West Finally Getting Unreleased NieR Replicant

NieR is one of those games with a history as interesting as the game itself. One that most people outside of Japan have no idea about. The original NieR is actually a spin-off of Drakengard, one of the 7.2 trillion JRPGs with a sizeable devoted following. It follows the fifth ending of the first Drakengard game. Also, there are two of them: Replicant on the PS3 and Gestalt on the Xbox 360. They both follow the same storyline and character, but in different timelines. You play as brother Nier in Replicant, and father Nier in Gestalt. Aside from that, they are basically the same.

Gamers from the west will likely only be familiar with the Gestalt version, as Replicant was never released outside of Japan. My understanding at the time was that this was due to marketing reasons. Back in 2010, the commonly held belief was that westerners would only buy games with large manly men on the cover. Despite there being no significant plot differences, hardcore fans have been hungry for a localization of Replicant for a decade. It’s something that likely never would have happened if not for the success of NieR: Automata. Luckily, that game kicked enough ass to give the whole franchise some new life.

The new edition will be called NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…. And no, that isn’t just another nonsense JRPG title. Producer Yosuke Saito stated in an article on Famitsu that the game is “not a remake, a remaster, but a version upgrade.” Hence the ver.1.22474487139…. New features include full voice acting, a re-recorded soundtrack with new songs, updated visuals, and maybe a new ending? Even Saito isn’t sure about that last one.

As you can see from the trailer above, Square Enix isn’t giving up a lot of details. We don’t even have a release date for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… yet. So that should give you plenty of time to play through NieR: Automata! If you want to learn more about NieR Replicant, click here for the official NieR 10th anniversary webpage.