Plot analysis time! Part 1.

Well, more like WMG time. Really. I have no idea what the plot really is since the game's not exactly straightforward about a lot of points and I don't have access to any clarifications that have have popped up in Japanese publications. Still waiting on someone to translate Grimoire NieR. But here's my take on it, and will be considered a WIP for a very long time. It may never get finished for all I know. Anyways, on with the show! First off, story summary.

So we know that the game begins with "Nier" and "Yonah" along in a broken city. They're hiding from the Shades/monsters, but they don't know where they're coming from. It's also snowing during the summer, so it's probably something called a "nuclear winter." However, the "snow" might not even be snow but salt instead. Salt features prominently in the game's reports and dreams from the Forest of Myth. It's also known that Grimoire Noir is there with "Nier," who he eventually asks for help with defending "Yonah." And then when all of the Shades have been taken out, "Nier" checks up on "Yonah" only to see that she has the Black Scrawl. My guess is that she either knowingly or accidentally come in contact with Grimoire Noir, and is undergoing the Gestalt process. In other words, her soul is being decoded to be taken out of her body. Oh, and she's been coughing all this time. Reason? She's probably suffering from the White Chlorination disease. Chloride is a pretty deadly irritant, usually in the form of mustard gas, but there's that mention of salt... Maybe her body's turning into salt? That could explain the subcutaneous tissue mutations mentioned in the loading screen reports. After screaming for help, the game fast forwards to the start of the game.


1312/~1400 years later (Gestalt/RepliCant)
Nier's been taking care of Yonah for a period of time already, taking on jobs to get enough money to lessen her symptoms. Eventually, he tells her about the Lunar Tear and she goes looking for it. At the Lost Shrine. Grimoire Weiss/Weiss/"Weiss-y" is also found there, sealed up, until Nier forcefully removes him from the barrier and awakening Hansel and Gretel. Yes, that's really their names. And then, here's the kicker. Not too many Shades attack you while trying to retrieve Yonah. They start attacking once you have Weiss. The Shades also don't look like they should be bleeding the way they do, and the fact that Weiss absorbs their blood. Noir did it as well during the prologue. So then, what's causing the Shades to attack you when in possession of Weiss? Probably because he's the "false truth" mentioned in the DLC? He's also been stripped of "his" powers, so he and Nier have to go looking for the Sealed Verses. This launches the first half of the game. Dark Blast and Dark Lance here.

Next off, to the Aerie in hopes of finding a Sealed Verse. This is an interesting town once you get to Ending B. The idea is to hunt down massive Shades because Nier believes that it's the key to finding the Sealed Verses and curing Yonah's Black Scrawl. But... You find Kaine. She's not exactly happy to see you. Eventually, a massive Shade does show up and you team up to take it down. Dark Hand here.

Back home, Yonah's feeling even worse, so it's off to Seafront to get a Shaman Fish. Coming here also kicks off a sidequest chain involving the lighthouse lady. Not important to the plot, but it's a nice side-story to go along with the world. It probably made a few people cry too. Oh, and the fisherman. The dialogue between him, Nier and Weiss is absolutely hilarious, but really hits you once you finish the entire chain in the second half of the game. Once you get the fish and the letter from the postman for Popola, it's back home, then to the Junk Heap to get your weapon upgraded before going back to the Aerie.

At the Junk Heap, you need to get the Titanium Alloy for your upgrade. You also meet Jakob and Gideon. After getting the upgrade, the brothers ask you try finding their mother, who's been missing for a week now. So, you go in while Weiss berates you a bit for "meddling" in others' affairs. Eventually, you make it to the deepest parts of the Junk Heap, face off against the boss there (a giant face and detached hands) and find the mother... with her lover. Dead. Weiss had a feeling that there was something going on, while Nier wanted to find her for the brothers' sake. Turned out that the mother wanted to elope with her lover as she had several items with her that hinted to that direction. Nier takes her perfume back to Jakob, and no matter what answer you give Gideon, he'll think that you're lying about his mother being dead. Jakob was already suspicious about her activities, but forgives her for it. He understood that she never wanted to stay there, and a little more info from Grimoire NieR, was actually abused by her husband. After all, she's human, and thus prone to mistakes. Dark Gluttony and next off, the Aerie.

