I’m struggling with where to start talking about Nier. Do I open with references to its wildly popular successor Nier Automata? Do I discuss the wacky antics or interesting philosophies of the series creator Yoko Taro? DO I share a personal anecdote about how both Nier Automata and Nier (2010) made me cry like a baby? I just don’t know!
Nier is an odd game which is on the one hand unique, on the other a bit derivative and formulaic. It is profound, but also crude. Nier is a mixed bag of elements and experiences but what ties it all together, and makes it stick in my mind, is strong theming.
Nier is juggling a lot of themes; it has more themes than Disney has theme parks. We have got our coming-of-age theme, inevitability of death theme, theme of cycles, disease, body dysmorphia, and the obligatory capital A Anime power of friendship. With so many themes up in the air it’s not surprising the game doesn’t do them all justice (I’m looking at you body dysmorphia, stop staring at me!). While some of the themes are touched on only slightly, and others highlight or drive character development, for me there is only one around which all the others orbit. That theme which is woven tightly into the narrative, as well as all elements of game design: language.
“Blood is sound… Sounds are words… And words are power!”
-Grimoire Weiss
Let’s start with the combat and battle mechanics. Overall I’d describe Nier(2010)’s combat as…adequate. It’s not controller smashingly awful, it’s not great. Cut from a similar cloth as the PS2 era God of War games, Devil May Cry, and probably Drakengard (but I’ve never played Drakengard), Nier’s combat is a mix of light attacks, heavy attacks, blocks, dodges, and specials. Nier’s combat and battle system stands out from its fellow cinematic hack and slash brethren in a few ways. Nier has an interesting magic system which controls like a bullet-time shooter, and it has a semi-configurable upgrade system that uses “words of power”.
Every weapon and special ability can be augments with up to two words. See, language, words, this essay is practically writing itself. The use of words as an upgrade in the combat system goes beyond the surface comparison that words are part of language. Importantly words have power, words can take the otherwise ordinary and make them extraordinary. Think of ancient words of power, mystical incantations, weapons of legend given names and identities. Each of these examples illustrate the power of words in language. In our world words provide soft power, influence, context, meaning. Nier takes that a step further with its words of power which physically alter the properties of weapons and magic. Nier’s words have a real and direct impact on its world.
Speaking of the Magic, have you ever watched Grimoire Weiss closely while casting? When casting a spell, or charging a special attack, Weiss’s pages will flutter rapidly, almost as if someone were reading him. Although it isn’t included in the game, I like to image Weiss is reading himself shouting incantations to fling attacks at our enemies. Much like the grimoires of medieval fantasy it is the words, not the book, which have the power. Without words, Weiss is powerless. We see this for ourselves a few times during the game’s story when Weiss is stripped of his powers, his pages go blank.
Speaking of Weiss’s pages, one of my favorite aspects of the game is that our snobbish Grimoire buddy serves as the game’s primary menu. While Weiss isn’t used for all menu functions, hot swapping weapons, assigning active spells, for example, he serves all other purposes. Managing inventory, equipment, quest journal, and datalog. It is something that’s easy to miss if we’re primarily focused on the function of the menu. But if we stop and think, Weiss being our menu carries more meaning beyond the initial amusement factor.
As we adventure through the game our quests are logged in Weiss, we pick up documents containing key insights into the word and narrative, they are logged in Weiss as well. Words of power, which we collect from killing the game’s enemy, Shades, are logged in Weiss. Weiss is the collection of not only our history, but our understanding of the world, and the power we possess. It is only a collection of words, sounds, images, and other elements of language and communication stored in a vessel, but we see the combined power of those elements. We feel the power of language in the game when we augment our weapons, use magic, or review logs to gain insights. We feel it most of all when the game takes our words away.
Omission is one of Nier(2010)’s most powerful tools, and it uses this tool to demonstrate how missing context, through lack of a common language (or having access to common information), impacts our capabilities, and the ability to understand the big picture. One example of this I mentioned before, when the game occasionally strips Weiss of his powers leaving Nier at a massive disadvantage. It is a thematically appropriate implementation of the video game trope where the player character has some of their abilities taken away and must overcome some obstacle without them. A more powerful example of omission is unveiled during subsequent playthroughs of the Nier, after we have learned the true nature of the Shades, that they were once human.
During the initial playthrough we’d hear the squeaks, squawks, and garbled sounds of the Shade’s. There are even a few cutscenes features shades that appear to be conversing, but they don’t seem to be speaking…not any language we understand anyway. When playing through the same sections during subsequent playthroughs we get subtitles for those dialogues, and we occasionally see a subtitle for a shade chittering out in the open world. Finally, in those subsequent playthroughs, we see a glimpse of the truth; the humanity, sentience, and lives of the shades. Not until we have collected enough of the shade’s words through senseless slaughter in the first playthrough do we start to understand their language.
Subsequent playthroughs present greater emotional challenging when knowing that as the player we still need to cut down shades in order to proceed. It feels like the game is calling us out for being a murdering maniac, and it is daring us to quit. It’s a powerful way to unveil the narrative and highlight how critical the understanding of language is in order to see the truth.
Truths in Nier, as in life, are bittersweet. Nothing is straightforward morally, or ethically black and white. There are no paragons or renegades, no true good or evil. The shades are the real humans, the wolves are defending themselves from extinction, the stone guardian is protecting their friends, Kalil and Beepy just want to see the world, and the Shadowlord is fighting for the only thing he has left. By the end of my final playthrough I didn’t feel like a hero, I felt conflicted. Yes, I achieved my goal, but how many other sentient beings’ dreams, goals, needs, and loved ones were cut down due to my actions. It is a striking and memorable way to deliver a narrative, and it speaks to my personal philosophy that nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
My only real complaint with the handling of the narrative is that while we the payer gain greater awareness through subsequent playthroughs, Nier does not. Nier, in my eyes, comes across as selfish, lacking empathy, and blinded by his goals. Even while Emil, Kainé, and Weiss, start to understand the gravity of what they are doing, Nier continues to charge blindly forward shouting “YONAH” all the way. Still, that does not take way from the power of the game’s ultimate conclusion where the player is asked to sacrifice themselves or Kainé. Upon choosing the more altruistic option all records of Nier (us) are erased. Not just from the memories of the game’s inhabitants but also physically in our world via the save data.
To confirm this self-sacrifice, the player must enter one word, their name, the name chosen at the beginning of play, the ultimate word of power for any individual. After speaking our final word, my favorite moment of the game takes place. Grimoire Weiss automatically opens himself displaying our familiar menu. Page by page every entry is expunged. Every quest, document, key fragment, item, word of power, even the tutorials. Every single word is erased until only a blank book remains. It gives me chills to think how this game that is so tightly theme=d around words and language ends with a systematic erasure of all the words collected and experienced throughout the playthrough.
Nier(2010) is special despite its initial generic hack and slash impressions. Only in one other game, Automata, have I encountered such strong theming which permeates every bit of the design. Not to say its all perfect, some of the word/language themeing can get heavy handed (Forest of Myth), and some of the dialog is a bit awkward, but at least it still tries. So many games today are happy to just let menus be menus, power ups to be power ups, and story exist in some world separate to the gameplay. In Nier everything feels a part of the same philosophy, and for that I feel more engaged. I feel sucked in because I can feel the power in the effort that has been put into the design. Nier is a great game that didn’t get the credit it was due when it first released in 2010. There are many more themes to dive into, and I’m glad Nier has recently been remade so we can keep exploring them together.