Nier Replicant vs Nier Automata

 

Very popular and critically acclaimed Nier Automata actually has a rather obscure predecessor. Nier Replicant. There is also Nier Gestalt, but it is the same game but with a different main protagonist. Automata references its predecessor every so often, encouraging players to play that game as well. I tried to watch the playthrough several times in the past but could not get into it. Finally, recently I managed to sit through the whole playthrough of the remastered version of the game.

While Replicant clearly has a signature Nier feel to it, overall, it is a much lesser game that its acclaimed sequel. Automata set expectations high, but Replicant often failed to deliver. There was constant hope that it will get better sometime later and reveal something grand, yet these expectations never truly materialized. Unlike Automata, Replicant drowns in repetitive side quests, most of which are about finding and delivering some cure for someone. I often found myself in agreement with Grimoire Weiss on many things in the game. Main quest incidentally is also about finding cure for Yonah. In general, Replicant covers the same issues about "pain of solitude" and attachment to friends and relatives over and over again, to the point of nausea, 2 out of 3 bosses and side quests are about that. 

Repetitiveness extends even into game mechanics: Automata was infamous with the fact that after reaching ending A, you had to run through most of the same game again to reach ending B. The only saving grace was the fact that during second run you played as 9S and got to see some events from a different point of view.

Replicant, one ups it and makes you play the same sequence 3 times with much less differences between playthroughs.

Not all is bad, however. At times Replicant did manage to be as deep and profound as its successor. Facade Kingdom and Barren Temple had interesting ideas. Forest of Myth had some potential, even if it was somewhat poorly implemented. Second playthrough showed many of the same events from the point of view of antagonists. Finally, I could pity the mermaid shade and at times Kaine as well. Your time will not be wasted playing or watching the playthrough.

Overall, however Replicant feels much smaller than Automata. If Automata left you with the sense that there is more than what the game could cover, then Replicant instead made you feel trapped by making you constantly wander between few locations both literarily and metaphorically.