, those were the days...Still have a massive collections of classic RPGs in CD and DVD format and a phat PS3 to play them!
It's kinda like that, the PS3 generation was a bad time for JRPGs, especially with the Japanese feeling the need to westernize their games, shooters dominating that gen, the racism from western game journalists (it was bad, between G4, Phill Fish, and a slew of others), and the higher development costs...
It really made me miss the PS1/PS2 days of JRPGs, even the quality of half of those games during the 7th gen weren't as good. The 360 tried, but Microsoft's consoles weren't popular in Japan and no body in the West bought a Xbox for JRPGs (despite Xbox having Vesperia, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey).
" It's kinda like that, the PS3 generation was a bad time for JRPGs, especially with the Japanese feeling the need to westernize their games "
This is when everything fall down and games looks not fun to play anymore except for few games like demon and dark souls for example
Nah. It's a bad trilogy of games
The only reason XIII-2 stands out is because XIII was so bad
When the bar is so low, anything after feels better.
Watching the credits roll on ff16 now it is good but , I'd really like to re try ff13 least it's turn based and would fill that gap for me.
They got better after the first one in the trilogy, not outstanding game though.
Honestly, I played FFXIII a few years after release and maybe because it was after the hype cycle and I knew the flaws of the game, it actually became my favorite FF after VII.
I took off the mini map and never used auto battle and the stuff that mattered to me in an FF was just so well done.
The art and graphics were insane at the time
The music is still special
The story still lingers in memory more than a decade later
The RPG systems were decent
I never really got the hate for it, still have a soft spot for that game inside me.
Only gripe I have with Ar Tonelico 3 is that Saki is annoying as hell whether English or in Japanese. Then Saki's English voice actor became Ionasal on Ar Nosurge she was a little annoying but not as bad. Johnny Young Bosch voicing Tatsumi I thought he did a great job. And Akiko Shikata with her vocals and the music from the games just went hand and hand.
Nier and Drakengard are two series that couldn't be more different in their setting and stories, but somehow they are still linked.
Whether intended or not, NieR makes a strong case that good gameplay is not everything, especially if a game has larger goals in mind.
i mean ... it depends right. when i think about drakengard 1s combat .. damn. its god awful. the game is great but its very charring to get through because of it.
good combat helps a game tremendously
I still need to get around to playing this. :(