I’ve tried playing NieR (Gestalt) when it first came out years ago, but just like it happened with Drakengard even earlier, I got bored with the game. So it wasn’t until slightly later that I’ve learned about how inventive the storytelling in NieR becomes, how the game twists your perceptions with the second playthrough and just how intentional a lot of the boredom I’ve felt was. Years later, NieR: Automata came out and was absolutely fantastic, doing a lot of the same concepts, but in a much more fun way. And given its success, I expected that it was only a matter of time NieR will get a modern re-release. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… turned out to be much more than a simple re-release.
The game does look and feel quite outdated and in many ways clunky. So if you’ve never seen the original release of NieR, you might think that this new version of the game is just slightly updated and runs at a higher resolution. But put two games side by side and it becomes clear just how much effort has been put into this new release. For one, the game seems to have been transferred to the engine that was used in Automata, as a lot of movement and animation elements now behave much closer to how they did in the sequel. The rendering of the scenes is very similar to how it was done in Automata with lots of similar quirks and nuances and very unlike the “mid 00s, all bloom” look of the original. Most materials in the game seem to be completely new, a lot of geometry on the levels and on characters is updated. In fact, a few locations have been very noticeably changed and look different. Arguably, some changes might be for the worse, like the less pronounced wind and mist in the Aerie or the less “fantasy-like” architecture of the Lost Shrine, but the majority of changes is wonderful.
A lot of effort has been put into the dialogues too. You see, the original NieR had 2 distinct releases – Japanese-only Replicant had a boy as the protagonist, while the international Gestalt had an older man as the protagonist. And the changes weren’t just cosmetic, as while the main story remained the same, a lot of character nuance and banter had to be adapted for different personalities of two different main characters. Replicant ver.1.22474487139… makes the boy the protagonist, meaning that a lot of the dialogue had to be re-recorded internationally. But the developers didn’t stop there and seemingly re-recorded most if not all of the rest of the dialogues and additionally added voice acting to a lot of the lines that were originally text-only.
On top of all of that work, two official short stories in the NieR/Drakengard universe, that were previously released in Grimoire Nier, a Japanese-only book, were adapted into quests inside this new edition of the game. One is available as part of a new side-story, that is experienced throughout the game. And the other has become the new ending which, unlike all other endings, doesn’t have an in-game hint of how to achieve it. And while this new content is slightly at odds with the pacing of the original game, which was uneven already, it is more than welcome and tells even more interesting stories. But even this isn’t the end and the list of changes, updates and improvements can go on and on. Like how most interactions are less tedious because of the animation changes. Or how all music has been rearranged… Though, I feel that, a few tracks might be a matter of preference, rather than a pure improvement of an already fantastic soundtrack.
Yet, this is still very much the original NieR from 2010. And as such, it’s not particularly fun to play. It was designed to be not particularly fun to play and while the new version makes it a sweeter pill to swallow, the core of the game is unchanged. In many ways, this is an intentional satire on a traditional fantasy jRPG or action adventure, where you start at Your Village and slay Evil Things to Save Someone Important as a Handsome Young Hero. Except, every single recognizable element is twisted somehow. Every story it has to tell, no matter how trivial, might gut punch you in the end. Every genre trope is heightened to an unreasonable degree.
Here’s a Zelda-like dungeon with puzzle rooms, except puzzles are ridiculously obnoxious. Here’s a horror section with fixed camera angles that intentionally makes every mistake classic survival horror titles avoided. Here are dozens of quests, all of which are terribly unfun fetch quests, relying on random chance and blindly trying everything everyone. Here are fast travel points, which are never actually useful. Here are tasks that require you to just run from one location to another to the first one again for absolutely no reason other than to frustrate you and then poke fun at the fact that you’re still doing it. NieR is a really annoying game to go through, it’s well aware of that and it laughs at your attempts to enjoy it.
But there is so much stuff to enjoy, when it comes to the story and the world and the characters. Yes, as I’ve said, I do feel like Automata is doing a lot of the same ideas but much better. But the original NieR, especially in this Replicant ver.1.22474487139… version has its charm. Masochistic in many ways, but charm nonetheless. And there is nothing quite like this game as even the sequel is a far… “safer” game when it comes to what it tries to do.
I’m glad that I was finally able to finish my way overdue playthrough of NieR and even more glad that it was specifically NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… It does make the game much more enjoyable, while adding new interesting stories and making the gameplay far more tolerable. Still, unlike Automata, I would find it harder to recommend the game to everyone. You do need quite a lot of patience to go through everything the game can tell you. I think it’s worth it to try.