I'm 15 hours into Nier, and so far, this game is highly overrated in my opinion. The only pros in this game for me so far is the music, the boss battles, Nier (minus his situation with his daughter), and Kaine. I am hardly enjoying anything else about it. I can not for the life of me take this storyline seriously (the only good parts about the storyline for me so far is the story of the 2 brother at the weapons making shop and any story bit that has to do with Kaine). I don't give 2 sh*ts about Nier and his daughter's story (though Nier himself is a very good character), about Weiss, and many elements about the storyline is either underdeveloped, forced, or completely nonsensual. Gameplay wise, the boss battles are awesome, but the regular battles are nothing to write home about.

At this point, I believe I've reached the half way point of the game. From what I've heard, the storyline is suppose to get good from here on out. I'm willing to play this game though to the end.

So far, I'd give this game a 6.5

The game wasn't rated that highly anyway, right ?

Well lots of people say it's like one of the best games ever :/.

Yes I have noticed that people who played the game seem to put it on some high pedestal.  Me, however, after playing it quite agrees with most of the reviews.  But was still fun to play.  And yea the story does get a little better, but it is only because in the beginning it wasn't developed well.  They do it better in the second half of the game.

Yeah, that is one of the main problems with Nier's storyline for me. Alot of the plot developments and plot points in the game were very underdeveloped. Some of them were rushed as well. It's good to hear that they do a better job of that in the second half. I just hope they do a good enough job of it.

I agree I've been playing it recently. I think some people were so surprised it wasn't "crap" that they felt the need to put it on a high pedestal instead because of their surprise of how good it was.

Remember when a game is "surprisingly good" for people they tend to overrate it.

When a game "disappointing" for people they tend to underrate it.

The thing is that to fully appreciate the story of the Nier you have to see at least ending B as well and all those extra cutscenes before it. C and D endings need a bit of extra work (collect every weapon in the game) so those you can watch in Youtube (there is no other extra cutsenes during third and fourth playtrough). It feels that most of the reviewers played only ending A and so missed a lot of story and character development.  I personally absolutely loved this game. Soundtrack is best of the gen, combat wasn't that special but still fun to play and characters and story were refreshingly different compared to other JRPGs. Of course as with every game there  are people that have different opinions but with Nier the difference between reviews and average user opinion is rather massive. For example critic score of Nier is 68 in metacritic and average user score is 83.

What was you reception of Nier's storyline when you had only beat the game to the first ending?

I liked looking at Kaine's booty.  That's pretty much the highlight of the game, for me.

It's not a bad game at all but it doesn't really do much to elevate it to must play status.  I'm gonna finish it, too just because I kinda like it--I just can't put my finger on WHY I like it.  The graphics are about PS2 quality. The narrative isn't that great.  The story isn't anything mind blowing (yet).  The enemies are bland, cheap, and repetitive.......and yet, I like it.

The boss battles are awesome, and the music is great. Maybe that's the reason?