"Nier is not an action game. It is an experiment. This statement is true of both Nier (2010) (released with this title in the United States, but as two separate titles in Japan — Nier Gestalt and Nier Replicant) and the new “version upgrade,” Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (2021). But it is no more clear in the updated Nier Replicant where the combat of the game has been replaced with shiny new systems by the developer Toylogic. Replicant ver.1.22 remakes Nier in the image of its far more successful younger sibling, sequel Nier: Automata released in 2017. But Automata is thoroughly an action game in a way that Replicant ver.1.22 (and the original Nier) isn’t (aren’t). Director Yoko Taro’s first installment in the series interpellates The Legend of Zelda, Resident Evil, text-based RPGs, top-down shooters, and side-scrolling platformers. Toylogic’s overhaul does nothing to refine these rough edges. Part of the game’s charm, to be sure. But Nier is the game one makes when they think it may be their last. And it may well have been for Taro given its mediocre reception and the immediately subsequent disbanding of the responsible developer, Cavia."

For more of my thoughts on Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., check out my newsletter for the week of May 3 2021 here.

I also recorded a podcast on Nier, available on the web, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.