How can I play Nier, the original version?

[Lord English]

How can I play the original Nier game? The one with the shadow creatures and the grimoire.

Also, how does Nier for into the overall series of Nier games?

[TheSeek]

Originally posted by Lord English:

How can I play the original Nier game? The one with the shadow creatures and the grimoire.

Buying it on steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113560/NieR_Replicant_ver122474487139/

Originally posted by Lord English:

Also, how does Nier for into the overall series of Nier games?

Not sure what you're asking

[tohei]

if youre asking for the 2010 nier, youd have to use an emulator

[Lord English]

I am asking for the one that was on xbox 360. I think you start off either shooting or dodging black shadow balls from creatures that comes out of the ground. I think. It was a long time ago. I think the PC is looking for his kid or something?

Originally posted by TheSeek:

Originally posted by Lord English:

Also, how does Nier for into the overall series of Nier games?

Not sure what you're asking

In what context is the game I'm referring to set, in regards to the other games. Is it a prequel to Automata? A sequel to Replicant? Both? An alternate timeline? None of the above?

[Bobcat]

Nier is a prequel to NieR:Automata and they are connected and have there similarities. The original Nier game came out in 2010 and featured 2 versions, Nier Gestalt which released in western countries, and Nier Replicant which released in Japan. These versions featured different protagonists, one a father (Gestalt) and one a brother (Replicant) to a girl, other than that the story is the same. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is a remake of the original and is the better (in my opinion) version of the game. You'd do better to play that instead.

[DROSIS]

I recommend to play Nier automata and later the nier replicant since the mechanics are more enjoyable after you beat automata. After automata comes nier replicant remake I would say. You can try to play nier gestalt 2010 later because its beautiful (using ps3 emulator or play on ps3)

[Lord English]

I appreciate the informed responses. Thank you.

[OfficerTerror]

I did my research as well before buying and found that its not going to dampen the great story but the quality of the older prequel games might from what ive seen. The old and new games are connected but its not in the way of like Metal Gear or something where missing them will put big holes in the narrative.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by Lord English:

How can I play the original Nier game? The one with the shadow creatures and the grimoire.

No PC version for the Nier game, you can find the Gestalt version (Papa Nier) on Xbox. While the Replicant version (Brother Nier) is only in Japanese.

Originally posted by Lord English:

Also, how does Nier for into the overall series of Nier games?

Nier is the name of the protagonist in Nier: Gestalt/Replicant
N2 in Automata is using Nier's personality from data salvaging, N2 = Nier 2
A lot of these information will not be available in the game, you need to purchase the "World guide" or "Art book" to obtain these extra details. And for story patch up you need both the short novel "Long Story" and "Short Story"

The original Nier has no strong connection to Automata in game other than landmarks, but there's a book called "Grimoire Nier" that tell extra stories leading into Automata, part of the book is later added to Replicant 1.22 as ending E.

FYI, Yoko Taro is very bad at story telling, the story concept he build up is great but he can't really tell them correctly... The players will need to read books written by other authors (approved by Yoko Taro) to understand the big picture.

Note that a lot of Yoko Taro's idea came from the book/game "I have no mouth, but i must scream". the book went viral in Japan on 1967 and another boom in 1995 when the game came out. A lot of ideas from Replicant can be found to be a copy of I have no mouth... heck, if you directly draw a line between the games, you can even continue the story of I have no mouth into Replicant... they are that much alike...

Also, the story pattern of Automata is a direct copy from Replicant. Simply replace Gestalt with Machine, and Replicant with Androids and you get Automata... However, in game play wise, Automata did a way better job due to Platinumgames hardwork in the development.


I have no mouth but I must scream: The SuperComputer can generated and create trees and forest but they are actually machines.
Replicant: A supercomputer that's plant/tree based and it's as huge as a forest. It can generate and create plant based machines on nano size level.
Automata: Plant based Aliens and Plant based Machine cores. And the whole forest leftover from Replicant.

I have no mouth: A village boy is isolated by the whole village and only his mother is there to protect him.
Replicant: Kaine being isolated by the replicants and only her grandmother is left to protect her.
Automa: Pascal village is based on the village created by the supercomputer in I have no mouth with a slight twist.

