Square Enix: Nier: Gestalt to be international version, Japanese to get two versions

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

Xbox 360 owners here in Japan are getting Nier Gestalt. PS3 owners are getting Nier Replicant. What's the difference between these two? Square Enix hasn't been particularly forthcoming on the differences. But this month's Famitsu Xbox 360 provides some answers.

Executive producer Yosuke Saito told the magazine that Nier Gestalt, the Japanese Xbox 360 version of the game, is basically the international version of Nier.

In Japan, PS3 players will be getting a unique version of Nier in Replicant. This version was created as Cavia and Square Enix consulted on what would be fitting for the Japanese market. Screenshots have already shown the main differences between the two titles. Gestalt has an older, more masculine hero, who's out to save his daughter. Replicant has a younger, more effeminate hero who's out to save his younger sister.

This wasn't mentioned in the Famitsu Xbox 360 article, but the sister and daughter appear to be the same person. I played the Tokyo Game Show version of Gestalt, and noticed the Yohan character, who was first described in Famitsu's first PS3 preview of the game as being Nier's sister. She's presumably the daughter in Gestalt.

Saito was a bit vague on the actual differences in content between the two versions, saying that players could consider the "game design" to be the same between the two and that it's not the case that you'll only be able to see 100% of the game by playing both titles.

Elsewhere in the interview, Saito said that Nier would not have co-op play . However, download content is under consideration.

Saito also commented on one curiosity of the TGS Gestalt demo. That demo had English voices. The Japanese version of the game will be like this, with English voices and Japanese subtitles.

Source: Andriasang

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[Dionysos]

That really, really sucks.


Why give the Japanese a PS3 version, and not anybody else?

They should at least have released the Gestalt version on to the 360 AND the PS3 and made it an option for special Japanese people to get the Replicant version as well / instead if they wished.


Well, at least I know now not to follow this any further.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I can see western PS3 owners getting a version of Nier, the PS3 has gained 1.5million units on the 360 and that's even before Xmas, European PS3 sales have nearly caught up to 360 sales. So, to be honest, it would be extremely stupid to limit it to the 360, especially since The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery were both limited and didn't really succeed.

 

[Linnaete]

RepliCant's Nier protagonist looks much better to me than Gestalt's in my opinion. Square-Enix got a little too carried away thinking about what western players would want to see in a main character. Instead the west will get someone who looks so generic in comparison to e.g. Marcus Fenix, Kratos.

I think it was stupid to focus support on the Xbox 360 in Japan in the first place instead of the PS3. So far the PS3 has no game from Square Enix while the Xbox 360 only has the poorly received ones like The Last Remnant. In my view, Japan just isn't interested in the console no matter what you put in it.

 

[Cecily]

Square-Enix got a little too carried away thinking about what western players would want to see in a main character. Instead the west will get someone who looks so generic in comparison to e.g. Marcus Fenix, Kratos.

Yeah, I remember that being mentioned during the development of The Last Remnant, too. I hate to make such a broad generalization, but... people who care more about the main character needing to have a certain amount of "masculinity" in his appearance than the storyline probably aren't buying Square games, anyway.