>>718838657
The Western release, known as Nier Gestalt,
was a Microsoft-mandated localization of the original (Japanese) game, Nier Replicant.
They did not believe that a prettyboy (who starts off as a literal child) would sell well in the west, so he was hastily remodeled into a fugly Kratos-like burly guy... with barely any changes to his dialogue and actions. Naturally, this completely butchers the premise and narrative, and makes him act like an absolute fool.
But things don't stop there. All of those "controversial" things OP was baiting ? Practically all swept under a rug.
You reeeally have to squint and do mental gymnastics to find any evidence of Emil's gay-crush or even Kaine's veiny penor in the Western version. And what comes to our potty-mouth princess, her backstory was also changed to be nothing but verbal and physical bullying, where as in the OG script she goes through a lot of SEXUAL violence and humiliation, with the village people stripping her naked just to see what sort of freak she is... under the dress.
Now, Square did try to play both versions initially, with Japan getting BOTH the Replicant version (only on PS3) and the Gestalt version (only on Xbox 360), with latter being a desperate attempt to spark some interest towards the flopping Xbox brand in the island nation.
However, Microsoft got to handle the localization and porting of the Western releases in the states and EU, and decided to axe the Replicant "Brother Nier" completely. Meaning we only got the Gestalt, on both X360 and PS3.
I played our Papa version years ago, and while I did enjoy it, something about it always felt "off".
Some Google archeology sessions later, it all made sense, and until the Replicant version 1.224... (the HD port) came out just recentely, the Japanese Replicant was like the Holy Grail for any Western DrakeNier fan. The community even did a hasty ENG subs to JP game emulator patch.
