NieR is odd. This is coming from someone who typically likes games that break the mold in certain ways and NieR does certainly deliver. It starts off simple enough, you play as the protagonist who is trying to save his deathly ill daughter from an incurable plague while the world is overrun with these monsters. It starts off with a goal in mind and the end goal pretty much right away. It doesn't throw into a story about saving the world or anything like most RPG's tend to do, it is a simple but very emotionally charged story directed by the genius that is Yoko Taro.
The story while doesn't seem to be an 'epic' tale compared to his other works and definitely if you played NieR Automata before this you probably would agree, just the way the story unfolds is excellent. All the supporting characters are incredible and everything is so well written that it makes such a simple premise have tons of heart and emotion to it. The story is the best part of this game. The story while simple at first, does spread into different territories that really expand the plot. Even the antagonists, while at first seem like enemies you can love to hate, their motives are explained well and even the minor ones that seem like just simple boss fights in the way of the objective have such depth about them later on that it made me feel bad for a lot of the bosses, that's a testament to the game's writing.
The music is very catchy and has a haunting sound to it. It really works with the themes. The voice acting is great and everyone does a very good job, yet Liam O'Brien, as usual, steals the show. His character is so full of wit and humor that it really works with his poetic voice. This is one of his best roles yet and he truly is the star of the show. Everyone else is well acted but Liam O'Brien takes it to another level with an amazing performance.
The gameplay is where it falls apart. It's simple combat and it does throw a few areas that change things up. There is one area that is a Diablo clone, there is one area that is a text-based RPG and there is another area that feels like a 90's horror game. It works well and does add much-needed variety, the issue is that the game becomes a huge fetch quest after the first half. The second half haves you revisit previous locations instead of giving new ones and it just feels like a chore. When the game feels like it should've ended 10 hours before it actually does, that's a problem.
The combat is fun but it could've used a lock on system and the camera sometimes gets a bit wonky at times, even though it can be adjusted at any time. The normal difficulty felt a bit too hard and while I'm more of a casual player I found 'easy' mode to feel more towards my liking but it does give a good challenge if you're into that.
After you beat the game once, like other Yoko Taro games it has multiple endings. I recommend playing it through at least two times because the second playthrough things do change. It's subtle but it's quite a bit of narrative content that is thrown in that gives context to the story. Thankfully, it starts in the second half of the game rather than having to replay the entire thing over from the beginning.
To see all the endings requires quite a bit of dedication. You need to acquire all the weapons for the game and that requires either doing tons of fetch quests or grinding out materials. While it does become easier to grind them out after the first playthrough it does become a huge chore. Personally, after I beat the game the second time I just watched the other endings on YouTube. While it doesn't have the same 'satisfaction' I was just done with the fetch quest nature of the second half. Since I did that much it took about 20 hours to finish it but if you want to do everything, the game is long but because of artificial padding. Still, it's an adventure worth taking.
This is a game that really should be remade and there are talks that may one day happen. Fingers crossed because it's an excellent story that if fleshed out more would've been much better. It's good to see Yoko Taro learned from his mistakes and corrected just about all the issues in his sequel but is it worth it? Yes. It's an excellent story that has great writing, characters, villains, and motivations. The gameplay is a huge fetch quest after the first half and even if you don't play it to 100% completion as the game almost demands, it does give tons of bang for the buck.
Even though it could've been better then it turned out to be, play it for the story because it's one of the better RPG storylines in recent memory. I'd rank it up there with its sequel and other RPG classics such as Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger. Well worth a play for that reason alone just know it won't be the best experience in terms of actual game design.
For that, I give it my highest 7/10 I can.