This review contains spoilers
This review will contain minor spoilers.
Nier Replicant was a tough game for me to rate. On one hand, as many will note, it is an entirely magical once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yoko Taro’s storytelling is just built different and unmatched. If it works for you, it hits extremely hard in the feels. The OST is one of a kind and heavenly; Song of the Ancients has to be my favorite track of all time, especially with my now knowledge of its meaning and the many different versions that exist of it enhancing the overall experience of any Nier entry. The gameplay is smooth and enjoyable. The cast is loveable and is enhanced by the found family aspect. The aesthetic art direction is fantastic and the locations are memorable, though a bit simple.
However, as beautiful as it is, Replicant is structurally a lot weaker in comparison to Automata, transforming the once emotional, impactful and depressing storyline into a tedious and repetitive grindfest when you start going for the Endings C to E. I have to say, the impact Ending B had on me almost entirely vanished by the time I got Ending D. That is not because Ending D is not interesting or doesn’t add value to the game, it just means all the time I spent grinding content I have already completed twice at that point felt like a waste of my time, and the added new cutscenes didn’t make me feel like they were worth that grind either. Ending B already gave the storyline a new perspective and having to go through the same motions a second time; and then having to play the whole endgame climax to reach the final-final Ending again just took the kick out of it.
Despite that, Ending E is an entire new addition to Nier itself. I cannot say the grind to get to it was worth the time it took me to get there, but seeing it for myself and it bridging a smoother transition to Nier Automata made it rewarding overall, as Ending C/D didn’t really feel like “Endings” to me.
The plot of Nier replicant is extremely simple at the start and becomes more and more complicated as more lore reveals itself; to then become depressing and even angering by the time you put all the pieces together. The storyline is tragic and makes you question if some characters hadn’t been so selfish or ignorant all of this could’ve been avoided. It is a storyline with themes that make you think about it more after completion rather than during playing. This is easily the greatest aspect of Nier. I value that type of storytelling.
Personally, gameplay wise I preferred the content pre-time skip than the content post-time skip. This may also be because I saw the post-TS content more than two times.
The side quests have charm with some, very often tragic, NPC storylines; but most of them are fetch and errand quests, which becomes very tedious and annoying to a point I stopped doing the side quests entirely and just focused on finishing the game. All the quest NPCs have really memorable personalities though.
The early section doesn’t have any type of fast travel, so you have to run to places yourself every single time. Post-TS has a fast travel option, which gets disabled for a short while because the NPC needed for the fast travel mechanic is involved in a part of the main plot, so that section is running around stupidhead again.
The gameplay as mentioned is smooth and fun, but pretty onenote. You can spam your magic, use a few different weapon types and varying combos but your attacks all end up doing roughly the same thing. Maybe there is more, I didn’t test too much as it was easy to complete the game with the spear of my trust.
You can upgrade your weapons, but grinding for the material looked very unappealing to me. Also, it not being really necessary. My least favorite area in the game is probably junk heap. Grinding that area for materials I needed for side quests, main quests or weapon upgrades made me not want to do them.
For the characters I have to say none of them really top the characters of Nier Automata for me but I liked them all. Kaine being my favorite. I started to dislike Nier because of his ignorance and selfish pursuit in the second half, which he partly is at fault for but also not really because he doesn’t know what I know; so partly innocent. The cast is very enjoyable with interactions between each other during side quests as well. They all bring something unique to their dynamic. Yonah is a very basic whiny, innocent and weak little sister plot device, but I am not a monster, so even the first ending impacted me. And even more enhanced in Ending B.
In summary, Nier Replicant combines fun gameplay, rich atmosphere, memorable characters, a thematically heavy plot and emotional storyline together to create one of the most emotional games of all time; which then is weighted down by tedious tasks, repetition to get a truer ending to the true ending, and lack of QoL like better fast travel options and a lack of variance of gameplay.
Nier Replicant was a tough game for me to rate. On one hand, as many will note, it is an entirely magical once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yoko Taro’s storytelling is just built different and unmatched. If it works for you, it hits extremely hard in the feels. The OST is one of a kind and heavenly; Song of the Ancients has to be my favorite track of all time, especially with my now knowledge of its meaning and the many different versions that exist of it enhancing the overall experience of any Nier entry. The gameplay is smooth and enjoyable. The cast is loveable and is enhanced by the found family aspect. The aesthetic art direction is fantastic and the locations are memorable, though a bit simple.
However, as beautiful as it is, Replicant is structurally a lot weaker in comparison to Automata, transforming the once emotional, impactful and depressing storyline into a tedious and repetitive grindfest when you start going for the Endings C to E. I have to say, the impact Ending B had on me almost entirely vanished by the time I got Ending D. That is not because Ending D is not interesting or doesn’t add value to the game, it just means all the time I spent grinding content I have already completed twice at that point felt like a waste of my time, and the added new cutscenes didn’t make me feel like they were worth that grind either. Ending B already gave the storyline a new perspective and having to go through the same motions a second time; and then having to play the whole endgame climax to reach the final-final Ending again just took the kick out of it.
Despite that, Ending E is an entire new addition to Nier itself. I cannot say the grind to get to it was worth the time it took me to get there, but seeing it for myself and it bridging a smoother transition to Nier Automata made it rewarding overall, as Ending C/D didn’t really feel like “Endings” to me.
The plot of Nier replicant is extremely simple at the start and becomes more and more complicated as more lore reveals itself; to then become depressing and even angering by the time you put all the pieces together. The storyline is tragic and makes you question if some characters hadn’t been so selfish or ignorant all of this could’ve been avoided. It is a storyline with themes that make you think about it more after completion rather than during playing. This is easily the greatest aspect of Nier. I value that type of storytelling.
Personally, gameplay wise I preferred the content pre-time skip than the content post-time skip. This may also be because I saw the post-TS content more than two times.
The side quests have charm with some, very often tragic, NPC storylines; but most of them are fetch and errand quests, which becomes very tedious and annoying to a point I stopped doing the side quests entirely and just focused on finishing the game. All the quest NPCs have really memorable personalities though.
The early section doesn’t have any type of fast travel, so you have to run to places yourself every single time. Post-TS has a fast travel option, which gets disabled for a short while because the NPC needed for the fast travel mechanic is involved in a part of the main plot, so that section is running around stupidhead again.
The gameplay as mentioned is smooth and fun, but pretty onenote. You can spam your magic, use a few different weapon types and varying combos but your attacks all end up doing roughly the same thing. Maybe there is more, I didn’t test too much as it was easy to complete the game with the spear of my trust.
You can upgrade your weapons, but grinding for the material looked very unappealing to me. Also, it not being really necessary. My least favorite area in the game is probably junk heap. Grinding that area for materials I needed for side quests, main quests or weapon upgrades made me not want to do them.
For the characters I have to say none of them really top the characters of Nier Automata for me but I liked them all. Kaine being my favorite. I started to dislike Nier because of his ignorance and selfish pursuit in the second half, which he partly is at fault for but also not really because he doesn’t know what I know; so partly innocent. The cast is very enjoyable with interactions between each other during side quests as well. They all bring something unique to their dynamic. Yonah is a very basic whiny, innocent and weak little sister plot device, but I am not a monster, so even the first ending impacted me. And even more enhanced in Ending B.
In summary, Nier Replicant combines fun gameplay, rich atmosphere, memorable characters, a thematically heavy plot and emotional storyline together to create one of the most emotional games of all time; which then is weighted down by tedious tasks, repetition to get a truer ending to the true ending, and lack of QoL like better fast travel options and a lack of variance of gameplay.