Not giving it an actual minus for Father Nier but I think it's slightly revolting that a change happened like this just out of the thought that westerners need to be catered to. And I'm not blaming the devs, especially since there is a meme aspect to it with Yoko Taro having funky ideas, but just a sad reminder of the perceiption of JRPG/Japanese games and content in the west and also how this is perceived in japan, leading to the decline of a lot of JRPGs later.
Great characters, story, setting, variety in storytelling, fun sidequesting (for me), farming, fishing, great atmosphere and music. I picked this up on a whim back then when I was frustrated with the state of the games, especially JRPGs on the PS3 and this instantly became not only my favorite on that console but in general.

Less of a review, and more of a notice to anyone unfamiliar, because I have noticed that literally no one has ever brought this up.
I've noticed that most people who talk about this game played it when it came out, and that's fine. This is not an attempt to participate in Gestalt/Papa NieR erasure. So feel free to just take in the situation when I make the claim that NieR: Gestalt is not the legitimate version of NieR: Replicant.

What we have here with NieR: Gestalt is a combination of angry Kirby face boxart mixed together with "Revelations: Persona." NieR: Replicant was turned into NieR: Gestalt with the only purpose being to sell copies to the American consumer. The title is localized as, "NIER" because they thought it would sell more copies to the hardcore angry gamers in 'Merica (fuck yeah) if the letters were capitalized. After all, Replicant is a little too much of a baby name for WOMEN! Ha! Gayyy! They also changed the brother & sister dynamic to a father & daughter dynamic, because they believed the American consumer (only capable of playing shooty game with graphic realism) would find a story about a father protecting his daughter in a world where humanity is on the brink of extinction more compelling than a brother trying to protect his sister in a world where humanity is on the brink of extinction. The localizer's were not wrong, however. As 3 years later, The Last of Us 1 came out and it was the best game ever made with a story about a father trying to protect his surrogate daughter in a world that is on the brink of human extinction. The Last of Us 1 was also hailed as one of the greatest video games of all time. Wow. A masterclassic. It's a masterpiece and a classic fused together. Wow.

To anyone unfamiliar with conventions of boxart when it comes to Japanese games being released in the west, American box art tends to go through arbitrary changes for the purpose of selling more copies to that demographic. The most common example is to make it so that the box art has 3D models on the front cover instead of a proper illustration. NieR: Automata & Replicant v1.22 both follow this convention, and I think it sucks dick. "Realism" is also applied into the designs. The infamous, "bad Megaman boxart" still haunts the ghosts of the victims it took to this day for being such a horrible box art. "NIER" follows the practice of assuming the gamer is a male, by having the boxart show Papa NieR to have rippling muscle with the veins and everything. Being a super mature dark evil game for adults allows for a hue of piss to be poured all over the black and gray. There's also a bright light shown to show that it is a fantasy game. It seems the intention with the NieR: Replicant's Japanese boxart was to have NieR look directly at the player, as if to imply it is a reflection. NieR: Replicant (and all of Yoko Taro games) are metafiction, so this does have clear intention behind it. As a bonus, the title, "RepliCant" seems to be some sort of joke about how the Replicant's can't, y'know...

NieR: Replicant was exclusively released on the PS3 and not the Xbox360 because nobody gives a flying fuck about Xbox in Japan. Keep in mind, the Xbox360 sold only 1.6 million units in Japan, whereas, the Xbox360 sold over 46 million units in America (and only 38% of them worked). There was nothing legally binding this game to the PS3, so they pushed to have the western release of NieR: Replicant be turned into just "NIER" in the west, and have it released on both Playstation 3 and Xbox360, with the Xbox 360 version of "NIER" released in Japan having the title, "NieR: Gestalt." The Japanese boxart also retains the "looking at you" boxart I mentioned earlier. Just from my own experience, I've seen more people flash their physical copies of "NIER" on the Xbox360 than the PS3 version. It's easy for me to say that they made a decision that was ultimately better for them when it came to selling copies.

There were various changes to the script to make sure that the game acknowledged the age of Papa NieR. "You look like shit" is the best one in this regard, because I chortle at the screen whenever Laura Bailey opens her mouth, and it also has to do with the fact that Papa NieR's design sucks. You can really see how Gestalt falls apart (that's a stretch) when a grown ass man is going, "Yes! You and I, are friends now!" and I still find it incredible to me how they didn't change that.

Speaking as a fan of Yoko Taro directed games, this game's idea of having a father and a daughter doesn't make sense when you know the ideas that Yoko Taro has, as a writer. His hatred of the "little sister incest" trope that was frequently seen within Japanese media inspired him to write Caim and Furiae. Furiae holds incestuous feelings towards Caim and Caim rejects Furiae, disgusted by her feelings. This hatred of incest carried over into Replicant, however the relationship between NieR and Yonah is explicitly about authenticating the relationship between a brother and a sister, not sexualizing it, something he is obviously against.

A sickly sister stuck with a disease that will kill her. She wants nothing more than to spend time with her brother, but her brother is too busy trying to keep the both of them alive, applying for mundane jobs and forcing himself to participate in others' depravity, he has nothing but clear conviction when it comes to the desire of providing for his sister. His gullibility leads him astray. He is told the story of a fairytale, brandishes himself the hero in an attempt to bring to life a legend, and chooses to reject the one thing his sister actually wants from him, because a child would rather believe in a fairytale that tells him his wish will be granted, and all will be well, than accept the reality handed to him. In spite of his wrongdoings, you do not blame the child for this, for he is nothing but a perfect replica of the person causing him problems. His inability to--his refusal to--communicate with himself is his ultimate downfall. "You want me to understand your sadness? You think I'm going to sympathize with you?" he says to himself. Kneeling down and allowing his blade to rise, he strikes diagonally and kills himself.

If you strip away context, it's not dissimilar to Studio Ghlibli's, "Grave of The Fireflies" and I argue that Grave of The Fireflies is one of the most human films ever made. I think it speaks volumes to the quality of Yoko Taro's writing when you can essentially recontextualize an entire character by turning him into a widowed father without any friends, and keep most of what's happening in the story intact. To me, NieR: Gestalt is a game that can strike a chord with you if you have some connection to the father & daughter dynamic, and I find it interesting how we largely went in the direction of accepting Papa NieR as some kind of alternate universe, rather than pretending he doesn't exist. Kind of like how they turned Bad Boxart Megaman into a real character in Street Fighter x Tekken.

So yeah, the next time you want to like NieR: Gestalt, just remember that I fucking hate you and think you're worthless for liking this ILLEGITIMATE piece of garbage.