Nier

A lot. Seriously, the kid goes through so much hell that he rebounds into heaven only to crash straight into hell again, especially since you get to see it all again on a New Game Plus. (Though it's not as bad if you get Ending C or D, just so you know.)

Not that anybody had it easy in their games but Cavia had a particularly mean streak when it came to children, if I remember correctly -~-"

theres a mission in d1 where you kill hundreds of child soldiers if i'm not mistaken. so yeah, kids aren't safe.

So yeah. Just did some side-quests (missed a weapon in one, but you get it anyways upon clearing new game plus, so no worries), got the Facade key (man, poor Fyra, and on her wedding day ), and finally cleared the game.

What a climax by the way, Devola and Popola were bad all along, Emil dies to save Nier and Kaine (poor kid, what with him not wanting to die ) the Shades are revealed to be true humans all along, and Weiss loses his physical form. That was definitely a whirlwind of plot elements.

At least Yonah and Nier are reunited at long last (at the close of the Shadowlord and his daughter, who I have to wonder who their identies are), and Kaine is off to do something secret. Overall, a bittersweet conclusion.

Tomorrow or whenever, it's on to the apparently more depressing and shocking New Game Plus. Wish me luck!

edited 6th Jul '15 8:39:23 AM by LDragon2

Good luck, friend.

Started the second play through.

Holy crap did Kaine have it rough. Growing up bullied due to being intersex, losing her Grandmother to a Shade, and being taken over by a Shade as well (which explains why she was possessed in the Lose Shrine revisit)? No wonder she ended up the way she did when you first meet her.

And what do you know? The Boss Shade of the Lost Shrine was trying to protect the smaller Shades because the latter had accepted the former. I feel bad about killing it.

Since I had done all the worthwhile sidequests, I was able to breeze on through my second play through (SPOILERS AHEAD)

What can I say? Learning what the boss Shades were actually saying and their reasons for attacking was quite eye-opening. Especially the Junk Heap one. The Shade and Robot were the best of friends, with the latter adopting the former after it had lost its mother, and you killed them both just so someone could have his misplaced revenge for a crime the Shade and Robot didn't even cause. And the Wolf Shade was just trying to avenge the death of of its young, a similar reason for the King's vengeance.

And of course, the Shadowlord was the original Nier, trying to resurrect the original Yonah. Dang that hit hard.

Seriously, this whole thing was like reliving the white phosphorus sequence for an entire game. What an experience.

At least Emil lived. So on to Ending C I guess?

The next playthrough is basically just getting all of the weapons to get Endings C&D, without any new cutscenes or anything like that. Honestly, I just ended up seeing it on youtube. Why bother going through the whole game again doing busywork without seeing anything new just for one single ending? (Which is amazing, by the way.)

edited 7th Jul '15 7:11:14 AM by kkhohoho

that's what i did too, though i ended up regretting it. ending d in particular is much more powerful if you experience it in the game itself.

Alright, I tried to post the video right up here, but apparently, Youtube links don't work right now. Anyway, here's a fan music-video of 'Song of the Ancients', available right here.

edited 17th Jul '15 9:58:20 AM by kkhohoho

Looking at some official art of the game I saw that the main character seems to wear a blindfold in one of them. Maybe she looses her eyes at some point or tries Blindfolded Vision.

edited 9th Aug '15 7:08:43 AM by matteste

Necroing this thread to ask a question that's been gnawing at my head for ages whenever I think about it.

So the music from the Nier 2 trailer is supposed to be a rendition of "Song of the Ancients" from the first game.

But I tried hearing both the one from the trailer and the three versions of the song in the first game...but I can't really hear any similarities between the renditions.

Does anyone here know anyone who actually bothered to make a comparison video between the various "Songs of the Ancients"?

Hm, not that I can think of at the top of my head.

It's a very stripped down and improvisational version but yes, it is the Song of the Ancients. The first two thirds of it is riffing on the first two notes of the original and the theme gets much more recognizable in the part where the title is revealed.
...which was probably entirely on purpose, come to think of it, so the reveal wouldn't be immediately obvious.

edit: This is the part I'm talking about, it's in a different key but it starts playing right after the director's card.

edited 27th Sep '15 6:05:16 AM by LE0Night

Actually taking the time to hear the piano rendition video and this video that has the trailer music has led me to the conclusion that holy crap, it is the same song.

Freaky...

Anyway, I get that we're most definitely not going to see anyone from the first game aside from Emil, but really, does anyone else think there might be an NPC in Nier 2 who can recap the events from the first game and even hang a lampshade on how they made two versions of the same basic game?

Also, did anyone else know that they haven't revealed the actual name of the title yet because it'd spoil the story? Or is that already common knowledge at this point?

Some new tidbits, the game is practically being developed solely by Platinum (which can only be a good thing), the character design is by Akihiko Yoshida (FFXII and XIV, Bravely Default, Tactics Ogre and Vagrant Story), the game was apparently pitched to SE by the designer (Yasuhisa Taura, who has a "history with action games" but I've no idea which ones) and not Taro, surprisingly, I'm suppose he came on board later.

I had no idea Platinum had the capacity to work on multiple projects, though, they must've expanded a bit lately.

edited 15th Oct '15 12:49:05 PM by LE0Night

On platinum: To be honest that's why I am a bit worried over this game. They might havê divided themselves in "sub teams" só I am worried if they can't handle working separately and the quality of any of the games they are currently working on suffers as a result. Since I AM not really sure if they have any experiênce with that.

i think taura might have worked on metal gear rising? not sure tbh.

worth noting that when they were at clover platinum made Okami, which is closer to what nier is than most of the action games they've made, so some of the staff members have SOME experience with this type of thing.

i'm not too worried. even if it doesn't end up being their best work i'm fairly confident it will feel much better than the combat in drakengard 3 and nier. not to mention that everyone on this project seems to be very passionate about it and wants to do the best they can. the only reason yoshida is on it is because a lot of people in his company loved nier and he wanted to be a part of it even with how busy he usually is.

i'm trying not to hype myself too much but i'm pretty sure this will be at least an INTERESTING game. we can at least look forward to gorgeous yoshida art and amazing okabe music, which should make the price of admission worth it by themselves.

edited 15th Oct '15 2:02:38 PM by wehrmacht

I was talking about them splitting up in several groups to deal with each project they are currently on.

Correct me if I AM wrong but aren't they a pretty small team?

they might have expanded their team. idk.

also get HYPE: http://gematsu.com/2015/10/nier-new-project-exhibit-paris-games-week-2015

i hope we get some fab yoshida concept art *u*

Yoshida~~~ I think I've gotten crushes on more of his designs than any other artist.

he and the ffxiv team are probably the best fantasy artists in japan right now tbh, along with the staff at from software

ngl i hope one of the main characters is dressed in fab armor for like no reason

The Japanese title is apparently NieR Automata

If that's what they'll call it in Japan, what'll they call it in everywhere else?

Please not Nie R 2: Electric Boogaloo...

EDIT: Serious question, anyone think "Nie R: Automata" can be somewhat marketable in the States?

EDIT: Holy crap! Someone already came up with a trope page for NieR: Automata! That was quick!

edited 27th Oct '15 8:53:37 AM by TargetmasterJoe

we also have some more plot information now:

in other words the pretty girl from the trailer is Yorha no. 2 type b, so we can just start calling her yorha 2 now :p

edited 27th Oct '15 9:10:18 AM by wehrmacht