A reminder of the Art of Game Development.
When Nier was first teased sometime in 2009, it was said to be a J-RPG for people who disliked J-RPGs. This could be seen in two ways; either that Cavia was planning a J-RPG for the sort of people who hate cutscenes that go for more than 5 minutes and turn the console off if they don't kill anything for more than the same amount of time, or that they were making a J-RPG for people sick of effeminate boys saving the world from equally-effeminate motiveless villains by grinding for hours on end.
Thankfully Nier turned out to be the latter.
Because it's the most important detail, let me talk about the story first.
The story in Nier is outright amazing. It doesn't only put a huge majority of games to shame, it puts a majority of movies, and books, to shame. It's complicated, but not so much that you won't - eventually - understand it. It has shocking twists, but never so shocking that they just come out of nowhere, they always have their hints preceding them. There is only one weak twist with any holes in it, and that's one out of a huge amount. Like any good plot, to say more would be to ruin it, so I will simply say that if you were hoping for a unique plot that doesn't reek of J-RPG formulas like I do, you will not be disappointed.
The characters hold up just as well, which is uncommon; most great RPGs have a poor tendency of sacrificing either characterization or plot for the other. Nier suffers no such thing. The main characters are all exquisitely developed. No annoying character gimmicks are pushed in a paper-thin attempt at creating uniqueness without reason or development, nothing exists without cause; Kaine may have a colourful vocabulary that sets her apart, but it is there for a very good reason (unlike some other gimmicks-ttebayo). You are never expected to cry for a character simply because the game says you should, a common flaw of J-RPGs; it gives you raw reason to love them.
Special mention needs to go to the title character, Nier. While all the characters are fantastic - I could rant for ages about Weiss' dry wit, Kaine's vocabulary and history, Emil's hopefulness and situation - Nier shines as an example of exactly what the genre needs. He's not overly attractive (though I find the common assertion that he is ugly insulting), he's getting on in life, he's past his prime. His relationship with his daughter is something real, and both the main quest and side quests give you plenty of insight into this. There are many touching moments I could use as an example, but I do not have the heart to spoil any of them. All I'll say is, Nier is a better man than I; no way would I have eaten that stew.
Another common flaw of J-RPGs, in regards to both plot and characterization, is pacing. Nier somewhat suffers in this regard, but at the same time it doesn't. Provided you choose to do all the side-quests, the plot will be spaced more widely than is ideal, but even then it is still significantly more present than the average J-RPG, and is tied with the best. Your other option is to speed through the game doing only the main quest. While this will prove to be challenging and you will miss some great character development from side-quests, it makes the game significantly faster-paced plot-wise, so it is an excellent idea to try a main-quest-only run on your second playthrough.
Graphics are next, and they're a bit of a hot issue with Nier. Many people are calling the graphics dated, and they're right. Technically the methods are quite dated. But Nier has care in spades; others call the graphics ugly, and I would accuse them of being wrong. The bloom effect may be overused filter-level stuff, but the way it applies heavily when you exit shade and then gradually dies down is a great touch. Textures are often used in favour of models, which is not a good thing, but they're well-made textures, and they look nice at most ranges. Landscapes range from serviceable to beautiful, and I challenge anyone to not be awestruck after their first look at the Lost Temple, the first dungeon of the gave.
The regular enemies, 'Shades,' are the biggest sufferers, and it's difficult to defend how poor they look with claims of 'art'. Even so, most of the bosses look striking if not technically amazing, and were enough to immerse me. In many ways I'd liken Nier's graphics to that of Shadow of the Colossus' or Ico's. The methods are dated, the funding is inferior, but Nier uses what it has to great effect, but it makes up for budget and software with creativity and effort, surpassing many games with much higher budgets in the process.
Next, and also very important, is music. Music can make or break an RPG. No matter how powerful and touching a scene is, no matter how beautiful the scenery is, mediocre music will lessen its impact and bad music will ruin it completely. Likewise, great music can turn poorly-executed scenes or scenery into something servicable. Thankfully Nier has amazing music to go with its amazing scenes, and to help spruce up its technically-mediocre scenery. The soundtrack features orchestral instrumentals, usually punctuated with beautiful choir-style vocals in made-up languages. Heavy piano gives most tracks a haunting feel, while others feature acoustic guitar and light percussion. Most of the tracks have somewhat of a Celtic feel thanks to the vocals, which are just as hauntingly beautiful as the piano work.
