Great to hear Ash back.
It’s funny to me to hear that the original Nier was generally disliked when it came out. I played right through Nier: Automata last year (not 100% but I did get the real ending for those out there who know what that means - most people here I think?) and was totally blown away, couldn’t stop thinking about it, cajoled several friends into playing it just so I’d have people to talk about it with. And so when a free PS3 landed in my lap a couple months back I took the opportunity to try the original game. Played long enough to get the first ending but without delving into side quests too much, and now I’m holding off for the remake to do a much more complete playthrough. Quite excited about that! But anyway, I dunno, it just seems like an objectively good game to me? Sure the action isn’t as tight as Automata but it seemed perfectly reasonable to me. And maybe it’s just bias I’m bringing over from my experience of N:A but the vibe of the original just immediately grabbed hold of me.
Speaking of Nier: Replicant (the new one) - this seems like it might be an interesting edge case for the perennial what-is-a-remake-vs-a-remaster debate. Anyone who’s played the original and seen gameplay footage of the new version can tell it straddles that line in what I think is a cool and interesting way. The combat has been tweaked, and I’ve read there will be some minor additional content, but the game looks for the most part like a remaster, with higher resolution and framerate and upgraded textures - visually, at least, they haven’t quite gone back to the drawing board. This is in contrast to what I understand of, for example, the Resident Evil remakes. But I digress.