In the early hours of the morning (for us people in the UK, at least) we woke to discover news that a Nier Replicant remaster would be coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC. Here at Disposable Media, we covered Nier Automata once or twice when it was being released… but if you want to go back to the origins of the Nier story, you’d have to go all the way back to 2010. At the time, I wasn’t contributing to Disposable Media but the premise interested me enough to pick up Nier Gestalt, and whilst it wasn’t the most polished experience available on seventh-gen consoles, it stood out amongst a crowd of third-person action games and I admired the attempt to provide some kind of unique experience to players. The news that a Nier Replicant remaster is in the works, however, leaves us with some mixed feelings.
The fans’ desire for a Nier Replicant Remaster
In 2010, the first Nier games to be released (if we exclude the Drakengard series which is connected to the games) were Nier Gestalt and Nier Replicant. Nier Replicant was an exclusive PS3 release for Japan, whilst Nier Gestalt was the game that most people reading this will have played. The name change wasn’t meaningless, as Gestalt told the tale of an older main character and his daughter, whilst Replicant recalled a story about a brother and sister. From what I understand, the events of the games were still pretty similar, but these character changes were the main difference. In any case, a Nier Replicant remaster should still be worth your time and attention; the game established a lot of the things you will have seen in Nier Automata – from the perspective shifts and the bullet hell, to the RPG sidequesting and the phenomenal music. I understand that Nier Automata left some Platinum fans disappointed because they were expecting a more streamlined character-action experience… but without the context provided by the older game, it’s easy to see why they would have mixed feelings. Indeed, ever since Nier Automata raised the profile of the Nier name, longtime fans were wondering if anyone would consider returning to the 2010 game.
The first details of the Nier Replicant remaster
My own hopes were raised when a mini-site for Nier’s 10th anniversary was launched in early December of last year. There wasn’t much to see on the site at the time: only a logo, a news ticker and the option to listen to a piano rendition of the overworld theme (“Hills of Radiant Winds”), but fans were hopeful that the original Nier game may make a return in one way or another. Over time, the mini-site was updated with news of music concerts and miscellaneous livestreams, but there weren’t many hints of the game returning in any form. It’s only today that we have the first details of this Nier Replicant remaster – the game will be developed by Toylogic and apparently come with new and re-recorded music tracks, and new content. We understand that it will also be “fully voiced” – it’ll be interesting to see if that means every NPC in every town will have dialogue lines recorded, but that may be a little too optimistic.
Stay tuned
Here at my personal corner of Disposable Media HQ, I’ve just finished clearing out a bunch of old Xbox 360 games, including my copy of Nier Gestalt, so this news couldn’t be more welcome. It’s definitely a game packed with rough edges, but if you can play it without subconsciously comparing it to other games – and if you can appreciate that Nier 2010 is very much trying to do its own thing – you might appreciate why it has such a loyal following. Hopefully we’ll have more news on the Nier Replicant remaster soon.
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