NieR

NieR (alternatively spelled NIER) was Cavia's final game, and an action RPG for the XBox 360/PS3. It is set in the same universe as the Drakengard series, and has some story connections, though these are not confirmed within the game itself.

The Japanese version is known as NieR Gestalt on the 360, and NieR Replicant on the PS3. Gestalt stars a father protecting his daughter, while Replicant is about a brother doing the same for his sister. The games are identical otherwise. Gestalt is the version that the West got on both platforms.

Due to poor marketing by publisher Square-Enix and the game's failure to meet players' expectations of a tarted-up brogamer epic, NieR was a critical and commercial failure in the West, but saw wider recognition in Japan.

(pics./videos would be nice here)

• Zelda series: A dungeon full of blocks and locked rooms, culminating in the acquisition of an item with a very familiar animation and jingle.

• Harvest Moon series: You can grow crops and flowers on the land next to your house.

• Monster Hunter series: Hunting animals and scavenging the land for materials, which are used to complete quests and upgrade weapons.

• Text adventures: A text-based maze in a horror castle.

• Visual novels: Not quite, as there is no visual component to the novel segments, but the writing is in a very Kinoko Nasu style.

• Arcade racers: When riding boars, you can drift them like in OutRun 2 and similar games.

• Resident Evil series: A haunted mansion with giant spiders, fixed camera angles, and a history of secret lab operations.

• Twin-stick shooters: When the camera moves to a fixed overhead view, magical attacks are directed with the right stick.

• Manic/“bullet hell” shooters: Many enemies fire elaborate patterns of 2D bullets, which can be cancelled and absorbed with attacks.

• Genre Guise (sort of)
• NieR....OR....i thought we used to like Cavia? - SB forum thread.
• Nier Status Messages - HG101 blog post listing the game's PSN status messages.