Nier Replicant Ver.1.22474487139... - Review

 

I was eagerly awaiting the release of Nier Replicant Ver.1.22474487139... for a year. A decade ago I played the Western version of Nier, a story about a father trying to find the cure for a mysterious sickness known as the Black Scrawl for his daughter Yonah. The game was very much a hidden gem for me, I had not heard of it, but Square Enix was behind it and it was on special offer so thought why not give it a go? I played it and was blown away by it, the story, the characters, the world, everything about it. Naturally, a visually updated version of the game excited me, the only thing putting me off was this time you played as her brother not her father, and was unsure as to how this would translate and affect the story. 

It's easy to forget about Twix bars, two biscuity sticks topped with caramel and covered in chocolate (none of those one-finger versions for me). It ticks all the boxes for me, is great with tea, is great by itself, and has great chocolate to biscuit ratio, one Marvel villain might say it is perfectly balanced. Playing Nier Replicant Ver.1.224744877139... I found myself asking did this have the perfect amount of chocolate, biscuit, and caramel combined in the perfect way?

Story

The game has you play as the brother of Yonah, the character is never mentioned by name during the story. It is hard to be spoiler-free but will do my best. Early into the game, you find a magical book called Grimoire Weiss who potentially has the ability to save your sister from a disease known as the Black Scrawl. 

Similar to Sega's Yakuza series a lot of the fun or enjoyment of the game comes from the side quests. The game features over seventy and if you are like me you will want to complete them all. The side quests not only bring you to those who inhabit the world but also provide you with experience points, weapons, and materials.

The game has five endings which you can play in order. The new ending is called Ending E and while it takes a while to get there I felt was well worth it. 

Overall a fantastic journey and one that pulled on my heartstrings on more than a few occasions.

Visuals

The visuals in the original release on the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 were amazing, clear, crisp, and beautiful. Some of the lands have been reclaimed by nature and remnants of the old world are still visible. The desert area of the games shows how some areas faired worse than others. The lands you explore don't give you the full story of what happened but certainly make you ask questions. I really liked when you entered a building the front of it was cut off and became like a 2D sidescroller.

The remastered and up-to-date version improves on what was already very good. The visuals look really good on the PlayStation 4 Pro and have no doubt they would look even better on the PlayStation 5. The colours are more vibrant but still stay true to the aesthetic of the original release and make the world feel even deeper. With the addition of Ending E, there are new sequences never seen before which was really cool.

Overall the visuals are fantastic, take something with a solid foundation, refine it, throw in a little more colour and you have Nier Replicant Ver.1.22474487139... 

Music

The soundtrack is deeply emotional and touching, every piece of music has its place, the use of strings and piano is very poignant. Lead composer Keiichi Okabe described it best in an interview. " I always conveyed the tragic fates that the protagonist and characters are burdened with". The soundtrack is composed by Japanese Composers Keiichi Okabe (Drakengard 3, Tekken Series and Final Fantasy IV Gladiolus Episode), Kakeru Ishihama (Drakengard 3, Tekken 6), and Keigo Hoashi (Drakengard 3, Nier Automata), along with the original release of Nier in 2010.

The soundtrack has been remastered and some tracks are slightly different from the original release back in 2010. The new versions of the soundtrack are really good and rather than rewrite the original soundtracks instead just brings it to the next level. 

The soundtrack is over two hours in length, listening to it I never felt it was just backing for the game but an integral part of it. It is hard to choose my favorite pieces of music from the game as they all carry so much importance. Here are the pieces I like putting on repeat:

Snow In Summer

Cold Steel Coffin

Gods Bound By Rules

Ultimate Weapon

Yonah (Piano Version)

The Dark Colossus Destroys All 

Kaine (Escape)

Shadowlord's Castle

Emil (Karma)

Ashes Of Dreams

Overall the soundtrack is brilliant, without flaws, and similarly to Nier Automata, I will listen to it again and again.

Gameplay

There is a lot to get in with the gameplay so let's take it away. The more enemies you kill, the more experience you get and the stronger you get. Essentially you can pass the game on Easy and Normal without too much struggle but for some enemies in the game, it certainly helps to be strong.

There are two types of weapons (kind of) in the game - first there is Weiss, your magic and wisdom spewing book. While it drains magic points it regenerates by itself so as long as you are careful you will never find yourself too stuck. As the game progress, you unlock new types of magic which makes combat a lot of fun. In the first half of the game, you can handle one-handed weapons, later you can handle spears and two-handed weapons. Each weapon can be upgraded and will take a lot of materials especially if you want to upgrade them all. Outside of these, you get drops in the forms of powerful words, these can increase your magic and melee weapons. Some help gets you more gold from enemies; better drops, more experience points, more magic damage, and more.

There are a lot of side quests and while you could do none of them they really add to everything. Outside of these, you can fish, which is a lot of fun, and feel improves over the original. Growing flowers, veggies and fruit is another fun pastime. 

Overall the gameplay is very solid, camera angles work well and the change in perspective during exploration and battles is really cool. 

Final Thoughts

So, after nearly eighty hours, how did I feel? Awesome. The story was amazing and perhaps even better than I remember, the new ending really helped round things out nicer and added more to the lore of the universe. The visuals were amazing and while the Nier Replicant world may not be the largest I never get bored of traversing it. The music is fantastic and easily stands out on its own and is one I will listen to many more times. The gameplay is improved and more solid than ever before and is a lot of fun. This one easily gets a 5 out of 5