We can’t tell you a lot about Nier, and that’s strange seeing as we watched various aspects of it being played through for nearly two hours. It’s still rather difficult to put our fingers on what exactly it’s about, but bear with us as we reveal the key factors of this new JRPG.

The demo started out in a seemingly post-Apocalyptic world, in which titular chap Nier and his daughter Yonah who was ill with a disease known as the Black Scrawl, were sitting around in some kind of disused warehouse, starving to death. All a bit sad, and somewhat reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Just then, Nier departed somewhat from Pulitzer Prize-winning literature, as it turned out a rather sinister-looking book named Grimoire Weiss could not only create cakes from thin air, but also supply Nier with magic fighting skills (as well as sarcastic quips in a voice not unlike Stewie from Family Guy). Not a moment too soon as, stepping outside, Nier discovered the arrival of a bunch of shadowy figures – Shades, we were informed – who were products of the virus’s effects on the world. And so it was time to sample Nier’s fighting system.

It’s not in the slightest bit turn-based, which may come as a relief to some. However, the real-time approach to combat really failed to strike a chord with us, comprised as it was with middling hand-to-hand moves with a stick, backed up by the occasional Grimoire-based magic backup move. Fresh from our Bayonetta experiences, we couldn’t help but be mildly underwhelmed here, especially when swirling red mists emerge from the book containing things like giant fists to batter the enemies, and remind you even more of this game’s utter inability to compare to Sega’s witchy masterpiece.

After this long battle, which culminated in a giant Shade showing up and being beaten down by Nier’s lead pipe of fury (as well as specific body part-targetting spells), the demo shifted to what we were informed was “the future”. Except it looked rather more like the past. Everybody was garbed in medieval leathers and grieves, and living in small huts in an idyllic, grassy village. Nier was still the same age, and Yonah was still very unwell. It felt like some kind of time travel thing had happened, and it was possibly the most intriguing element of the game. We look forward to finding out more.

There wasn’t too much time to hang around puzzling it over, though. The Shades were back, and heading towards the village. After more minor battles against the familiar shadow guys, Nier had to face what we can only describe as a giant walking haemorrhoid, in a rather epic battle that saw him slashing away (he had a sword at this point) at the gigantic beast as it stomped its way over the rooftops. It took well over five minutes to halve its energy bar, and we were actually starting to become rather bored, but then Kaine entered.

This scantily clad female sidekick showed up with an impressive number of moves, performing an overblown pyrotechnic special on the monster that sliced it down the middle, but just before it died, the demo ended. Damn.

… continued