I have no mouth: Nimdok, an old man who kept forgetting his past, and in the game, the player needs to help him remember his past.
Replicant: Emil has no memory of his past and the player need to help him remember.
Automata: Emil forget his past again and the player need to help him remember.

I have no mouth: Human is on the verge of extinction, only 5 is kept alive by the supercomputer.
Replicant: Human extincted
Automata: Replicants extincted

I have no mouth: The story revealed that there's a small amount of human left alive sleeping in cyrogenic sleep on the Moon.
Automata: Talks about the "left over" human living on the moon.

I have no mouth: The android programming pots/capsules design
Replicant: Uses those capsules as "houses" for the replicant in the canyon

I have no mouth: Supercomputer hate human and tried to wipe out all human existence causing the human to extinct.
Replicant: The human extincted and the supercomputer is trying to revive the human.
Automata: The supercomputer created the androids and (since we know the computer is also in charge of the machines from replicant) give them a reason to fight the machines. The plant made Aliens could very well be a stage plot created by the computer in the end.

I have no mouth: the Supercomputers took form of humanoid appearances as their avatar/entity.
Replicant 1.22: Child looking 9S and 2B is there as the representative of the computer.
Automata: N2

I have no mouth: Multiple endings and all but one ending is good end.
Replicant: Multiple endings with missing information and all but one ending is fully detailed good end.
Automata: : Multiple endings and all but one ending is good end.

I have no mouth: talks about "gestalt minds"
Replicant: uses the gestalt as human
Automata: refers back the gestalt projects in replicant
(Gestalt is not a word created for the game, check for its actual meaning if you are interested)

I have no mouth: tells the story in 5 different character's point of views in different part of the game.
Replicant: tells the story from the point of Nier and Kaine
Automata: tells the story from the point of 2B, 9S and A2

I have no mouth: story based on insanity
Replicant: story based on insanity
Automata: story based on insanity

I have no mouth: Game can be punishing according to the choices the player made and end midway of the game.
Replicant: The choices will end with 2 outcome in most cases and both are equally bad...
Automata: Game can be punishing according to the choices the player made and end midway of the game.

I have no mouth: the game is separated in parts where the final part join all the stories into one.
Replicant: the game is separated in parts where the final part join all the stories into one.
Automata: the game is separated in parts where the final part join all the stories into one.

I have no mouth: choices during the previous part of the game play effects how you can do the final part of the game and that can effect the endings. If you are not careful with your saves you will ended up needing to replay the whole game over and over again to get all the endings.
Replicant: The story is straight forward though it seems like we can make choices, in the end we still need to replay the game to get all endings.
Automata: The story is straight forward though it seems like we can make choices, in the end we still need to replay the game to get all endings.

[medion_no]

You can mod the pc version of Replicant to feature Papa and his voicelines, but it would not be exactly the same of course.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by medion_no:

You can mod the pc version of Replicant to feature Papa and his voicelines, but it would not be exactly the same of course.

The 3D model of Papa Nier is already included in Replicant 1.22, and fully playable when you are doing the diary thingy in the house. So a quick mod of replacing the character files shouldn't be hard. But yeah, it's not the original story in the end because it will include the parts added from Grimoire Nier.

But speaking of Papa and Brother Nier, I think this is one of those cases where marketing messed up the development stage with weird ideas... splitting the original Nier game into 2 separate games, Gestalt and Replicant where they should've been one single game instead.

Putting versions aside, in the Japanese text, The relationship between the Gestalt of Nier and Yonah sounded a lot more like father and daughter in dialog, while the Replicant Nier and Yonah sounded more like siblings... It actually make more sense that way too, because when the computer created the replicants (at the same time) they grew up being the same age thus becoming siblings while their original gestalts are father and daughter. Which gives the insight of replicants can be different age from the gestalts. And the reason replicant Yonah is taken earlier to merge with gestalt Yonah due to age difference and replicant Nier need to wait a little longer until his body age caught up with the gestalt age (and that explained that weird sentence Popola said about "waiting", it's probably originally meant to say this but edited due to the split of the game which resulted in that nonsense line on a plot scene)

SE marketing department has been known to ruined a lot of games in the past so, i am not surprised if that's the case. If you play one of their games that released by chapters you can even see how the game dev lost their sight over the developing stages and went chaos in designs with ideas that shouldn't be there at all due to the marketing suggestions.