Now that you're back at the Aerie, and you see many Shades. You help out Kaine here, taking out the smaller Shades then eventually the much larger one. It turns out that Kaine wants revenge against it for killing her Grandma (but you don't actually know that until the 2nd time through the game). Once she exacts revenge, she lands on a platform and intends to die there as she's got nothing left to live for. Nier will have none of that, and Weiss obviously disagrees. They eventually convince Kaine to accompany them as she tries to find meaning to her life. Off to Facade as she learns that Yonah has the Black Scrawl and there might be some info there. Dark Phantasm here.

So... You end up in Facade. You can't get in, until Kaine signals to the guards. Now comes the next problem, you don't understand a damn thing the people are saying! Not even Grimoire Weiss understands them. When you make it over to the King's Mansion, you can't get in due to the language barrier, so you go back to the entrance where you meet Fyra. She's mute, so she signs everything. Then gives you a tour while giving Weiss enough to go on about their language and dispensing a few rules here and there because of their Cloud Cuckoolanderness. When they try to see the Prince (the King's dead), it turns out that he's missing. And no one can find him because of all the rules getting in the way. Kaine knows of Rule 1024, and requests to rescue the Prince. Fyra even signs "Screw the rules!" and helps you get to the Barren Temple. She can't enter it due to the rules, so she heads back to Facade. While you're inside the Temple, you have to follow the rules or else... Kaine finds out the hard way and is transported elsewhere. So now you have to find both Kaine and the Prince. After going through the place, following rules (and hopefully not landing in the sand like an idiot), you fight a rather strange boss that requires either pretty good sniping skills, or the mentality to just smash everything in sight. As it turns out, the Prince was looking for a certain mask that the King is required to wear. Cue a funny little Zelda-esque fanfare. After taking the King back, Nier asks about the Black Scrawl. The King's father died from it and there haven't been advances in treating it. Dark Wall here and back to the Village to check up on Yonah.

Yonah's obviously worried, so she asks you to spend the night. You do, and then you get a really messed up dream. About the Forest of Myth and a Sealed Verse. Yonah also had the same dream... After learning more about that Forest from Popola and reading a really weird letter about a dream from them, off you go~ When you get there, you speak with the Mayor, then catch the Deathdream. Cue Interface Screw! Text adventure time! The mayor's dream is based on finding the origins of the Dreamdeath virus and how to exit it. Because it's based on what a human thinks and dreams about, the imagination is all it takes to cure it, but you're also bound by the rules of the words. The mayor is cured, then it's off to cure the other two residents. Dark Execution here. The woman's dream is really creepy... Almost straight out of a horror book. She was locked up in a castle that was being flooded and wanted to get out desperately. Nier breaks her out of the cell, and you proceed through the castle (north and east all the way). You encounter truly macabre sights like dinner guests pinned onto their seats in a rather spectacularly brutal fashion. Well, as brutal as you can get with only text. When you escape the castle, you find out that she's a woman, and she's cured. Off to the last guy. The dream starts off wandering through a desert until you reach the City of Art. Along the way, Nier's a complete idiot about seeing water/mirages, so much that Weiss smacks him with the cover. Inside of the City, it feels somewhat familiar to him... Full of skyscrapers, different building types, statues. All of it, "modern art." Then you're given a classic riddle to solve, then you free the final resident. Now... why would those sights seems so familiar to people who've never seen a city? Nier doesn't bother thinking much on it, and heads off to home after confirming with the mayor that everyone's free from the curse.

After getting home, Yonah asks if you could do her a favour: help her pen pal. Who happens to be a boy. In the Southern Plains. So off you go. At the manor, everything goes monochrome... and the butler Sebastian escorts you to the dining hall. Kaine falls asleep, you go adventuring! It evokes the feeling of the past survival horror games, like biohazard/Resident evil with the camera angles. Funny enough, the manor manages to creep out Weiss enough to make you go back to check on Kaine. She's also left, and more than likely gotten lost. After going through the courtyard with the "statues," you meet Emil. You get a map and you try to find Sebastian in his quarters. And there's a room that has a sink open its tap to fill it up with "blood." After finding the butler, it turns out that it was him writing the letters to lure Nier to the manor... to help them find a cure for Emil's eyes. He agrees, and they make their way over to the library. While inside to check up on the books, a sentient book attacks. Defeating the Red Book nets you Dark Whirlwind here. The book also explodes leaving a page about how to cure a petrification curse written in code. This gives Emil some hope. After going outside, Kaine has a little chat with Emil, telling him to petrify her if the Shade possessing her goes out of control and that his eyes have a purpose.

