Nier Replicant review
Our Verdict
Nier Replicant deserves praise for its clever characters and unorthodox setting, even if the gameplay and level design can get repetitive past the terminate.
For
- Mannerly cast of characters
- Unusual setting
- Fun battle organization
Against
- Repetitive environments
- Banal side quests
- Tedious alternating catastrophe requirements
Tom's Guide Verdict
Nier Replicant deserves praise for its clever characters and unorthodox setting, even if the gameplay and level design can get repetitive past the end.
Pros
- +
Charming cast of characters
- +
Unusual setting
- +
Fun battle system
Cons
- -
Repetitive environments
- -
Bland side quests
- -
Tedious alternate ending requirements
Nier Replicant is likely to garner one of 3 reactions. Gamers with a taste for the weird may autumn head-over-heels in honey with it. Gamers who crave something more traditional may put it downward after only a few hours. Gamers who become into Nier Replicant without many expectations, on the other hand, will likely appreciate the risks it takes — and acknowledge that the game plays it besides rubber in other areas.
Nier Replicant review: Specs
Platforms: PC, PS4 (reviewed)
Price: $60
Release Date: April 23, 2021
Genre: Action/RPG
I detect myself in the 3rd army camp, and I think many other JRPG fans will get in at the same decision. Nier Replicant is one of the most bizarre games I've played recently, and I can't help just dearest it for that. At the same fourth dimension, a lot of the individual systems in Nier Replicant aren't as lovable equally the overall experience. I was wowed by the charismatic characters, the strange setting and the malleable magic organisation; 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 more often than not pleased — and possibly that I'd fifty-fifty experienced something special. It's not every day y'all play a game nearly a magical swordsman, a talking volume, a foul-mouthed swordswoman and a skeletal wizard, all teaming upwards to save a cursed girl in a fantasy mail service-apocalypse. Nier Replicant has a lot of style, and a lot of center, and the earth of gaming can always use 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 so forth. PC gamers tin choice information technology up on Steam for the aforementioned toll.
Nier Replicant review: Gameplay
First off: It'southward possible that yous've played Nier Replicant before, or else something very much like it. The game is a remaster of a Square Enix RPG from 2010. In Western markets, the game was simply called Nier, and you played as a heart-anile man trying to find a cure for his sickly girl. In Japan, however the game was called Nier Replicant, and yous played as a teenage boy trying to find a cure for his sickly sis. Nosotros've never gotten the Replicant version in the West before, so even if you'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 sis from a curse known equally the Black Scrawl. Along the way he gathers upwardly a group of similar-minded misfits. They do battle with unsafe robots left over from a destroyed civilization (ours), every bit well as magical foes known equally Shades. The real-time gainsay organization lets you apply a multifariousness of weapons and magic, and exercise express control over your party members.
If this sounds like "JRPG 101," information technology's because Nier Replicant uses these familiar conventions to tear the carpeting out from nether you — at least, in terms of the story and characters. The gameplay is nearly as straightforward as it seems, for meliorate or worse.
Nier Replicant's construction is about as elementary as it comes. A character in the game'south key hub town volition requite you a quest. Yous'll venture out into the wilderness, or into a dungeon, to complete your objective. Forth the mode, you'll fight a whole agglomeration of standard enemies, with a much more artistic and interesting dominate battle at the end. Y'all'll plough in your quest, advance the story a bit, and repeat. The 2d half of the game is a piddling less linear than the beginning, just the formula doesn't change much from start to cease.
The game's side quests likewise represent a missed opportunity. There are lxx optional activities altogether, but nearly all of them boil downward to "gather up X particular for Y townsperson." Fifty-fifty more obnoxious: The game locks you out of a number of them without whatever alarm about 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, merely hews closely to the traditional action/RPG format. You can run effectually 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 niggling floaty, but it gets the chore washed.
