Welcome to our full review of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139, a game that used to be Japan-exclusive and is now available in the West!
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is quite the game. From the point of view that this game is 11 years old originally and that its story still holds up today, it is impressive. Not many games really keep their ante up, but NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 sure did. Though it must be said, its age does show in a few ways you would not expect.
First off, the story is rock solid, All about wanting to save his sister, our hero is going through the figurative hell and back and will do everything he can to save her from the disease called black scrawl. At first, it is on the easy side, more like a librarian fetching a book, nothing life-threatening, but as the story progresses, our hero has a lot more to do. From Side Quests to beating massive Shades, the enemies in this game.
Right at the start, you meet a talking book called Grimoire Weiss, a magical book that will be a great help and he does keep the atmosphere light. The more you progress, the more powerful he will become and this will obviously be key to keep your eyes on all progress. One thumbstick to move the hero, another to move the attacks of Grimoire Weiss, nearly a twin-stick shooter at first, but there is so much more than just shooting projectiles. I have several attacks at my command, one being more suited than the other depending on battle principles you want to partake in.
I say battle systems, but it really is all about how you want to approach things. Whether you will be careless and go headstrong into battle or be more on the defensive mode, your way of fighting is your own. Me? I chose to be more on the offensive side, Grimoire Weiss lends itself perfectly with his shooting attack and with the hero having his own sword, I can attack on two sides at once. And to assure the defensive players among us, yes, there are many options there too!
Funny anecdote here, I once bought a sword that was 70% stronger than the one I had equipped. I felt very overpowered as I was able to one-shot a lot of the animals that roam the fields in-between areas. I suddenly had ample supply of vennison, mutton, … Just because I was no longer needing to hit them several times and could just avoid wasting time. Another fun fact, my first time getting killed was by a wolf… I was overconfident and got my ass handed to me. Later in the game, I got the better of him on every occasion I passed by one of his kin.
I don’t generally spoil stories, but with older RPG games that represent an era of predictable storylines, I guess this one is no different. At first the brother, our hero, is mostly a delivery boy, fixing some quests here and there and trying to figure out the best way to get his sister healed from the Black Scrawl. Sooner rather than later, the shades slowly begin to become more and more a threat to the village where the siblings live. It becomes clear that they are somehow involved and the brother sets out to find a cure for Yonah’s disease.
Fast forward around 10 hours and you even get a 5 year time skip, so the brother is all grown up. At that time, the sister is missing and the story is finally revealed! The hunt for some sort of keys that will trigger the final fight. All in very classic RPG style. I try to be as vague as possible as to not give spoilers, but this game follows the RPG standards of the era quite well. Including one of the more annoying sides…
There is really a lot of useless running around, so much that even Grimoire Weiss is making fun of it, which I truly loved. Oh and I really mean a lot, the second you finally achieve some sort of fast travel (by means of a boat), it is a welcome change from the endless running around in the Northern Plains.
Graphically, NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 (thank God for the invention of copy-paste) is nothing amazing. It is what it is. Aside from a lewd character called Kaine, who goes around wearing very sexy lingerie and the boy called Emil, most other characters are quite bland. Girls like Popola and Devola are just your casual filler characters really.
What I do find very unusual is the switching between 2D and 3D, like when you go meet that Popola lady, when she is in her room in the library, you switch to a 2D side-scrolling point of view of the room. Even some fights were done from the top down. While very impressive to have these smooth transitions, I did end up moving the wrong way more than once thanks to these camera changes. Nothing mind-blowing or utterly annoying, just a minor nuisance.
I did enjoy my time with Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139 though I must say, I never really got challenged by the big bosses. In turn that can be a very good thing, but it is surprising that every time I got killed, it was against fodder. It might be coincidence but I did find it baffling to see this happening. Maybe I am just good at handling the chaos from playing so many Musou games and that this helped me even out the odds with the hundreds of inbound projectiles at times?
In conclusion, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is a more than decent game that does show its age. While it can not compare to Nier Automata, that one is in a league of its own, it does still hold strong after 10+ years. I loved the battle system but not the endless running around and the numerous loading screens.
