Another NieR Replicant

With how Square Enix and NieR director and writer Yoko Taro were building up anticipation for their stream to commemorate NieR’s tenth anniversary, they undoubtedly had good announcements to make. They fortunately didn’t wait too long into the stream to make them.

The big announcement was for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… (no, I did not make up part of that name, and it does include ellipses) for current generation platforms and PC. As its name implies, this will be an updated rerelease of the original NieR Replicant version that released only in Japan for PlayStation 3 nearly a decade ago. Producer Yosuke Saito said this won’t be a remake or a remaster, implying that it will be an upgraded port comparable to, say, the upgraded mainline Persona games rereleased by Atlus.

Like those Persona ports, this version will come with new content. Square Enix and Taro weren’t in the mood to detail all of it, but did mention that it will have new characters, and that a new ending might be added. The soundtrack from composer Keiichi Okabe has been rerecorded, and new tracks will be added. Whether Okabe will return to the slower-paced and moodier style he used for the original game and not the faster-paced one he relied on for sequel NieR: Automata will depend on the type of extra content being inserted. This, of course, isn’t to say that Automata didn’t have its fair share of moody and atmospheric tracks.

On that note: The Japanese voice actors for 2B and 9S will have minor roles in the game, though who they’ll voice is another question at the moment. The voice actor sheet literally lists their roles as “???”

Needless to say, anyone who was hoping the original game would be remade so its gameplay style would be closer to the PlatinumGames-developed Automata won’t get that wish fulfilled. But this should satisfy the understandable desires of those who’ve wanted to play the first game for years, given how long physical copies for last-generation consoles have been out of print and how it’s not available digitally.

The biggest point of contention is the version we’ll receive here. This will be an updated version of Replicant, the previously Japan-only version that features the younger Brother NieR version, who takes care of his ill younger sister Yonah. The original version released worldwide (outside Japanese PS3s) was the Gestalt version, which featured the older Papa NieR who took care of his daughter Yonah. This resulted in some different character relationship dynamics, though the games were otherwise identical. Papa NieR was made to appeal to western audiences who Square Enix felt would rather experience a father/daughter dynamic compared to a brother/sister one. Now, it’s clear the team has settled on the brother as the canonical choice, to the chagrin of those who enjoyed the father.

In fairness, the team has always subtly valued Brother NieR over Papa NieR. The NieR bonus outfits in Drakengard 3 and Automata are based on the Brother’s threads, and Brother is featured in most of the game’s hand-drawn artwork and the Drakengard 10th anniversary art. Taro has also reportedly said in interviews that the brother/sister story is the one he always wanted to write, while the father/daughter one was simply written for westerners.

This makes the father/daughter tale seem like an afterthought if you’re just reading about it and haven’t experienced it, but the relationship works so well that you’d think that was the intended story. It fortuitously predated the current era of “Sad Dad” games by years. Now, we’re all getting the Brother, though whether that dynamic will resonate as well as the father/daughter one with westerners remains to be seen.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… and its mouthful of a name doesn’t have a release date, but the team would like to release it by the end of the 10th anniversary year. It’s being developed by ToyLogic, who worked on the 3DS version of Dragon Quest XI and, uh, Contra: Rogue Corps. But this will just be an enhanced port, so it should turn out well, unlike the latter game.

The other project announced was NieR Re[in]carnation, a free-to-play action RPG for mobile platforms. Not too many details are known about this either (a theme, if you’ve noticed), though Saito mentioned that it won’t look like a mobile game at first glance. The screenshots or concept arts (it’s not easy to tell) show a character that either resembles Yonah or a young Kaine, accompanied by a Pod similar to those Automata’s androids used. They’re reportedly putting serious effort into this project, and you can bet that it will be packed with microtransactions. No release date was provided, but don’t be surprised if it drops soon given how quickly mobile games release.

It would be a surprise if there isn’t a new NieR console/PC game in the works, or if Taro is giving the Drakengard series another shot considering that series is a successor to this one. Either way, the lack of a mention on the 10th anniversary stream implies that they’re nowhere near ready to announce it. But Replicant ver.1.22474487139… should be satisfying enough in the meantime.