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[Princess Skittles]

Crap. This game RULES.

I'm still going about the first half quests (no spoilers, but was told to get 51% before doing the mansion level).

This long weekend, I might have to go old-school and pull some all-nighters.

 

[Dunan]

Crap. This game RULES.

I'm still going about the first half quests (no spoilers, but was told to get 51% before doing the mansion level).

You got good advice. Everyone should know this before starting Nier and it doesn't really spoil anything phrased this way: get to 51% of the quests before you enter the mansion. You can never go back to do anything you missed after that very-early-in-the-game "point of no return".

 

[Princess Skittles]

You got good advice. Everyone should know this before starting Nier and it doesn't really spoil anything phrased this way: get to 51% of the quests before you enter the mansion. You can never go back to do anything you missed after that very-early-in-the-game "point of no return".

I know the quests are pretty fetch heavy, but damn if the stories they tell aren't awesome.

Spoiler

And by awesome I mean heart-breaking.

 

[Numpt3]

After months and months of hearing how much of an underrated gem Nier is I finally decided to take the plunge.

Well... you can add me to the Nier fan club. Holy shit this game is awesome, I'm only about 6 hours in so far but I'm loving every minute of it. Can't believe I only paid £9 for this.

 

[FreeMufasa]

Such good memories with this game. Bought it last year at launch and it became my favourite game of the year.

I'll probably pick up Replicant soon too.

 

[Littlegator]

Making Nier enjoyable walkthrough:

Do sidequests until you can buy Beastbain. Play the story until the huge spoiler.
Do sidequests until you can buy Phoenix Spear. Finish the story.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Well... you can add me to the Nier fan club. Holy shit this game is awesome, I'm only about 6 hours in so far but I'm loving every minute of it. Can't believe I only paid £9 for this.

I feel like a thief for only paying £10 (new) for the game :/

 

[AngelSoldier]

Such good memories with this game. Bought it last year at launch and it became my favourite game of the year.

I'll probably pick up Replicant soon too.

Same. I was the only person in my county who bought it at launch though ! Sadface.jpg

Game is amazing, and being a native speaker of Japanese I'm most definitely considering purchasing Replicant soon.

 

[Numpt3]

I feel like a thief for only paying £10 (new) for the game :/

Tell me about it, I would have paid full price for this last year had I known how good it was.

I only have one question so far, does the opening scene and the

Spoiler

massive jump forward in time

get explained at some point?

 

[AngelSoldier]

Tell me about it, I would have paid full price for this last year had I known how good it was.

I only have one question so far, does the opening scene and the

Spoiler

massive jump forward in time

get explained at some point?

Uhm, without spoilers ... "Kind of"

You really have to infer a lot from the ending dialogue and scenes. Also some reading might be in order.

Grimoir Nier: (A translated Japanese only book that explains a whole lot of NieR)

https://docs.google.com/View?id=dgvmkf89_228fxgghgg3&pli=1

 

[Numpt3]

Uhm, without spoilers ... "Kind of"

You really have to infer a lot from the ending dialogue and scenes. Also some reading might be in order.

Grimoir Nier: (A translated Japanese only book that explains a whole lot of NieR)

https://docs.google.com/View?id=dgvmkf89_228fxgghgg3&pli=1

That's good to know, I shall bookmark that link and give it a read once I finish the game (and get all the endings hopefully). Thank you very much.

It's too tempting to highlight the spoilers in this thread, must resist!

 

[Hasemo]

I have a problem with this game.
I preordered the Japanese version a long time ago and it turned out to be the most expensive normal version of a game I ever bought.

Right now I'm about 2 hours into the game, right after the first dungeon. I though it's not really that good and stopped playing for a while.
After a month I tried playing it again, I took all the quests in the first town went out to the field and got killed by a boar and the same thing happened after another month. Usually I don't get so easily discouraged by things like that (and I love Demon's Souls), since I've began my adventure with games when they were much harder than today. Problem is, Nier doesn't really appeal to me, so I lack motivation.