What's more interesting is the magic organization. Rather than selecting spells from a menu, you can equip two at a fourth dimension, and assign them to the shoulder buttons. Magic spells include rapid energy blasts, precise projectiles, expanse-of-effect spikes, damage-dealing doppelgangers and more. The longer you concur downwardly each button, the more powerful the spell becomes — and the more MP it uses. As MP regenerates quickly, you lot'll want to employ a mix of melee and magic in each battle, and you'll eventually create a mode that feels uniquely yours.
As you defeat enemies, you'll also unlock "words," which yous can equip to change your physical and magical attacks. These can improve a multifariousness of traits, from damage, to health, to experience earned. It'due south a cool idea, although in practice, you'll usually just want to equip any boosts your stats the well-nigh.
The battle system isn't peculiarly deep, though. While the huge bosses employ a range of cunning strategies, regular enemies rarely require annihilation more complex than a "hit, dodge, heal" pattern. Likewise, while you'll eventually have ii other political party members at your disposal, they pretty much do their own thing. Your control over them is limited, and they can't practice a whole lot of damage without your help.
Nier Replicant review: Story
Where Nier Replicant shines is in its unusual story and characters. As mentioned above, y'all play every bit Nier: a argent-haired boy who'due south willing to brave whatever danger to help his younger sister, Yonah. A seemingly irreversible curse called the Black Scrawl has made Yonah very ill. Past uncovering the secrets of the world around him, Nier hopes to find a cure for Yonah — and, eventually, to thwart a bigger threat that arises from his actions.
Nier Replicant'southward setting deserves a lot of credit for cleverly mixing mail-apocalyptic and fantasy aesthetics. Ostensibly, the game takes place in our globe, but thousands of years after a disaster that near ended humanity. As such, at that place are greenish fields and thriving towns — but in that location 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 along the way, and a number of possible satisfying resolutions. (The ending changes as yous play through the game multiple times, although some of the requirements can become deadening.) What really elevates the game, though, is its central cast of characters.
In addition to Nier, who's bold and forthright, you lot'll also travel with Grimoire Weiss, Emil, and Kainé. Grimoire Weiss is a talking, floating book with an extremely high opinion of himself and lilliputian patience for anyone else. Emil is a shy boy who later gains spectacular powers at a terrible cost. And then there'south 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 let on at first. I'due south difficult to think of another JRPG with such a magnetic, unusual cast.
Nier Replicant review: Graphics and sound
In spite of a smooth remaster, Nier Replicant is an eleven-twelvemonth-old game, and information technology shows. The game's palette is fairly irksome and muted, with a lot of pale greens, grays and browns. At that place's a lot of bloom, which gives the whole game a dreamy atmosphere, merely likewise obscures some fine details in the environment and graphic symbol designs.
Apart from the graphics, though, Nier Replicant simply doesn't have the most fascinating level design. Every bit we discussed in our Nier Replicant preview, the game'southward outdoor areas are big and sprawling, simply without much to exercise. The indoor areas consist of a lot of cramped, repetitive corridors. It'due south extremely easy to go turned effectually in just about any area, since what's behind you volition often await almost identical to what's ahead.
On the other mitt, the game'southward sound pattern is solid. The background music is memorable at best, and atmospheric at worst. Improve still, many tracks feature admittedly gorgeous vocals. These songs aren't reserved for pivotal plot points. Sometimes, you'll only be exploring an area, and a haunting song will popular up in the groundwork.
The game's core cast besides deserves a shoutout for their excellent vocalism piece of work: Zach Aguilar and Ray Chase as Nier, Liam O'Brien as Grimoire Weiss and Julie Ann Taylor as Emil. Laura Bailey as Kainé admittedly steals the show, 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 safe. The characters are delightful, but the level design isn't. Yet, it's hard to walk away from Nier Replicant without feeling mostly positive about the feel. It's something different — fifty-fifty though information technology's not really "new," if you played the alternate version 11 years ago.
I'd give this one a tentative recommendation to JRPG fans who are tired of the same-erstwhile, same-old. You lot might not beloved it, just information technology's sure to leave an impression. That alone may be worth the price of access.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/nier-replicant
Posted by: valdezcaceneviver.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Nier Replicant review"
Post a Comment