Should I play Nier or Ico

You should play Ico, it's pretty damn short.

Nier is brilliant. You should play it.

I mean, not that you shouldn't play ICO, either. It's great but it personally lost me by the end of the game.

Nier has an amazing soundtrack, some great characters, a really cool universe, and some gameplay/story twists and turns that you'll never see coming. Despite looking like a PS2 game, it never ceased to surprise me. Easily one of the most enjoyable RPGs I've played this generation.

Ico is a masterpiece and Nier isn't worth the plastic it's printed on. No offense, friend, but you are calling your capacity for rational thought into question by asking this.

You can finish Ico in a fraction of the time it takes to see all the cool parts in Nier, so you should probably play that first.

@chrissedoff said:

I stand by what I said. Nier is fucking terrific. In a sea of unoriginal, uninspired, boilerplate-ass roleplaying games, Nier was one of the best breaths of fresh air I've ever had.

Except for the fishing minigame. Fuck that noise.

@aurahack said:

I suppose it wouldn't be a JRPG without a fishing mini game.

Let's second that, and re-iterate some points. The game doesn't look good, even with some cool gameplay changes here and there it's pretty average at best most of the time, but my god does it have amazing voice acting, music and ridiculously inventive story telling.

To me, it's honestly like Ken Levine writing a video game that he has next to 0 quality control over. It feels unfair that the game gets saddled with low end graphics, a lot of boring sidequests, some average action combat and a padded out length. Because the stuff it does right, it does -so- right.

look at how wrong you are.

Nier is a goddamn master piece. It is, in my opinion, the best game I've ever played.

Are you Justin Mcelroy? Did you get stuck on the fishing minigame and stop playing?

Ico first. You can finish that in a day.

I haven't played either of those games. If i had them i'd play Ico first.

Every time I see someone talk shit about Nier, I die a lil' more on the inside.

Nier is the most overrated underrated game.

Ico is really short. As long as you are in the right mindset, you will enjoy it.

Nier is pretty good. The one problem I have with it is forcing you to do a bit of a collectathon in order to see the final ending, something that has prevented me from truly finishing it yet.

word up

On a scale from Sardine to Whale, how much fishing would you guys say there is in Nier? This directly influences my pick.

Yep, it is real hard to enjoy that game.

Yeah, don't let anyone hype you up on Nier too much. It's a middling game with some great ideas (and an absolutely fantastic soundtrack, but you don't need to play the game to hear it).

There's a lot of games out there that carry a similar caveat (Majora's Mask, Binary Domain, LA Noire, anything Troika, anything Grasshopper, anything Double Fine) and tend to be the sort of thing I recommend to people who play a lot of different games and want something cool/novel instead of the vast amount of uninspired genre fare out there and have since grown tolerant enough to deal with some of the less fun parts of those games. If you're one of those people, I absolutely recommend Nier. It's inimitable, and that's more valuable to some gamers than anything else.

Actually, ICO may well be in the same boat except it's harder to fault that game for anything besides it being a giant escort quest. Might as well play that first because it'll probably only take you an afternoon.

I would probably go Ico, as it seems to be a long term classic if you are going to the backlog to have a bit more reference in how games have developed.

My personal experience (playing NES to PS1, missing PS2-X360/PS3 until 2011 or so) has been that a lot of the hyped older games from this generation are not very fun to play compared to the more recent titles. Like early ones especially are remembered fondly for including some action or another that was new, but this generation was so focused on polish and incremental fixes that going back to it ends up being a bit unpleasant.

I never beat the game but I will say that I got stuck on the fishing mini-game for well over an hour even after looking at a guide. It is one of the worst parts of any game I have ever played. Other than that, I never really got far enough to truly judge, but I will say that after playing for 10 hours or so I still hadn't experienced any of the incredible parts that people talk about. And the game is ugly. Not just technically, but artistically as well. Just flat out one of the worst looking games of this generation. That said, unless you are playing the HD remake of Ico, that games runs in 240i and looks like complete shit on a modern TV. It truly is an awful sight to behold. If you don't have the HD version I might advise waiting as the original version looks truly awful on a modern TV, to the point where it can almost be distracting. Also, you can beat the whole game in a couple of days so I would say start with that, beat it and then move onto Neir.

very little. You have to do it once, but it's really easy once you figure it out, and after words it's just a side quest you could do if you want.

Ico. Classic awesomeness.

both!

Wow, seriously? You should have to fish once to get what you need and be done with it. Did you do the thing of fishing in the wrong place for an hour? Or maybe RNG hates you more than it hates me, but that can't be possible.

I voted Nier, especially since you mentioned you were going to play the Last of Us after, but if Ico is actually as short as people are saying it is, might be a better pick, Nier is pretty long and involves like 3 playthroughs to finish properly.

You can probably beat Ico in a day or so as everyone has said so you may as well beat that, but Nier is simply brilliant. Do yourself a service and don't let anyone talk you out of enjoying it.

P.S. Yes, the fishing is one of the worst things that has happened in a game.

Ico should take roughly seven to nine hours on your first play through. I haven't played the game in about ten years, but I've had dreams about it from time to time. One of the few games that most everyone can agree on.

You'd be an idiot not to play Ico first.

Man, I really need to play Nier so I can be better at talking shit about Nier because clearly things are worse than I thought. And I really really don't want to play Nier.

