NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Nier is largely composed of melancholy acoustic pieces which heavily feature vocals by Emi Evans. Of the 43 tracks included in the released soundtrack album, only 9 do not have any vocal component to them; these are the four versions each of "Dispossession" and "Yonah", as well as "Dance of the Evanescent".^[11] With the exception of "Ashes of Dreams", the lyrics are not intended to mean anything; for that song, Evans was given a list of Japanese words to use, which she then translated for the English, French, and Scottish Gaelic versions of the song. The song and its variants were the last to be recorded, and Evans convinced the composers that one song in the soundtrack should have recognizable lyrics rather than futuristic English as they originally planned. Evans found "Ashes" to be the most difficult song to write on the soundtrack, as she had difficulty writing lyrics that met the composers' criteria of despair and lack of hope.^[2]

"Hills of Radiant Wind" is one of the few upbeat songs on the largely dark soundtrack; for that piece Evans sang in a version of Portuguese in a style meant to sound like a spirit floating on the wind. For "Grandma", she sang in a French style, trying to "put in as much anguish and melancholy" as possible; she created the song in a single recording, and it is "one of the most memorable songs" that she has sung. "The Wretched Automatons" is sung in a variant of English and was recorded prior to the addition of the mechanical sounds that run throughout the track, while "Kainé" is in a version of Gaelic.^[2]

Square Enix released a soundtrack album of music from the game, titled NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack, on April 21, 2010. The two-disc, 2:30:09-long album has the catalog numbers of SQEX-10189/90.^[11] As preorder bonuses for Nier Gestalt and Nier Replicant, the two versions of the game released in Japan, two mini-albums, Nier Gestalt Mini Album and Nier Replicant Mini Album, were included. Each one contains five tracks from the full soundtrack album; Gestalt corresponds with tracks 1 and 4 from disc 1, 8 and 13 from disc 2, and an electronic version of "Kainé" titled "Kainé / Rain of Light", while Replicant encompasses track 3 from disc 2, tracks 2 and 7 from disc 1, track 1 from disc 2, and a medley of several tracks.^[12][13] Gestalt is 18:11 long, and Replicant 17:11.^[12][13] A book of sheet music of piano arrangements of tracks from the game by Okabe was published by KMP on April 22, 2011. The book, NieR Gestalt & Replicant Official Score Book, contains 25 arrangements in 112 pages.^[14] Guitar arrangements of "Song of the Ancients / Devola" and "Yonah / Strings Ver." by Yuji Sekiguchi were included in the Square Enix Official Best Collection guitar solo sheet music book, published by KMP in May 2011.^[15]

The soundtrack album reached number 24 on the Japanese Oricon music charts, and remained on the charts for 11 weeks.^[16] It was well received by critics; Patrick Gann of RPGFan called the album "an insanely good soundtrack" and noted it as his candidate for video game soundtrack of the year, as well as "one of the best game soundtracks ever". He applauded that the music was both "meticulously-crafted" and "accessible to the untrained ear".^[11] Don Kotowski of Square Enix Music Online praised the "captivating vocal work" and "exquisite" composition. He also noted that each track retained a sense of individuality even when it reused themes from other tracks.^[17] He was less complimentary towards the mini albums, which he regarded as good introductions to the soundtrack as a whole but not worth purchasing on their own.^[12][13] Jayson Napolitano of Original Sound Version also praised the album, saying that it was "hands down one of the best soundtracks Square Enix has published over the years". Calling it "captivating" and "otherworldly", he applauded the album's originality and Evans' vocals.^[18] Original Sound Version later named the soundtrack as the best video game soundtrack of 2010, and Square Enix Music Online awarded it the best Japanese video game soundtrack of the year.^[19][20]