How that all the Verses have been collected, Grimoire Noir needs to be tracked down. Checking up on Yonah reveals that her cough had gotten worse, and she needs more medicine. Popola just ran out herself, so you need to get vapor moss. That's when you see Emil wander through the gates by himself... With a warning that there's a huge Shade attack coming, which strikes right when you hear about it. Cue massive boss fight that you probably shouldn't screw around in because those medium-sized Shades aren't that likely to drop Healing Salves. The giant Shade can revive/regenerate parts, so the only real strategy they have is to continue pushing it back while everyone gets to safety at the library. Unfortunately, the Shade reaches the library but you do manage to reduce its size to stuff into the basement. But before you can even think about celebrating, Nier gets stabbed from behind. It narrowly misses his heart, and Grimoire Noir appears with the Shadowlord. Noir tries to get Weiss to merge with him to bring about a new paradise, which garners a rather funny bit from Kaine, including calling him a "little bitch." He snaps out of it, and you proceed to beat up another book. Only this time, you have no magic and need to earn it back. The Shadowlord manages to get away with Yonah, which is really Yonah's Replicant, and Nier gets stabbed again. This time, protecting Weiss. They escape, Kaine's losing control and the Shade is threatening to get out. The only option is to petrify Kaine, so you do so...


Part 1 done.

Notes on NieR

... 124 046 rules in Facade, with the 124 047th passed the month before Fyra's tour. That's a lot of rules to remember. Anyways, noted down all the entries from the DLC pack, "The World of Recycled Vessel" or "15 Nightmares," depending on the region.


Door 1
This is the world of the recycled vessel, created to avoid the destruction of all.

The Black Scrawl. A lost destiny. A white book. A false truth.

A soldier of salt calling forth white death.
He is Legion, the man who plunged the world into darkness.

The dragon's corpse brought death to the world, delivering unto it the power of the devil.

The black sickness stains the future. They journey to return to soulless vessels.


Door 2
The apocalypse divided the world in two:
one that knows not day, and one which has never seen the night.

Black, and white. Thirteen pacts. The vessels' forms waver as they cross time and space.

The song of man has been drowned out. In its place, the scream of something inhuman.

The sky falls with the dragon. The world ends this day.

The puppet priest collects the accursed prayers and polishes the vessel.


Door 3
As long as this memory exists, as long as mankind has hope, a bloody battle will be waged over the holy domain of the body.

"Foolish human.
Foolish human.
Foolish human.

Foolish vessel."

All is paid. All is sacrifice.

Do not bring back the light.
Do not bring back the vessel.
Do not bring back the future.
Do not bring it back.

Every beam of light is an invitation to death.


I don't have much to say on this right now. All I know is that by the time you get to the 3rd Door, it's probably not her writing, but the Shade. The Black Scrawl appears whenever a Shade manages to reunite with its Replicant. There are also abstract references to the Red Dragon (Angel/Angelus and Caim), but it's not exactly telling on where the origins of the Black Scrawl and White Chlorination disease are from. The White Chlorination is most likely from Angelus, while the Black Scrawl only arose due to complications from Project Gestalt. Namely... The Replicants gaining sentience, and the souls going Gestalt too early, resulting in relapse cases. The original Gestalt was Nier (or whatever you named him), and the first known relapse was Yonah. It's also possible that the Black Scrawl appears when decoding the human soul, removing it from the original body, and when the soul is entering the designated Replicant body. Grimoire Noir is most likely the decoder and Grimoire Weiss is most likely the encoder, allowing for (hopefully) incident-free removal and transfer of souls into clean bodies.