I've only played Ico, but from what I understand, Nier is seriously underrated (or overrated, now that enough people have said it's underrated). It got middling scores, but the story is worth the combat tedium. Also, that soundtrack is BITCHIN.

ICO is one of those games that people love for reasons I can't comprehend, having never played it myself (You hold her hand? Emotional Bonding?). Neir seems like one of those games that people love for reasons I can comprehend, having never played it myself (it's batshit crazy).

I'd play ICO first and then Nier if you have time. I enjoyed Nier even though I haven't beaten it, but I think it's longer than ICO.

I only say Ico because it's shorter and you should play both. Nier is super refreshing considering most of the games this generation. People mention the graphics aren't great but I think the art direction of it makes up for that, except Kaine's weird boob slits. I enjoyed the combat as well due to it's magic system and bullet hellness. The most annoying thing I can think about the game is just when you have to do some fetch quests like the fishing. Although somehow people are terrible at the fishing game even when you're fishing in the correct spot by looking at the giant red X on your map. Also like everyone already knows, the story and soundtrack are great.

Nier. Nier Nier Nier Nier Nier. It's brilliant in so many ways. It hits hard, so tremendously depressing and deep. Such an amazing game and definitely I would refer it above ICO and honestly many games this generation or last. ICO kind of pales in comparison.

It is undoubtedly in my top 5 games of all times list, and it's very near the top. It may even contest for the top.

Nier. I did not like ICO at all. I felt that I spent more time pondering how to escape a room than I did actually playing ICO. Maybe that is the whole point of that game, but I feel that being confused in that manner is not for me. I played Tomb Raider too many times to continue enjoying that style of game anymore. Plus, every time I failed in that game it was because of my inability to protect the woman I am trying to rescue.

I feel that escort missions are always awful, no matter what the game.

Do you need to play through all of Nier's endings to get to the emotional stuff? I only played through it once and I came away feeling completely middle of the road about it.

ICO is going to probably the consensus pick (the polls said so) because of its acclaim. I didn't play the game so I can't judge on that, but I don't think you can go wrong with Nier. I even wrote as such. If you want a great story and a great musical score, Nier has that. Just pick one and stick with it; you'll enjoy yourself either way.

Kind of. It's been a while since I played it, but I remember noticing things being a little different at the start of my second playthrough, and it added with every playthrough. It culminates pretty well though, the final ending was so good.

Ico is an infinitely more playable game than Nier. Play Ico, pretend you've never heard of Nier.

No matter how good the soundtrack or the story might be in Nier , it's still one of the most tedious games I've had the misfortune of playing. It's like bashing your head against a wall; occasionally you'll get to see pretty colours but that shit is still painful 95% of the time.

Without being too spoiley about it, the second time through adds a lot of things you never saw or experienced. The extra endings past the second are just ending changes. Fucking crazy ass amazing ending changes, but nothing new outside of that.

Feel free to be middle of the road about it. Not everyone plays games for narrative and characters. Not everyone resonates with every story even if they really care about them in general.

It does seem there is a good reason for everyone to play Nier if you're interested because for those of us that did love it, and I'd say that percentage is a lot bigger than normal for a game that mostly deserves the 6/7's from major review sites, you really can't find something like this anywhere else. I never got to drakengard 1 but I did beat 2 and it also had some great moments in it but now we're really going back quite a few years and I have trouble remembering. Wish these guys were given more money or time or better gameplay developers or something so their games got more credit.

Agreed, for people who does not know. Go back and replay the game after you beat it the first time. Thank me later.

(I'll say things that I like about Nier sense I never played ico)

Nier

The Good

1. Has a decent combat system and cool powers.

2. The Boss fights were pretty kickass and epic

3. The soundtrack is aswome and makes the fights more epic.

4. Story was neat and has an interesting weird twist..

The Bad

1. Needed more then just 4 weapon styles, and a upgrade system would have been nice.

2. Can get repetitive.

3. The side missions was pretty boring.

Overall Nier is a game that's worth checking out, and at the price its at now it will be worth your time.

not played nier but played ICO and i would recommend it every day of the week

I would highly reccomend Nier, falserelic basically nailed everything there is to say about that game

Ico, then NieR

Depands on your taste in games. I personally think Ico is one of the best games of all time, though some say the same for Nier. But really, play Ico. It's as unique as it gets :)

I.C.O.

I never understood this criticism, I think people make the game play out to be worse than it actually is. The game play to me just felt a bit outdated and everything else completely makes up for that anyway.

I would say Nier. I've never played Ico, but from what I've seen of it being played it seems like a pretty boring and annoying escort mission.

Nier though, I think should be experienced. My advice would be to skip most of the side quests and get the Phoenix Lance as soon as you can(second half of the game). After you get that weapon the combat becomes much more tolerable. Also, if you don't want to do the new game+ stuff, look it up after beating it. Nier does some really cool shit with NG+.

Easy, Ico.

Don't forget to walk all the way along the shore at the end.

Depends on how much side questin you want to do. There are some early quests that are literally bring me 10 sardines. There are others later in the game for bring me 5 sharks, bring me 3 blue marlins, bring me a legendary fish and so on. This is the typical side quest content which is why I think @aurahack is crazy for thinking this game is a breath of fresh air.

The second, third and fourth endings aren't as good as people say. Play ICO instead.