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Modder Elevna on the Nier Replicant Nexus has made my day with the full release of Nier Gestalt ver.1.22474487139…, a project that replaces the young protagonist of the cult classic’s 2022 remaster with his grizzled, older counterpart from the 2010 original.
Let’s back up: In Yoko Taro’s vision for Nier, the titular protagonist (whose name you’re allowed to change for some reason) was a waifish anime twink who kinda looks like Raiden from Metal Gear. This was during peak Xbox 360, the piss filter era, so Square Enix executives wanted a hero with a little more Unreal Engine 3 beefy masculinity to appeal to the west.
The compromise: Japan got two versions of Nier. Replicant on the PS3 boasted Yoko Taro’s preferred “Brother” Nier, so named because he’s siblings with fellow main character Yonah. The Xbox 360’s Nier Gestalt featured “Father” Nier, who was aged up to his 40s, put on a powerlifting program, and made to be Yonah’s dad. In the west, we basically only got Nier Gestalt no matter the console version.
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Fast forward to 2022, and Nier gets a remaster because everybody took another look after the explosive success of Nier Automata and realized the original was always good—I liked Nier before it was cool, and I’m not bitter about all those 6/10s it got. The cheekily named Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139… brought Brother Nier to the west for the first time, giving us oldheads something to get excited about (aside from finally having a PC version).
Here’s the thing, though: Yoko Taro, I love you and your eccentric auteur purity, but just this once, the shadowy cabal of risk-averse, art-hating, shareholder-worshipping executives was right. Father Nier is the man. Grizzled dads protecting their kids in the post apocalypse is played out, sure, but Father Nier is one of the high water marks of the form—not the least because he’s kind of an asshole who sucks and makes everything worse.
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Nier shows a world well past its sell-by date, and while both Brother and Father Nier are men possessed by ungovernable rage, Papa Nier cuts it with this sense of mournful weariness that just ties a nice bow on the tragedy of it all. It’s mostly sold by a career-best performance from prolific voice actor Jamieson Price, who I only just realized was also part of one of my favorite dialogue exchanges in any RPG.
There were rumblings Square Enix might do an official Father Nier DLC, but it never panned out. Cue Elevna’s Gestalt mod, which offers a full, luxury Papa Nier experience in 2026. The original model is back and touched up, great, but Elevna also dug all of the audio files for Price’s voiceover out of the original and ported them here, making the mod essential.
That would have been enough for me, but Elevna’s attention to detail is truly impressive. Nier’s alternate skins have also gotten Papa versions, and ver.1.22…’s bonus chapter now has repurposed voice lines from Price to smooth things over—rewatching the chapter’s cutscenes, Nier mostly makes small comments and combat barks that can easily be fudged. Elevna even ported back in relevant dialogue from other characters referencing Nier’s age.
My favorite small detail: Nier’s OG DLC (now just part of the game) features a dream arena where you fight as the other version of Nier—Brother back in 2010, Papa in Replicant. Elevna’s Gestalt mod swaps Brother Nier back in for the dream fights.
Nier Gestalt ver.1.22474487139… is a perfect mod by my reckoning, acting on a supremely niche demand (my supremely niche demand) at an almost absurd level of craft and care. It makes me happy. It’s how I’ll do my next replay.
