NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... is a modern remake of a game that fell through the cracks in its time and only received the second life it deserved after the success of its sequel. A young man cares for his sick sister Yonah, afflicted by a mysterious illness, and in a desperate attempt to find a cure sets out into a world thrown into disarray by the presence of creatures called Shades. He's accompanied by a talking book with a sharp tongue, a warrior woman who swears constantly, and a boy of uncertain origin. What begins as a simple fairy tale about saving a sister turns inside out over subsequent playthroughs.

The gameplay is deliberately variable. The core consists of melee action combat complemented by magic attacks, but the game shifts without warning into a top-down view, into platforming sections, into a bullet-hell shooter, and into passages told entirely through text. This very unwillingness to stick to one shape is the work's authorial signature. Crucially, the story doesn't close after the first completion: further playthroughs bring a new point of view, further explain the enemies' motivations, and gradually change the meaning of everything the player did the first time. The remake also added extra content and adjusted the pacing of the later parts.

On PlayStation 4 the game received a completely new combat system, significantly improved graphics, and smoother performance, shedding the original's main weakness. Its strongest point remains Keiichi Okabe's music, whose vocal tracks in an invented language rank among the best-reviewed video game soundtracks ever and carry most of the emotional weight. Reception was very warm, and many reviewers called the story one of the strongest the medium has to offer. The original's influence on the sequel and on the whole approach to repeat playthroughs is undeniable. Today it's a title worth the attention and the patience it demands from the player. Whoever gives it the time needed to complete all the playthroughs comes away with an experience that isn't forgotten.