NIER Gestalt/Replicant

I’m dubious about whether this is something to be excited about. I mean, Nier is an amazing accomplishment. Probably my favorite game of that generation. But it’s also a pretty self-contained piece that hardly cries out for a sequel, and are they really going to manage to pull something that good off twice? I dunno. That said, worth keeping an eye on.

Remaster of this game incoming.

https://youtu.be/59AMEbkSAp8

April 23, 2021 release date. PS4, Xbox One, Steam is what I saw listed at the end of the trailer. No next gen consoles.

is Nier (PS3) and Nier Replicant the same game? I have it on PS3 in my backlog …

Nier: Replicant is one version of the 360/PS3 era Nier. I think the one that came out on PS3 was also Replicant. The one that came out on 360 in the US was Gestalt. They’re 95% the same game, the only difference is that Nier himself is a middle-aged dad in Gestalt (IMO a much more interesting version of the character) and in Replicant he’s the anime prettyboy you see in the trailer above and is an older brother rather than a father to the little girl that’s a big driver of the plot. My understanding is this does change his characterization, also. I wish they were doing Gestalt as a remaster, but they did that specifically for American audiences, as I understand it, and the remaster probably isn’t driven by American demand.

Edit: Sounds like Gestalt was also on PS3. not sure which you have. There’s definitely not enough different to warrant repurchasing Replicant if you already have Gestalt, though, unless you just really want the shinier visuals or want to play on PC/PS4. (I assume you can play the 360 version on Xbone, but may be wrong, I don’t own an Xbone.)

Eurogamer review of the new version.

“…this slight reimagining turns a weak game into an okay one.”

Wow. Nier is a total classic, the best game I played on 360. That reviewer could barely be more wrong.

Out today! ;)

I should dive into ending A tonight (about to go into the final area, and point of no return). Did most of the sidequests (except for the fishing-related ones, and the one that requires 10 pink moonflower seeds because God, those are too time-consuming) and I have all the weapons one can get to that point (28).

So yeah, hopefully I’ll get all endings through the weekend. We’ll see.

Endings A through D are done. Now on my way to Ending E, which is new to the remastered version, and then I’ll post my final impressions (and try to keep them spoiler-free).

Oof! I played through A, B, and then again up until I had like 23 weapons. But I ended up stopping when I saw a serious grind ahead to get a few weapons needed for C, D, and E. I cheated and watched a let’s play of them on Youtube.

I kinda wish I hadn’t because E looked really fun, but I couldn’t justify another week of plugging away at it in my limited no-kids-around evening game time.

Yeah, it gets quite repetitive after a while. If I weren’t so invested in the game (because of Automata), I could see myself losing steam or even giving up at some point as well.

Nier: Automata is a lot better in that aspect. Well, Nier: Automata is better in pretty much every aspect, really, though I really like the characters and themes in Replicant. But I’ll get to that when I post my final impressions, I suppose. ;)

Interesting. I had the opposite reaction. I really liked Automata, but it remained no Gestalt throughout.

I really liked Nier: Automata, it’s one of 2 games in my history I 100%'d (because you could buy the achievements). I did feel embarrassed to play it at my age, though, as if Jesus and Anita Sarkeesian were watching me and frowning every time I angled the camera down low as 2B was running.

Then I google this game and like…

I guess they really went for it in this one, huh? Even Bloodrayne wasn’t this gratuitous. It’s like a Heavy Metal magazine.

I can see that happening, for a lot of reasons, even if it wasn’t my case.

Kaine is extremely not what you’d expect from her outfit. FWIW.

I had a really great time with the entirety of Automata, and really wished that Replicant didn’t put a rigid collectable requirement on subsequent playthroughs. I burned out on grinding for weapons upgrade materials during my first playthrough, so the thought of running the Junk Heap over and over again in a third playthrough was too much :)

I gave up on upgrading all weapons. Not that I needed to do so - the level 2 Phoenix Spear got me through endings B and C and D pretty well. ;)

Yeah, there is no requirement that you max all weapon upgrades except to see their stories if you want, far as I know (unless they added that for the E ending that’s apparently new to this version). Just need to get the weapons for a couple of endings to be open. I certainly never upgraded the majority of my weapons in either Nier.

No, the only requirement for ending E is to get ending D… For which you need all weapons regardless of upgrade.

Caution: spoilers (lots of them), obviously. But it’s funny.