I had never played a gacha game before Nier Reincarnation, and I likely won't play one again - my experience with this thing, which I'm reluctant to even call a game, exists as a weird peek into a world I willfully don't understand and hopefully never will unless a couple of things go REALLY wrong in my life. I dropped back into Reincarnation after hearing it was being shut down, and they were giving you everything you needed to make it to the end of the story for free. I had an almost allergic reaction to it the first time I played, but I was grimly fascinated in what a game like this looks like in its dying days.

I really like Nier. I like its characters, its music, its strange approach to game genre, the measured barren minimalism of its 3d spaces - Nier Reincarnation takes all of the things I like about Nier and uses them in service of what amounts to a slot machine for perverts. The way in which Reincarnation wears the glamour of something loved and familiar in service of what's essentially gambling is almost grotesque - like a child snatched by a changeling, a monster wearing their skin.

If you're new to gacha games like I was, all the things the game does in service to cultivating a long term audience of whales seem completely insane. There is a colossal amount of math happening at all times, all in service of nothing - numbers get into the hundreds of thousands, yet the game must be frictionless enough at all times to be played via automation. Each story chapter consists of ten battles, but the game gives you the means to skip up to 100 encounters a day for free. There are fourteen discrete categories of upgrade material. The most expensive premium currency package on the in-game store was 150 dollars. To look into this game's community, a relatively small one by the standards of these kinds of games, is like looking into a parallel dimension where value is completely decoupled from time and reality. Upgrade mats, grinding for bookmarks, pity pulls - none of these words are in the Bible. There's a dark engine at the heart of Reincarnation, of almost genius construction, and its sole function is to obfuscate the fact there's absolutely nothing here. The game plays itself, and gives you tools to skip the playing. Nier Reincarnation is not a video game - it is a magician waving their hand while the other sneaks into your pocket.

There is, despite everything, something interesting and almost compelling inside Nier Reincarnation, separate from grim academic fascination with its genre - the art direction, soundtrack, sound design, and voice acting are all beautiful, better than any of this deserves. The writing, which takes the possible funniest parts of Nier - the pointlessly tragic weapon stories - and places them center stage, is mostly really dumb! In one of my favourite stories, a young soldier hunts down the guy who killed his parents, only to find out that the murderer was his biological dad and he'd been cradle snatched as a baby. The little girl who's ostensibly the main character of the story is part of an invented caste of peasants called "goat people". A son tries to kill himself to give his mother his heart for a transplant, yet she dies before he can bring himself to do it. I still mostly liked the pulpy melodrama, and the direction they go in this last chapter - finally linking Reincarnation to the previous two games in a meaningful way - is pretty cool! There's a lot of talent on display here, and in another version of reality present in The Cage, all these clearly very skilled people got to make a real video game instead.

At the end of the game they put up a "THANK YOU FOR PLAYING" screen and then change it to "THANK YOU FOR PRAYING". What the fuck is that, that's nothing

I have seen 99% of what this game has to offer. Recollections of Dusk, EX Stories, Hidden Stories, Event Stories, Weapon Stories, Costume Stories, and obviously Main Story, i am honestly blown away with how Yoko Taro does it. He never ever misses
If someone told me this is their favorite DrakeNieR game i would not be surprised in the least and likewise if someone told me 10H is their favorite DrakeNieR characters (or many others honestly there are many spectacular characters) i would not be surprised in the least
do not know where to begin talking about this game honestly nothing i say will grant it enough credit for what it is but i will try my best to talk about my personal thoughts and experiences with it and touch on my favorite parts/aspects of it
i think what i appreciated the most about this game is how its not just a solid continuation of the series but also fills in so many gaps in the series you never thought existed. it made everything much more cohesive and retold the whole timeline in a many genius ways
covered everything in the whole series from drakengard 1 all the way to here. i honestly cannot do it justice for what it did you just have to see for yourself how unbelievably good it was all connected and filled the gaps in between
an incredible and much needed installment/continuation to the series this is honestly one of the best things a DrakeNieR fan could ask for 'narrative and lore wise'. this is easily the most lore heavy game in the series imo and thats saying A LOT
No matter what your favorite game in the series is Reincarnation will blow your mind in many ways, be it amazing references or explanations or music or designs it has everything. what it lacks in gameplay it compensated in EVERYTHING else
although the ending felt rushed (and that's because it was due to the sudden EOS i believe) it wasn't the most satisfying thing out there but i still very dearly love this game and love what it did for the series lore wise.
the usual Yoko Taro Writing. amazing twists and reveals and incredible meta and wall breaks. something this game made me realize is the amazing color coding in every game and what they all stand for. this is honestly too big of a subject for me but i would like to point out some things. the most prominent colors and what each one means. red and white and black
red pods, red dragon, red girl, red administrator
white hair, flowers, armor, clones.
black book, song, scrawl. i cannot explain it but they all stand for something
and the color coding was used in a genius way in this game. this is just one of many things i appreciated in this game besides the usual which is a given. Art, designs, obviously narraive and character. what wasn't good imo are just the format and gameplay.
and it is what deters people from this game (unfortunately) although i would understand the argument of it being the best i also understand that it's not for everyone. which saddens me because soon enough this will be lost media and stay underappreciated as always.
if it gets a rerelease in a different format or an offline version and ports i really do think this can do numbers. alas i cannot show enough love to hundreds of hours of content in a thread with a few tweets it'll never be enough.
Thank you Yoko Taro for saving me once again

This final arc of NieR Re[in]carnation is without a doubt the best part of the game. Every arc before this was just planting the seeds and after years of buildup I'm happy to say that they were able to bring it together and conclude this experience in a satisfying & surprising way.

This entire chapter was filled with plottwists & crazy moments at every turn and it was incredible to finally get answers to so many questions. Not just questions from NieR Re[in]carnation but from all of NieR and even Drakengard, as this game directly ties together everything that came before while also laying a foundation for what comes next and dropping some massive lore bombs along the way. But while it did a lot of heavy lifting for the greater story of this universe, it also manages to bring a satisfying conclusion on a more personal level to every character that we met throughout our journey through the Cage. All of them get their time to shine here.

The only thing holding this back is ofcourse the gameplay and the fact that it is a mobile gacha game which will soon be gone forever... I really hope that they preserve this experience in some way because it definitely deserves it and its importance to the world of NieR can't be understated.

Love it or hate it, this is NieR 3. And while I used to be on the hate side, I'm glad that I decided to check it out regardless because as a fan of the series this was a joy to experience