Current Events > NieR Reincarnation Mobile Game Review (all current content completed)

(+) Yeah! (+)

So the new NieR mobile game launched earlier last month and I have done all the content currently in the game. A new chapter releases next Tuesday, but as I already did all the end game content it isn't likely to be anything challenging. A lot of mobile game releases in Japan are pretty bare bones compared to what is released in the Global version. That said what is here is pretty good.

So to start with the gameplay is divided between exploring a labyrinth which is really just hallways you walk down (early on they played with routes and puzzles but abandoned this for whatever reason). You look for what I assume will be translated as scarecrows. Which have weapons that the memories of their owners are embedded in. You are doing this to restore your voice and other missing parts of your humanity under the guidance of a Pod like companion called Mama (a tentacle monster wearing a cute ghost costume). There is of course a major plot twist that I won't spoil, but feels very NieR.

Now the scarecrows are the best part of the game because they contain vignettes that are well written, voiced, and sometimes connected, or sometimes standalone. They definitely vary in overall quality but none are bad and the last two were amazing stuff in my opinion. These could be Western, Samurai, Sci-fi, Fantasy, etc. in theme. Each chapter is a new character (who you are given to play with, but they largely suck except one notably powerful one) and it's 10 quests long. Now unfortunately there is also a gameplay aspect called combat. And as is usually the case it's incredibly shallow and boring. Auto-play also won't use character or otomo (basically pods) abilities, so it's suboptimal if you aren't tapping occasionally. It has an element system that is largely SinoAlice's incomprehensible water>fire>wind>water system along with a light versus dark system where each is strong against the other. Unlike SinoAlice every enemy is always weak against the same element for an entire quest, so you can turn your brain off and forget about targeting. There is also PvP and it's boring but thankfully unlike SinoAlice not a major component of the game. The end game is, like most Gacha games, just a lot of high stat enemies you will need to grind in order to defeat. No story is locked behind end game content (with the exception of Hard mode versions of the main story, but since Very Hard is generally considered end game, I am not including these, they are quite easy) and it can easily be beaten with random shit. That said the Gacha is generous as usual from Square Enix (though I am told overseas versions are stingy). I never spend anything and just like in Brave Exvius I got everything I wanted for free. I was very unlucky too, 5% chance of getting a 4 star each pull, and after 400 free pulls I only had 16 instead of the average of 20. That said I got A2 (twice), 2B, 9S, and my favorite of the original characters in the game (a robot Western gunslinger). Getting a lot of elemental weapons is important due to the way the system works, but thankfully 3 star are not bad and you can exchange tokens for 4 stars as well (currently you can get 5 guaranteed 4 stars with the tokens which are easy to obtain and you have a month and a half to do it).

Overall, like SinoAlice this is a game you play to enjoy the story and Yoko Taros wonderful writing. The gameplay sucks, but at least it isn't SinoAlice level bullshit multiplayer focused (I absolutely hate the focus on multiplayer in a game with bad combat that people play for the story). FFBE, FFOO, and the FFBE Tactics spinoff still standout as Square Enix making mobile games with deep and interesting combat systems, so it's a shame we got stuck with generic 3D auto-battler. That said the graphics are very good and will probably make it run like shit on a budget phone, as even my Samsung Galaxy runs it fairly badly with the settings on low.

Overall I think the story and writing make it worth playing, but like SinoAlice I recommend ignoring the actual gameplay and pointless end game stuff because it isn't fun, wastes your time, and will eventually require a lot of grinding or paying for shit. I realize some people get sucked into that shit for whatever reason, but assuming you just want to enjoy the story you can do everything easily without even rolling a single 4 star. The game even does daily grinding quests that both level your characters and provide upgrade materials for weapons. You take a new character from level 1-30 in 30 minutes with auto-battle on during on of these. And upgrade a new weapon to around level 40 (almost all end game content currently can be done with characters and weapons around level 45 assuming you exploit elemental type weaknesses). It took me a couple weeks and I spent no money to finish everything including a newly added event (all the way through the hardest difficulty levels). I am just grinding medals to exchange for mats currently under the assumption that future content will require more upgraded characters and weapons.

Finally the music is absolutely amazing. Best part of the game for sure. Also I should note there is an optional boss in the labyrinth that I haven't beat and am unsure if can be beaten currently. It's clearly meant to be a super boss.

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