okay maybe you can help me out, so if i was to get into nier , which one should i get/play first? automata or replicant? or does the order not matter? 🤔 ive been meaning to get them for a while idk if theres an order.
Nier came first and gets referenced slightly in Nier: Automata, and they are technically sequels, but they also stand fine on their own. You honestly don’t have to play them in order to understand either.
Both are really good, but Nier: Automata is an absolute masterpiece. It’s one of my top 10 (probably 5) games ever. I’d personally highly recommend playing that one first because the first one isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea like Automata tends to be. Just know that one playthrough of Automata is like… less than half the game, and it takes 3 playthroughs to see the real ending (ending E).
Also this part is going to sound super weird, but bear with me lol: There are two versions of the original Nier — Nier: Replicant and Nier: Gestalt. Gestalt is the western release; Replicant was (originally) the Japan-only release. They are the exact same game, with the only differences being the main character’s appearance and his familial relationship to the little girl he’s trying to save. In Gestalt, the protag is a jacked guy in his mid-40’s or so and the little girl is his ~10 y/o daughter. In Replicant, the protag is a mgs raiden knockoff an androgynous male in his late teens or early 20’s; the girl is aged up slightly (to like ~12) and is the protag’s baby sister. The swap was done solely to boost sales in the west at the time — probably because of the superhero boom — and the remaster of Nier that came out in like April of this year is of the Replicant version of the game.
Sorry for the length btw lol. I’ve just seen a lot of people track down a copy of Gestalt after playing Replicant and then get disappointed because it’s the same game lol.