Nier Replicant review
Our Verdict
Nier Replicant deserves praise for its clever characters and unorthodox setting, even if the gameplay and level pattern can go repetitive by the end.
For
- Charming cast of characters
- Unusual setting
- Fun battle system
Against
- Repetitive environments
- Bland side quests
- Tedious alternate ending requirements
Tom's Guide Verdict
Nier Replicant deserves praise for its clever characters and unorthodox setting, even if the gameplay and level design tin can go repetitive by the end.
Pros
- +
Mannerly cast of characters
- +
Unusual setting
- +
Fun battle system
Cons
- -
Repetitive environments
- -
Banal side quests
- -
Tedious alternate ending requirements
Nier Replicant is likely to garner one of three reactions. Gamers with a gustatory modality for the weird may autumn head-over-heels in love with it. Gamers who crave something more traditional may put it downwardly afterward but a few hours. Gamers who get into Nier Replicant without many expectations, on the other hand, will likely appreciate the risks it takes — and acknowledge that the game plays it also safe in other areas.
Nier Replicant review: Specs
Platforms: PC, PS4 (reviewed)
Price: $threescore
Release Engagement: April 23, 2021
Genre: Action/RPG
I find myself in the third camp, and I recollect many other JRPG fans will arrive at the same decision. Nier Replicant is one of the almost bizarre games I've played recently, and I can't aid but dearest it for that. At the same fourth dimension, a lot of the private systems in Nier Replicant aren't as lovable as the overall experience. I was wowed by the charismatic characters, the foreign setting and the malleable magic system; I was less enthralled with the repetitive environments, unimaginative side quests and dated graphics.
- Play the best PS4 games
- Also attempt the best PC games
Still, I came away from Nier Replicant feeling mostly pleased — and perhaps that I'd even experienced something special. It's not every day you play a game almost a magical swordsman, a talking volume, a foul-mouthed swordswoman and a skeletal magician, all teaming up to relieve a cursed girl in a fantasy postal service-apocalypse. Nier Replicant has a lot of style, and a lot of middle, and the earth of gaming can e'er utilize more of both.
Nier Replicant review: Price and availability
Nier Replicant (technically called Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139....) on PS4 costs $60, and is bachelor from all the usual suspects: Amazon, Best Buy, Target and and then forth. PC gamers can selection it upward on Steam for the aforementioned cost.
Nier Replicant review: Gameplay
Start off: It's possible that yous've played Nier Replicant before, or else something very much similar it. The game is a remaster of a Foursquare Enix RPG from 2010. In Western markets, the game was simply called Nier, and yous played as a heart-aged homo trying to notice a cure for his sickly daughter. In Japan, however the game was called Nier Replicant, and y'all played as a teenage male child trying to find a cure for his sickly sister. Nosotros've never gotten the Replicant version in the W before, then fifty-fifty if y'all've played Nier before, you've probably never played this particular version.
The pitch is pretty straightforward: Y'all play as Nier, a teenager on a quest to save his younger sister from a curse known every bit the Black Scrawl. Forth the way he gathers upward a group of like-minded misfits. They do battle with dangerous robots left over from a destroyed civilization (ours), as well equally magical foes known as Shades. The real-fourth dimension gainsay organisation lets you employ a variety of weapons and magic, and exercise express control over your party members.
If this sounds like "JRPG 101," it'south because Nier Replicant uses these familiar conventions to tear the carpeting out from nether you — at to the lowest degree, in terms of the story and characters. The gameplay is almost as straightforward as information technology seems, for meliorate or worse.
Nier Replicant'due south structure is about as simple every bit it comes. A character in the game's central hub town will give you a quest. You'll venture out into the wilderness, or into a dungeon, to complete your objective. Along the manner, yous'll fight a whole bunch of standard enemies, with a much more artistic and interesting boss battle at the end. You'll plow in your quest, advance the story a bit, and repeat. The second half of the game is a petty less linear than the first, but the formula doesn't change much from starting time to cease.
The game's side quests besides represent a missed opportunity. There are seventy optional activities altogether, but almost all of them boil down to "get together up X item for Y townsperson." Even more obnoxious: The game locks you out of a number of them without whatever alert most halfway through. These quests pad out the playtime without adding much to the overall experience.
Nier Replicant review: Combat
Combat, too, has a few interesting twists, simply hews closely to the traditional action/RPG format. You can run around the battlefield freely, engaging enemies in real-fourth dimension with a multifariousness of swords, spears and daggers. Some weapons are faster; others deal more damage. The targeting system is a little floaty, merely it gets the chore done.