What should I do to love this game? I paid a lot for it and the concept seems pretty good. Also, a lot of people here seem to think that it's a great game, so I must ask, if you have any advice for me (aside for not giving up so easily)?

 

[AngelSoldier]

I have a problem with this game.
I preordered the Japanese version a long time ago and it turned out to be the most expensive normal version of a game I ever bought.

Right now I'm about 2 hours into the game, right after the first dungeon. I though it's not really that good and stopped playing for a while.
After a month I tried playing it again, I took all the quests in the first town went out to the field and got killed by a boar and the same thing happened after another month. Usually I don't get so easily discouraged by things like that (and I love Demon's Souls), since I've began my adventure with games when they were much harder than today. Problem is, Nier doesn't really appeal to me, so I lack motivation.

What should I do to love this game? I paid a lot for it and the concept seems pretty good. Also, a lot of people here seem to think that it's a great game, so I must ask, if you have any advice for me (aside for not giving up so easily)?

Ignore the boar until your have some decent weaponry/magic. Also the dodge-roll is your friend. If your magic spear thingy is upgraded enough you can actually knock the boar over and stun it for a bit for easy hits on it.

 

[slaughterking]

What should I do to love this game?

1. Don't do the subquests. That may seem kind of counterproductive at first, but it's an established fact among most fans that the sidequest drag down the experience. They are badly designed fetch quests and not very rewarding for the most part. (There's some nice story-stuff here and there, though. So you may want to do some quests when you eventually "get" the game.)
2. Try to be smarter than the boar. You can easily win the fight if you let it run against a rock and then attack him a few times when he's unconscious. Repeat that until it's dead.
3. The story and atmosphere in combination with what is arguably one of the best OSTs of the generation is what is so great about Nier. Try to open yourself to that. Give the game a few hours to unfold and than decide if it's your cup of tea. It took me a while to really enjoy it, too.

Some people just really don't like the game, though. Maybe you're one of them.

 

[AngelSoldier]

1. Don't do the subquests. That may seem kind of counterproductive at first, but it's an established fact among most fans that the sidequest drag down the experience. They are badly designed fetch quests and not very rewarding for the most part. (There's some nice story-stuff here and there, though. So may want to do some quests when eventually "get" the game.)

SAY WHATTT !? I actually liked the quests ... ~T_T~

To each his own I suppose.

 

[Anteater]

Skip the sidequests if you don't enjoy them, and play it like an easy hack and slash action game and blast through it.

Judging from reviews and negative impressions, it feels like to me that some just spent too much time on sidequests and not moving the main story line fast enough since some of them complained about pacing.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Easy and cheap way to kill the boar.

-Get the boars attention
-Run to the bridge and cross it
-The boar will be unable to cross it and will keep running in to the chasm near the cliff
-Spam long range magic until it dies like the spears and balls

 

[slaughterking]

SAY WHATTT !? I actually liked the quests ... ~T_T~

To each his own I suppose.

Heh, I liked them because the talk with the folks helped me to immerse myself into the world, but I never went too much out of my way to actually finish them, because the tasks were just too tedious.

 

[Seth Balmore]

I need to find some time to replay this gem and get all the endings aaaaaaall over again. Definitely the biggest surprise of 2010 for me and one of the biggest of this generation probably.

 

[Perfo]

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to thank you and your positive opinions about this game that pushed me awhile ago into buying this game; I really loved it and it's my personal surprise of this home-console generation

Sure, the game has problems and limits, but its unique ideas, style, script and especially MUSIC conquered my heart. I had a nice time with it!

Thx gaf players

 

[Hasemo]

Thank you for all your advice.
As for the boar, I was too slow with dodge rolling but I didn't know about the stun after hitting stone (and about the bridge).
Nevertheless, screw the boar, and apparently the subquests as well.

