Nier Replicant (2010)

Ok, second playthrough done.. After Automata, whcih did the multiple character thing with extra content and Drakengard 3, which went for full-on alternate realities, going through the same exact gameplay with the same character with just a few extra scenes felt very underwhelming.

I do have a heart, so the little vignettes before each encounter got to me. It is affecting to see the inner lives and personal objectives of all the monsters you kill. At the same time, I didn't feel that most of them really recontextualised my actions.

During the fist playthrough the protagonist already sounded like a genocidal maniac when screaming about "killing them all", and we've already seen signs of intelligence from the Shades. Enemies also attack you, so it's not like neither the player character or the player themselves has any choice.

The small Emil vignette also doesn't add much to his story. We already knew that he was the one to put down his sister by just reading the scattered documents that referred to him as failsafe in case she went out control.

Similarly, we already knew Kainé was possessed by a shade. Her story is a bit more fleshed out, but I'm disappointed that they didn't really reveal that she's intersex clearly in the game (that fact is only spelled out in interviews, artbooks and other external media). It would've been a good payoff for all the objectifying in the previous sections.

Going through second route. It's got some impactful moments and some interesting character vignettes, but so far it's the same exact playthrough, which is very disappointing.

There was 1 (one) metanarrative nod when we start a quest that rewards us with a new weapon. Nier goes "Wait, don't we already have this weapon", to which Weiss responds "Shh, this kind of thing tends to happen the second time arround". Very cute. But then why can't we use similar metanarrative tricks to glose over all the meaningless nonsense that forces you to run from one corner of the map to the other to talk with Popola or go check your mail?

Ok, that's ending A in the bin.

My feelings towards the story are a bit more positive now, but the gameplay was still too bland. Again, comparisons with Drakengard 3 are inevitable. In that game, the gameplay was atrocious but because it was frustrating, it was at least engaging; it sparked some emotions. Nier's combat is serviceable but boring to the point of mindless and without the constant chatter to make it entertaining.

I'll continue with the next part of the story, though. Let's see how it goes.

I did it. I finished the game finally. Well, sort of. I finished the game and got ending A, but I didn't really understand what was going on, so I googled the context and found out Nier Replicant has multiple endings and you need all of them for the full story.. Oy.

Big debate happened in my brain. Keep playing this game and get all the endings, or move on because I have a million other games in my backlog I want to play. Well, I decided to move on because I want to return to the Final Fantasy hunt, but I'm going to leave Nier installed so I can pick it up again when I have an itch to play it. I did finish all 71 side quests (including the crossbreed moonflower quest) so I'm feeling pretty good about what I achieved, regardless of where I stop. I may write a review for this game. I loved the experience it provided, even if the story punches you right in the feels on the reg.

"Do you want this weapon so you can unlock the rest of the endings? Okay, you have to do this stupidly long sidequest. Which requires a material that only an specific enemy drops. An enemy which only spawns on a single room and if you kill them and if it doesn't drop it you have to walk all the way back so it respawns. Also the drop rate is stupidly low even with words that raise your drops"

Ah yes. Fun. A delightful time to be had.