What'due south more interesting is the magic system. Rather than selecting spells from a menu, you lot can equip two at a fourth dimension, and assign them to the shoulder buttons. Magic spells include rapid energy blasts, precise projectiles, area-of-effect spikes, damage-dealing doppelgangers and more than. The longer you hold down each push, the more powerful the spell becomes — and the more MP it uses. As MP regenerates quickly, you'll want to use a mix of melee and magic in each battle, and yous'll eventually create a way that feels uniquely yours.
Equally you defeat enemies, you'll as well unlock "words," which y'all can equip to alter your concrete and magical attacks. These can improve a variety of traits, from damage, to wellness, to feel earned. It'due south a cool idea, although in practise, you'll usually but want to equip any boosts your stats the most.
The battle system isn't particularly deep, though. While the huge bosses employ a range of cunning strategies, regular enemies rarely require anything more complex than a "striking, dodge, heal" pattern. Likewise, while you'll somewhen accept two other party members at your disposal, they pretty much do their own thing. Your control over them is express, and they tin't exercise a whole lot of damage without your help.
Nier Replicant review: Story
Where Nier Replicant shines is in its unusual story and characters. Every bit mentioned higher up, you play as Nier: a silver-haired boy who'due south willing to brave whatsoever danger to assistance his younger sister, Yonah. A seemingly irreversible curse called the Blackness Scrawl has fabricated Yonah very ill. By uncovering the secrets of the earth around him, Nier hopes to find a cure for Yonah — and, eventually, to thwart a bigger threat that arises from his actions.
Nier Replicant's setting deserves a lot of credit for cleverly mixing post-apocalyptic and fantasy aesthetics. Ostensibly, the game takes place in our earth, but thousands of years after a disaster that nearly ended humanity. As such, there are green fields and thriving towns — simply there are also junked factories and lifeless deserts.
The core narrative in Nier Replicant is fine. There's an inciting incident, a big threat, a few twists and turns forth the mode, and a number of possible satisfying resolutions. (The ending changes every bit you lot play through the game multiple times, although some of the requirements can get tedious.) What actually elevates the game, though, is its central bandage of characters.
In addition to Nier, who's bold and forthright, yous'll also travel with Grimoire Weiss, Emil, and Kainé. Grimoire Weiss is a talking, floating book with an extremely loftier opinion of himself and little patience for anyone else. Emil is a shy boy who after gains spectacular powers at a terrible cost. So there's Kainé: an underdressed, perpetually incensed warrior, who charts new territory in creative profanity with every sentence she utters. The interplay between the characters is consistently delightful, and each one has a lot more depth than they permit on at showtime. I's hard to recall of another JRPG with such a magnetic, unusual cast.
Nier Replicant review: Graphics and sound
In spite of a shine remaster, Nier Replicant is an eleven-twelvemonth-erstwhile game, and it shows. The game's palette is fairly dull and muted, with a lot of pale greens, grays and browns. There's a lot of bloom, which gives the whole game a dreamy atmosphere, but as well obscures some fine details in the environment and character designs.
Apart from the graphics, though, Nier Replicant merely doesn't accept the most fascinating level design. As we discussed in our Nier Replicant preview, the game's outdoor areas are big and sprawling, just without much to do. The indoor areas consist of a lot of cramped, repetitive corridors. Information technology's extremely easy to get turned around in just about any area, since what's behind yous will often look almost identical to what'southward ahead.
On the other manus, the game'south sound design is solid. The background music is memorable at best, and atmospheric at worst. Meliorate still, many tracks characteristic absolutely gorgeous vocals. These songs aren't reserved for pivotal plot points. Sometimes, y'all'll just be exploring an surface area, and a haunting song volition pop up in the groundwork.
The game's core cast likewise deserves a shoutout for their excellent voice piece of work: Zach Aguilar and Ray Chase as Nier, Liam O'Brien as Grimoire Weiss and Julie Ann Taylor every bit Emil. Laura Bailey as Kainé admittedly steals the prove, however, infusing every line with an irresistible mix of snark, pathos and unbridled rage.
Nier Replicant review: Verdict
Nier Replicant is a tough game to categorize. The story swings for the fences, but the game mechanics play it rubber. The characters are delightful, but the level design isn't. Still, it's hard to walk away from Nier Replicant without feeling more often than not positive about the feel. Information technology's something different — even though information technology's non actually "new," if you played the alternate version eleven years ago.
I'd give this 1 a tentative recommendation to JRPG fans who are tired of the aforementioned-old, same-old. You might not love it, simply information technology'due south sure to get out an impression. That alone may be worth the price of access.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/nier-replicant
Posted by: delongdeent1951.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Nier Replicant review"
Post a Comment