Replicant has a lot of the same issues as its predecessor/successor. Its full of needless backtracking and has a severe lack of actual explorable areas comparable to other games in the medium. It should also be noted that the combat is really barebones, with most every weapon allowing you to stun-lock enemies in place until they die. The story ranges from half-baked to really game good, though I wish more was added between the original and this remake. What's new is really really good, but I hate that we still have to wiki dive just to get basic backstory to characters like Tyrann or even Weiss. Emile is probably the best character in the series up to this point.
This game changed my life way more than the escapist ending of automata.
RIONS/20
Never would I have thought a game could touch me to my very core like NieR: Replicant √1.5 did. As a somewhat seasoned gamer, I thought I had already experienced the highest peak possible in a story for the type of person I am. Coming to this game, I had an idea of what was expecting me in this with hindsight masterwork, but I wasn’t as ready as I thought. I write this while listening to the amazing soundtrack of the game and as I just finished the game, got all the achievements, and got 100%.
Optimization has come F.A.R.
Let’s start with what everyone wants to know: how does it run? Great. As you might know, NieR: Automata was plagued by a bad port, made playable only by the F.A.R. mod by Kaldaien. Square has recently promised they are back working on it now, 4 years later. The port of Replicant is actually a great step in the right direction. It’s not perfect, but it runs well. I’ve read it has some performance issues with controllers connected, but fear not, as the keyboard and mouse layout is great out of the box and I imagine they’ll post a fix in an upcoming patch. I personally confirmed only two issues. The game was made for 30 fps in 2010, and upped to 60 fps for this version. Over 60 fps the game runs quicker and introduces new problems, which is not a new problem with PC games, see the Dark Souls Remaster. You want to use an FPS limiter which is probably already in your graphics card drivers. Other than that it has a forced enabled v-sync that takes as a reference value for your refresh rate the base value of your display: so in my case with a 48-144Hz display free-sync, it took 48 as the lock, which was not ideal. Nothing that a driver-forced v-sync off could not solve. Obviously, in a perfect world, these problems would not exist, to begin with, but on PC it’s sadly never plug-and-play, so I don’t see it personally as a deal-breaker.
w[est], RepliCan’ts and Gestalt
The game’s story follows a brother taking care of his sick sister, and everything in between. Obviously, it’s not that simple, but I don’t want to spoil anything. Originally there were two versions of this game, Gestalt and Replicant. Gestalt was made for the Western audience as it was thought that a brother/sister dynamic could be “misunderstood”, but, most importantly, they thought a young man going around with big weapons was unappealing for the Western audiences and so Gestalt was made introducing an older protagonist that is known in the community as “Dad Nier”. The original Western NieR from 2010 featured a father/daughter relationship and the story was set 100 years prior and didn’t connect well with Automata, which is the thousands-of-years-later sequel. Gestalt was outsold at a rate of 6:1 by Replicant, indicating the brother/sister relationship was the preferred one, which is why for this “version upgrade” Yoko Taro – the creator - chose to not include “Dad Nier” except for a small cameo and give the western audience one more reasons to play this version of the game. I don’t think “Dad Nier” was a bad choice, to begin with, and I know some loved it. I think personally, especially with the hindsight of what the game is about and what happens in it, a brother not only makes more sense but often can empathize more with what happens to the people you’ll meet in your journey. I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, so I’ll stop here, but trust me, I could reason a lot on why the brother is the best choice, in my humble opinion.
