This is a Story Synopsis with Spoilers for NieR Replicant Remake (PS4). including full story explanation, synopsis, spoilers, information on the bosses' backgrounds, and more.
This article contains story spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Story Synopsis and Explanation
[The Beginning of the Story]
In the year 2053, Tokyo has already fallen into ruin and is overrun by black monsters. A young boy with his sister desperately fights back against the monsters, but he reaches his limit. To protect his sister, the boy makes a pact with an eerie book, the "Grimoire Noir," and defeats the surrounding monsters. As the two are about to share the food they found, a black pattern, the mark of a disease, appears on his sister's body.Part One: The Boy
| Village to the Lost Shrine |
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| Time passes, and the young boy Nier lives with his sickly younger sister, Yonah. One day, Yonah goes to a shrine outside the protagonist's village. Nier goes to rescue her and makes a pact with the sealed Grimoire Weiss in the shrine's deepest part. He succeeds in rescuing her, but Yonah's body is afflicted with the incurable Black Scrawl disease. |
| Collecting the Sealed Verses |
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| Grimoire Weiss suggests that collecting the "Sealed Verses" might cure the Black Scrawl. Deducing this from legends, Nier travels to various places, defeating powerful Shades to collect the verses. Along the way, he is joined by companions named Kainé and Emil, and Nier finally gathers all the verses. However, upon returning to the village, they find it under attack by a horde of Shades. |
| The Shadowlord's Attack |
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| They manage to trap the giant Shade attacking the village in the library's basement, but they are suddenly attacked by a humanoid Shade, the "Shadowlord," who kidnaps Yonah. Battered and bruised, Nier and his companions petrify Kainé to seal the giant Shade. Nier vows to rescue Yonah and restore Kainé. |
Part Two: The Young Man
| Freeing Kainé |
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| Five years after the battle with the Shadowlord. Nier, still unable to track down the Shadowlord, receives a message from Emil. In the basement of the mansion, Emil absorbs the power of an experimental weapon at the cost of his body, successfully gaining control over his petrification ability. Nier and his companions head to the library, undo Kainé's petrification, and defeat the Shade sealed in the basement. |
| Collecting the Fragments |
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| Nier and his friends hear that the Lost Shrine is connected to the Shadowlord's whereabouts. They immediately head to the shrine and discover a mysterious stone fragment in its deepest part. The fragment contains a code, and collecting all of them will become the key to unsealing the path to the Shadowlord's Castle. Based on the code, they travel to various places, gathering the fragments with the help of local people while fending off Shades. |
| The Shadowlord's Castle |
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| After collecting the fragments, Nier and his companions reach the Shadowlord's Castle. There, they learn the cruel truth: they are Replicants, artificial humans, and the Shades are the original humans. While struggling with the reality of their existence, Nier confronts the Shadowlord. He defeats him and finally rescues Yonah. |
Ending Spoiler Summary
Ending A
An ending where you rescue the Replicant Yonah from the Shadowlord and live together with the protagonist. At the end, he reverts to his younger self.
Ending B
An ending that includes a flashback to the Shadowlord's time as a human with his Yonah. The conclusion for the siblings as Gestalts is depicted.
Emil's Survival is Confirmed
After the credits, a cutscene reveals that Emil is alive. Although he has been reduced to just his head by an explosion, he is shown cheerfully bouncing around, searching for something to serve as a new body.
Ending C
An ending where you kill Kainé to free her from her suffering. Released from her torment by death, Kainé disappears after leaving a single word: "Thank you." The credits roll as the protagonist picks up the Lunar Tear she left behind.
Ending D
An ending where you sacrifice the protagonist's existence to restore Kainé to her human body. In a world without the protagonist, Kainé remembers a trace of him. Overcome with an indescribable emotion, she sheds a tear and says, "I feel like I received something precious." The ending shows her and Yonah looking up at the sky together.
Ending E
This ending was added in Ver. 1.22.
Three years after the battle with the Shadowlord, Kainé, who has constantly felt that she has forgotten something important, heads to the Forest of Myth where a strange phenomenon is occurring. In the Forest of Myth, Kainé remembers the protagonist and, to bring him back, defeats the Shades recreated from her own memories.
Based on a Short Story from the Art Book
Ending E is based on the short story "The Lost World," which was published in the "NieR Replicant" art book. It depicts the story after Ending D, and many fans had been eagerly awaiting it.
Boss Background Summary
Names are Derived from Fairy Tales and Other Stories
The names of the boss characters that appear in "NieR Replicant" are all derived from characters in fairy tales and other stories. They are not always the main characters of the stories; sometimes they are named after supporting characters.
Boss Origins and Source Material
| Boss | Origin/Source Material |
|---|---|
| Hansel & Gretel | Hansel and Gretel Hansel & Gretel |
| Hook | Peter Pan Captain Hook |
| Wendy | Peter Pan Wendy |
| Defense System (Gepetto) | The Adventures of Pinocchio Geppetto the clockmaker |
| Cleo | The Adventures of Pinocchio Cleo the goldfish |
| P-33 | The Adventures of Pinocchio Pinocchio |
| Shahryar | One Thousand and One Nights King Shahryar |
| Roc | One Thousand and One Nights The Roc bird |
| Jack | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The Knave of Hearts |
| Goose | Mother Goose Mother Goose |