Or you know, I could be completely wrong and should wait for Grimoire NieR to arrive in the mail to try deciphering the plot. No way in hell am I going to get the Drag-on Dragoon books since it's pretty much near impossible here. Or try playing at a sane time so I can actually understand what's going on.

It's funny how the entries don't have anything on what happened with the experiment weapons...

Iron Will
Atk: 200
Mag: +0%
Wgt: Very Light
Is also... missing half the blade. No one in their right mind would use it...


978-4757746619, 978-4757524682 - Books to order on BeNippon (because shipping from Amazon JP sucks).

>.O

I'm stunned at Gabriel's ENG voice. No wonder why I didn't understand a single word out of his mouth the first time through which lead me to drop him. It's so heavily accented that it takes a double-take to get what he's saying. AND HE'S FROM ATHLUM. He should sound similar to the other Athlumians. The residents from Celapaleis don't have much of an accent either, so he shouldn't. It's just really creepy considering that he tries to hit on several females and tries to act like a romantic.

... Leshau sounds like a meek Mao (Disgaea 3), but Vic isn't among the extra voices. Paris' voice is a definite miss. "I will make you proud." What. Why does Yuniver sound like he's been strangled? Haruko sounds like a old librarian. She doesn't look that old! Wyngale doesn't sound kooky enough. Wait. Is that JYB trying to lower his voice? I don't the other ENG voices well enough to pinpoint them on the other unique leaders. I'll make notes on other ENG voices after I've gone though all of them... After I stop playing NieR for a bit. Probably won't be any time soon since I'm planning on getting NieR RepliCant.



By the way, my friends are total enablers. Supporting (and somewhat gleefully) my idea of taking up comp sci. People can only guess where this is going to go.

Still not 100% done.

Ending D's ending theme sounds like extremely mangled Japanese. I think each of the 4 versions corresponds to a particular Ending you can get. Anyways, achieved Ending D at level 46 on Normal. The game's actually pathetically easy once you get the Phoenix Spear and even just upgrade it once. Or even just fully upgrading the katana Faith (relatively easy to upgrade I like spamming magic).


... And I think I glitched out of my trophies? Currently sitting at ~60%, and I can complete some fights in less than a minute, yet I can't get them. Might as well start a new file because I want the 100 Sheep trophy and other things... Don't think I'll be getting the DLC if I get RepliCant. Maybe. JP PSN cards are expensive to import. The pricing makes me cry. Either way, it turns out that I'm not the only one who glitched out, but it doesn't seem to be a common enough problem to be addressed. Still, it's annoying.

失ワレタ森

I must say... I'm quite pleased with NieR. Combat's OK, the quests are rather tedious, graphically not too impressive, and the music's awesome. One quest chain is quite a tearjerker, that's for sure. It involves Seafront, the lighthouse woman and the mailman. The old woman's afflicted with the Black Scrawl disease, and has been waiting for her love for 50 years to come back from his journey. So, she waits. All while receiving letters from time to time. She comes off as quite a bitch when you first meet her, but she means well. Eventually, you learn that the letters were written by the mailman and his father for the past 50 years. The entire town was in on it, just to keep her happy, because they knew that he was dead. She can't stand just reading the letters, and wants to leave the lighthouse to see her love. The mailman insists that she stays as she's the only one who knows how to operate the lighthouse. The mailman asks you to reason with her, but you find out about the disease and that she just wants to see him as a final request. You eventually see the parcel full of her letters after figuring out the conspiracy and are asked to deliver the final letter. You can keep the lie going, or tell her the truth. I opted to tell her the truth, and it turns out that she had the suspicion that the entire thing was a lie. She actually appreciated the effort the townspeople put in to keep her happy all this time, so she tells you not to tell them that she knew. To continue as she "were none the wiser." She eventually succumbs to the Black Scrawl during the quest "Closure," and that she had died with a smile on her face. I think this is one of my favourite quests from all the games I've played...



Also. The butler Sebastian. It was probably wasn't intentional, but amusing nonetheless.

Ah.

Rush really is taller than David. By a bit. But where's David's ring? They got his earring... Hm... Maybe I just missed it.

That One Stat...

