LogFAQs > #895783739

9. Kaine (Nier)

"Weiss you dumbass! You better start making sense you rotten book, or you're gonna be sorry. Maybe I'll rip your pages out one by one, or maybe I'll put you in the goddamn furnance! How can someone with such a big, smart brain be hypnotized like a little bitch, huh!? Oh, Shadowlord, I love you Shadowlord, come over here and give Weiss a big sloppy kiss, Shadowlord. Now pull your head out of your goddamn ass and start fucking helping us!"

http://cdn2-www.playstationlifestyle.net/assets/uploads/2009/09/3928611560_204e9fb9f2.jpg

The above quote is heard approximately 3 seconds after booting up Nier. It's hard to forget.

Kaine is a character of excess. Her voice, fighting style, outfit, and language are all extremely over-the-top in a game that otherwise isn't. Nier's story has a bunch of fantasy/sci-fi elements in it but every other character in it feels way more grounded than Kaine, including the floating talking book and whatever the hell Emil is supposed to be. And they're not hesitant to point it out, either - Nier and Weiss' first lines when finding Kaine are somewhere along the lines sof "what's up with her?"

It's a great contrast to the emotional vulnerability she displays. Kaine is quite clearly coping with a lot. She never tells people exactly what she's coping with, but you can see it in how upset she gets by certain events that happen in the story. There are times when she goes from verbally flipping off someone to quiet and depressed within the span of an instant. While at first it seems almost out of character, it doesn't take long to realize that it IS her character. Kaine's bombastic personality is what she uses to cover up all the pain she's feeling inside, and while it never makes her any less of an entertaining character, it does add much more nuance to how she acts.

And she's definitely entertaining as hell. Laura Bailey is maybe the best voice actress in the business and Kaine is probably my favorite role she's done. I could listen to Kaine yell at things all day. Half the background dialogue in the game is of her bickering with Weiss and it never gets old. Every other character in the game is stoic, earnest, pompous, subdued, or just plain tired. Kaine is the only one who's loud and she provides a very-much appreciated contrast to the rest of the world.

Kaine is also the central focus of one of the most memorable segments in the game. The Nier series is fond of utilizing pure text/book formats to illustrate some of its flashbacks, and the one depicting Kaine's upbringing is the best one they've ever done. It's completely jarring when it pops up, happening right in the middle of a dramatic scene, and then fifteen minutes later I realized I was entirely engrossed in this story of a young Kaine and her relationship with her grandmother. It added so much context to Kaine as a whole and she ends up being the most fleshed-out character in the game as a result.

The only flaw I can think of with Kaine as a character is her outfit, which is...a little too far out there even when considering how it ties into her personality. Everything else about her is great. If Nier 3 can have another character as memorable as 9S or Kaine in its cast, I'll be extremely impressed.
---

Black Turtle did a pretty good job.