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

The Japanese version was known as NieR Gestalt on the 360, and NieR Replicant on the PS3. Gestalt starred a father protecting his daughter, while Replicant was about a brother doing the same for his sister. The games were identical otherwise. Gestalt was 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.

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 could grow crops and flowers on the land next to your house.

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

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

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

Arcade racers: When riding boars, you could 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 moved to a fixed overhead view, magical attacks were directed with the right stick.

Manic/“bullet hell” shooters: Many enemies fired elaborate patterns of 2D bullets, which could be canceled and absorbed with attacks.

Genre Guise (sort of)