Not just a replicant.

The original Nier is a title that means a lot to me.

It’s one that left a lasting impression thanks in part to its memorable cast of characters and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, but above all that, the fact that it was bold enough to ask the player to sacrifice something real and tangible in service of its story was something I had never seen before in a video game.

However, despite my enthusiasm for the game and my eagerness to have others experience it, it was difficult to recommend as there were many caveats to mention before I could recommend it wholeheartedly.

The less than pretty visuals, inconsistent performance, dull combat and various other obtuse game design choices were all detracting factors, and I always felt that a remake would do wonders for its wider appeal, and 11 years after its original release, my hopes have been realized.

The gang’s back together.

Making his home in a village with his sickly younger sister Yonah, he struggles to find a cure for his sister’s sickness. During the course of his adventure, he’s joined by an ancient tome of knowledge known as Grimoire Weiss and two trusty companions, Emil and Kaine, in hopes that he can save his sister and bring an end to the threat of the vicious shades plaguing the world.

While the overarching plot seems simple enough on the surface, there are many layers to the story to discover with twists and turns aplenty. Even though it’s a story I’ve experienced in the past, I feel the additional content to flesh out some of its characters even more was most welcome.

The inclusion of a brand new ending was a point of contention for many when first announced, but having experienced it I feel it fits perfectly with the overall story and the additional playable content was a blast as well.

Luckily, given that the story and characters were never a weak point of the original Nier, there wasn’t much work that needed to be done on that front, and it shows as it’s more or less the same story.

The aspects that needed the most work were technical, and it’s here where the worth of the remake shines brightest.

It’s no Devil May Cry but it’s a lot better than it used to be.

In the original Nier, combat was a joyless means to an end. It certainly functioned but due to its simplistic nature and unresponsive controls, it wasn’t any fun.

In the remake, the combat has been completely overhauled, with tight controls and a variety of quality of life elements like dodging behind the enemy or being able to juggle enemies in the air with multi-hit attacks and magic attacks with relative ease.

Changing between the three different weapon types on the fly allowed for adapting to the various enemy types where I would take out my spear for quick thrust attacks against unarmored enemies but bring out my heavy duty 2-handed sword to break the armor/guard of the more beefy enemies.

It flowed quite well from one attack to another, and thanks to the game being locked at 60 FPS instead of stuttering in the 20-30 range, everything felt much more responsive as well. Despite being in situations where bullets and enemies alike were covering up the entire screen, I didn’t notice any significant dips in frames nor did I have any technical issues like quests not being able to be completed or the game crashing during my 40~ hour experience on the PS5.

The load times, while not designed for PS5 exclusive good, were minimal and quite snappy for the most part.

As for the visuals themselves, they have been significantly improved as well, and even though it’s not going to win any awards for best graphics of the year, its much more pleasing aesthetics goes a long way to sell the atmosphere and make the character more innately likeable.

From the environments to the character models, the visuals have been significantly improved.

Despite the technical improvements, the area that Nier suffers most is in its many obtuse game design choices.

First off, the various side quests in Nier are almost all terrible. It has the typical mundane fetch quests that one would expect, but given the less than intuitive use of fast travel and how items have low % drop rates, it gets old very quickly. There is one particular quest that involves cross breeding flowers to get specific seeds that requires multiple real-life days to proceed, and that’s more or less where I decided to call it quits, despite that being the literal last side quest I had left to 100%.

While most of these side quests aren’t essential to the story, many of them award weapons which are necessary to get the last two endings, so I didn’t find them particularly “optional”, which added to the frustration even further.

Even worse, the process of getting the various endings was a test of patience as I found myself becoming an unwitting speedrunner going through repeated content over and over again as fast as I could to unlock the next ending.

I can forgive the 2nd run through the game as there is significant additional content to be explored, but the 3rd and 4th felt really unnecessary and only seemed to exist to pad out the game’s already lengthy playtime.

Given that this is a remake meant to modernize the game, I felt a golden opportunity has been missed in cutting down on side quests, keeping only the ones that are worthwhile and letting players unlock all endings during the 2nd playthrough.

Hi, this is my 3rd way through, please make way.

Despite my complaints, it’s clear that the remake is most definitely the best way to experience what Nier has to offer. The improved visuals, performance and additional content are all much appreciated, and while it’s still a title with notable flaws, it’s infinitely easier to recommend to all who are willing to put in the time and effort to embark on a journey they’ll not soon forget.

I would be remiss in writing a Nier review without mentioning the incredible soundtrack.

Fun Tidbit – Playing through Nier: Replicant really hits home how many elements and ideas were later fine-tuned and perfected for Nier: Automata. Also, I felt I was able to sympathize easier with Papa Nier instead of brother Nier in terms of his relationship with Yonah but Brother Nier made more sense for his relationship with Kaine and Emil so there’s some interesting dynamics at play there.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.