Track list

NieR Gestalt & Replicant 15 Nightmares & Arrange Tracks

An album of arranged music was published by Square Enix on December 8, 2010. The album, NieR Gestalt & Replicant 15 Nightmares & Arrange Tracks, contains 11 tracks across a length of 54:43, and has a catalog number of SQEX-10212. The arrangements were done by composers Okabe, Ishihama, and Hoashi, as well as by "oriori", Ryuichi Takada, and Hidekazu Tanaka. The first five arrangements, in a techno style, were included in the Nier DLC, while the remaining tracks are piano, instrumental, chiptune, and a cappella versions of tracks from the game.^[21] In the liner notes for the album, Okabe said that the DLC tracks were meant to be "more war-like" versions of the originals, while the second half of the album was intended to "maintain the image and worldview of the original music".^[22]

The arranged album reached number 59 on the Oricon music charts, a position it held for a week.^[23] It was warmly received by reviewers, if less so than the first album; Patrick Gann critiqued the album as not being as good as the original, though he noted that "you can still be awesome and rank second to that album". He concluded that the arrangements were all of good quality, but that listeners would not be "blown away by it".^[21] Don Kotowski found it to be an "accomplished arrange album", but inferior to the original as he felt that it was shorter than it should have been and that the final two tracks were weaker than the rest of the arrangements.^[24] Jayson Napolitano also felt that the album should have been longer; he thought that most listeners would skip the DLC tracks in favor of the acoustic arrangements, and that six tracks was not enough to carry the album given the expectations created by the quality of the original soundtrack.^[25]

NieR tribute album -echo-

On September 14, 2011 Square Enix published a third Nier album, titled NieR Tribute Album -echo-. Each of the 12 tracks on the album is a remix of a Nier piece, each by a different artist. The resulting eclectic mix of styles is primarily electronic, but also includes a multiple-piano arrangement of "Grandma" and a klezmer rendition of "Shadowlord's Castle". The album has a duration of 1:00:46, and has the catalog number SQEX-10247.^[26]

The album reached number 77 on the Oricon music charts, a position it held for a week.^[27] It was positively reviewed by Jayson Napolitano of Original Sound Version, who described himself as "impressed" with it. He preferred this album to the arranged album, though he felt that a few of the tracks had difficulty distinguishing themselves above the high quality of the original pieces.^[26]

Piano Collections Nier Gestalt & Replicant

On March 21, 2012 Square Enix published a fourth Nier album, titled Piano Collections Nier Gestalt & Replicant. Each of the 11 tracks on the album is a piano arrangement of a Nier piece. The tracks were arranged and played by several different artists, namely Keigo Hoashi, Kumi Tanioka, Masato Kouda, Ryuichi Takada, and Yuri Misumi. Each arranger performed their own pieces, with the exception of Kouda, whose arrangement was played by Tanioka. The album has a duration of 45:42, and has the catalog number SQEX-10303.^[28]

The album was positively reviewed by Jayson Napolitano of Original Sound Version, who said that while "nothing on this album came as particularly surprising", that he enjoyed the arrangements and performances. He preferred the tracks on this album to the piano arrangements on the 15 Nightmares album.^[28]

NieR Gestalt & Replicant: Jazz Arrange version

Music from Nier has been arranged into two jazz EPs. The albums, titled NieR Gestalt & Replicant: Jazz Arrange Version and Jazz Arrange Version Vol. 2, contain six tracks each from the soundtrack licensed by Joypad Records. The tracks are arranged and performed by Sean Schafianski, and were released digitally on August 8, 2013, and May 16, 2014. The EPs have durations of 26:48 and 25:33.^[29][30] The music is split between instrumental and vocal pieces, and covers multiple different styles of jazz music.^[31]

The first EP was positively reviewed by Brad Hayes-Raugh of RPGFan, who "greatly enjoyed the direction this album takes", though he did note that some of the pieces did not quite meet his high expectations. He concluded that "the tracks give a fresh spin on some great pieces of video game music and keep the spirit of Nier alive and well."^[31]

