Nier

a lot of ps3-era sleepy generic medieval fantasy rpg tropes here, getting in head-on collisions with brief bursts of absurdly complicated philosophical sci-fi concepts. add to this a story comprised almost entirely of jumping from one emotional breakdown to the next, glued with a lot of contrived speedrun writing tactics, and you get a total whiplash of an experience. somehow, it manages to strike some kind of an oxymoronic balance between those two extremes; engaging with many of the run-of-the-mill mundane rpg activities that the core gameplay has to offer becomes not as painful when you have shit like the tangibility of human soul to think about in the meantime. the pit in my stomach upon the realisation of how much backtracking through the same terrain i'll have to do to potentially have the chance of learning some new tidbit of worldbuilding never ceased to leave me through the entire experience, tho. also prolly the best first 15 minutes of any game i've ever played

I ain't playing this shit ever in my life and I feel so sorry for anyone who had to play this more than one time just to get to the E ending.

Still, one of the best examples about how we can push the limits of an artistic medium like videogames.

PS: People who complete this to 100% are psychos.

Nier was truly the culmination of Drakengard's experiments. This fresco of gameplay and narrative ideas works best in the arrangement of styles as opposed to the value of each individual part. Firstly, its 3d-action gameplay framework is constantly meddled with by flashes of brief but intriguing creativity, injecting elements of platformer, puzzle, bullet-hell, horror, and even text-adventure into sections, dungeons and minigames that frequently change perspective. The combat system itself isn't particularly frustrating or repetitive, but its implementation (and the surrounding RPG aspects) is underwhelmingly basic, with the best displays reserved for their most Zelda-like of boss battles. Nier often stylistically channels the splendor of Team Ico's masterpieces: Ico's idea of subdued yet majestic post-apocalyptic areas - if heavily expanded, and Shadow of the Colossus' weakpoint-addled massive bosses and warped contexts on enemies, but the melodramatic flair is all theirs. Settings range from simple fields and villages to offbeat towns that straddle the border between childish fairytales, bizarre caricatures, and disturbing nightmares, each area boasting a distinct flavor while retaining some form of melancholic atmosphere tying them all together.

As usual - the narrative is easily the highlight, yet here it attains a strikingly personal, heartfelt degree of quality. Overarching themes of sacrifice, revenge, consequence, and tragedy permeate the work, but unlike Drakengard, there's at least a glimmer of hope buried underneath. Much like the giants of 90s JRPGs, character subplots explore and vivisect different themes while avoiding self-indulgence, and towering above all of those is Kainé - one of the greatest characters of the 2010s. The eclectic cast, fantastic soundtrack, surreal story moments, and refined multiple endings are all functional to a mesmerizing whole. Nier horribly fails when it comes to its trivial side quests, awful minigames, bland dungeon layouts, etc. And complaints regarding its graphic quality and performance are all valid. There's actually quite a bit that doesn't work, and there's a lot that shouldn't work, but what succeeds is pure magic.

How can this game possibly gets the same score as Automata on Glitchwave is an utter mystery. Maybe it's because Automata is the popular one of the Nier, so people either like it or not will come here to rate for Automata (of which we can see clear from those awe-striking reviews for it) while Replicant is more for the fans, and the result is a very close one. Sheesh.

Let me be straight: if I'm going to compare this to Automata, Replicant sucks on almost every aspect I could think of. Foolish, subpar lines that frequently fail to arouse empathy; preposterous events and introduction of roles that hardly have a logic pushing forward an inexplicable plot; stupid, boring-as-fuck side-quests (and so does many of the main quests) that hardly have any significance; shit-like "Words" that's so lame it makes you laugh to compare it with plug-in chips; small-as-crap world map; disappointing BGM (only my POV though, compared with Automata), and so on, just name a thing and I'll simply tell you why it's worse than Automata. Last but not least, you had to repeat so great chunk of the exactly same boring main quests for so many times, to the point that I actually refused to continue playing till unlocking endings C D and E after the 2nd play through. Its unbearable and totally unacceptable, given the additional fact that the content of the game itself is boring, while not the case for Automata (and you only need to repeat twice, moreover from the different perspectives).

Frankly speaking, Nier:Replicant hardly reaches 1/10 the quality of Automata, but still it's an OK game, nice even, to be honest. It does have some merits that's the same as its predecessor, and you'll feel many of the flaws acceptable when you think of the fact that this is a game from more than 10 years ago (sure it's remastered but the actual content is the same anyway)

This is more of a stuff for the completionist. The story is essential, but I find it better to just read or watch it somewhere rather than play the whole game through.

Proposal: If you played Automata first, love that game and want to know more about the Nier world not by reading or watching Replicant's plot but by playing it, please consider lower your expectation, and more importantly, be prepared to be forced to repeat the game for many times, then you might find this game even enjoyable.

this game is good, yeah