Could Divine, Remembered by Anrimeal and NieR Replicant

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139

Lor: The day I’ve long awaited is here: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is finally out. It’s a bit nostalgic for me as I played the original PS3 game back when my partner and I started dating, over a decade ago. Besides the trademark sad storylines creator Yoko Taro is known for, there’s also a coziness to the game.

I should explain the name—while NieR Replicant is generally thought of as a remake, Yoko Taro considers it a “version up”. It’s not quite a 1.5, he says, but a little less than that. I think of it as a project never truly being completed or having an end. Taro is a fairly weird dude and it fits with his personality. He’s famously known for wearing a skull mask at all public appearances (based on the Emil character from NieR.)

You’ll spend most of your time in NieR doing classic RPG tasks: gathering materials, hunting monsters, and completing fetch quests. While some find this repetitive grind dull and annoying, in NieR I tend to find it soothing. It’s a combination of an interesting world and one of the best soundtracks in gaming. Music is an incredibly important aspect of NieR and its sequel NieR: Automata and the soundtrack in every area, fight and cutscene is beautiful, melancholic and otherworldly. There are vocal tracks and the majority are sung in a made up language (although there are English and Japanese versions of some available) that adds a mysterious quality to it. Here’s a video by Alex Moukala going into more depth about the music!

Another thing to note is that the version I played 10 years ago was NieR: Gestalt. In Japan there were two versions but in the west we only got one, just titled NieR. Gestalt and Replicant differ in that the protagonist (named Nier) is a different person in each version. In Gestalt, he is an older man and the father of the sickly Yonah. In Replicant, he’s a young man and Yonah’s brother.

It’s almost like I am playing a new game—while the story beats are the same, the way Nier interacts with the other characters is different. Gestalt Nier is gruff and world-weary, Replicant is hopeful and cheery. As I paid the extra for the special edition of the game, I have the script books for the whole story which I find super interesting to read through. It’s a bit of a complicated story so they also help me to digest it a bit better.

I’m going to take my time with NieR. There’s multiple endings and even some new story added to this “upgraded” version and I can’t wait to see what’s been added.