History Headscratchers / Nier

* The Shadowlord's defenses make no sense. Why are the children on the path directly toward the shadowlord instead of away in some safe area among the massive area the surrounding Shadowlord's place. Shouldn't they have Goose on the frontlines to fight Nier's team before they have a chance to massacre everyone. And if Popola can destroy the bridge why not just do that in the first place.

* The Shadowlord's defenses make no sense. Why are the children on the path directly toward the shadowlord shouldn't they have Goose on the frontlines to fight Nier's team before they have a chance to massacre everyone. And if Popola can destroy the bridge why not just do that in the first place.

** Possibly also a HeroOfAnotherStory, then. Certainly sounds like [[{{Drakengard}} someone we know...]]

* Okay, in ''Nier Gestalt'', the lead character is called Nier in most all material not directly connected with the game (including the Wikipedia article and the official site), is called "The Father" in the manual, and in the game itself is nameable with no default name. So why the inconsistency? Why not just give him a default name in-game, or maintain the uncertain naming scheme in non-game materials?
** We're supposed to relate with the main character. The best way to do that is by letting us name him ourselves.
** Most games where you enter your name have a default name for each character, but the player may not like said default.

* Hard mode. It's not hard, it's tedious. Who thought making the sheep take 10 hits to kill (yeah this really makes me feel like a powerful swordsman) and the basic mooks 20 hits to kill was a good idea? I tried to start on hard mode right off the bat, and it pretty much put me off the game.
** Well, in this mode [[CaptainObvious the enemies are supposed to be stronger and more resistant to attacks than on normal mode, making them harder to beat]], hence the name [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Hard Mode"]]. If this is troublesome then switch to Normal.
* The infobook. Just...just the infobook. Look Cavia, if you want your game to end on a total downer, ''end the game on a total downer''. Don't give us a BittersweetEnding and give us false hope that things are looking up, only to completely crush those hopes with a book that uses [[AssPull random and contradictory "reveals"]] to ShootTheShaggyDog just because you can't stand anything ending even a ''little bit'' happily.
** First of all, [[spoiler:the Shades being unable to live without the Shadowlord makes no sense. The prologue shows Gestalt!Nier (who ''is'' the Shadowlord) fighting against the Shades, and there is clearly no "Shadowlord" at that point in the timeline, which clearly shows that they are capable of existing without a leader.]]

**** Plus, NIER was made by Cavia that made Drakengard that itself was a pile of Grimdark. So we shouldn't be surprised.

** Not from the game, but according to the radio drama, he was originally Masayoshi Yura, the commander of the Shinjuku area defense force. He was well-known for his ability to get results, and better known for his sadistic way of doing so. [[spoiler:He was also somewhat of an accidental Gestalt; his Replicant data wasn't preserved due to a dishonorable discharge from the military (that is, he ran for his life during an isolated disaster) and has been spending his life as a Shade body-hopping.]]

** Not from the game, but according to the radio drama, he was originally Masayoshi Yura, the commander of the Shinjuku area defense force. He was well-known for his ability to get results, and better known for his sadistic way of doing so. He was also somewhat of an accidental Gestalt; his Replicant data wasn't preserved due to a dishonorable discharge from the military (that is, he ran for his life during an isolated disaster) and has been spending his life as a Shade body-hopping.

** The only mention his background gets is that he used to be a serial killer while he was alive as a human, but otherwise he's his own character.

* How exactly do [[spoiler:Replicants]] get made? They seem to be flesh and blood so they were more likely "grown" like you might a clone, but at somepoint it is said [spoiler:they are sterile and without android overseers they'll die out. So how are new Replicants]] produced in a world that has approximatly midevil level technology?

* How exactly do [[spoiler:Replicants]] get made? They seem to be flesh and blood so they were more likely "grown" like you might a clone, but at somepoint it is said [{spoiler:they are sterile and without android overseers they'll die out. So how are new Replicants]] produced in a world that has approximatly midevil level technology?

* How exactly do Replicants get made? They seem to be flesh and blood so they were more likely "grown" like you might a clone, but at somepoint it is said they are sterile and without android overseers they'll die out. So how are new Replicants produced in a world that has approximatly midevil level technology?
* Is Tyrann the Gestalt for anyone we know?

* How exactly do replicants get made? They seem to be flesh and blood so they were more likely "grown" like you might a clone, but at somepoint it is said they are sterile and without android overseers they'll die out. So how are new replicants produced in a world that has approximatly midevil level technology?

** Maybe they've been petrified so long they can no longer be restored, or maybe Kaine's... unique nature allowed her to survive petrification.

* Even after getting the ability to unpetrify people, Emil never sees fit to fix all those poor statues in his mansion? Why?

** In playing cards, before they were called Jacks, they were called Knaves.

* Hard mode. Its not hard its tedious. Who thought making the sheep take 10 hits to kill (yeah this really makes me feel like a powerful swordsman) and the basic mooks 20 hits to kill was a good idea? I tried to start on hard mode right off the bat, and it pretty much put me off the game.

* The developer's name (Cavia) means 'guinea pig' in my language. And 'Nier' means kidney. I cannot play this game in a normal way because of that.
** Long live the Dutch.

* The infobook. Just...just the infobook. Look Cavia, if you want your game to end on a total downer, ''end the game on a total downer''. Don't give us a BittersweetEnding and give us false hope that things are looking up, only to completely crush those hopes with a book that uses [[AssPull random and contradictory "reveals"]] to ShootTheShaggyDog just because you can't stand anything ending on even a ''little bit'' happily.