The Square Root of Five
22474487139 is an approximation of the square root of 1.5, which means this would be NieR Replicant 1.5. This name was chosen because, as Yoko Taro himself says in this interview[square-enix-games.com], at first this was supposed to be a remaster. Simple resolution upgrade and some better textures, but the more the work went forward the more he was tweaking backgrounds or models, which would make it a remake. See, this game was released under Square Enix which also makes Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is on a completely another level, so he settled on calling it a “version upgrade”. This game, though, could be roughly classified as an actual remake, especially for Western audiences with the protagonist different from the original. Yoko Taro is a very respected creator, but his games were never blockbusters, until Automata. Automata was a success, and people, myself included, just loved it so much that even the atrocious port wasn’t enough of a reason to dislike it. It’s so good that it quickly became one of my favorite games ever. So, as they were working on this “version upgrade” of the original Replicant they evidently remastered the textures, redone the lightning plus color palette, and redubbed the whole game with the original voice actors. They even dubbed text-only dialogues of the game to add more emotions to it! The original character designer was even called back to imagine them in 2021, with the new tools they can use. I think by now you can tell, they put a LOT of work into this, but this was not it. The original Nier was clunky, slow to play, and frustrating: so they have improved the combat system. Not too much to completely make it different, but enough to make an Automata player feel at home. They introduced a targeting system, magics can now be used while jumping, and stronger magics can be used while moving. Combat is faster, more responsive, and freer to play as you want all packaged alongside all the updated protagonist’s animations. As the character is quicker, more responsive, and can do more, the enemies also have to be at the same level. Enemies and bosses have been updated as well with new animations with different patterns to adapt to the new combat changes. I think that by now you can see a pattern: this is not just a remastered, and it’s not lazy work just to make a quick buck (looking at you, Koei Techmo with Ninja Gaiden 👀). This version also features more story content that was not in the original, entire new sections of the game that before were just short stories in a book that was released after the game. The update also added story weapons as you upgrade them which was a staple of Taro's games but was missing in the original NieR Replicant but then introduced back in Automata. Most importantly, usually, Yoko Taro’s games give you a perspective in your first run, that changes in other playthroughs on the same save. Somewhat of a new game plus, except it's part of the story and not just a way to replay it. His work usually features 5 endings: A-B-C-D and E which often is the canon True Ending, but the original Nier only had up until D, and in this release, they introduced the E ending which connects to Automata even more.
“This is the world with the [soundtrack] we cherish”
I did not talk about one of the biggest improvements until now: the soundtrack. One of the best soundtracks I ever heard, not in video games, but in general. It’s on par with Automata for me, and that says something. It was completely rearranged to get closer to the quality and worth of Automata’s, but also to add more value to the game itself with completely new tracks and different versions of them. I said I write this review as I listen to it, and I still am. As a musician, Automata had already struck some very special chords in me with its soundtrack, to the point that 5 years later I still have them always synced up on my phone so I can listen to them whenever I want.
But now Replicant has entered the chat, and I’m happy I have more great songs to listen to.
v[E]rdict
As we’re finally at the end of this review, I have nothing else left to say. The game runs well, it has been overzealously upgraded and what you get from it it’s why video games are a form of Art.
10/10.
Optimization has come F.A.R.
Let’s start with what everyone wants to know: how does it run? Great. As you might know, NieR: Automata was plagued by a bad port, made playable only by the F.A.R. mod by Kaldaien. Square has recently promised they are back working on it now, 4 years later. The port of Replicant is actually a great step in the right direction. It’s not perfect, but it runs well. I’ve read it has some performance issues with controllers connected, but fear not, as the keyboard and mouse layout is great out of the box and I imagine they’ll post a fix in an upcoming patch. I personally confirmed only two issues. The game was made for 30 fps in 2010, and upped to 60 fps for this version. Over 60 fps the game runs quicker and introduces new problems, which is not a new problem with PC games, see the Dark Souls Remaster. You want to use an FPS limiter which is probably already in your graphics card drivers. Other than that it has a forced enabled v-sync that takes as a reference value for your refresh rate the base value of your display: so in my case with a 48-144Hz display free-sync, it took 48 as the lock, which was not ideal. Nothing that a driver-forced v-sync off could not solve. Obviously, in a perfect world, these problems would not exist, to begin with, but on PC it’s sadly never plug-and-play, so I don’t see it personally as a deal-breaker.
w[est], RepliCan’ts and Gestalt
The game’s story follows a brother taking care of his sick sister, and everything in between. Obviously, it’s not that simple, but I don’t want to spoil anything. Originally there were two versions of this game, Gestalt and Replicant. Gestalt was made for the Western audience as it was thought that a brother/sister dynamic could be “misunderstood”, but, most importantly, they thought a young man going around with big weapons was unappealing for the Western audiences and so Gestalt was made introducing an older protagonist that is known in the community as “Dad Nier”. The original Western NieR from 2010 featured a father/daughter relationship and the story was set 100 years prior and didn’t connect well with Automata, which is the thousands-of-years-later sequel. Gestalt was outsold at a rate of 6:1 by Replicant, indicating the brother/sister relationship was the preferred one, which is why for this “version upgrade” Yoko Taro – the creator - chose to not include “Dad Nier” except for a small cameo and give the western audience one more reasons to play this version of the game. I don’t think “Dad Nier” was a bad choice, to begin with, and I know some loved it. I think personally, especially with the hindsight of what the game is about and what happens in it, a brother not only makes more sense but often can empathize more with what happens to the people you’ll meet in your journey. I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, so I’ll stop here, but trust me, I could reason a lot on why the brother is the best choice, in my humble opinion.
