{"id":1344,"date":"2014-07-18T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T16:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2014-07-18T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T16:20:08","slug":"progress-report-nier-ps3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=1344","title":{"rendered":"Progress Report: Nier (PS3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been pretty slow-going with Nier<\/em>. I’ve been on a platforming and oldschool tear lately with Shovel Knight, Electronic Super Joy, DuckTales<\/em>, and the NES Remix<\/em> games all occupying most of my time. Despite all that, I\u00a0find myself thinking about this game a lot, and have become quite addicted to it as I’ve gotten back into it this week.<\/p>\n

\"20140716_ghg_nier_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not a looker, though. Full of weird visual glitches like the one above, the overall image quality looks like an up-resolutioned PlayStation 2 game.<\/p>\n

The world of Nier<\/em> is designed well, however, with large, sprawling towns that feel alive. NPCs have interesting things to say more often than not. I like that quest givers are clearly highlighted throughout each area, which makes them easy to find when you’re focusing on that aspect of the game. What I don’t like is that once you’ve taken on a quest, finding that NPC again can be more difficult than it needs to be since they’re no longer marked. You have to refer back to your quest log for hints on who assigned them. For me, at least, they’re easy to forget.<\/p>\n

\"20140716_ghg_nier_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I really like the loading screens. They’re simplistic, but are full of character, and I look forward to seeing all the different ones that Cavia put in the game, including the journal entries from Yonah.<\/p>\n

\"20140716_ghg_nier_5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While I haven’t discovered any methods of fast travel yet — I’m still early, heading to the Junk Heap — I like that I can roll around Nier<\/em>‘s overworld like Link in the Zelda<\/em> games, making the long back-and-forth journeys less boring.<\/p>\n

These outdoor areas between towns can be huge, and the draw distance is impressive. Again, they might not be the most detailed, but they are still pretty good and support the somber tone of the narrative. They also give you lots of space to plan out and execute attacks on individuals and mobs.<\/p>\n

I don’t like that digging up items and harvesting materials from fallen creatures require a slow animation cycle to play every time, though. Maybe this is a given in titles like this, and I know it’s more realistic, but it gets a little old when there are so many things in the world to gather. Ladders and pushing\/pulling blocks also have an overly slow feel to them.<\/p>\n

\"20140716_ghg_nier_4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can (and have to at least once) fish in Nier<\/em>, and while the mechanics are almost insultingly simple, it’s not implemented very well. It’s annoyingly easy to lose bait and fish even when you think you’re doing everything correctly. Most recently, I enjoyed the fishing mini-game in Persona 4 Golden<\/em>. It had a good visual feedback system, but Nier<\/em>‘s is vague. As a result, I’ve lost a good number of lures on what should have been simple catches, and above all else, it comes across as wasted time.<\/p>\n

One area of Nier <\/em>that I can’t fault at all is its audio. It contains some very good voice acting, and the soundtrack in particular is of the highest quality. One listen to\u00a0“Song of the Ancients (Devola)”<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is enough to seal the deal.\u00a0Nier<\/em>‘s compositions get mentioned quite often when Favorite Soundtrack lists are discussed, and for good reason. It’s one of the most beautifully consistent, stirring, and memorable ones I’ve heard in quite some time.<\/p>\n

\"20140716_ghg_nier_3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m also digging the gameplay. At first I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. Combat felt repetitive and not very clear, but I’ve gotten comfortable with it, and I’m also gaining a sixth sense on what to avoid this early on in my adventure. Those one-hit deaths will make you a fast learner!<\/p>\n

I haven’t really gone too deep with some of the customization systems, like the word-related one. I just do the auto-equip for now, but I’m sure later as I amass a good collection of them, I’ll be scouring the internet to find the best and most effective combos. The metagame was one of my favorite aspects of 2010’s Dragon Quest IX<\/em>\u00a0on the Nintendo DS,\u00a0<\/em>and I get the feeling I’ll be enjoying those same qualities in\u00a0Nier<\/em> as well.<\/p>\n

So despite the various nags and quibbles I have with this game, it’s one where I feel the whole is going to be greater than the sum of its parts. I’m very much enjoying Nier<\/em>\u00a0so far, and I’m glad my friend encouraged me to start playing it.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been pretty slow-going with Nier. I’ve been on a platforming and oldschool tear lately with Shovel Knight, Electronic Super Joy, DuckTales, and the NES Remix games all occupying most of my time. Despite all that, I\u00a0find myself thinking about this game a lot, and have become quite addicted to it as I’ve gotten back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[117],"tags":[281,15,20,77],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-progress-reports-ps3","tag-nier","tag-persona-4-golden","tag-progress-report","tag-ps3"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4yrob-lG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1917,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=1917","url_meta":{"origin":1344,"position":0},"title":"Review: Nier (PS3, 2010)","author":"Mike","date":"January 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I know it's cliche to say, \"Never judge a book by its cover,\" but in the case of Cavia and Square Enix's action RPG Nier, that phrase has rarely been so applicable. Originally released in April of 2010, Nier was met with lukewarm review scores in the 60-70% range, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews: PS3"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews: PS3","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=140"},"img":{"alt_text":"20150106_nier_2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/20150106_nier_2-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1235,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=1235","url_meta":{"origin":1344,"position":1},"title":"Happy Fourth of July!","author":"Mike","date":"July 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"GHG will be back on Monday, but I just wanted to wish everyone a fun and safe holiday weekend. We'll be checking out the fireworks show here during the Fort Dalles Fourth,\u00a0the first in over 25 years! I plan on getting caught up on a few games over the weekend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"20140703_pokemon_x","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/20140703_pokemon_x-300x267.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":537,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=537","url_meta":{"origin":1344,"position":2},"title":"Rediscovering LittleBigPlanet","author":"Mike","date":"May 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"My apologies in advance; today's update is a short one since I'll be out of town most of the day. So, Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet (LBP). Yes, the first one from 2008. After finishing Tearaway last week, I thought back on LBP, and how it never did click with me. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress Reports: PS3"","block_context":{"text":"Progress Reports: PS3","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=117"},"img":{"alt_text":"20140513lbp","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140513lbp-300x166.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1929,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=1929","url_meta":{"origin":1344,"position":3},"title":"Backlog Blitz: The Games of December 2014 & Final Results!","author":"Mike","date":"January 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The actress Cate Blanchett once said, \"If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously.\" I can think of no better way to describe what happened to my so-called Backlog Blitz progress during the final month of 2014. It was truly epic how terribly I did, and how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Backlog Blitz"","block_context":{"text":"Backlog Blitz","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"20141231_backlog","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/20141231_backlog-300x218.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1956,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=1956","url_meta":{"origin":1344,"position":4},"title":"The Best Games I Played in 2014","author":"Mike","date":"January 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Instead of trying to rank the games I played that were only released in 2014, I decided to take a different approach and include non-2014 games as well. Since I'm not the type of person who is always playing the latest and greatest (in fact, that's rarely the case with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Backlog Blitz"","block_context":{"text":"Backlog Blitz","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":610,"url":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?p=610","url_meta":{"origin":1344,"position":5},"title":"Review: Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3, 1990 & 2013 Versions)","author":"Mike","date":"May 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember Sega's\u00a0Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse\u00a0like it was yesterday. I played it for the first time at my cousins' house around Christmas of 1990, and I sat there completely blown away by what I was seeing and hearing coming out of their Genesis. Its animation, music, and colorful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews: PS3"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews: PS3","link":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/?cat=140"},"img":{"alt_text":"20140520_coi_gen_1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140520_coi_gen_1-300x207.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1352,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.grayhairedgamer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}