Nier is a game with split-personality disorder, aiming to please everyone with elements drawn from a raft of sources, but in the process it never excels in any one area. While IGN does appreciate that a game like this tends to take more risks than a franchise hit like Final Fantasy, they can't help but wonder if Nier might've been a better game if it had focussed in on delivering a few key elements exceptionally well, rather than spreading itself so thinly and watching the good ideas go to waste.
Presentation - 7.5
Graphics - 6.5
Sound - 8.5
Gameplay - 7.0
Lasting Appeal - 7.5
Overall -
With the recent cancellation of the Xbox exclusive, Scalebound, what does it mean for Platinum Games? Are they spreading themselves too thin?
Yes, the Nier demo is great.
I don't think greysun directly means a single title. Platinum as a company spreading their limited resources by working in various projects at the same time could damage them regarding future projects if many projects end up not selling well, being cancelled or just not good.
Bayonetta and Vanquish are great games, sold badly. Metal Gear, sold becaus well it's Metsl Gear. Platinum b-team's titles like legged of Kora, TMNT and Transformers were ok to bad.
This is a studio I want to be around for long time and not shut down due to poor project management.
Scalebound initially started out as a wii project back around the time they worked on the first bayonetta. they tried pitching the idea to different publishers but there were no takers. Nintendo moved on to the wiiu and this game did not go anywhere until MS wanted a game and here was scalebound just sitting there.
I don't think MS payed for the IP as it was created by PG but they certainly paid a pretty penny for development and that didnt really transpire as quickly as their other projects did (Nier comes to mind). Rather than MS keep pumping $$ into this game they just made the choice of canceling it. Can you really fault MS for PG having more projects than they can handle?
Conspiracy theory time... what if (just what if) sony had something to do with sabotaging the development cycle of SB by tasking Square with Nier (thus shifting development time away from SB and onto Nier). I mean seriously. A JP dev making a game for a US publisher when other JP publishers could just as easily persuade this JP dev into sidelining this one project and focus more on one for the home team. (yeah its far fetched, and it was meant to be)
Scalebound has been in development for 4 years... yep It's Microsoft's fault for the game not being ready. /s
Microsoft owns the intellectual property, they could have simply got another team to assist Platinum Games if they felt there was trouble.
Did Sony not have Sony of Santa Monica assist ready at dawn when they were creating the Order 1886?
If it's their investment in their property I'm pretty positive they're going to want to see what's best for the investment and fans.
If Sony could make the Last Guardian work and Square Enix could make Final Fantasy 15 work I'm pretty damn positive Microsoft could have made scalebound work.
Scalebound is canceled simply because Microsoft is gun-shy on supporting new intellectual properties they simply do not want to have to spend the money.
there are publishers clearly in gaming that would have done something completely different with the same situation
The Dude Bro voice acting and the use of a stereo headset had to be Microsoft's influence
I think Microsoft lost patience. Scalebound was announced in 2014. Nier:Automata was announced a year later is about to be released. I'm betting Platinum told MS that Scalebound wasn't going to be released this year and MS pulled the plug.
It sounds like Microsoft were expecting a truly fantastic product and Platinum were struggling to keep up with it. It constantly missed targets and I think Microsoft realised it was just never going to be finished.
Microsoft DID have people helping develop it. They supposedly had sent a team over to help getting it to work in UE4 but they just don't have a Japanese speaking team for it to work seamlessly.
We just don't know what the actual reasons are, I can also write things like:
We know MS is difficult, we know they put too much pressure on devs with their deadlines, we know they added Win10 PlayAnywhere support which might not have been calculated up front in the time and cost.
Everyone in development, not just game development, knows there are clients out there who keep changing things, who keep changing specs and wants and stuff, for all we know that is also what happened here.
If MS didn't have Japanese translators or didn't want to pay for them to help the team then whose fault is that?
Again, we don't know what happened, I just find it too easy to blame either MS or PlatinumGames... When 2 people fight usually both are at fault, could be the case here as well...
Not really. They just need better producers or directors. I'm not sure.
They made Bayonetta and Vanquish in succession and they both turned out amazing!
When they work with Japanese Publishers everything is fine.
They fine with Sega, Nintendo, Konami and now Square Enix.
Microsoft and Activision aren't even trying to help. They just say hey here the money make something big.
This is one of those "Colin was right" moments. Platinum went from being a consistently good developer to mediocre in the blink of an eye. And its because they've elected to take on too my projects in my opinion. Though I'm not sure how large or small the studio is, it's never a good sign when they're putting out 5-7 titles a year. Lets hope they reorganize and rebound from this.
Jae Lee writes: What if I told you that you actually didn’t know all that much about some of your old favorite games? Why it resonated with you so much or perhaps even what made them so great in the first place? What if there were some aspects in those very games that you took for granted, when in actuality they were flashes of brilliance in game design?
That is exactly what I’m telling you right now.
Don’t believe me? Read on and welcome to “Brilliance in Gaming.”
Xbigygames writes: Square Enix JP have just opened their first music streaming website. Fans can listen to their favourite music from Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XII-2, Sengoku IXA Dissidia, El Shaddai, Xenogears, Saga, Neir, and DRAG-ON Dragoon. Best of all, Square Enix have made the service free!
Another flop by Square-Enix.
"The character designs are equally hit-and-miss; Nier himself is unappealing and forgettable as a lead character.
If Nier himself seems out of place in his own game, perhaps Square Enix have the answer – seeing as the Japanese release of the game on PS3 (titled Nier Replicant) originally had a much younger character in the lead role, and he was out to save his sister rather than his daughter. The weird chop-job is occasionally noticeable through the stilted dialogue and cliched twists. "
I thought about getting this but after reading this review and not enjoying the character change for Nier, I think I might just skip this or wait for the price to drop, unless SE offers the Replicant version which they should have done in the first place.
well what kind of makes not want this game is the grafics. the videos i have a seen look really avarage, almost bad. comparing to games like gow3 or darksiders or Bayonetta, it just turned me totaly off.
Square Enix is doomed.
It's from Cavia. And I really like those devs (Drakengard).
Most of my favorite games are 7/10s anyhow :) They should have kept the original main for the NA version though.
The old man/ daughter thing seems out of place. You can tell that they kind of tacked it on.