Nier is one ugly game, but it sure is good.
You begin without context, a hooded man fighting off waves of black and gold creatures called Shades in a destroyed city with your magical talking book named Grimoire Weiss, whose name is NOT to be abbreviated. You're probably asking why our hero is fighting off Shades, right? Well, it's because he's trying to protect his little girl Yonah, who, unfortunately, has been infected by the Black Scrawl. Once the battle has finished, the game goes ahead 1300 years into the future - a future that looks more like it'd be from the past, and no one has aged one bit - but after the huge time skip, we find out that the Shades are running amuck, and it is your job to sort that out as well as trying to find a cure for Yonah-as well as making your own discoveries, and doing some side-questing.
Elsewhere, people have their own problems that aren't just about Shades, one in particular is kainé who is an outcast; a victim to the harsh words from the townsfolk over things I won't discuss due to spoilers. Kainé is a rough-natured badass that wields two blades and kicks tons of ass. In lingerie. Yup. She wears nothing but lingerie. And she has a sexy, badass attitude. In lingerie. Yup. By far the coolest character out of the group. Definitely my favourite. She is easily tempered and has the mouth of a sailor, and to top it off, she's always getting into arguments with Weiss, threatening to burn his pages. Weiss, in return, calls her a foul-mouthed hussy. Priceless. You get the idea, genuinely funny and great fun to listen to. Kainé is voiced by the always excellent Laura Bailey, and Weiss being voiced by the talented Liam O'Brien.
The gameplay is very avant-garde with it being half hack and slash, half shoot 'em up, side-scroller, half puzzle, and half novel, you'd think it would be an absolute mess with having all these genres in one game but it isn't, it works surprisingly well even to the point you'd think to yourself why no other developers have taken this rout with their games. Nier plays the hack n' slash role, which Weiss plays the shoot 'em up role. You can do both at the same time, you're never forced to switch out whichever you're currently using for the other, instead the game allows for both at the same time for the most possible fun. The boss battles in Nier are done exceptionally well. Hell, I'll go ahead and say the boss battles in Nier are some of the best boss battles this console generation has ever seen.
Having boss battles throw everything at you that you feel like you're playing DoDonPachi is quite exhilarating. Having to carefully roll out of the way of a devastating blow, or full-on bombardment of shoot 'em up style attacks, and then landing the finishing blow always brings a smile to my face. There was never a time in this game where I said this is boring. Not once. And for me, that's tough, because today I'm finding a lot of games boring, so for Nier to not bore is quite the accomplishment.
The story is good enough for what it is, but it's the characters backstories that truly make this story memorable. I've purposely not mentioned every character because I want there to be some surprise left for new players, I want them to experience this tale without knowledge for what happens and who people are before they even play it.
It really is a fantastic game that draws so many elements from other games and makes it its own unique experience. Once you've completed it, you can play New Game Plus and start roughly halfway through the game, and unlock new endings. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Nier and can honestly say that I feel that Nier is truly one of the best games this generation.