Nier

Not sure.

Also finished that "dreaded" mandatory fishing task to get the shaman fish (was really simple all things considered), and am just doing a few side quests. I admit, they are a bit tedious to do, since so many of them involve finding materials and running back and forth with no fast-travel.

Also, Kaine is a pretty cool character from what I've seen of her in her first cutscene. Plus she's voiced by my favorite voice actress, Laura Bailey, which is a huge bonus.

He just said they had fun at DQ Heroes E3 and the King of Slimy octopi graced Yoko with sitting on his head.

I need to grab that shot. :3

a small piece of advice: don't feel obligated to do any of the sidequests. the moment your patience wears thin, drop them and just get on with the main plot. the sidequests do contain a lot of dialogue which helps the characterization of the cast, but they are not the meat of the game in any way.

also, ng+ skyrocketed kainé to my favorite jrpg heroine of all time. nothing is at it seems with her. it helps that laura bailey actually turns in a pretty much perfect performance. loved the deep voice she used for her.

edited 23rd Jun '15 3:30:19 AM by wehrmacht

Who doesn't deliver a perfect performance in this game? It's top-notch stuff all around.

Always use this guide for sidequests. I would advice you to do all the quests before the timeskip since they're lost forever on that savefile after a certain point since NG+ starts after the skip always.

On that note, first thing you do when you hear someone mention the phrase "pink moonflower seeds": run. Just run. Never look back.

Or you'll turn to salt and destroy the world. Again.

Got it. Avoid that side-quest like the plague.

Anyways, just did a whole bunch of side-quests (the lighthouse lady one got me a bit choked up), and recruited Kaine. Again, she is really awesome in terms of her character (plus, I <3 Laura Bailey ).

the ligthouse lady sidequest is probably my favorite in the game. DOING the actual sidequests is often boring but the writing is actually on-point for the vast majority so far as i've seen.

in particular i think the lighthouse lady quest provides a really powerful moral choice. there is no right or wrong answer and you're probably not really qualified to make this decision anyway. but you have to do it. and you get the same reward for it, so there's no incentive to pick one over the other.

The New Project in Dengeki scans.

That game is gonna be awesome.

Anyways, did a whole bunch more sidequests (did I just kill the girlfriend in the Belated Letter one?), got through the Barren Temple (how much more Zelda-esque can one get), and am now overflowing with cash.

How long is this game anyways?

One playthrough isn't too long; about 10-15 hours or so. The second playthrough (which you really need to do to get the You Bastard! effect,) adds another 5-7 hours on top of that because, while there are a number of new cutscenes, the game still starts you off again at the beginning of the second half, rather than right at the very start. Also, if you want to get Ending D, (without just seeing it on Youtube,) then you'll have to do a third playthrough and get a bunch of secret weapons, which could add another 5-7 hours. All in all, if you do more than one playthrough, it'll probably take you 25-30 hours to beat.

I have no idea why but Replicant was also in the paper.

Errr...

Updated Re-release for international distribution?

edited 25th Jun '15 10:19:49 AM by TargetmasterJoe

That's be nice. We never did get Replicant, so it'd be nice to see how the Brother!Nier version of the story turned out. Maybe it's better, maybe it's worse, but we won't know until we try.

Yeah, for some reason, I see the concept of "older sibling taking care of ill younger sibling in the dark cruel world" significantly more dramatic than "single father taking care of ill daughter".

If it happens and they have it as a download-only game, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't bother with making up an English dub for it.

Where do I begin?

Just went through the Forest of Myth (an image-less visual novel), completed 51% of the side-quests, got through the Resident Evil-esque Manor, and also experienced the Player Punch that was the ending to Part 1 (Yonah and Kaine...)

Well, onwards to Part 2 then! Does the story get even bleaker from here on out?

edited 26th Jun '15 3:55:43 AM by LDragon2

basically, yes. the junkyard is probably my favorite revisit.

There are some bilinguals who have played Replicant and given some impressions.

there are a couple of things that work much better in Replicant. The timeskip as a whole is much more effective, because there's a much bigger difference with brother nier who starts off as an optimistic youth and becomes violent, bitter and murderous (a bit like caim). Not to mention the shadowlord waiting to take his body makes more sense, and popola and devola's betrayal is a bit more powerful because they're the closest thing he and yonah had to parent figures.

they would need to basically re-translate the game because Replicant's script differs a surprising amount from Gestalt in a number of areas and the context changes even more. Weiss is more of a grumpy old man as opposed to the posh pseudo-alan rickman book, and brother nier is just a completely different character who has pretty different relationships with the cast.

edited 26th Jun '15 4:48:57 AM by wehrmacht

Well... Yes... But it may take a bit more playing to realise it...

Also, fun fact, when I first watched the Penultimate Madoka Episode, I actually played the Knave of Hearts theme over the fight (The Dark Colossus Destroys All), since I had been reading the Dark Id Nie R LP beforehand.

Hm. Well, I like Gestalt just fine in any case, and I'd still be okay if that's all we got, but if Replicant is even better, than it'd be a shame if we never got it. That said, I think the story of a father trying to save his father is more 'epic', at least in theory, then a brother trying to save his sister, and on top of that, the former hasn't been beaten into the ground in JRPG's like the latter has. But I guess I can't really judge either way until I've actually played both, if I ever get to.

well i said SOME things. some stuff like weiss' personality, a few scenes, and the nier-yonah dynamic (as you pointed out) works better in Gestalt, both because it's more powerful AND because playing as a middle-aged man in a JRPG provides a completely different and refreshing perspective.

not that i'm an expert on replicant, but in principle i think both are completely valid interpretations of the story and neither is strictly better all-around necessarily.

edited 26th Jun '15 7:31:41 AM by wehrmacht

Anybody think the new Nier game will make a reference to how Japan got both Gestalt and Replicant but the rest only got Gestalt?

Like maybe an NPC could say something like "Mind you, the story's ridiculously old. So much so that people aren't sure whether the hero was a brother or a father to the stolen girl. Yeah, it's really weird, but them's the brakes, I guess."

Speaking of the new Nier project, here's more fan art of the mystery girl.

The mystery girl is the great great great great great granddaughter of Yonah.

EDIT: actually scratch that WMG. I forgot that Taro already established that she has no relation to the characters from the first Nier...

...Unless he's bluffing?

edited 26th Jun '15 10:43:15 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Yoko wants a boss that drops the frame rate from always 60 FPS(like P* wants the whole game to be)to the single digits with its attacks to troll the player.

Edit: Yoko Taro has now founded his own company with Yokoo Yukiko and Kikuchi Hana. Bukkoro!

edited 27th Jun '15 8:01:48 AM by LordofLore

So in other words, he wants a boss that turns the game into Drakengard 3.

edited 27th Jun '15 5:55:49 AM by Emperordaein

apparently it's been confirmed in dengeki that nier 2 takes place after the D ending. that's the only thing that made sense really, but it's nice to have confirmation.

also emi evans is coming back too. hurray!

edited 27th Jun '15 7:26:02 AM by wehrmacht