The Square Root of Five
22474487139 is an approximation of the square root of 1.5, which means this would be NieR Replicant 1.5. This name was chosen because, as Yoko Taro himself says in this interview[square-enix-games.com], at first this was supposed to be a remaster. Simple resolution upgrade and some better textures, but the more the work went forward the more he was tweaking backgrounds or models, which would make it a remake. See, this game was released under Square Enix which also makes Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is on a completely another level, so he settled on calling it a “version upgrade”. This game, though, could be roughly classified as an actual remake, especially for Western audiences with the protagonist different from the original. Yoko Taro is a very respected creator, but his games were never blockbusters, until Automata. Automata was a success, and people, myself included, just loved it so much that even the atrocious port wasn’t enough of a reason to dislike it. It’s so good that it quickly became one of my favorite games ever. So, as they were working on this “version upgrade” of the original Replicant they evidently remastered the textures, redone the lightning plus color palette, and redubbed the whole game with the original voice actors. They even dubbed text-only dialogues of the game to add more emotions to it! The original character designer was even called back to imagine them in 2021, with the new tools they can use. I think by now you can tell, they put a LOT of work into this, but this was not it. The original Nier was clunky, slow to play, and frustrating: so they have improved the combat system. Not too much to completely make it different, but enough to make an Automata player feel at home. They introduced a targeting system, magics can now be used while jumping, and stronger magics can be used while moving. Combat is faster, more responsive, and freer to play as you want all packaged alongside all the updated protagonist’s animations. As the character is quicker, more responsive, and can do more, the enemies also have to be at the same level. Enemies and bosses have been updated as well with new animations with different patterns to adapt to the new combat changes. I think that by now you can see a pattern: this is not just a remastered, and it’s not lazy work just to make a quick buck (looking at you, Koei Techmo with Ninja Gaiden 👀). This version also features more story content that was not in the original, entire new sections of the game that before were just short stories in a book that was released after the game. The update also added story weapons as you upgrade them which was a staple of Taro's games but was missing in the original NieR Replicant but then introduced back in Automata. Most importantly, usually, Yoko Taro’s games give you a perspective in your first run, that changes in other playthroughs on the same save. Somewhat of a new game plus, except it's part of the story and not just a way to replay it. His work usually features 5 endings: A-B-C-D and E which often is the canon True Ending, but the original Nier only had up until D, and in this release, they introduced the E ending which connects to Automata even more.
“This is the world with the [soundtrack] we cherish”
I did not talk about one of the biggest improvements until now: the soundtrack. One of the best soundtracks I ever heard, not in video games, but in general. It’s on par with Automata for me, and that says something. It was completely rearranged to get closer to the quality and worth of Automata’s, but also to add more value to the game itself with completely new tracks and different versions of them. I said I write this review as I listen to it, and I still am. As a musician, Automata had already struck some very special chords in me with its soundtrack, to the point that 5 years later I still have them always synced up on my phone so I can listen to them whenever I want.
But now Replicant has entered the chat, and I’m happy I have more great songs to listen to.
v[E]rdict
As we’re finally at the end of this review, I have nothing else left to say. The game runs well, it has been overzealously upgraded and what you get from it it’s why video games are a form of Art.
10/10.
Grimoire Noir the goat
dropei qnd o emil falou "let's take care of this shit hog"
overshadowed by automata but equally brilliant and flawed. i’m really glad they left the core design of ver Nier Replicant √1.5 the same. the tedium is good actually.
i initially bounced off this harder than automata but now after after finally finishing it (for real) it’s continues to linger in the back of my head. there’s something about this world and it’s characters that continues to grow long after finishing the game.
i initially bounced off this harder than automata but now after after finally finishing it (for real) it’s continues to linger in the back of my head. there’s something about this world and it’s characters that continues to grow long after finishing the game.
i have sobbed 5 times i would give this game more then 5 stars if i could
chato pra caralho, como que alguém gosta disso
This review contains spoilers
A frustrating work of art that might go too far in the pursuit of ludonarrative resonance at the cost of being a fun game to actually play. Having to replay the game 5 times is a lot. The changes per route are minor yet are worth it for the added bits of story alone. Though I don't see the point of replaying the entire opening of the game as young Nier in route E. It probably could've started with us playing as Kainé immediately after route D. It's likely just padding because Kainé's section of the story, whilst the peak of the game narratively, is only like 2 hours long.
