Now that they're an expansion ago, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Do you like them? Dislike them? Why? Do they feel like they belong? Were they still fun? If the mechanics simply fun, would you have preferred the same mechanics but in a much more 14 appropriate theme? Did you enjoy the story? What about the post quests story? Did it fit in 14? Do you see them as cursed and forever ruining Alliance Roulette now?
Tell me!
I loved the Nier raids. The soundtrack in particular for them was awesome, and they're the reason I'm now almost finished playing Nier Replicant and getting ready for Automata - I've thoroughly enjoyed Replicant, and I probably would've never even known it existed if not for the crossover in FFXIV. I still enjoy doing them when they pop up in Alliance roulette, especially the 1st and 3rd ones (the 2nd was so-so for me). I had no issue with the theme and I thought they tied it in nicely with the dwarves. The entire game is full of references to past FF games, so I see the theme they used as completely "appropriate." Only strange part for me was what happened at the very end and the apparent unresolved cliffhanger it ended on, but now that I'm playing the Nier games themselves, it's making a bit more "sense" as to the why it ended like that.
The plot was eh. Would have preferred something a little more conclusive (and a little more extreme, but I suppose limitations of T rating can only take you so far in a Yoko Taro story) but it was alright.
The raids themselves were pretty fun, though I wish the final one were more mechanically dense. I know they didn't want to make something as hard as Orbonne again, but I think they overcorrected. I think they could have made the finally raid a little crazier, at least the final boss could have been. But overall I still enjoyed it all, gameplay wise I'd put Nier right after Ivalice (with Ivalice being the best).
Story and lore? Terrible. Yoko Taro is an overrated clown and after him trashing potential for something nice and original in XIV for... *that* I have no interest in touching any more of his "work".
Gameplay was passable but nothing special. Well, I guess lasering another alliance on that one boss in second raid always makes me giggle.
I would give you a more complete answer but the fact that they never ever proc because of the disaster that is the alliance raid roulette means they have long since faded from my memory
But seriously, gameplay was better than most alliance raids (orbonne fun scaith and OZMA being the exceptions) storyline made no sense and it left with me with no desire to play nier, like crossovers from the old FF games I don’t even know until someone tells me because they fit in so well and I don’t play the old FF games but damn if this didn’t feel like a marketing billboard in Limsa in comparison
As a fan of Nier I really enjoyed the overall feel of the expansions, and really liked the story. It has some great characters and lines. I will say I kinda hope we do not get anything third-party like it again, mostly because I would rather we get some more FF14-specific lore.
The story was ok but I enjoyed the hell out of the raids. Copied Factory is probably my favorite alliance raid in both aesthetics and fight design. Nier Automata's music is top tier and continued into FF14.
I liked the raids back in ShB and I still like them now. But tbh, the theme is really out of place for the game and even to this day feels jarring for me.
The story to it was a confusing mess, played it on two different character and it made me 'HUH??? wat'
I loved the music but it's a shame we didn't get to fight the twins from Automata...A game I really loved. But I enjoyed the raids alot personally. Less the bullet hell corridors tho.
Need to replay them again, on launch I found them easier than Ivalice which is my favorite raid series due to the difficulty and reliance on others
For me it’s still my absolute favorite content in ffxiv, I loved everything about it.
I found it a fresh change, camera angles, sound, and the way they told the story was in my opinion superior and more cinematic as I saw before, also I found the bosses some of the most memorable.
No real opinion about the storyline, I can understand that some people did not like it. But it was far superior presented in my opinion.
Crappy plot, boring setting, great music and fight design is one of the most fun of all normal content.
I enjoy the Nier games on their own but I really wasn't feeling the raids overall. I thought Puppet's Bunker was great outside of the last boss but Copied Factory was a boring slog and Tower was very meh. I just don't think the vibe really gels with FFXIV, although I got some nice glams out of it so I guess I can't complain. I'd have much rather seen a Chrono crossover though.
Plot: Started off interesting, the Dwarves irritated me, the ending just made no sense
Setting: "Oh look, more white."
Music: Some choices were not the best. Song of the Ancients was overused. The Torn from the Heavens mix with the Dark Colossus was inconsistent.
Fight Design: Ok, really, who looked at Hashmal, Construct 8 and TG Cid and thought "Yeah, our community sucks at figuring out mechanics, let's just spam Touhou mechanics"? Because I've had enough from Byakko, thank you.
It's what got me started on XIV last year, same with the MH collab and ivalice raids. Nier and MH crossovers disappointed me tbh, Ivalice was fire though. Nier raids had great boss aesthetics and music but the story was messier than a regular Kingdom Hearts game. Why is there a spaceship/ futuristic stuff in Norvrandt? Where did the Copied Factory come from and how did it go unnoticed by the local populace in Khoulasia, nor how it even fits in the geopgraphy. ANd I had to research the Nier lore on youtube just to get some idea, and that was way weirder than any Nomura games tbh.
As for MH crossover, why did World get the cool Drachen set and Gae Bolg w/ Midgarsommr as a kinsect while in XIV, we have janky Rathalos and a recolored Dreadwyrm set for Rathalos armor?
I don't think non-final fantasy cross overs are good for alliance raids. It was easily my least favorite. It is clear they put a lot of love into the creation of the NIER raids, but I am not a fan of the nier series and this raid is not for me.
I liked them a lot, the music was amazing!
Forgot what the story was about though.
The visuals, sounds and music were outstanding. Puppet's Bunker is a favorite of mine for this alone.
The mechanics weren't anything special though, especially given Yoko's penchant for mixing gameplay up. Besides the Tower at Paradigm's 3rd boss, in which you hack into something, there wasn't anything outlandish.
The story was so-so.
First one was the best. Second one was pretty good the third one wasn’t as good.
Copied Factory was really fun but it kind of just went downhill after that.
Personally I had a truly awful time with the NieR raids, but love the Ivalice raids. I would have much preferred the NieR raids to do as Ivalice did in leaning into the genre crossover.
The source material for the Ivalice raids is Final Fantasy Tactics, a turn-based tactical game. What makes FF Tactics easy in ways unsuited for FFXIV is the turn-based nature, but the feeling was preserved with slower, more planning-oriented mechanics. What makes FF Tactics hard in ways unsuited for FFXIV are things like the friendly fire on AOEs and the possibility of ruining one's entire save with a single mistake, and these were thrown out entirely.
The source material for the NieR raids is obviously the NieR games, which are single-player action RPGs. What makes the NieR games easy in ways unsuited for FFXIV are the difficulty settings and the customizable chipsets, and these were thrown out entirely. What makes the NieR games hard in ways unsuited for FFXIV is the high-speed reactive nature, which is largely left in despite the FF14 engine's difficulties with high-speed content and reacting to other players.
As a disabled player, the NieR raids are simply too fast for me, even though I can do Savage comfortably. (I've tried studying the mechanics, and it didn't help.) I'm sure players who are older or simply unused to action games face similar difficulties. I would much prefer if, say, 2P had a fixed chipset and the raids somehow gave the WoL those benefits to adjust NieR mechanics into something more suited to the FFXIV engine and player training. What if we got the quick slashes and combo attacks common in action games, even signature attacks of NieR enemies, but with slowed time and/or telegraphs to make them fit in FFXIV? I would have a lot more fun with that version...
Love of all of the Nier runs.
It was challenging and dramatic until the patch release today.
Now we have Vanilla Nier, literary and I dislike it _a _lot.
Cheers