Ten years after the release of the original NieR, its remake is finally out, which would have been impossible without the success of NieR: Automata. In the wake of the popularity of adventures 2B and 9S, the developers took the plunge and re-released the beginning of the story, slightly changing and expanding it for modern players. Behind the anime appearance and revealing outfits, there is an existential parable that raises many complex topics – from the moral right to murder to religious revelations and allusions to the events of September 11th. Let’s try to figure them out.
->
->
A bleak future
The very temple where Yona goes
In the distant future, humanity is going through hard days: everyday life has rolled back to the Middle Ages, most technologies have been lost, megacities have been destroyed. All the fault of the Shadows (Shades) – mysterious creatures that attack people indiscriminately, forcing the remnants of humanity to huddle behind high walls. Fortunately, the Shadows feel uncomfortable in the sunlight, which allows the daredevils to get out. Among them is the main character (from the book “Grimoire Nir”, published in Japan, you can find out that NieR is the name of the hero. The game, however, offers to name him yourself), a minor young man who is forced to carry out various assignments from anyone. He happily takes on everything from gathering herbs and hunting to killing Shadows that get in the way of people.
The thing is that Nir takes care of her sick sister Yona, who needs medicine and care. Children are left without relatives and survive on their own, and it is not so easy for a teenager to find a permanent job. Hearing about the magic flower, the girl goes to the ruins of an abandoned temple: according to legend, the Moon’s Tear is able to cure Yona of the disease, nicknamed “Black Scribbles”. And if she gets better, her brother will finally be able to devote much more time to her.
… If you do not go into details, this is the plot of the game. You can see that there is nothing in common with the history of the fight between robots and machines shown in NieR: Automata. Yoko Taro himself, a game designer and screenwriter, notes that the two parts of NieR are strikingly different from each other.
Here I would like to note that the original NieR existed in two versions: there was the Japanese NieR Replicant, which received a remaster, and the NieR Gestalt, which was released for Europe and the USA. The key difference is in the protagonist: while the Japanese got a story about a brother caring for a sister, Europeans more accustomed to masculine heroes played as a father caring for a daughter. Otherwise, the differences are minimal, but the names of the two titles are worth remembering.
Here I would like to dwell in more detail on the fact that Yoko Taro has its own universe, which originates in another game – Drakengard, released on PS2 in 2003. Musou became the basis of his own three-part series, but one of the original endings is the starting point for NieR: in it, the protagonist, his dragon and the Giant are in modern Tokyo. It was the appearance of the Giant that led to the deplorable state of the world of the future: the deceased monster turned into a mysterious substance, nicknamed “Maso”, which infected humanity with white chlorination syndrome. The infected had two options: make a pact with a god from another world and become a monster, or refuse and turn into a pillar of salt.
Nonetheless, Maso helped lay the groundwork for Project Gestalt, which will be discussed in more detail below.
NieR Replicant also contains references to the Drakengard ending.
Diversity as a means of self-expression
More often than not, the game will offer a standard perspective from the back. Note the buildings in the background
The original NieR featured extremely awkward controls and a lot of strange gameplay solutions, which, thankfully, were fixed in the new version of the game. Key improvements include seemingly obvious things such as the ability to select a target when attacking, use the magic of Grimoire Weiss on the move and during combat with melee weapons, as well as improved camera behavior. All this brought the game closer to Automata, on which PlatinumGames worked: many noted the convenience of the game in comparison with previous Tarot titles. At the same time, Nir’s arsenal has expanded with several new techniques, such as the ability to quickly slip behind the enemy’s back or successfully parry an attack, briefly stunning the enemy.
The work of Grimoire Weiss, Nir’s companion, will be familiar to anyone who has played Automata. The principle is very similar to that of pods, small flying robots, except that instead of new programs, you need to collect The Sealed Verses, which give various types of attacks. They are unlocked during boss battles in the first half of the game. The sealed poems also serve as a plot trigger: Nir collects them because, according to legend, Grimoire Weiss must fight another magic book, Grimoire Noir, and heal the world from the Black Scribbles.
Speaking of gameplay, it is worth noting the range of approaches: if in Automata the game from hack’n’slash moves to a twin-stick shooter and platformer, then in Replicant the designer goes even further. One of the levels frankly resembles the Resident Evil franchise: a slight horror touch appears here, and the camera is traditionally located at fixed angles. In another location, the game generally turns into an interactive novel for a while: instead of the usual gameplay, users have to read the text and make choices that affect the development of the story. By the way, you can die like that too.