The idea behind the route system is genius but as I mentioned, not exactly fun. As we keep seeing these scenes over and over again it creates a synergy between the player and Nier in how cold and uncaring to extraneous nonsense we become. Increasingly only focused on the end goal of rescuing Yonah/beating the game. Showing less and less sympathy to the sob stories around us despite their voices Increasingly getting louder. Coming to a head with the access of the final ending being behind sacrificing all that makes you, you. And of course, Kainé ultimately reclaiming you because she can't shake the impact that the player had on her in progressing her story. It's undeniably a genius marriage of game design and narrative theming mixed with some very near 4th wall breaks. The issue is that it's simply unfortunately a slog to get through the game itself and I wouldn't blame people who drop the game even before finishing route A.
A huge percentage of the game is tedious 2000s era fetch quests consisting of running back and forth across empty, uninteresting maps. The combat being brain dead button mashing in addition makes matters worse. That goes without even mentioning the fact that to gain access to endings C/D/E you have to grind to high heaven in all manner of monotonous at best, straight up bad at worst, side quests in order to collect all 33 weapons. I don't even understand why that was even needed unless I missed something. I kept persevering though, just as the game wanted me to.
I will never forget the story it told and the characters it centered around. Kainé means so much to me personally. Her personal struggles, her dysphoria, her journey as a whole... it just moved me. As did the other characters like Emil and brother Nier, Weiss, Devola and Popola and even shades like Louise. And of course the Gestalt Nier and Yonah. Individually these all tell parables of what it means to have or lose a will to live, holistically they come together to form an interconnected web that commands you to pay attention and truly highlight the sanctity of having control over the direction your own life takes.
The twin sisters, Gestalt siblings and Louise are tragedies in that they wanted to take control of their destinies but whether through programming or nature or sheer misfortune they failed and had to stay the course that was laid out for them to it's bitter end. They served as warnings. Kainé in particular is special to me partly because of how close she was to being a walker of that path yet just as the player overcame monotony to see her new future, so did she.
She and Emil were reborn from the ashes of the ghosts of their pasts thanks to us/Nier and it's so beautiful that their actions led to our identity being reclaimed and Nier being reborn. These three (and Weiss) are instantly one of my most cherished parties in gaming. A real and true found family.
This game is certainly flawed. It's certainly dated. But I would without question say that it was all worth it in the end. I can't give it 5 stars off the bat because it really is that much of a slog. But as time moves on, I'll only have the memories of the story in my mind so it'll probably go higher the more I weigh on it.
The idea behind the route system is genius but as I mentioned, not exactly fun. As we keep seeing these scenes over and over again it creates a synergy between the player and Nier in how cold and uncaring to extraneous nonsense we become. Increasingly only focused on the end goal of rescuing Yonah/beating the game. Showing less and less sympathy to the sob stories around us despite their voices Increasingly getting louder. Coming to a head with the access of the final ending being behind sacrificing all that makes you, you. And of course, Kainé ultimately reclaiming you because she can't shake the impact that the player had on her in progressing her story. It's undeniably a genius marriage of game design and narrative theming mixed with some very near 4th wall breaks. The issue is that it's simply unfortunately a slog to get through the game itself and I wouldn't blame people who drop the game even before finishing route A.
A huge percentage of the game is tedious 2000s era fetch quests consisting of running back and forth across empty, uninteresting maps. The combat being brain dead button mashing in addition makes matters worse. That goes without even mentioning the fact that to gain access to endings C/D/E you have to grind to high heaven in all manner of monotonous at best, straight up bad at worst, side quests in order to collect all 33 weapons. I don't even understand why that was even needed unless I missed something. I kept persevering though, just as the game wanted me to.
I will never forget the story it told and the characters it centered around. Kainé means so much to me personally. Her personal struggles, her dysphoria, her journey as a whole... it just moved me. As did the other characters like Emil and brother Nier, Weiss, Devola and Popola and even shades like Louise. And of course the Gestalt Nier and Yonah. Individually these all tell parables of what it means to have or lose a will to live, holistically they come together to form an interconnected web that commands you to pay attention and truly highlight the sanctity of having control over the direction your own life takes.
The twin sisters, Gestalt siblings and Louise are tragedies in that they wanted to take control of their destinies but whether through programming or nature or sheer misfortune they failed and had to stay the course that was laid out for them to it's bitter end. They served as warnings. Kainé in particular is special to me partly because of how close she was to being a walker of that path yet just as the player overcame monotony to see her new future, so did she.
She and Emil were reborn from the ashes of the ghosts of their pasts thanks to us/Nier and it's so beautiful that their actions led to our identity being reclaimed and Nier being reborn. These three (and Weiss) are instantly one of my most cherished parties in gaming. A real and true found family.
