(revised 9/6/2021)
You already saw the 5 star rating. What can I say except that this game was well worth the year-long wait? Of course, some people waited 11 times longer than I did and STILL weren't happy, but really, when is the Internet ever happy? Fuck that noise, I'm here to tell you what you should expect from Nier Replicant v. 1.224...whatever.
If you're familiar with Automata or any of Yoko Taro's other work, then you should expect an emotionally heavy narrative contextualized by a deceptively simple premise that explores some facet of human psychology. In the case of Nier, the overall theme is devotion, in all its forms. Devotion to family. Devotion to friends. Devotion to love. Devotion to hate. All woven together in Yoko Taro's signature style, which is to say, in a way that takes your heart and wrings it like a wet dishcloth.
You play as Nier, a boy who seeks to cure his younger sister, Yonah, of a seemingly terminal illness. This is one notable difference between Replicant and Automata: the premise of Replicant is more down-to-earth, and Nier having a home and family gives him a more consistent goal. There's also the sense of camaraderie between the main quartet. Nier, Weiss, Kaine and Emil are all extremely different people, and yet seeing them interact was never disappointing. Kaine has a permanent place in my heart as one of my favorite characters ever.
However, inevitably, in a story about devotion, the game requires a little devotion from you, the player, because there are 5 endings in total, and you have to earn them. By replaying. And for those of you hoping they took a page from Automata's book and added a chapter select to the remake, I'm sorry, but you're SOL. This might discourage some, and believe me, the third playthrough was a little stale for me, but God, is the brand new Ending E worth it. My only real complaint is the tedious sidequests, which is honestly really petty of me because I'm a completionist. It's a fucking great game. Go play it. Do it for Kaine.
Side note if you're playing on PC: Make sure your high performance settings are on if you wanna play at more than 20 FPS.
You already saw the 5 star rating. What can I say except that this game was well worth the year-long wait? Of course, some people waited 11 times longer than I did and STILL weren't happy, but really, when is the Internet ever happy? Fuck that noise, I'm here to tell you what you should expect from Nier Replicant v. 1.224...whatever.
If you're familiar with Automata or any of Yoko Taro's other work, then you should expect an emotionally heavy narrative contextualized by a deceptively simple premise that explores some facet of human psychology. In the case of Nier, the overall theme is devotion, in all its forms. Devotion to family. Devotion to friends. Devotion to love. Devotion to hate. All woven together in Yoko Taro's signature style, which is to say, in a way that takes your heart and wrings it like a wet dishcloth.
You play as Nier, a boy who seeks to cure his younger sister, Yonah, of a seemingly terminal illness. This is one notable difference between Replicant and Automata: the premise of Replicant is more down-to-earth, and Nier having a home and family gives him a more consistent goal. There's also the sense of camaraderie between the main quartet. Nier, Weiss, Kaine and Emil are all extremely different people, and yet seeing them interact was never disappointing. Kaine has a permanent place in my heart as one of my favorite characters ever.
However, inevitably, in a story about devotion, the game requires a little devotion from you, the player, because there are 5 endings in total, and you have to earn them. By replaying. And for those of you hoping they took a page from Automata's book and added a chapter select to the remake, I'm sorry, but you're SOL. This might discourage some, and believe me, the third playthrough was a little stale for me, but God, is the brand new Ending E worth it. My only real complaint is the tedious sidequests, which is honestly really petty of me because I'm a completionist. It's a fucking great game. Go play it. Do it for Kaine.
Side note if you're playing on PC: Make sure your high performance settings are on if you wanna play at more than 20 FPS.