Plants require care: if they are watered on time, the harvest will be much larger
The episodes from bullet hell, of course, have not gone anywhere: many bosses attack so actively that it becomes difficult to distinguish what is happening on the screen. On the base PS4, a mostly stable frame rate drops at times like this.
Two mini-games add variety to the action: fishing and gardening. The first is even dedicated to a whole line of side quests: helping the old man to catch a certain fish, Nir learns new tricks and draws sea reptiles far more agile. And in a small garden next to the house, you can grow flowers, vegetables and fruits: everything requires care, and also spends a lot of real time. The same flowers, for example, do not grow until 18 hours later.
Nonduality
Young Nir
The game itself, as it were, consists of two parts: the first tells about the young Nira, in the second the hero becomes five years older. Accordingly, the character has new worries, and tasks from local residents become more serious. In the first part, he all had to carry fragile things, collect goat meat and fish for a penny. As he grows older, he begins to take on the murder of especially dangerous Shadows, the study of abandoned complexes, the extraction of rare resources – the hero will undertake any task if the customer is ready to fork out.
Money is a must here: a young warrior has to buy new weapons and various resources, as well as useful items like medicinal herbs and special compounds that improve protection. Plus cash (along with resources) is spent on improving weapons, which greatly helps in battles.
The difference between the two acts is felt at a deeper level: if in the first the hero mostly acts as a kind of errand boy and explores the world available to him with childlike ease, then the second turns out to be much darker. Childhood here ends with a serious loss, after which a series of troubles does not even think to stop until the very end.
Downward spiral
The game does not skimp on loud statements
It’s almost impossible to talk about NieR’s storyline without touching on the spoilers. This is a fairly typical situation for Tarot, which builds its narrative not only overly complicated, but also twisted: the adventure can begin with one setting that the hero receives, but eventually steer to a completely different plane. Here everything starts with a search for a cure for a sick sister, and ends with a question of the fate of humanity, which literally has to be decided by the player.
Young Nir, as mentioned above, mostly explores the world and occasionally enters into various skirmishes that do not seem to be something overly creepy. During his adventure, he manages to meet the warrior in a frank nightie Kaine, the king of the Mask people and Emil – a cute boy who is forced to wear a blindfold, as he is able to turn into stone everything that falls on his gaze. Everything changes with the arrival of the Shadows in his native village: here Nir not only loses her sister, who is carried away by the Shadows, but is also forced to say goodbye to Kaine, who, sacrificing herself, locked a huge Shadow in the cellars of the city library.
The second half meets the player with the fact that Yona is still lost, Emil in a difficult battle acquires a monstrous body, and all the previously met heroes lose something again and again. Not a single meeting, not a single main quest is complete without some kind of injury. And that’s the whole Tarot – a game designer who raised in Drakengard the question of the madness of a man who killed thousands of others.
Turn Kaine to stone and seal the Shadow, or do nothing and be destroyed is a pretty standard choice for the game.
But even at the thought “adult life is far from sugar” Tarot does not stop. After the first playthrough, the game offers to save and go for the second run, promising to reveal details from a new side. And indeed: starting from the second half, the game throws Nir and his friends into familiar conditions, literally forcing them to replay the same levels. All that is added is a few new clips inserted between the already familiar ones.
To say that they change the perception of what is happening would be an understatement.
A word sharper than a sword
Heroes now and then try to give up – almost always there are objective reasons for this
The very finale of the first playthrough sheds light on certain details, about which there was not a word in the game before. Of course, some hints can be seen on the black pages that occasionally appear on the loading screen and in the history of one of the companions, but the full picture is revealed precisely in the finale of the first playthrough. The picture, to put it mildly, is disappointing.
The second (and subsequent) playthrough starts a little later than the second half, and all progress outside the main plot is saved. Thus, although the player has to replay the same cards, not much time is spent on this. And the details revealed in the new videos are really worth it: they allow you to get to know opponents from a completely different side and experience something close to an existential crisis. Literally everything that seemed right on the first playthrough is turned inside out on the second, simply due to the successful placement of accents. It doesn’t feel very pleasant, and the situation, alas, doesn’t get better from hour to hour. In general, this is what the Tarot calculates, which almost never favors its heroes: they suffer again and again, falling into a loop of fears and regrets, from which it is either impossible to escape, or there is only one way – to go into oblivion. And the big question is which is better.