3. The story and atmosphere in combination with what is arguably one of the best OSTs of the generation is what is so great about Nier. Try to open yourself to that. Give the game a few hours to unfold and than decide if it's your cup of tea. It took me a while to really enjoy it, too.

Ah, yes, I must agree that the OST is godly. Actually, listening to it helped me make up my mind to preorder the game.

Thanks again, guess I'll try playing again later this week.

 

[1stStrike]

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to thank you and your positive opinions about this game that pushed me awhile ago into buying this game; I really loved it and it's my personal surprise of this home-console generation

Sure, the game has problems and limits, but its unique ideas, style, script and especially MUSIC conquered my heart. I had a nice time with it!

Thx gaf players

There's a reason Nier has a huge backing here on gaf. Not everyone loves it, but quite a few of us do and I know that I'll be longing for another game that can match what this game did for me in the coming years.

 

[AngelSoldier]

There's a reason Nier has a huge backing here on gaf. Not everyone loves it, but quite a few of us do and I know that I'll be longing for another game that can match what this game did for me in the coming years.

Same. I wish Cavia wasn't disbanded. ~T_T~

 

[Fuu]

All new players should try reading the google docs translation of Grimoire Nier linked above by AngelSoldier, obligatory if you loved the game.

I still listen to songs from the OST almost on a daily basis, sooo good. Absolutely love 'Kaine - Salvation' and all the versions of the 'Song of the Ancients' (Devola's version is actually set as my alarm for when I wake up in the morning, I need soft songs for this and it's perfect).

I need to find some time to replay this gem and get all the endings aaaaaaall over again. Definitely the biggest surprise of 2010 for me and one of the biggest of this generation probably.

Same here, I always find myself wanting to do a replay. This time I'll make sure to get 51% of quests in the first half so I don't get trolled, lol. I never did 100% achievements for any game but I think I'm only 6 achievements short for Nier, maybe I'll get on that.

 

[Audioboxer]

The soundtrack in this game really does deserve the praise it gets, as does voice acting. I feel like an asshole for constantly playing a few hours of Nier, then shelving it for weeks/months. To be fair I have a bad tendency to do that with most of my games as I buy too many, but I'm now going to give this game the love it needs and complete it.

 

[Edvardelis]

Thank you for all your advice.
As for the boar, I was too slow with dodge rolling but I didn't know about the stun after hitting stone (and about the bridge).
Nevertheless, screw the boar, and apparently the subquests as well.

No, you want to do the boar quest. If you can't handle it now, you can wait until you've leveled up a few times. You don't really need it, but Boar Drifting is just that awesome.

The sidequests provide a ton of story into the world itself. Unfortunately many of them are just stupidly time consuming. Sometimes you can even buy the materials, but that isn't worth it unless the reward is something unique.

 

[Soma]

Okay so my buddy and I have finished the first ending and starting on ending B.

But I gotta say that we both really enjoy this game. Really good art design, interesting combat mechanics (the different camera angles, the shmup-esque projectile combats, etc.), surprisingly good dialogue, and the storyline takes some very interesting turns. The Ending B run kinda really

Spoiler

makes you feel like such an asshole with the perspective of the shades and their own little backgrounds

.

Oh and yeah, the soundtrack.

I heard a lot of people praise it and all, but man it really is THAT good, imo. I love that it's very vocal focused. Definitely one of my favorite OSTs in a long long time. I had to have it on my laptop after we beat the first ending. So good.

 

[Audioboxer]

The side quests are some of the worst fetch quests I've come across, even worse than MMOs

It's more so because you run between point A and B just to say 5 words, then have to go back to one of the points to say another 5 words, then back to the other point for a pretty crappy reward.

They are pretty easy though, most of them. I've heard about some flower quest being a pain in the arse.

 

[Edvardelis]

They are pretty easy though, most of them. I've heard about some flower quest being a pain in the arse.

You have to mix flowers at the garden to create a white one. If you don't advance the system's clock it takes forever, and even doing that there's no guarantee you'll get what you need at a certain step. It's just a pain.