I probably shouldn't argue with people on GameFAQs so much. There was a discussion about the Unique Parameters on the 360 board because someone was asking about it and because the ENG guide doesn't really say anything about it. Not surprising, considering how thin that guide is. Anyways, about those stats... One user said that in Korea, it was supposedly confirmed that the unique was used for Criticals and Critical Defense. I'm not buying it. He also said that the stat maxes out at 100 in the Asian 360 version. ALSO not buying it. I know that I can push the stat to 100 and beyond, but that's because I'm playing the PC version. Then he posts, saying that it maxes out when you max your BR. Now why the hell would you want to max your BR on the 360 version?! That's pure suicide if you're not prepared! BR maxes at 255...

Anyways, the reason why I even decided to say anything was because of the Critical Hit and Critical Defense thing. Since he also had the JP guide, he should be able to tell the difference between several terms: Critical Hit, Critical Offense, Critical Defense, Critical Trigger, Trigger Chance.
Critical Hit: Exactly what it says. Not influenced by a stat, but by Morale.
Critical Offense: The chaining of commands through the use of the Critical Trigger.
Critical Defense: The chance to Parry/Shield Bash/Counter through the use of the Critical Trigger.
Critical Trigger: The QTE sequences during a CO/CD.
Trigger Chance: Exactly what it says, the chance to use the Critical Trigger.

Each piece of equipment has a CO/CD value to it. Remnants tend to have fairly high CO/CD values. It can also be influenced by Morale, so the value (Trigger Rate) isn't fixed. The unique stat doesn't have anything to do with it. What it DOES do, is influence the commands you get in battle, and possibly how they would Reassess/Rethink during a battle. Obviously, this also means that you should construct your unions with unique parameters that work well together. Another thing, COs seem to happen more often because the game makes as many passes minus 1 as there are units in that particular union. If you have 5 units, then you have 4 passes for the Trigger Chance. The CD only activates if you successfully Block/Dodge, which is dependent on the unit's equipment and Morale. So unless the battles are matched unit for unit with the same conditions, you wouldn't see CO:CD at 1:1. Ever. Then there's the Critical Hit. It happens randomly, and the rate is affected by the Allies' Morale. Take that crazy battle against an Observer, which lasted 31 turns. Morale never rose above 50% in my favour, which resulted in practically no crits unless I got lucky with a CO (about 20 times). Contrast with another fight with 100% against that unlucky Dragon. Filled with massive numbers of crits. Now, that's about 6 playthroughs of that, so I think I know what I'm talking about. And he said that his friend told him that...

So, about that unique stat... I'll give an example. Emmy/David/Irina/Rush/Haruko. Love/Authority/Bonds/Bravery/Inner Strength. Sticking David that high up might have been a bad idea (coupled with a high UP stat, >100) since his Shards commands pop up quite frequently and sometimes dragging Irina into using IAs, but the other units work well together by focusing on Morale control, healing and buffing. So it's essentially a support union. An insanely powerful support union with 3 Shards users, Hundred Flowers for extra pain, 2 Weapon Arts, 2 dual-wielders with Swift SS arts, 2 Psionics users, and just general MAs spamming. And a summon. Squee. Contrast to another union I had. Having someone like Constance (Cynicism) as the leader pretty much resulted in a suicidal union that rarely healed itself while in Deadlock. Her UP seriously clashed with everyone else's stat. Accounts from other users had similar effects of having screwed up (read: unfavourable) commands depending on the leader and the general union composition. Like replacing Irina with Wyngale. You don't want to replace someone nice with a complete nutcase if you want Arcana spam! And having someone hardworking and another who's lazy in the same union... It's not apparent to newcomers, but it becomes glaring once you engage in higher level play such as low BR runs and other self-imposed challenges.



And my interest in NieR has jumped quite a bit... because I started listening to the OST. It seems to be mostly ex-NAMCO composers that have worked on Tekken 6. Eh, whatever. It's probably going to be the next game I play. Just don't know if it'll be NieR RepliCant or NIER/NieR Gestalt.

Working on the leaders...

