NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… - Review
The original NieR completely passed me by when it released back in 2010, so I was caught off-guard in 2017 when the sequel NieR Automata arrived on the scene and became one of my favourite games of all time. It was a title oozing style with the substance to back it up and a thoroughly captivating narrative that felt unique to the medium of videogames. It was with great anticipation then that I leapt into Nier Replicant 1.22474487139 to learn more about a world that struck such an emotional chord with me. It’s a title that carries the burden of increased expectations from its sequel, and whilst it doesn’t manage to reach the heights of its follow up, it is a game that adds up to far more than the sum of its somewhat ageing parts.
The version received by the west back in 2010 was known as NieR Gestalt, which also released in Japan alongside the alternate version Nier Replicant. The primary difference between the two was that whilst Gestalt had you controlling a father attempting to save his daughter Yonah from a horrific disease, Replicant saw you playing as Yonah’s brother instead. It’s this latter version that we get to experience here in the west for the first time.
Your character’s adventure to save his sister will see you traversing the lands as you attempt to find a way to prevent the young girl from succumbing to the mysterious black illness threatening her life. This is easier said than done, as the world is inhabited by strange shadowy figures called Shades, who represent both a physical and, later, a moral impediment to your success.
You’ll be joined along the way by a cast of colourful characters, and I mean that in more ways than one. The fiery Kainé is loud, brash and has a mouth that would fill up your house swear jar within a day. She has some intense and often hilarious back and forth banter with fellow adventure companion Grimoire Weiss, a floating magical book whose offensive capabilities are only matched by his wry wit and distaste for Kainé’s fashion choices. Lastly, there’s Emil, a young boy who is stricken with the inconvenient ability to turn anything he lays his eyes on into stone. Together the squad must journey to find the Sealed Verses required to hopefully give Grimoire Weiss to vanquish the illness afflicting Yonah once and for all.
The tale is slow to begin, but once it kicks into gear it becomes a highly engaging and thought-provoking narrative that is undoubtedly the game’s biggest strength. Each character is well written and fleshed out, with plenty of fun interactions and top-notch voice acting adding layers to their personalities. The story unfolds has unexpected twists and turns and unravels its mysteries over five endings that you really need to see to fully understand and appreciate the full picture. Finishing the game lets you start the game again from the halfway mark, adding additional scenes and dialogue that recontextualises the events of the first playthrough in an alarming light. It’s a deeply satisfying tale with a tight script and sharp writing that will keep you engaged and determined to go through the game multiple times.
The adventure itself will take you somewhere in the realm of 30-40 hours to complete, depending on the amount of sightseeing you do along the way, and how much time you spend doing that will depend on your affection for this type of RPG that is very much a product of its era. This is a traditional RPG, with an overworld area and several key towns. Progress early on is a slog, with a lot of running back and forwards between the same handful of locations. This improves somewhat throughout the game as new areas open up, but you’ll still find yourself being bounced around from place to place like a rubber ball errand boy.
This extends doubly so to the game’s side quests. Whilst the main story threads remain enjoyable and engaging, all the side missions are the worst examples of old school fetch quests that are rarely seen in modern game design. You’ll be tasked that with collecting hordes of mostly otherwise useless items and often making stops at multiple different towns to complete the quests. A few of these will grant you with weapons, but otherwise, these missions are simply not worth your time, despite some interesting little slice of life story moments from village inhabitants as you complete them.
Fast travel does become available in the second half of the game, but there are still only a few travel points for these and accessing some areas such as the Junk Yard that you’ll need to revisit regularly still require you to take a boat to an outside field, walk half the map, clamber up a broken bridge and finally make your way through a not insignificant loading screen to get there. A few additional fast travel points for this remaster would have gone a long way to mitigating some of the incessant back and forwards traversal.
Putting the side quests to the side where they belong, the rest of the game clips along at a good pace once it gets into its groove. There are compelling story beats, plenty of fast-paced combat sequences, and more than a few impressive boss battles. The combat is flashy and enjoyable even if it is somewhat basic. You can choose from light swords, heavy swords, and spears for your fights, utilising a mix of light and heavy attacks to dispatch your shadowy foes. You also have an assortment of magical abilities at your disposal which helps to shake up combat and break down enemy defences. It doesn’t feel quite as smooth or deep as the combat in NieR Automata, but it still makes for some button mashing fun even if it never provides much of a challenge at all.
There is customisation available in the form of Words that can be equipped to your weapons and spells, though the lack of challenge never really necessitates the need for much experimentation. They can be useful if you’re perhaps looking to improve drop rates when hunting for rare items to upgrade your gear, but outside of that, it’s easiest to just tell the game to equip the most powerful ones and be done with it. It’s unlikely you ever need to bother upgrading much of your weaponry either. I chose a spear that I upgraded to Level 3 fairly quickly, and that made mincemeat of every enemy that dared step in my path. I never bothered with weapon upgrades from that point onwards.
Thankfully, the game is smart enough to mix up the basic formula regularly to help keep things fresh. One minute you’re exploring a creepy manor, the next you’re in an underground research facility that shifts the camera perspective to that of a top-down dungeon crawler, then fighting a giant monster in a massive weapons room, then you’re back in the overworld ploughing down critters with your pet boar. It does just enough to keep things from getting overly repetitive and stale.
In terms of what is new here from the original, it’s mostly some minor touch-ups and polishing. The visuals have seen a bit of clean up, and the framerate sits at a rock-solid 60 fps. Despite this, there is no denying its origins as a PS3/360 game, with the muted colour palette so prominent at the time on full display, along with some flat and uninspired geometry. It looks alright but lacks some of the life and personality found its successor. For returning veterans, there’s a new ending and a small new section inserted into the middle of the game, but there’s no other major changes or quality of life improvements.
One last element that deserves a special mention is the incredible soundtrack, which has been completely re-recorded for this release. There are so many mesmerizing pieces of music, featuring some beautiful instrumentations and enchanting vocal performances. I can already see this being added to regular rotation in my music library, and it stands proudly with the story as the game’s defining features.
It all adds up to a game that has a solid, if unremarkable, core gameplay loop, but the surrounding elements are so amazing that it raises the entire package to another level. Believe me when I say that you will want to see this story through to its multiple endings, as combined they make for one of the most deeply affecting videogame experiences you are likely to come across. If you stick to the main story path, you’re going to have a good time with this one.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Square Enix
The Pros
+Enthralling narrative
+Great voice acting and entertaining banter
+Fun combat, if a tad easy
+Incredible soundtrack
The Cons
-Tedious side quests
-Very slow start
-Lack of challenge
-More fast travel options needed