 

[Audioboxer]

You have to mix flowers at the garden to create a white one. If you don't advance the system's clock it takes forever, and even doing that there's no guarantee you'll get what you need at a certain step. It's just a pain.

I'm doing it just now, so far I've been lucky enough to get some seeds needed each time, just had to replant peach to get more of it, and replant indigo for some more also.

Now onto indigo and red to make pink....

This is a hidden trophy as well, I don't know if it's even possible to learn the knowledge needed in-game for this plant or if it's an internet-look-up only affair. Either way it's a bit of a dick quest.

 

[Edvardelis]

This is a hidden trophy as well, I don't know if it's even possible to learn the knowledge needed in-game for this plant or if it's an internet-look-up affair only. Either way it's a bit of a dick quest.

I guess people found it by random the first time. A lot of the fishing quests are the same way, they're like go catch X of Y but they don't tell you where to go or even what bait to use.

(And yes, I have both Trophies relating to fishing.)

 

[Audioboxer]

Okay now it's getting frustrating

Done the red/indigo rows 3 times and no pink seed

 

[ScionOfTheRisingSun]

You know, one reason why I really enjoyed Nier was because unlike most traditional JRPG's it didn't waste my time. I mean, yeah, there were all those trite side quests, bu they were optional, the main game is a fairly manageable 30-40 hours as opposed to the 100+ that something like Persona demands of you.

Alas, there is the whole, play the second half of the game X number of times to get all of the ending business. If there were just the standard 2 endings, then sure, I'd prolly slug through it just to get closure and that sense of being done with a game so one can move on. But Nier has just so damn many of them and I cannot justify putting in the time.

What a strange decision to do things this way, I am surprised more people are not down on that aspect.

 

[Perfo]

, the main game is a fairly manageable 30-40 hours

?
The first time with just 20 subquests done, I finished it in less than 10 hrs XD

 

[Princess Skittles]

You know, one reason why I really enjoyed Nier was because unlike most traditional JRPG's it didn't waste my time. I mean, yeah, there were all those trite side quests, bu they were optional, the main game is a fairly manageable 30-40 hours as opposed to the 100+ that something like Persona demands of you.

Alas, there is the whole, play the second half of the game X number of times to get all of the ending business. If there were just the standard 2 endings, then sure, I'd prolly slug through it just to get closure and that sense of being done with a game so one can move on. But Nier has just so damn many of them and I cannot justify putting in the time.

What a strange decision to do things this way, I am surprised more people are not down on that aspect.

Doing minimal side-quests, the main game should only take ten to twenty hours.

New Game Plus runs are like two or three hours tops.

 

[Audioboxer]

Finally onto trying to get the white moonflower, varying solutions online, this one sounds good?

After over four hours planting and harvesting pink and peach moonflower seeds without success, I finally had a breakthrough that's allowed me to harvest white moonflowers more easily. In the last two rounds of crops I've planted, I've reiceved 5 white moonflowers.

The secret is not just what and where your planting, but also how you harvest and plant your next crop. As has been stated elsewhere, the best lineup is in altnerating rows of pink and peach.

Pi Pe Pi Pe Pi
Pe Pi Pe Pi Pe
Pi Pe Pi Pe Pi

Just planting this on an empty field gives a very small chance of the white moonflower from each seed. There is a way to increase the chance, however. When you go to harvest, get the old flower and plant a new one of the SAME color immediately, then proceed to harvest the next flower. The mistake I was making before was clearing the field before planting my new crop.

Why does this change anything?

It's been determined in another thread that the flower that will result is set at the time of planting. Since the white moonflower results from from planting peach next to pink or vice versa, flowers planted on a barren field have NO chance of resulting in a white moonflower when planted. Flowers planted with the companion flower adjacent to it have a 1% chance. Flowers planted with the companion flower on either side have an even greater chance of resulting in the white flower. If you harvest and plant one at a time, every seed you plant will have that increased chance of resulting in white.