Simulacra and simulation
“Rules are not there to restrict you. They show the degree of your freedom “
There are quite a few analyzes of NieR Automata on the Internet, and most often the idea pops up in them that Tarot took Nietzscheanism and nihilism as a basis and turned them inside out, putting humanism at the head – rather the opposite idea. In many ways, the story was based on the fact that everyone should find the meaning of life himself and not try to chase after some imposed ideal. On this were layered the ideas of transhumanism, the senselessness of war and other philosophical motives that many did not notice behind the frank outfit of the main character and the opportunity to look under her skirt.
NieR Replicant does a similar feint: with the protagonist, the girl Kaine, dressed in a revealing outfit, travels with whom it is easy to be distracted (and whose cosplay is likely to fill the entire Internet soon). But this does not prevent the story from remaining serious, depressing and touching upon many important topics – from all the same transhumanism to environmentalism.
If Automata is based on Nietzscheism, then the most important philosopher for the Replicant is Descartes and his famous Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”). Many plot conflicts of the game are built on this, including the central one – between Nir and the Lord of Shadows.
No less important in understanding is Jean Baudrillard with his theory of hyperreality: in fact, the world of NieR Replicant is a kind of large-scale simulation in relation to the world we are used to. And the replicants themselves figured in the game can be considered as simulacra – many of them have long had no prototype.
An equally important idea is layered on this: if, when creating Drakengard, Taro thought that only a madman was capable of killing, the more frequent terrorist attacks in the 2000s and, in particular, the tragic events of September 11, pushed the designer to the idea that not only a madman can kill, but also the one who is sacredly confident in his righteousness. In many ways, this is exactly what Nir does in the game: he does not hesitate at all in his decisions, since he knows for sure that he is right.
Восьмеричный путь
Троица сильно сближается за время своего путешествия
На общую идею наслаиваются личные пути трех центральных героев истории: Нира, Кайнэ и Эмиля, каждый из которых переживает немало трансформаций. Девушка-изгой, живое оружие и самозваный герой пересекаются на пути и помогают друг другу, становясь друзьями и невольными соратниками.
Совместное путешествие открывает героям глаза на многие вещи, о которых вряд ли бы кто-то из них задумался самостоятельно: Нир временами сомневается в правильности выбранного вектора (увы, довольно слабо), Кайнэ находит новые причины жить, а Эмиль наконец-то обретает семью, которую, казалось, давно и безвозвратно потерял.
Но ведь и на этом заложенные смыслы не заканчиваются: стоит вспомнить тот небольшой факт, что волки по какой-то причине обитают в пустыне. Вопросом об этом задаются и герои: Гримуар Вайс спрашивает у Нира, не кажется ли тому странным наличие хищников в неестественной среде обитания. И только при повторном прохождении можно узнать причину такого странного решения.
Пустынная Тень, огромный волк, являющийся главой стаи, открытым текстом поясняет, как сложилась текущая ситуация: раньше на месте пустыни был лес, но человечество своими решениями привело к экологической катастрофе. Более того, нападения волков обусловлены совсем не их агрессивностью — в этом виноваты местные жители: регулярные нападения на стаю привели к тому, что хищникам, и без того с трудом выживающим в непривычных условиях, приходится постоянно сражаться за право на существование. Перед смертью Тень спрашивает своего убийцу, чем же волки заслужили такую участь. Вопрос ожидаемо остается без ответа.
«Что мы сделали, чтобы заслужить… такую судьбу?»
o.addEventListener('load', function () { callback(); }, false);
s.parentNode.insertBefore(o, s); } }
asyncLoad( 'https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js', function () { window.instgrm.Embeds.process(); }, !!window.instgrm );
asyncLoad( 'https://cdn.playbuzz.com/widget/feed.js', function () {
}, !!window.PlayBuzz );
asyncLoad( 'https://static.apester.com/js/sdk/v2.0/apester-javascript-sdk.min.js', function () {
}, !!window.APESTER );
asyncLoad( 'https://wtrfall.com/widget.js', function () { if (!window.WTF || !WTF.bootstrap || !WTF.bootstrap("wtf-broadcast")) { setTimeout(arguments.callee, 50); } }, !!window.WTF );
asyncLoad( '//vk.com/js/api/openapi.js?147', function() { if (!window.$ || !window.VK || !VK.Widgets || !VK.Widgets.Post) { setTimeout(arguments.callee, 50);
return; }
$('.vk_post').each(function(i, elm) { var post = $(elm).data();
VK.Widgets.Post($(elm).attr('id'), post.userId, post.id, post.hash); }); }, !!window.VK ); })(); });
