As I write this, the game is currently nearing the end of it’s 2nd Anniversary celebration. Two new banners with what seem to be the last Celebratory alt costumes for the whole cast have dropped. My opinions on the game itself will be subject to change as time moves on, so this review most likely will not reflect my thoughts on the game when it inevitably reaches it’s end of service.


I preordered this game and played it on release on and off up until now. I’m not new to gacha games, been playing a lot of them for most of my life. However I did have a more vested interest in this one due to it’s relation to the Drakengard and Nier series as a whole, as the series has a history for branching out to other mediums to expand on it’s shared universes. The gacha mechanics in this game are standard, even arguably kinder than most other games in the genre. Reruns of limited event banners rarely happen, but the meta of PvE or PvP or any other game modes don’t particularly concern me. I just need a team good enough to progress through the story and enough currency to roll for the units I want. In terms of standing on its own as a Nier title, I’d say it neither fails nor succeeds. Rather, it feels more like a bridging point between Replicant’s and Automata’s design philosophies. It maintains Replicant’s more fantastical elements, more shown in the first arc, while going into a comparatively modern setting pairing with Automata’s futuristic senses in the second. Arc 1, The Girl and The Monster, introduces 10 playable characters, 8 of them all being from stories contained in weapons found The Cage, while Arc 2, The Sun and The Moon, introduces 8, with 6 being characters with weapon stories. I would go into more specificities on the nature of the weapon stories in this game, but that would be verging on spoiler territory for a story that is not even completely finished yet. The characters themselves are well established in their weapon stories, and there are plenty of other sidestories and events so that players can learn more about them and the worlds they come from. They are all equally fleshed out and no one character is poorly written in my eyes. The protagonists of the overarching plot in each arc are also enjoyable to learn about, and exploring The Cage along with them leads to some fun times.
Had I written this review earlier in the game’s life, one thing I would have given it praise for was the abundance of English voice acting, a thing which is not often present in most gacha games of this kind. The entirety of Arcs 1 and 2 are dubbed in English, with character stories and events also being narrated up until recently. On the date of this review being written, it was recently announced that English voicework would no longer be supported in the global versions of the game. Reading the news created a pit in my stomach, as one of the things that made this game stand out amongst its contemporaries was going away. A sad development, no doubt.
All in all, as a gacha game, it’s pretty standard, and nothing particularly outstanding, but not terrible, either. As a Nier title, I would say that it creates even more possibilities for the future of the series, possibilities which I hope Yoko Taro will capitalize on, in this game or the next.

I cannot, in good conscience, give a rating to a game I have not played. But it’s a common habit of mine, whenever anything surrounding a game comes out, to check parts of it out via videos. I’ve done this with a lot of games, the Fire Emblem series being a franchise I have done this a multitude of times with. Three Houses did tempt me with its narrative and characters, but I ultimately resisted getting any further into Fire Emblem than, as Louis would put it, observing from afar. I’m not here for the gameplay, most certainly not the story in this case. The look of the world and the cast, both equally colorful, are what drew me to this entry. Regardless of what people may think of toothpaste-ch- I mean, Alear’s design, I think it is what makes them stand out amongst the sea of other fire emblem MCs. Whether that is for better or worse is up to the individual, though. A dark and gritty narrative this is not, but that shouldn’t have to be a bad thing. To put it lightly, everyone in this game is batshit insane in one way or another, including the protagonist, and I think that’s delightful. Not a single normal soul in that entire army. It has it all, muscleheads, peeping toms, fratbros (ARROOOO), Yunaka, truly a cast to remember.



pandreo best boy btw, would convert just for the holy mosh pits