I had been clearing the land completely before replanting.

 

[Audioboxer]

Success! One white moonflower seed is mine.

 

[ScionOfTheRisingSun]

Doing minimal side-quests, the main game should only take ten to twenty hours.

New Game Plus runs are like two or three hours tops.

Two to three combined for all endings or per ending?

My memory of my actual gameplay time as reported by the ingame clock is fuzzy, sorry. I am so used to obnoxious 100+ hour RPG's that I automatically think 30-40 when something feels significantly shorter, like Vagrant Story.

 

[Audioboxer]

The backwards and forwards chat with Weiss throughout the fishing quests is excellent haha. I miss touches like this in games, the sense of previous conversations carrying on within tasks at later dates.

 

[Yoshiya]

Bump for tribute album samples: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/nier/tribute/

Remix of Snow in Summer for now. Either the music department of SE just really loves Nier or there's something more significant coming down the line.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Sounds like they're going for an ambient vibe.

 

[Number45]

This is installing right now, just going through the manual. Bought the game on a whim (I think I paid £5 for it) and I have absolutely no idea what to expect. xD

EDIT: Also, glad I always go to options first. 5.1 not the default selection. :s

 

[Dunan]

I have absolutely no idea what to expect. xD

Expect awesomeness.

That is all.

(Fake edit: OK, that's not all. The game does have its flaws. But said flaws are drowned out in the vast, vast ocean of above-mentioned awesomeness. Enjoy the ride!)

 

[BillyBillBlack]

I really loved this game. I think the DLC is cheap and adds more fun to an already great game.

 

[PixyJunket]

Bump for tribute album samples: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/nier/tribute/

Remix of Snow in Summer for now. Either the music department of SE just really loves Nier or there's something more significant coming down the line.

There was word that they would be announcing more stuff concerning Nier this year, hopefully it was not just this tribute CD.

Although Yoko Taro left AQI, so I can't imagine more Nier being what it was without him.

 

[Number45]

I'm enjoying this at the moment. I'm not too far in, just been to see the chief in The Aerie (Fuck that package delivery quest, kept forgetting and rolling around) and run around the Northern Plains finding ingredients for some of the side quests (fuck that boar).

I've loving the music, although it seems like there isn't much variety in it at the moment. Can't think of much else in terms of flaws really based on what I've played - the only thing that occurs to me right now is that looting/gathering takes longer than is necessary.

One quick question, how is the economy in the game? Will I be able to buy anything/everything I need without ever having to worry about running out of gold, or should I consider saving for specific items? I'll probably look at doing all side quests, if that's any help.

 

[PixyJunket]

One quick question, how is the economy in the game? Will I be able to buy anything/everything I need without ever having to worry about running out of gold, or should I consider saving for specific items? I'll probably look at doing all side quests, if that's any help.

If you do all of the side-quests, you'll be okay. Generally, there's not a need to buy any items at all as healing items and stat boosting items drop rather frequently. You'll pretty much just need to buy items for some side-quests and buy weapons. Gardening can also make you rich real quick (plant fifteen wheat or rice, you'll get like 10,000-15,000 gold the next day).

 

[Famassu]

Although Yoko Taro left AQI, so I can't imagine more Nier being what it was without him.

Well, Nier is Square Enix's IP, they could hire Taro as a freelancer to work on something Nier related. Don't see that happening, but there's always a chance...

 

[PixyJunket]

Well, Nier is Square Enix's IP, they could hire Taro as a freelancer to work on something Nier related. Don't see that happening, but there's always a chance...

If they do decide to continue with the franchise, I really hope they hire him. Nier feels through and through like the passionate work of an individual and I don't know if it would even be worth doing a sequel without his input.

 

[the chris]

Just finished Ending C, the added stuff that you get from the second playthrough really adds a lot to the narrative in terms of the bosses.