This game is certainly flawed. It's certainly dated. But I would without question say that it was all worth it in the end. I can't give it 5 stars off the bat because it really is that much of a slog. But as time moves on, I'll only have the memories of the story in my mind so it'll probably go higher the more I weigh on it.
kainé's dreams and ending e quite literally have broken me down
also, i don't know why, but this song has left such an impact on me
also, i don't know why, but this song has left such an impact on me
I fucking love this game. Only bad thing about the game is that some parts are really tedious but jesus the payoff at the final ending is one of a kind. AND THE MUSIC IS WAY TOO GOOD. Man I'm gonna miss these characters.
Still running through the other endings so I am still playing it, however I got to the first ending so I'm reviewing anyway.
This game is so fucking good and I love basically everything about it. Storyline, gameplay (most of the time), movement, world, etc.
The only thing I can safely say I was disappointed by were the bossfights and camera. There's moments where I get screwed over by the camera angle zooming out during a bossfight leading to me either dying or missing the attack that is needed in order to fully kill a boss.
Another bossfight related problem to me is exclusively a skill issue, but I wish the game was more forgiving with health items. Some of the areas can be kinda like boss rushes.
Combat does get repetitive after a while but I found myself getting back into it after a while even if I had found it dull for a short period of time.
This game is so fucking good and I love basically everything about it. Storyline, gameplay (most of the time), movement, world, etc.
The only thing I can safely say I was disappointed by were the bossfights and camera. There's moments where I get screwed over by the camera angle zooming out during a bossfight leading to me either dying or missing the attack that is needed in order to fully kill a boss.
Another bossfight related problem to me is exclusively a skill issue, but I wish the game was more forgiving with health items. Some of the areas can be kinda like boss rushes.
Combat does get repetitive after a while but I found myself getting back into it after a while even if I had found it dull for a short period of time.
This review contains spoilers
This game has an overall amazing story that is on par with or even better than Automata's to a degree. The gameplay is also very fun, and I love the grungy ps2-like aesthetic with the UI it has that reminds me a lot of games like Shadow of the Colossus in a way. The main problems though, as many know, come with how tedious and repetitive it gets, especially in the ladder half of the game if you want to get all the endings. Collecting all the weapons to do so isn't even the frustrating part, it's having to replay most of the post-timeskip three times when there really should be no reason to, ESPECIALLY in this remake. it really pissed me off to find out once I reached Route E that THEY ALREADY PROGRAMMED AN ENTIRE PLAYABLE KAINE FOR THE REMAKE AND DIDNT USE IT FOR ROUTE B??????? It would have made SO MUCH MORE SENSE than to play as Nier again, as the entire point is to retread the same story essentially through Kaine's perspective anyways (Much like Automata's Route B). Route E was never a thing in the original version, so it makes total sense for Route B to be as it is in that version, but there is simply no excuse to have not done this and automatically make the remake a better experience. Route C itself is also almost completely unecessary, as it once again retreads the SAME STORY from THE SAME STARTING POINT AS ROUTES A AND B until the end. Sure, it changes a few aspects of the story, but barely any and could have just been done in Route B anyways or added as a cutscene you watch in between routes. What's more, to get ending D, at least, you can kind of just make a save near the end of the game but you will have to repeat the entire final area (which also should not be the case but it's far better than having to repeat the entire section again, which the game almost expects you to do funny enough). Getting to Route E is awful in it of itself as this time you don't replay 90% of the post timeskip, but instead you get to unnecessarily replay 50% of the pre-timeskip for some reason! And the game not letting you use the same name for Nier WOULD be cool, but it doesn't really do much and you end up forgetting about it anyways.
At least Route E is extremely worth going through all the trouble for, as it is exclusive to the remake and was not in the original, and is extremely good story-wise and gameplay-wise.
In general, it is a fun game and I would recommend it only if you have the patience for it, but I can't recommend it over Automata nor can I say it's better than Automata over all. I would suggest playing Automata first so your first experience with Nier isn't absolutely painful, and people who say Automata spoils Replicant are probably remembering wrong because I played Automata first and was not spoiled for anything in this game. If anything, this remake feels like its meant to be played after Automata, especially for those planning on playing through Route E.
At least Route E is extremely worth going through all the trouble for, as it is exclusive to the remake and was not in the original, and is extremely good story-wise and gameplay-wise.
In general, it is a fun game and I would recommend it only if you have the patience for it, but I can't recommend it over Automata nor can I say it's better than Automata over all. I would suggest playing Automata first so your first experience with Nier isn't absolutely painful, and people who say Automata spoils Replicant are probably remembering wrong because I played Automata first and was not spoiled for anything in this game. If anything, this remake feels like its meant to be played after Automata, especially for those planning on playing through Route E.