Nier is a 2010 action role-playing game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In Japan, the game was released as for the PlayStation 3 with a younger main character, while an alternative version titled with an older main character was released for the Xbox 360; Gestalt was released outside Japan as Nier for both platforms. A remaster of the Replicant version called was released internationally for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in 2021.
The game is a spin-off from the Drakengard series, following the fifth ending of the first game, the events of which have left Earth in ruin. Set over a thousand years later, the story follows the player-named protagonist attempting to find a cure for a terminal illness afflicting a young girl named Yonah. The gameplay borrows elements from various video game genres, occasionally switching between them and the main role-playing-based gameplay.
Beginning production in 2007, the game was directed by Drakengard creator Yoko Taro, who was given a lot of creative freedom with the project. Its storyline drew inspiration from the September 11 attacks and the war on terror, while its gameplay was partly inspired by the God of War series. Due to feedback outside of Japan, multiple versions of the protagonist were created. The music was composed by Monaca, a music studio founded by Keiichi Okabe, with several albums being released.
Nier was released to mixed reception; reviewers praised the story, characters, and soundtrack and were mixed in their opinions of how well the disparate gameplay elements were connected. The execution of some gameplay elements was criticized, notably the side quests, and the graphics were regarded as substandard. Despite this, the game acquired acclaim among players over time, becoming a cult classic. The 2021 remaster was released to positive reception, with praise for the graphical and gameplay improvements. The original Nier sold 500,000 copies, while the updated version sold over 2 million copies worldwide. A sequel developed by PlatinumGames, titled Nier: Automata, was released in 2017.
Gameplay
Nier is an action role-playing game in which players take on the role of a player-named protagonist; the protagonist is a middle-aged man in Nier Gestalt and a teenage boy in Nier Replicant, named by the player. The player directly controls the main character through a third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies throughout the game. The player can turn the camera around the characters, which allows for a 360° view of the surroundings. The three-dimensional world is divided into areas separated by loading screens, and the player can move freely throughout these areas by walking, running, jumping, and climbing ladders. In some rooms and buildings, the camera swings to the side, and the main character is restricted to moving as in a two-dimensional platforming environment, while during certain battles, the camera pulls up to simulate a top-down shoot 'em up or other video game genres.
While traveling the player is frequently attacked by monsters, which include shadowy figures called Shades, large animals, and robots. Defeating these enemies gives the player experience points that can increase the main character's power and money that can be used to purchase items. The player's weapons can be customized to have greater damage and abilities using materials that can be purchased, dropped from monsters, or scavenged around the world. Multiple varieties of each weapon type can be acquired. The player can also use magic spells, which require enough energy from a constantly regenerating amount to cast. These spells include projectiles and large shadowy fists, among others; new spells are acquired in the first half of the game by completing specific battles. In addition to the main plotline, Nier includes numerous sidequests, which give the player experience points and money, as well as fishing and farming segments.
Synopsis In the mid 21st century, in the midst of a snowstorm in summer amid a ruined city, the protagonist fends off ethereal black monsters to protect a sick young girl named Yonah. The protagonist uses a magical book to fend off the creatures, but Yonah touches it and is covered in black markings, worsening her condition. The story moves to over a thousand years later, with the current feudal civilization in decline and the black creatures—dubbed Shades—becoming more hostile. The protagonist and Yonah live in a village built within post-industrial ruins, with the protagonist taking odd jobs from the village leaders, twin sisters Devola and Popola, to earn money to support the sick Yonah. While rescuing Yonah from a temple after she wanders there looking for a rare flower, the protagonist meets the talking book Grimoire Weiss, which suggests that the two team up to use Weiss's magic and to find a cure for Yonah's disease, identified as the terminal Black Scrawl. In their search, they encounter Kainé, a hot-tempered and foul-mouthed swordswoman, and Emil, a blindfolded boy whose eyes petrify anyone they see. After journeying for a time, the protagonist's village is attacked by a giant Shade. The battle ends with Emil being forced to petrify Kainé to seal the shade, and Yonah being kidnapped by a master Shade dubbed the Shadowlord.
