Nier Reincarnation[a] is a 2021 role-playing video game developed by Applibot and published by Square Enix for Android and iOS devices. The game is part of the Nieruniverse, forming part of the wider Drakengard series. Set in a realm called the Cage, the game follows the story arcs of multiple characters, each exploring their own troubled pasts and a greater outside threat. Gameplay is split between exploration within the Cage and narratives dubbed Weapon Stories, and turn-based battles against monsters infesting the Weapon Stories. The game is free-to-play, incorporating a gacha-based system for character variants and weapons.
Production began following the success of Nier: Automata (2017), with the aim of making an accessible mobile entry in the Nier universe. Series creator Yoko Taro acted as creative director, and contributed to the scenario. Other returning staff included producer Yosuke Saito, artists Akihiko Yoshida and Kazuma Koda, and co-composer Keiichi Okabe. The title is set to end service worldwide on April 29, 2024. The game saw commercial success, reaching fifteen million downloads worldwide by September 2021. Journalists gave mixed to positive reviews; praise was given to its writing, art design and music, while the gacha system was often criticized.
Gameplay
A combat scene in Nier Reincarnation
Nier Reincarnation is a role-playing video game set in the same universe as Nier and its sequel Nier: Automata, taking place within an infinite area of towers dubbed the Cage.[1][2] The game covers multiple story arcs of varying length following different characters within the Cage.[3] The player navigates different areas of the Cage in the company of ghost-like companions, entering statues called Scarecrows and reliving memories which play out as storybook-like narratives.[4][5]
The gameplay is split into three types. The first is the current protagonist exploring different areas of the Cage with their companion. During this exploration, they come across Scarecrows which grant and upgrade weapons used to fight enemies within unlocked memories.[5] In these memories, dubbed Weapon Stories, players experience the memories of those related to a weapon from a side-scrolling painting-like perspective, entering battles to correct errors in the memories.[5] Battles play out in real-time inside the memories with a party of three characters against enemies, with special attacks utilized by tapping icons on-screen when they have charged. Battles can be performed manually or completed through an auto-battle function.[5][6]
At launch, Nier Reincarnation included a minigame where the player shoots at targets within a time limit. The shooter is locked to a horizontal axis, and being hit by projectiles from the targets will freeze them temporarily. The player is ranked based on points gained from defeating targets, impacting their reward.[7] An alternate minigame was added post-launch which has players controlling the supporting character Mama in an autoscrolling side-scroller. The goal is to avoid obstacles and find coins within the time limit, with items granting buffs and enemies which will decrease the player score if Mama is hit.[8] An Arena mode added post-launch allowed a player's party to fight an opposing party created by another player, granting weapon and character enhancement rewards.[9]
While the storyline characters are present in-game from the outset, other character variations and weapons are obtained through a gacha mechanic. Storyline quests, when completed, unlock optional harder versions of their battles which both unlock new character variants and expand upon the stories.[5][10] The player also has a strength statistic for their party members dubbed "Force", with the party's Force needing to be a certain threshold to progress the story.[11] The Force requirements were adjusted following the initial story arc.[12]
Synopsis
The Girl and the Monster
The first story arc follows the exploits of two characters exploring the Cage; Fio, a young girl who endures great suffering in the real world and finds solace in the Cage, and the dream-eating monster Levania. The story initially shows Levania in Fio's body after a body swap orchestrated by a ghost-like being dubbed the "Carrier", with a similar being called "Mama" guiding him to gain the power needed to reverse the body swap. Fio and Levania perform the swap and confirm their friendship. Both are revealed to be weapons whose stories were being corrupted, with Mama saying more stories must be found.
The Sun and the Moon
The second story arc follows high school students Yuzuki Kurezome and Hina Akagi. Both are transported to the Cage from the real world and guided by Mama and "Papa", another ghost-like being, each recovering fragments of the broken sun and moon. The story reveals them to be siblings separated by their parents' divorce following a turbulent marriage, ultimately showing that each sibling kill the other's parent out of hatred; their wishes to revive their parents come into conflict. The default ending has one sibling killing the other, while replaying the final chapter unlocks an option where Hina and Yuzuki forgive each other and remain in the Cage.
The People and the World
The third story arc finds the Cage under threat, with characters from the previous arcs gathered together to defend it from an enemy force at Mama's request. Upon Mama rescuing them, the Cage is revealed to be a server on the moon set up after humanity's extinction to preserve human history and data. Mama is one of the Pods who maintained the server with the android 10H, while Yuzuki and Hina were summoned by 10H from an alternate reality to protect the server following the conquest of earth by alien-crafted Machines. Yuzuki and Hina seal the Cage and 10H sacrifices herself to allow them, together with Mama and the Cage residents, to escape to Earth.
