Square Enix has released new footage of the upcoming remasterNieR Replicantthat is releasing in just a few months. The video shows off nine minutes of gameplay from the Barren Temple, a location from the first part of the game.
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139is an updated remaster of the 2010 gameNieR,which is itself a spinoff of the often-ignoredDrakengardseries. It is a story-heavy action-RPG that follows a teenage protagonist trying to save his sister from a deadly disease known as the Black Scrawl.Many questions still remain about theNieRrerelease, but fortunately, Square has answered many of them with this new gameplay video.
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The first half of the clip shows the protagonist exploring the mysterious area, eventually entering the temple itself and encountering several enemies. The combat seems much smoother than it was in the original release, likely updated to be more in line with its successor,NieR Automata. Likewise, the visuals are also heavily improved. The Barren Temple area retains its dour atmosphere, but now fully utilizes the graphical capability of modern consoles. Additionally, this video confirms thatLaura Bailey and Liam O’Brien are returningas Kainé and Grimoire Weiss respectively, much to the pleasure of fans.
Notably, this is the first time fans have heard the English voice of this protagonist. For those that don’t know, the originalNieRhad a different protagonist between the Japanese and English versions, with the Japanese protagonist being a teenager and the western protagonist being an adult. This rerelease will have only have the teenage protagonist across all regions, so a new voice actor had to be cast. The exact casting is still not officially confirmed, but their performance in this video already sounds fantastic. TheNieRseries is known for its stellar storiesfrom the mind of Yoko Taro, so having a skilled voice actor for the main protagonist is essential.
NieR Automatawas an absolute phenomenon, so it should be interesting to see how well this rerelease does from a sales perspective. The original didn’t sell amazingly, but went on to become a cult classic, so the word of mouth will hopefully bring this title new success.Automataisn’t a direct sequel, but the two games do tie together in several ways, so fans who began withAutomatawill be able to learn some added context about certain characters and locales.
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139is releasing for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 23.
