I don't think I've been this torn on a game ever. I have never played og Nier, or Drakengard for that matter, so I have no nostalgia or love for this franchise. I've seen a lot of praise for the game among friends and more generally, so I decided to give it a try. 40-odd hours later, I was sitting there, watching the credits of ending D, wondering if I'd been the victim of a joke. It's not like this game has no positives, the music is absolutely beautiful and very distinctive, I can't think of any game that sounds quite like this. I liked the characters, though I wish there was more interaction between them. In battle they might as well not even be there with how little damage they do, and they stay completely silent outside of cutscenes or very specific scripted conversations while running around, I feel like more could have been done in that department.
I am aware this is a remake of a ps3 game with a probably quite minor budget and there was a limit as to what they could change before it stopped being the same game, but the gameplay was honestly a big chore. I believe some changes were made, for example in the original game you couldn't move around while charging spells which is nice, but the game still doesn't always feel great. Enemies are these weird clouds of black sludge that can bleed for some reason, they are hard to read so its not uncommon to take one or two hits during a combo if you're surrounded. My first mistake probably was starting the game on hard, thinking I'd played enough games to handle it. Its one of those games where hard simply decreases your damage and increases enemy health bars, making every fight soul crushingly long. After playing most of ending A not having much fun at all I just said fuck it and dialed it down to normal, where I stayed the rest of the game. Sidequests are tedious busywork that make me want to die, but you have to do at least some because endings C, D and E are all locked behind getting all the weapons in the game, which is a massive dick move. So there I went, grinding and tolerating all the tedious fights, the small and boring world with barely anything of note, and the fact that I had to basically replay the second half of the game over 5 times because I was assured it was worth it. And after doing so, I'm not sure it was. The story has some overall nice moments and interesting ideas (what makes us human, the power of words, for example off the top of my head) but I don't feel it goes far enough in any one direction. So after Ending D I considered just dropping the whole thing, but I knew this remake added one more ending, so I grudgingly did that. And yeah its all right. A neat conclusion. Can't imagine how the original game would be without it, I honestly don't feel this game fully works without Ending E. So that was Nier Replicant, 50-plus hours later I was done with it, and while I can appreciate some of the good ideas, I had so many little niggles that dampened my enjoyment I can't say I had a great time.
I am aware this is a remake of a ps3 game with a probably quite minor budget and there was a limit as to what they could change before it stopped being the same game, but the gameplay was honestly a big chore. I believe some changes were made, for example in the original game you couldn't move around while charging spells which is nice, but the game still doesn't always feel great. Enemies are these weird clouds of black sludge that can bleed for some reason, they are hard to read so its not uncommon to take one or two hits during a combo if you're surrounded. My first mistake probably was starting the game on hard, thinking I'd played enough games to handle it. Its one of those games where hard simply decreases your damage and increases enemy health bars, making every fight soul crushingly long. After playing most of ending A not having much fun at all I just said fuck it and dialed it down to normal, where I stayed the rest of the game. Sidequests are tedious busywork that make me want to die, but you have to do at least some because endings C, D and E are all locked behind getting all the weapons in the game, which is a massive dick move. So there I went, grinding and tolerating all the tedious fights, the small and boring world with barely anything of note, and the fact that I had to basically replay the second half of the game over 5 times because I was assured it was worth it. And after doing so, I'm not sure it was. The story has some overall nice moments and interesting ideas (what makes us human, the power of words, for example off the top of my head) but I don't feel it goes far enough in any one direction. So after Ending D I considered just dropping the whole thing, but I knew this remake added one more ending, so I grudgingly did that. And yeah its all right. A neat conclusion. Can't imagine how the original game would be without it, I honestly don't feel this game fully works without Ending E. So that was Nier Replicant, 50-plus hours later I was done with it, and while I can appreciate some of the good ideas, I had so many little niggles that dampened my enjoyment I can't say I had a great time.