I don’t know much about Nier except that it’s got a hermaphroditic character that cusses like a sailor and that Square Enix is doing something silly with its distribution. It’s being released as two different games in Japan: Nier: Gestalt is an Xbox 360-exclusive, and the slightly-different Nier: Replicant is only for the PlayStation 3. In North America, Gestalt is getting released as Nier (no tag line) on both the 360 and the PlayStation 3.
Whew.
With that out of the way, this new trailer reveals a little bit about the game’s plot: the eponymous Nier has to save his daughter from some sort of fantasy necrotic melanoma. It’s a relatively straightforward premise (hell, I think there’s a Brendan Fraser movie to the same effect), but I’m sure Cavia and publisher Square Enix will find a way to muck it up with all sorts of stuff: maybe a forgotten prophecy? I’m due for a good world-saving, myself.
It’s really too bad that we don’t know much else about the game’s combat, because all I really have to go on now is visuals. The trailer above seems to fluctuate from janky to potentially cool in a matter of seconds; I think your mileage may vary depending on how you dig the character designs. Although graphics aren’t a good measuring stick for game quality, it’s all consumers really have to chew on right now.
Drakengard and Bullet Witch, perhaps Cavia’s most high-profile releases, received middling reviews, but Capcom seem to have confidence in the company, and Ben “came away pretty impressed with Nier” when he previewed it earlier this month.
Square Enix also released some screenshots today, which you can find in the gallery below. Some of them feature Nier blasting away some sheep.
I really don’t know what to say about that.
