Don't look at the achievments, they contain a major spoiler.

TL;DR Phenomenal Game! Might have issues on some hardware though?

I'll be comparing the game to NieR Automata, as that's the easiest way to rate it for me...

Gameplay:
Feels a lot more impactful than Automata's combat to me, attacks feel impactful and dodging or parrying works perfectly. It's not the deepest combat system in the world, but it didn't get old during my whole playthrough. Enemies were also generally fun to fight, except wolves, they were EXTREMELY annoying.

Characters:
All Main Characters, and even some side characters were very memorable to me (Special Mention to Lighthouse Lady and the Postman from Seafront!) EVERYONE is voiced too, which is pretty great! Automata's characters were good too, but I personally thought Replicant's are significantly more memorable.

JP vs EN dubbing:
Both are done very well! Weiss's and Kainé's voices stole the show for me personally. Both sound absolutely fantastic in both dubs. Weiss especially sounds extremely different in both dubs, but both fit him (it?) very well! I fell in love with pretty much both of Kainé's voices. I only don't quite like Emil's EN voice, but I seem to be in the minority there. Automata's dubbing was of good quality for both languages too, though I prefered Replicant's performances.

Environments:
Honestly, this is the only place where I think Automata has done far better, Replicant had no zone that wow-ed me as much as Automata's Amusement Park.

Music:
It's amazing in both, that's all I'll say

Story:
I do not want to spoil anything, so I'll keep it short: Both games made me incredibly emotional, but overall Replicant made me cry harder, so Replicant wins here...?

The Port:
Automata's is pretty bad on Steam, though it'll hopefully get fixed soon, I heard many people having issues with Replicant's port too, but I haven't had much issues. I only had the game crash about 3-5 times during my 57 hours of playtime, so you SHOULD be fine as long as you do not forget to save often.

Some final notes:
Make sure to not check the Achievements and Trading Cards if you bought the game and haven't finished it yet, they might spoil you if you're unlucky!
A patch should be releasing soon that fixes the issues that some people were having?
and most importantly: Kainé is best girl

Thank you for reading through this mess! This is my first attempt at writing a longer review, so it means a lot to me!

60$ soundtrack with a free game

How the ♥♥♥♥ did this lose "Best Soundtrack" to Guardians of the Galaxy?

If you're wondering why your character is moving so fast, it's because the in-game 60 fps cap is broken. The gameplay is tied to the fps, so the faster the fps, the faster you character will move. To fix this, open Nvidia control panel, add Replicant as an application and lock the fps in the menu.

My favorite video game genre. Depression.

Dummy proof instructions in order for this game to work properly:

1) Go to the NVidia Control Panel.
2) Go to "Manage 3D Settings"
3) At the top, go to the "Program Settings" tab.
4) If NieR:Replicant is not already on the list, go ahead and add it by clicking on the "Add" button.
5) When you've selected it, scroll down to the "Max Frame Rate" section, turn it on, and change that to 60.
(as you can see, I don't have an AMD card, but the concept is the same. Cap this game @ 60fps).

After you've done that, you'll enjoy a beautiful game, with an incredible soundtrack (it's Keiichi Okabe, what do you expect?), and a story that will keep you coming back to know more.

Thank you Yoko Taro!

You should buy this game. Not only does it have excellent gameplay, a phenomenal soundtrack, and interesting concepts, but also so Yoko Taro doesn't have to sell copies out of the back of a van.

Also the book is very sassy. 12/10.

I genuinely don't even know where to start with this. The absolute worst parts of the game: the side quests are tedious, most of them havent aged well at all. the first 4 or so hours of the game take a while to really pick up in pace and action. and again, its age shows quite a bit in these early sections. but if you're willing to push through it, you have one of the most beautiful narratives in any form of media waiting for you. The main cast will steal your heart, the journey this game puts you through, the questions it makes you ask yourself. it's so unique to a Yoko Taro game,

The voice acting is phenomenal. The already near perfect soundtrack is taken to a completely new level. the re-worked combat is perfect for this game. I was worried when this remake was announced that it was just going to try to make the original Nier more like Nier Automata, but in reality, every aspect of this game feels how they WANTED to make this game 11 years ago, but couldn't due to technological/budget limitations.

If you're new to Yoko Taro games, be patient with this game. Some things might not make sense, some things might feel weird, some things might feel out of place, but i promise you, if you push through to the end, and go through its subsequent play-throughs, this game won't let you down. I can't recommend it enough. One of, if not THE best game i've ever played in my life.

My favorite genre: Depression.