Mod Restores NieR's Older Protagonist to the PC Remaster

A modder has restored the older, so-called Father version of NieR's protagonist to the game's 2022 remaster on PC, along with his original voice performance. The project, titled Nier Gestalt ver.1.22474487139, has been released in full by a modder credited as Elevna on the remaster's Nexus Mods page.

The character has existed in two forms since 2010. Japan received two versions of the original game: Nier Replicant on PlayStation 3, whose protagonist was the brother of fellow lead character Yonah, and Nier Gestalt on Xbox 360, which aged the character into his forties and recast him as Yonah's father. Western releases were based on Gestalt regardless of platform.

According to PC Gamer, the split originated with Square Enix wanting a more conventionally rugged lead for Western audiences than director Yoko Taro's preferred design. That preference was reversed by Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139, the 2022 remaster, which brought the younger Brother Nier to Western players for the first time and delivered the series' first PC version. Square Enix was rumored to be weighing official downloadable content restoring the older design, but it never materialized.

What the mod changes

Elevna's release restores and touches up the original Father Nier model, and goes further than a visual swap by extracting voice actor Jamieson Price's recordings from the 2010 release and porting them into the remaster.

• Father Nier variants of the protagonist's alternate outfits
• Repurposed Jamieson Price voice lines covering the remaster's bonus chapter, where the older character has no original recordings
• Restored dialogue from other characters that references the protagonist's age
• A swap in the game's dream-arena fights, which pit the player against the other version of Nier; the mod puts Brother Nier back in that role

The bonus chapter presented the largest gap, since it was written for the remaster and never recorded with the older character. Elevna's workaround leans on lines in which the protagonist makes short comments and combat callouts, which can be substituted without breaking the scenes.

The result is a configuration that has never been officially available on PC: the older protagonist, with his original voice work, running inside the remaster. The mod requires the PC release of Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139 and is distributed through Nexus Mods.