High-performance playtime

A welcome second chance for a singular action-RPG.

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If Nier was characterised by desperation, Nier Replicant is an act of love. Created by developer Toylogic and publisher Square Enix with the direct involvement of Taro and his regular band of collaborators, this remaster feels like an attempt to make good on the ideas and promises of that original game. After its sequel Nier Automata became an unlikely hit in 2017, the team is betting that now is the right time to reintroduce broader audiences to the charms of the original game. Maybe this time they’ll be more receptive.

I honestly don’t know if they will: even in its remastered form, Nier remains a singular and at times tedious game, a piece of art eager to try everything and constantly seeking out the hardest notes to hit. But it’s one of the most memorable games I’ve played, and the remaster ups its greatness in just about every way. Taking place literally thousands of years before that story, it’s set in a post-apocalypse that’s swung right back around to pastoral fantasy, following a boy and his sister in a world of magic diseases, monsters, and at least one talking book. As that boy, you’ll be questing around a dark fantasy world while trying to cure your sister of a terrible disease, joining up with some of the best outcasts in gaming.

The game plays out like a sort of dark pastiche of standard fantasy adventure games like The Legend of Zelda, delighting in videogame conventions while also subverting them and turning to deeper thematic territory, meditating on violence, human cruelty, and what it means to persist in a world that wants you dead and is probably dying itself.

You’ll be spending most of your time running around lush fields and dank dungeons, doing quests and fighting ethereal monsters called Shades. Taking after Automata, the combat is significantly more dynamic and fluid than it was in the original, with combos and dodges that feel graceful and responsive. Magic, once clunky and slow to use, is now integrated neatly into combat. Parts of the game that were obtuse before are more clearly explained, like a notorious fishing minigame that now is less of a roadblock. Nier’s genre shifts pop more, too, now that the core combat mechanics are so much more fun.

I don’t know how people are going to respond to Nier in 2021, even with all the new bells and whistles. It’s far from perfect. But I’m telling you: it’s worth it. The original is one of my favourite games ever made, and the remaster improves it. Nier is special. This is a new chance to try it out. I think you should take it.

A tribute to a cult classic and a fabulous remaster that retains what made the original special.