The game jumps forward five years, with the situation worsening. The protagonist and Emil successfully find the power necessary to free Kainé and kill the giant Shade, but getting the power transforms Emil into a skeletal being the villagers fear. Under Devola's and Popola's guidance, the party seeks parts of a stone key that will unlock a pathway to the Shadowlord. After defeating five Shades and assembling the key, the team goes to defeat the Shadowlord. Devola and Popola then confront the party, revealing themselves to be allied with the Shadowlord in the name of a greater plan. 1300 years prior, humanity faced extinction due to an incurable disease. In an attempt to survive, they separated their souls from their bodies; the current humans are artificial Replicant bodies who developed their own personalities, while the Shades are human souls—dubbed Gestalts—who are slowly losing their minds through being unable to reunite with their bodies. The Black Scrawl is a side effect of the Gestalts' insanity degrading their Replicant counterparts. The Shadowlord is the prime Gestalt used to stabilize them, and Devola and Popola are androids who oversee the system. The party defeats the twins, with Emil sacrificing himself in the process. The remaining group then defeats the Shadowlord, revealed to be the Gestalt of the prologue's protagonist, with his actions driven by the wish to save his Yonah by reuniting her Gestalt and Replicant. Though successfully rejoined, the Gestalt Yonah dissipates to save her Replicant version's life, and after Grimoire Weiss sacrifices himself to weaken the Shadowlord's power, the protagonist kills him.
If the player enters further playthroughs, events start just after Kainé is freed. Kainé's past is focused on, showing the discrimination she suffered due to her parents' deaths, being born intersex, and later being partially possessed by the rogue Gestalt Tyrann. Through Tyrann, the player can understand the previously garbled speech of Gestalts. New story sequences show the Gestalt antagonists' motivations and backstory, showing them to be sentient and fighting for their own beliefs and goals. The second ending shows the spirit of the Gestalt protagonist and Yonah reuniting in the afterlife and reveals that Emil survived; further information confirms that the Shadowlord's death will lead to humanity's extinction as Replicants and Gestalts can no longer be rejoined. In a third or further playthrough, Kainé becomes overwhelmed by Tyrann, going berserk and forcing the protagonist to fight her. The protagonist can either kill her to end her suffering (the third ending) or sacrifice his life for her (the fourth ending). The latter choice erases memory of him from Kainé and Yonah and deletes all of the player's save data.
The updated version of Replicant adds a fifth ending after a new game is begun following the fourth ending, beginning after the defeat of Kainé's Shade nemesis Hook. Three years after the Shadowlord's defeat, Kainé continues having nightmares about losing something precious and fights increasingly hostile Shades. Investigating a settlement, she finds its people killed by robots emerging from its central tree, the control unit recording Replicant memories. Kainé is talked to by the control unit's AI through twin childlike avatars. She is aided in battling machine duplicates of her by Emil, eventually entering the tree's mainframe and battling enemies drawn from her memories. She ultimately battles a more powerful Hook, helped by the data remains of Grimoire Weiss. Kainé destroys Hook and the AI, restoring the protagonist in his young form; all of the player's save data prior to the fourth ending is consequently restored.
Development The concept that would become Nier was first proposed following the release of Drakengard 2 and the reveal of seventh-generation consoles. The original concept was for a third entry in the Drakengard series. As the project evolved, the original ideas were reworked, and the game eventually became a spin-off from the main series. Despite this, the game's director Yoko Taro continues to think of it as the third Drakengard game. Different reports described its planned platforms. An earlier report stated it was intended as an Xbox 360 exclusive, then expanded onto the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Yoko later stated that the PS3 version was the original one planned due to the lessening importance of the PlayStation 2, which Drakengard 2 had been made for. Including concept planning, the total development time lasted three years, with two years spent actually developing the game. It was initially a small-scale project, but during planning it grew into a full-fledged role-playing game.
Development was handled by Cavia with help from publisher Square Enix, who had previously provided development support for the Drakengard games. Square Enix had minimal input on Yoko's vision for the game's atmosphere and story, allowing him high creative control. Nier is intended to be set over 1000 years after the original Drakengard'''s fifth ending. In this scenario, the game's protagonists Caim and Angelus travel across a dimensional boundary to fight a monstrous beast. After winning the battle and killing the monster, they are shot down by a fighter jet and killed; their introduction of magic to the world leads to magical research that results in the Black Scrawl. According to Yoko, after the dark story of Drakengard, Yoko focused on more positive themes of friendship and combined effort. Much of the game was inspired by the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Yoko took from it the idea of a terrible event where both sides believed they were doing the right thing and wanted to show the player multiple perspectives of the same events. The term "Replicant" was borrowed by Yoko from the 1982 science fiction movie Blade Runner, although Yoko did not cite a particular source for Niers name, passing it off as a codename that persisted through development.