Nier is stuffed with ideas. It is first and foremost a role-playing game, but it incorporates elements from hack-and-slash swordfests, top-down shoot-'em-ups, two-dimensional platformers, and puzzle games. These elements coalesce nicely in the four or five concluding hours, when Nier drops interesting plot developments while giving you a chance to unleash powerful attacks on menacing-looking (if pushover) bosses. Unfortunately, the 25 or 30 hours leading up to that finale are abysmally paced and dreadfully boring. You don't feel you are the hero in a grand adventure as much as an ugly errand boy with bad hair and a sick daughter, wandering through the same uninspired environments over and over and coping with long stretches of nothing. That's a shame, because Nier's fantastic final hours and a few other graceful details pack some emotional punch. But in spite of its exciting coda and a bright fanfare or two, this action RPG is mostly a long and plodding symphony with too many rests and too few high notes.
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