This is not your average girl pulled out of a karaoke bar; her vocal style is closer to that of .hack's vocalists than the pop style of Square Enix games. All's I can say - as a classically-trained singer - is that she is amazing, and elevates both the music and the game itself in every possible way.
Combat is perhaps the only contender to graphics for the game's biggest shortcoming, but like the graphics, it is a minuscule shortcoming at best. You are given a fairly broad variety of melee combat moves in the beginning of the game, but it's unfortunate you do not get much more than this; an additional two weapon types are unlocked through story, but they differ in moveset only marginally from the base single-handed swords, even if the play style is changed quite a lot by these small alterations.
A broad and varied range of magic, complete with a constantly and quickly-recharging magic meter, adds a lot more spice to the combat, though some magic is somewhat redundant; the uses of a few spells overlap, and render others obsolete. For the most part though, the spells have their own uses, and you will find yourself using almost all of them regularly, and going into the menu to switch hotkeys for them when the need arises, which it will regularly.
But, again, these are small complaints. Nier may not lock swords with Devil May Cry, and while it doesn't beat out God of War it comes reasonably close, which is something only a handful of action RPGs can claim. The best comparison would likely be the Fable series; not enough to make you come back only for the combat, but enough to keep you going until you've gotten everything and seen all endings.
Where combat excels significantly is the boss fights. These guys are hard, especially on (irony abounds) hard mode. The game is quite generous with healing items, but using these often feels like cheating. Those looking for a challenge can very easily limit the amount of healing items they use; generous checkpoints limit the frustration if one chooses this method.
The majority of the actual attacks that bosses use come under the 'bullet hell' category from the Raiden/Touhou region of shmupps, funnily enough. That Nier represents this in 3D far better than any other game to date - despite being an RPG - is more than impressive. While most projectiles can be destroyed by your own projectiles or melee attacks, as well as blocked with the later-appearing Wall spell, this feels similar to using healing items. Those truly looking for a blood-pumping challenge will likely add 'dodging only' to the 'no items' self-restriction. Normally I would not take self-imposed challenges into consideration in a review, but the game is perfectly fair with these limitations in place, unlike other games where self-limitations often lead to the need for either exploits, copious retries, or the temporary lifting of limitations; Nier feels like it was made to accommodate for bullet-hell veterans looking for self-imposed challenge, and at no stage do you /need/ healing items or anything to nullify projectiles.
Gameplay in general adds a few nice touches. Item hunting can either be an entertaining distraction or tedium, but like the sometimes-tedious sidequests, none of these are necessary, and since all bosses could theoretically be beaten at Level 1 with basic weapons, powering up your weapons with rare materials is never something you HAVE to do. Fishing, likewise, is a fun refrain which is only tedious if overused, whereas planting crops is quick but takes unattended time, so it's a small one-minute thing to do between missions. All of these help buffer out the occasional tedium of item-hunting for sidequests; there are a lot of quests, so even if one of them is proving frustrating you can always do something else to renew your enthusiasm.
Nier does have some flaws, as aforementioned. Also added into the mix is the lack of much post-game gameplay content. Once you beat the game you unlock the ability to get different endings, as well as adding a generous number of scenes to the story which focus on various aspects, such as the other main characters or even your enemies; however, in your second playthrough, there won't be much to challenge you. Every enemy in the game could be beaten at Level 1, with the default weapons and abilities, theoretically. While this is good for those looking for a challenge and people who do not like grinding, it's unfortunate that there is no post-game superboss to put your reflexes, strategy and your equipment to a full test.
Why a 10, then? Simple. Nier is art, and as such it must be judged as such. Nier is not about the combat, or the technical skill of the graphics designers. Even if it were about that, I'd still give it a 9 or 9.5. But Nier is art, to call it imperfect because it doesn't have a fun, silly addition like a superboss, would be as unfair as giving it a 5 because it challenges me to think.
But to round off this review, Nier is simply amazing. It's difficult to tell a reader what Nier is - or any other game that sells itself primarily on plot, characters and overall experience - without spoiling anything, and without dulling its impact. But since a review is meant to inform the reader on whether a game is good, I feel it would be far better to tell you what Nier is not.
Nier is not an ugly game with an ugly protagonist.
Nier is not a typical J-RPG with effeminate prettyboys crawling out of every orifice.
Nier is not a typical action RPG where you trade blows in between potions.
Nier is not made by Square Enix.
Nier is not for kids, as Kaine's colourful vocabulary should tell you right off the mark - the girl could make Marcus Fenix blush.
Nier is not, in any way, forgettable.
For what it is - for art - Nier is nothing less than perfect.