Development
After the success of Nier Automata, the concept of a mobile title based on the Nier universe was pitched by series owner Square Enix to external developers, with the aim of creating a game that would bring in new casual players.[13]Nier Reincarnation was developed by Applibot and Square Enix. Series creator Yoko Taro acted as creative director, with Yosuke Saito acting as co-producer.[4] Applibot's Daichi Matsukawa acted as co-producer and co-director.[14] The team's aim was to make an ambitious title with 3D graphics comparable to a cross-platform title.[15][16] This approach was partially intended to carry stronger appeal to Western players.[17] It was also designed to carry over the established aesthetic and musical style of Nier. A development challenge was getting the game to work within different phone specifications.[13] During production, it used the codename "Dark".[15]
The gameplay was designed to resemble automatic mode in Nier Automata.[13][18] Due to Matsukawa finding smartphone controls difficult to use, the interface was simplified by making battles turn-based. The shooting minigame, directly inspired by the hacking mechanic of Automata, were included at Matsukawa's insistence.[18] Speaking about the gacha incorporation, Yoko stated that he understood the need for inclusion despite neither understanding the business end or partaking in those designs, but kept up active communication with the staff so he could create the game he wanted within those constraints.[19] During its later development, the team tweaked the game's design and functions to improve playability and accessibility.[20]
Nier Reincarnation was built using the Unitygame engine, with one of the concerns being to have character control be identical between the three different environments of the Cage, weapon story sequences, and battle.[21] While this caused some logistical issues, it also reduced development time as the team was working from the same toolset for the three environments. Character animations for the Cage sections, which were intended to be realistic, the team hand-animated the characters to ensure as little clipping or awkward movement as possible.[22] A core part of the game design was enabling rapid transitions between different locations and into or out of battle, with the team using middleware tools to speed up processing and UI display.[23] The 3D game assets were created using Maya, with the team creating common programming framework to ease asset and bug checking between Maya and the Unity environment. The Weapon story sections were created using mGear Framework, with the camera staying fixed to the side to create a 2D illusion.[24]
While the game is within the same universe as the other Nier titles, Yoko wanted to separate the game from the others so it could be enjoyed by newcomers.[16] Matsukawa later stated that Yoko had not finalized the game's placement in the chronology of Nier beyond a rough outline.[20] In contrast to the other Nier titles, the writing was handled a team of other writers, with Yoko's role being to take their ideas and create a coherent plot out of them.[25] The team was led by Takashi Ohara, who also acted as lead writer under Yoko's direction.[18] Mama's companion role in the story was compared by Yoko to the Grimoires in Nier and the Pods in Automata. The multiple protagonists and story structure were based on the progression of Puzzle & Dragons.[16] The short story structure was built around short stories to alleviate Yoko's frustration at needing to extend his earlier mobile game SINoALICE beyond its planned finale due to its popularity, also meaning it could end prematurely despite him having an overall finale in mind.[19] The second arc was written by Yuki Wada based on a draft by Yoko.[12][26]
An important element of Reincarnation's development was preserving the established art style and atmosphere of previous Nier titles.[11] The main characters were designed by Akihiko Yoshida, while background and concept artwork was designed by Kazuma Koda.[4][27] The muted color palette was chosen as it fitted the overall aesthetic of the Nier universe. While the main game used 3D graphics, the Weapon Stories used a side-scrolling style with recitation-based narration based on kamishibai (紙芝居). Matsukawa originally wanted static picture book presentation, with this instead being used for collaboration storylines.[18] The characters for the second arc were designed by an unnamed artist under Yoshida's supervision, and the visual theme was "metal" as opposed to the natural style of the first arc. The leads were designed to contrast each other, using the series' recurring black and white color scheme with gold accents to unify them.[12] The in-game movie production was supported by Kanaban Graphics.[28]
The music was primarily handled by Keiichi Okabe, lead composer for the other Nier titles. Okabe's contribution was around twenty songs, all original and not incorporating music from earlier Nier titles.[27] Shotaro Seo also acted as composer, and co-arranger with Okabe.[29] On Yoko's request, each song covered a variety of styles while maintaining the established atmosphere of the Nier universe.[16] The musical style was influenced by the game's "nostalgic" atmosphere, gaining an atmosphere compared to fairy tales. Rather than having strong melodies, the music was designed to be "smooth".[18] Vocals and chorus were handled by Kocho, Yukino Orita, Saki Ishii, and Seo.[29] A soundtrack album covering the first arc was released on April 21, 2021.[30]
For the second story ark, Okabe and Seo returned as composers and arrangers.[31] The new music focused on strings and woodwinds to match the change to the story's atmosphere.[26] Vocals were provided by Kocho, Seo, Orita, and Saki Nakae.[31] A second album covering The Sun and the Moon was released on July 19, 2023.[32]
