Have you ever heard the phrase ‘easy to learn, difficult to master’? Well if you’re thinking about purchasing Nier, forget that phrase and learn a new one: ‘difficult to learn, insanely difficult to master’. Nier is one of those games that, once you do have the full hang of the sheer speed and strength of some of the enemies (even right at the beginning), you can relax with, but until that moment comes then you’ll be learning for virtually most of the game.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s a button masher, essentially. Attack is X, powerful attack is Y, then the bumper buttons give you magic spells. That’s about it. It’s the enemies themselves that make the game a challenge; they’re fast, they do a lot of damage and for most battles you are heinously outnumbered. Which is great.
Let’s be honest: when was the last time you played a really hard game? I mean one where a simple fight took you a good twenty minutes of thumb-numbing frustration? Yeah, I thought so. In the bigger picture, Nier isn’t all that difficult, but compared to the watered-down Auto Aim Replenishing Health gaming universe we live in today, it provides a nice challenge that few games of late have offered.
Of course these points also reflect badly on the game. Sometimes, it can be too difficult (those of you who have played it will share my pain of defeating the wild boar at the beginning, which took about 15 minutes of magic-spamming from behind a rock because showing my face would get me killed in two hits). With save points only at the beginning and end of mission sequences, it’s more than a little easy to get face-planted on the floor and have to start again because you weren’t able to get to your health refills quick enough.
One of my favourite things of the game is the soundtrack, great little guitar ditties, soothing symphonies and whatnot, it’s a very pleasant experience that I would happily listen to on my iPod as well as in-game.
That being said, Nier is a good open game with a lot to do and very… colourful dialogue, which gives it a nice hard edge compared to the fluff Square Enix puts out. To metaphor my point, imagine Final Fantasy and Nier are both animals. Final Fantasy would be a nine week old kitten; its teeth prick but don’t hurt and no blood is drawn. Nier would be a snapping turtle. Cute one minute, leaving you without a forefinger the next.
In summary, buy it if you like a challenge. If you just want pretty but simple with dialogue that’s safe for the kids, I’d stick to Final Fantasy.
When Rachel's not killing zombies or pratting about on Portal, she can be found sipping fine Hock with her friends, or kicking giant tubs of popcorn over at the cinema. 