I'm currently amused by the lone Psionics and Wards generic leader, Aquarius. She's pretty much like Paris, only that she can't really attack until she gains some combat arts, and uses a Katana instead of those Staves. She's already a Commander, so no class change for her. It also means that she can't change styles mid-battle either since she's locked into a Mystic class. I took a closer look at the classes in the JP guide, because the EN guide scans said absolutely nothing about classes. There's just no way in hell that I would buy that guide unless it was less than $10, because that's how much info is in the damn thing. Oh, and she DOES have one advantage over Paris: Weapon Art. She can learn to use 剣の一閃. Still, Paris is the better character to use for formation attributes, can serve as a backup healer, and has a better joining time (complete his quest chain early vs. after Undelwalt). Well, not to mention better Starting Unit BR (48 vs. 68) and arguably a better class (Paladin vs. Commander) despite it being a lower Rank (5 vs. 6). At least you can just hire her to get that Guild Adventure over and done with without having to train Pagus, Paris, Rush or Wyngale to become Commanders. Jorgen can learn Wards, but his class is locked due to special circumstances. There's also Milton, but he's already in the Gladiator class, which is also Rank 6.


Interesting note... Vinnery, one of the guys from the Melphina quest chain, was on route to getting the Mystic Pick (it does NOT look like a Scythe you nitwits), but suddenly upgraded to the Power Pick. I knew that it was the Mystic Pick because he was asking for Divine Metal, not Crimson Ore, and that I had stuck him in a Mystic union for the lulz. Lulz were had because of the Mystic route he was going on, but I then decided to develop him into a Guardian, which sent him on his merry way towards the Combat route. Maybe I should have waited for him to upgrade to the Mystic Pick first before training~



I got someone to shout "Emmy!" but I couldn't tell who it was. It sounded like David said something because it didn't quite sound like Rush. Not to mention that they don't quite like each other. Pretty sure it's Dave's line.

More later.

JP pronouns are fun!

Rush - オレ (オレがラッシュだ！)
David - 私 (formal), 俺 (towards Rush, and others later)
Emma/Emmy - 私
Blocter - 俺
Pagus - 私
Torgal - 私
Irina - 私
Loki - 俺
Baulson - 俺
Nora - あたし
Gabriel - オレ
Violet - 私 (わたし/わたくし, depending on the context. Watakushi is spoken when seizing her items)
Rhagoh - 僕
Allan - 俺
Kate - 私
Darien - 俺
Haruko - 私
Khrynia - あたし (also refers to herself in third-person. キルネア)
Caedmon - 私
Zolean - ワシ
Jorgen - 俺
Leshau - 僕
Gaou - 俺
Wyngale - 俺
Paris - 僕
Sibal - オレ
Maddox - 私
Glenys - 私
Sheryl - 私
Jager - 俺
Ghor - ワシ/わし
Roberto - 拙者
Yuniver - 俺
Leucetius - 僕


Snievan - 私
Zuido - ズイドウ (third person)/俺/オレ(used during his quest)
Hinnah　-　俺
Hannah - 私
Milton - ワシ
Young - 俺様/オレ
Ludope - 俺


Lukorra - おいら
Vinnery - 私, probably
Neo - 俺


Tornado Lotion Lv1 - ~4000 (3600 against Observer)

HOLY CRAP I CAN STYLE CHANGE WHILE A NINJA.

HOLY CRAP DAVE IS AWESOME FOR HITTING 170K WITH BLUE RAIN.

Takes until BR37 on Ransatsu to get Fornstrand to start at equal Morale...
Kate and Rhagoh can definitely be done at lower than BR50, easily, but the normal encounters in the lower area start at low army morale. Got the best reward possible in "Love Will Rise Again" because I just blitzed the bosses when the finally showed up. Balterossa then Royotia, 3 and 5 turns.

The Assistant: materials needed are far less than the 360 counterpart, and the numbers needed are correctly displayed in JP.

Xenophobia/Hoarfrost is physical, not mystic, according to the JP text. A lot of things seem to be translated wrong...

Vinnery's on the Mystic route despite having no mystic arts. Looks like just sticking them in a certain union will do that to them. Using mostly combat arts when you're supposed to be a mage is pretty bad, as it'll result in having a mage with a combat focus. Guess the guide was right about using commands to shift focus. If they've already asked twice, chances are, they're already set. Unless you immediately go out and act against your own orders...