Track list

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

An updated version of the game, NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., was released in April 2021. Okabe, Ryuichi Takada, Keigo Hoashi, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Shotaro Seo, and Oliver Good of Monaca arranged the music under Okabe's direction, with a goal of making them longer and higher-quality than the originals rather than making them very different.^[32] The team wanted to give a "sense of renewal" with the pieces, and made sure not to change the "tone" of the songs, but added live instruments and choral elements. For example, in "Kainé / Salvation", more live instrumentation gave what they felt was a "richer sound", and where the original looped to start over the updated version instead repeats with slight changes and additions.^[33] A soundtrack album, NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... Original Soundtrack, was released alongside it on April 21, containing 45 tracks on three discs with a total length of 3:10:21.^[34] Some of the tracks were also included in the NieR Replicant – 10+1 Years set of four vinyl LPs, which has 29 tracks from NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... Original Soundtrack along with all other previous arranged and orchestral albums, as well as four new arrangements.^[35]

NieR: Automata Original Soundtrack

A sequel to Nier, Nier: Automata, was released in February 2017. Its music was again composed by Keiichi Okabe and the Monaca team, with Emi Evans, J'Nique Nicole, and Nami Nakagawa on vocals, Takanori Goto on guitar, and additional contributions by several artists. A soundtrack album for the game was released worldwide by Square Enix on March 29, 2017. The three-disc, 3:33:43-long album contains all of the music from the game, as well as, like the original game's album, variations on the main theme in multiple languages. Unlike the original Nier, where all of the versions were written and sung by Emi Evans and had the same lyrical meanings, the versions in Automata were written and sung by multiple people: the English version by J'Nique Nicole, one in an invented French-derived language by Evans, and the Japanese written by Yoko Taro and sung by Marina Kawano.^[37]

NieR: Automata Original Soundtrack peaked at number 2 on the Oricon charts,^[38] with over 28,000 copies sold in its first week in Japan.^[39] It was well received by critics; Patrick Gann of RPGFan said the album was as good or better than the original as well as "perfectly, wonderfully great".^[37]

NieR:Automata Arranged & Unreleased Tracks

On December 20, 2017, an album of arranged music and unreleased tracks of NieR: Automata was released by Square Enix in two discs. Disc one included arranged music by different artists, and unreleased tracks composed by Keiichi Okabe were included in disc two. The album consists of a total of 20 tracks, has a duration of 1:43:39, and has the catalog number SQEX-10631~2.^[43]

The album was praised by Patrick Gann of RPGFan, who believed that some tracks, such as "Weight of the World" and "Emil", were "very impressive".^[44]

NieR: Automata Piano Collections

NieR: Automata Piano Collections was published on April 25, 2018. The album contains 12 tracks across a length of 1:01:07 and has a catalog number of SQEX-10653.^[45] The tracks in the album are originally from NieR: Automata Original Soundtrack but transformed into piano renditions.^[46]

Patrick Gann of RPGFan said the album "is the weakest of the Automata albums Square Enix has released so far".^[47] Don Kotowski of VGMOnline believed the album is "by no means a bad album", but said "it is missing that spark".^[46]

Addendum

To correspond with the NieR Theatrical Orchestra 12020 concerts celebrating the 10th anniversary of the game series, Square Enix released another album of orchestral arrangements, NieR Orchestral Arrangement Album – Addendum, on March 25, 2020. It contains five tracks each from Gestalt & Replicant and Automata, arranged by Sachiko Miyano and Kosuke Yamashita and featuring solo vocal performances from Emi Evans and J’Nique Nicole. The first printing of the physical version of the album includes a bonus disc with three additional arrangements. The album was reviewd by Tien Hoang of VGMOnline, who found the tracks and performances solid but was disappointed that they stayed even more closely to the original pieces than the other orchestral albums, rather than having more creative arrangements, to the point of reusing some prior arrangements with minor differences.^[54]