Producer Yosuke Saito describes Nier Replicant’s revisit in complicated terms — it’s neither a remake nor remaster. The comment seems a bit confusing at first — you’ve either remade the thing or you haven’t — but I finally get it. Nier Replicant is a brilliant repackaging of the original, dressing up and elevating old content closer to the standards of Automata, while adding in enough that’s new to deliver something satisfying for older fans. It maintains the quirky charm and painful lessons you’ll already be familiar with as a fan of director Yoko Taro, but if not, it’s an excellent introduction to his work.

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For those unfamiliar with Yoko Taro’s unconventional storytelling, it's important to abandon all preconceived notions of how games should end. Plenty of stories require you to unlock a “true” ending, but Taro’s stories grow deeper with each playthrough, showing you the story from a fresh perspective. You’ll play and “beat” Replicant once, then you’ll do it again, and Taro will continue leading you through rabbit hole after rabbit hole for as long as you’ll let him — and at some point, things will make sense.

In Replicant, your introduction to the cast and their stakes in the story feels quite different when compared to its sequel, Automata. The tale of Nier, Emil, Weiss, and Kainé feels more intimate. The chemistry between your core party is quick to build, but somehow more natural. From Kainé’s back and forth with Grimoire Weiss, a relentlessly sassy book, to how she cools when interacting with Emil, the character writing in Replicant is some of Taro's best work.

And Grimoire Weiss — oh how I love Weiss — cannot be dismissed. Liam O’Brien’s delivery of the ornery tome is unforgettable. I mentioned in my preview that Replicant’s minute-to-minute meandering hits its own emotional highs, and Weiss is responsible for much of that. Weiss is often full of sass, but he’ll also break to deliver solemn commentary between scenes that drive moments home.

Then in those moments — when Yoko Taro pushes you towards the edge of a good tearing up, and you’re desperately trying not to blink — Keiichi Okabe’s soundtrack takes center stage. Taro might walk you through those pained stories, but it’s Okabe’s music that continues to punctuate those scenes with an otherworldly sadness. Emil ~ Sacrifice is the best song from any of Okabe's projects, including Drakengard 3 and Automata. Even Automata’s Despair arrangement doesn’t deliver the same punch. Emil’s theme, even in a language I can’t understand, says a million things about Replicant’s troubled cast through its haunting, innocent vocals and solemn violins. Some of those softer sounds from Okabe, juxtaposed with more intense, frantic action of the combat and story beats, meet in a way that’s almost jarring. Poignantly so.

But while the soundtrack surpasses Automata, the combat can’t quite hit such high notes. It’s not a PlatinumGames action title, but it still delivers a simple, refined system that improves on the original. Battles don’t become more complex until the second half of the game, but that’s where you spend most of your time, anyway (since you’ll return to the latter half for each subsequent playthrough). You swap between various weapon types like spears, one-handed weapons, and two-handed weapons, using them in conjunction with magic attacks from Weiss. I usually play games for the story, but I think when I inevitably replay Replicant, I’ll crank the difficulty up for my own satisfaction, since most of the encounters on Normal are quite breezy. That being said, I do love that they’ve added in an auto-battle mode to make Replicant’s tale more accessible.

The biggest takeaway from my experiences with Nier’s battle system is that it’s instantly familiar for series veterans. But in the original, Nier lagged and hitched so often that it felt harder than it really was. While it’s been ages since I experienced that messy PS3 version, I still remember — with painful clarity — that it was a nightmare to play. In the blur between remake and remaster, this version of Replicant rarely stumbles like its predecessor. I played on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and while I noticed the game started to chug a bit when a boss began to toss out a spray of orb fire, I never encountered frustrating hitches and lost frames that hindered the experience.

And while gameplay may not have been where some of Replicant’s historical wins lie, I can appreciate its battle system and dynamic delivery more now. Replicant isn’t just an action game. It’s also a top-down-action-rpg-visual-novel. A beautiful amalgamation of what sounds like absolute nonsense until you realize it’s Taro doing his thing — throwing out the rule book (and making the rule book one of the best characters in the game). When Replicant changes its camera perspective, dodging those orbs becomes a little more enjoyable, and when it puts a pause on all of the action to read me a rather depressing bedtime story, I choke.

Replicant’s remake-remaster also looks gorgeous. It’s still no Automata — but goddamn, it’s pretty. The original had this hazy, ethereal beauty to it that’s hard to explain, but it’s still there. I could easily see that as something that’s dropped in a fresh pass, but Toylogic kept something that’s such a big part of Replicant’s artistic tone while also scrubbing away the grime. I much prefer the new look of the cast, and I even notice the team’s attention to detail paying off in some smaller ways. Like now, the enemy Shades have clearer shapes and more vibrant pops of yellow, and facial expressions are far more emotive and natural.

The thing that excites me the most is Replicant’s new content, and I can’t really dive into that due to embargo restrictions. What I will say, though, is that Yosuke Saito wasn’t kidding when he mentioned there’s plenty of new stuff. I think if you’re a Nier/Drakengard diehard, you’ll recognize where these new bits come from instantly, but you’ll enjoy them even if you’re not. Replicant even comes packaged with 15 Nightmares, a DLC pack I missed from the original, where you fight hordes of enemy waves as Papa Nier. It’s worth playing for the remixed soundtrack alone.

When I wrapped up my experience with Nier Replicant, I realized it was the most satisfied I’d ever felt after working so hard for a particular ending. Yoko Taro asking me to relive the same experiences again and again wasn’t a repetitive journey, but a more meaningful reflection on a cycle of hate, pain, and trauma. Nier Replicant is Yoko Taro’s best work, brought up to modern standards, and finally delivered in the presentation its tale always deserved.

Score: 5/5. A PS4 code of Nier Replicant Ver. 1.22474487139 was provided to TheGamer by Square Enix.

NIER REPLICANT
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is a remake of the role-playing game initially launched on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It redesigns combat to resemble its sequel, Nier Automata, and adds new story beats and a full voice cast.

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