Release
The game was first announced in March 2020 alongside a remake of the original Nier, known as Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139....[15] A closed beta test ran from July to August of that year.[4] Pre-registration opened in September.[33] While originally planned for a 2020 release, Square Enix delayed its Japanese debut into the first half of 2021.[34] Following the beta period, full voice acting for the story sections was still an unknown, but fan feedback persuaded the team to include full voice acting despite the technical difficulties.[18] The game released in Japan on February 21, 2021.[35]
A Western release was announced alongside its pre-registration date.[33] The game's UI was designed around that from the start, with a translation challenge being fitting English versions of the dialogue into the text boxes.[13] The localization was handled by 8-4, which had handled the previous Nier titles.[36][37] Localization was ongoing in February 2021, with the aim being to both translate and voice the game in English, and fix bugs in the Japanese version so it could be released in its best condition.[38] The localization went through final adjustments in early May.[39] A beta test for the English version ran from May 26 to June 1.[40] It was released in English on July 28.[41] It later released on Southeast Asia on July 14, 2022.[42]
Alongside the main episodes, multiple collaborations with other games were released as limited time events.[35][43] The game initially launched featuring a collaboration with Nier: Automata.[35] Later collaborations included the 2021 Nier remake,[44]Drakengard 3,[45]Final Fantasy XIV,[46]Persona 5,[47] and SINoALICE.[43] Matsukawa stated the international version, while essentially identical to the Japanese release, would include exclusive collaborations such as a variant of recurring Nier Automata character 2B, and balance adjustments to the gacha system.[48] A novelization of the first story arc co-written by Yoko and Jun Eishima, NieR Reincarnation: The Girl and the Monster, was published by Square Enix on March 31, 2022.[49]
The first story arc ended in July 2021 with twelve episodes.[20][50] The second story arc began releasing in October 2021.[51] The second arc ran for six episodes until January 2023, with Matsukawa hinting that the next phase of the story would "undergo major changes."[3] In February 2023, Applibot announced that future content updates would no longer feature an English language dub.[52] The third arc began releasing in May 2023.[53] On June 30, 2023, the Southeast Asian servers for the game were shut down.[42] The game will end worldwide service on April 29, 2024, with the third arc's sixth and closing chapter releasing on March 28. New characters and story content will be included until the release of the final chapter.[54]
When pre-registration opened for the Western release, it exceeded 300,000 applications.[41] On its day of release in Japan, Nier Reincarnation ranked as the fourth top-grossing app in the region, becoming the first within a few days.[59] It passed ten million downloads in Japan by March 2021.[60] Following its English release, Nier Reincarnation achieved fifteen million downloads worldwide by September 2021.[61]
Reviewing the initial release, Japanese website 4Gamer.net praised the flavor text given the weapons which expanded upon the narrative.[62]RPGFan's Alana Henge enjoyed the contemplative nature of the game's story and its focus on memories, praising the weapon stories above the main narrative.[56] Jason Guisao of Game Informer, while noting the use of complex terminology, praised the narrative's overarching theme of grief and atonement.[11]Pocket Gamer's Shaun Walton praised the quality of both the main narrative and its side content,[57] and Rachel Kaser of Android Central enjoyed the weapon stories and praised the main narrative's pacing.[58] Kazuma Hashimoto of Siliconera, while mixed on the game's other elements, was pulled in by the story and characters, similarly praising its themes of loss.[10]
4Gamer.net praised the immersive environmental design paired with the gameplay structure,[62] while Henge said the music and environmental design added to the story's tone.[56] Guisao lauded the art direction and character design,[11] Hashimoto described the game as "beautiful" visually despite some unclear UI elements.[10] and Kaser lauded the environmental design of the Cage and the quality of the game's graphics.[58]
4Gamer.net positively noted that the gacha system was not a required mechanic to experience the story.[62] Guisao enjoyed the combat system and exploration, finding the gacha systems unobtrusive and praising the lack of explicit advertisement compared to other mobile games.[11] In contrast with her praise elsewhere, Henge found playing the game to be a slog due to its shallow combat system and how the gacha system was implemented, further noting the presence of bugs and its high energy demand on phone batteries to run.[56] Walton noted the gacha system's generosity compared to other mobile titles, and enjoyed the combat despite a lack of innovative elements.[57] Hashimoto disliked the gacha system, feeling it blocked off progression and overly encouraged paying for progression; he further noted the encouragement of pay-to-win tactics in the Arena mode.[10] Kaser was similarly negative, feeling the game's combat and other good elements were let down by its structure and gacha system.[58]
Notes
^Stylized as NieR Re[in]carnation (Japanese: ニーア リィンカーネーション, Hepburn: Nīa Ryinkānēshon)
