This review contains spoilers

Is it possible to find love , value and warmth for and in oneself in world full of despair , sorrow , suffering , pain and conflict? Nier Replicant is video game where I can't just tell people to play it for just entertainment but rather let the story maybe spark a different viewpoint on life and humanity as a whole.

Nier Replicant is a game that starts off quite easy mildly and simple story wise. Disease going around protagonist's sister has the disease you try to find a cure. While this simplistic way of story telling can turn some people away. Personally I think it is perfectly for the game Narrative evolves organically throughout the game. The game setups up this main Humanity VS Shade conflict that starts off completely black and white. Shade bad guys must die blah blah and protagonist and protagonist good. While playing throughout the game you're starting to notice the conflict between the 2 forces isn't so 1 dimensonal anymore. The colors black and white start to compliment each other, they starting meshing seemless and form this perfect gray of art. That the story has become , how each side has become and most importantly the protagonist NieR.

NieR starts off as this Naive boy who desperately clings to any thread of hope for his Sister. While in the moody & depressing environment/World he lives. He tries to keep his hopeful radiant attitude. But slowly throughout the game we see his light dimmer and that radiant hopeful boy slowly was turning into a gloomy almost hopeless man. When NieR sister got captured we can tell the amount of change and dread he has holds. that naive boy with a optimistic outlook. Turned into a mercilessful , desperate young man doing whatever it takes to get done what he needs to do. Here we can see how NieR moral compass starts to shift. During this the shades are getting more character development to. we find out that they have feelings , are not just monsters and just trying to survive. But knowing Humanity and that conflict was inevitable. They had to prepare themselves for the worst.

So with all this killing and conflict. As a person how can you truly live with yourself? Do we deserve to love ourselves during times like these and is it even possible? Here is where my favourite character of the game comes to play. Kaine inner termoils and struggle. Has to do with self love , having the will to life a live in such a shitty world and seeking warmth from others. She starts off as this explosive cursive woman who seems hard to approach. Yet we learn that behind that obsidian shell of negativity. There is compassionate and kind woman who wants to able to love herself and live a life worth living with others by her side. Thru Kaine story we learn how purpose in the world isn't something just handed over to you. That learning to accept of oneself and not letting those discourage to but to motivate yourself to be better. We see how she finds meaning thru being a compassionate person and being important comrade for the cast.

While I could ramble on other themes of the game. I want to mention the music. How godlike itself and how amazing the chaos language is. The music in NieR could be considered "high tempo" there are rarely long durations of silence during the tracks and there is almost always a sound or a melody being made. Each OST perfectly fits and enchances the game's environments and atmosphere but most importantly events. Perfectly fitting and placed ost really made allot of moments in the game hit so much more and I'm so grateful for that.

Gameplay is probably where most of my issues lie within the game. Most of the side quests felt a bit barebones most of them being fetch quests. Achieving the other routes by tediously collecting all the weapons back and forthing the game. And the challenge and diffculty of the game completely dissapearing after Route B. Some of the novel sections were also quite jarring. Annoying that the some routes didn't play out much differently. Regardless of all that it enchanced my final moments with the game to where it would call it EPITOME OF VIDEO GAMING.

Route E is 2 strokes (pause) of genius and masterclass. From the award of playing with Kaine and her combat gameplay easy being the best. feeling much more responsive , smoother and cooler. Her route starts immediately after the events of Route D. You now play with Kaine to find meaning in her life again. omw killing shades you find a random npc that asks you to check out the forest. Nothing seems out of the ordinary until you see ROBOTS!? NIGGA WHAT THE FUCK... WE AUTOMATA BOYZ AGAIN? Instantly shook as hell I with peak curiousity try to find out wtf is going on. The retcon and usage of the tree was shockingly good because of prior events of the game you should know the exact purpose of the tree so nothing feels out of the ordinary. Yet the air of mystery thickens the further you get in and the player's curiousity continues to peak at new heights asking. SON WHAT IN GODDAMN IS GOING IN. Then you meet the boy and girl robot first reveal/connection to automata that had me geeking. then they let you fight and shit. SUDDENLY EMIR APPEARS OMFFGGG GOD THE HYPE I HAD. But in the meanwhile you also find out that the android combat robots are based of Kaine which is mindblowing. Then when you find a new door that leads to automata like world which is completely mindblowing and unhealthy amount of fanservice. But the point is all those tedious and annoying stuff I had with the game was the more worth it because that is partly what made Route E so great. While it brillantly manages to give perfect closure to Kaine her character arc, delivers a beautiful sendoff to my fav character in the most satisfying and gave us a fantastic final boss that is perfect for Kaine. I unconciscously experienced something similiar like the characters. Allot struggle lead to a huge amount of satisfying. All the game elements dance in perfect unity at the end of the game and thats why I love it so much since it's something I rarely experienced before.

I can proudly say that this one of my all time favourite games.

Also NieR Replicant > Automata

Story: ☆☆☆☆☆
gameplay: ☆☆☆
music: ☆☆☆☆☆
characters: ☆☆☆☆☆
enjoyment: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Reviewed on Jun 17, 2021


4 Comments


2 years ago

You should probably mark this as spoilers

2 years ago

how do you do that?
Edit review, click the box that says "Mark as spoilers".

2 years ago

thank you