Protagonist (Nier)

The protagonist (主人公) is a character from the 2010 video game Nier, a spin-off of the Drakengard series developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix. He is the lead and main playable character in Nier, and prominent in related media and merchandise. During Nier, the protagonist goes on a quest to help Yonah, a young girl who falls ill with the terminal Black Scrawl illness, then to rescue her from a being called the Shadowlord in a post-apocalyptic world beset by creatures called Shades. Due to publisher feedback, two versions of the protagonists exist; a brother looking after his sister originally exclusive to Japan, and a father caring for his daughter designed for the West.

The protagonist was created by Yoko Taro, director and story writer of Nier. Korean illustrator D.K created his designs, and writer Sawako Natori contributed to his backstory and portrayal. Despite the protagonist's regional differences, the narrative remained mostly the same between versions. For the 2021 remaster, his designs were respectively redone by Akihiko Yoshida (brother) and Kimihiko Fujisaka (father). Across all versions, the young protagonist is voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto and Koji Yusa in Japanese, and the adult character by Jamieson Price. For the remaster, Kenichirou Matsuda provided a Japanese dub for the adult version, while the brother protagonist's English actors were Zach Aguilar and Ray Chase.

Though critical response to the elder protagonist was generally positive for his caring personality that contrast with his barbarian appearance and relationship with his daughter, the decision to alter the design was the subject of discussion by several writers due to the need to appeal to Westerns being too much. Meanwhile, the young protagonist was praised for his energetic persona and being seen as a better character once the time-skip reflected a major change in his look.

Nier
The protagonist is the lead and main playable character in Nier, living on a post-apocalyptic Earth in a village with the young girl Yonah; depending on the version, he is portrayed as a young man with Yonah as his sister, or an older man with Yonah as his daughter. To support Yonah, the protagonist acts as a courier for their village. The protagonist is a Replicant, one of the soulless artificial humans that populate the Earth following an apocalyptic magical pandemic. Human souls exist as shadow-like beings called Gestalts intended to rejoin with their Replicant counterparts. After the Replicants gained sentience and see the Gestalts as monsters dubbing them "Shades", the two sides come into conflict. When Yonah falls sick from the Black Scrawl, a condition triggered by an issue in the Replicant system, the protagonist goes on a quest to find a cure for her.

The protagonist is joined by Grimoire Weiss, a talking book with access to magic; Kainé, a foul-mouthed swordswoman part-possessed by the Gestalt Tyrann; and Emil, who self-isolates due to his petrification powers. He finds fragments of Grimoire Weiss's powers, but the Shadowlord−a powerful Gestalt key to the Replicant system−kidnaps Yonah after attacking the protagonist's village with a powerful Shade; Kainé forces Emil to petrify her to seal the Shade away. The Shadowlord is later revealed to be the protagonist's Gestalt, who sought out Yonah's Replicant form to save his Gestalt sister, mirroring the protagonist's actions.

Five years later, the protagonist helps Emil find new powers that free Kainé, and goes on another quest to find parts of a key that unlock the Shadowlord's castle where Yonah is being held. Retrieving the key fragments, all held by powerful Shades, the protagonist enters the Shadowlord's castle and is forced to fight Devola and Popola, two androids who ran his village and oversee the Replicant system. In the game's first two endings, the protagonist kills the Shadowlord and rescues Yonah; the Shadowlord's death will eventually lead to the extinction of both Replicants and Gestalts. Subsequent playthroughs, which begin following Kainé's release from the seal, show further backstory for characters including Kainé and the Gestalts. The final two endings are based around a choice after Kainé is overwhelmed by Tyrann and goes berserk following the Shadowlord's death; the protagonist can either kill her to end her suffering, or sacrifice his and Tyrann's existence to restore her normal form, leaving her and Yonah with no memories of him.

Related media and crossovers
Both versions of the protagonist featured in post-launch downloadable content dubbed "The World of Recycled Vessel": depending on the protagonist, the DLC featured the alternate version of the character. Further details around the protagonist are included in Grimoire Nier, a guidebook featuring plot and character summaries, short stories, concept art and developer commentary. The short story Red and Black details the brother protagonist's early struggles caring for Yonah, including prostituting himself to another man before killing him on a Shade hunt and becoming his village's courier with Devola and Popola's encouragement. Kainé's quest to restore the protagonist to reality is core to the Grimoire Nier short story The Lost World and the new ending section of the 2021 expanded remaster Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... based on this story. The protagonist is featured in the 2011 CD Drama NieR Replicant Drama CD The Lost Words and the Red Sky, which included both the in-game version and a non-canon version in a high school setting.

The protagonist was featured as a downloadable content crossover costume for Nier: Automata (2017), and PUBG: Battlegrounds (2017). The protagonist cameoed in a flashback sequence in the 2023 anime Nier: Automata Ver1.1a, an inclusion attributed to the anime's staff. He is featured as a character in a special event in the mobile game Nier Reincarnation (2021) under the name "The Man Who Destroyed the World", The protagonist also featured in a collaboration with the mobile game SINoALICE alongside Emil. Promotional merchandise themed after the protagonist has been produced, including a plushy toy, and a Nendoroid figurine.

Concept and development
The protagonist was created by Yoko Taro, director and story writer of Nier (2010). His original plan featured a young brother protecting his sister as the only version. During production, producer Yosuke Saito received feedback from the North American and European branches of publisher Square Enix, showing that adult protagonists were preferred over the teenage protagonists common in Japanese games of the time. There was further pushback from Western staff over a young, slim man wielding a large weapon. There was some pressure to drop the younger protagonist altogether due to budgetary reasons, but Yoko pushed for his inclusion, and as a compromise two versions of the game were created. In Japan, the Replicant version for PlayStation 3 featured the brother, while the Gestalt version for Xbox 360 used the father. In the West both versions used the father, something Yoko did not want but conceded to. Talking about this discrepancy in terms of in-game dates and canonicity, Yoko described the two versions were alternate repeating events that were equally valid. Yoko never gave the protagonist a name, though fans used the name "Nier", the game's title. When writing later story material, Yoko used the name "Nier" out of necessity.

While the basic storyline remained the same, elements of character dialogue had to be adjusted to fit with either a brother or a father. Yoko, and scenario writers Sawako Natori and Hana Kikuchi all agreed on the backstory element of the protagonist sleeping with women and men for money, though this could not be included in-game. Upon seeing this detail, Nier short story writer Jun Eishima was shocked and needed to tone down the more direct description used by Yoko. A scene Natori wrote for the game, where Yonah saw the protagonist's resentment of her burden on him, was cut by Yoko for being "too real". The final scene of the first ending, where Yonah interrupts the protagonist's farewell to Kainé, was written by Natori as a "twisted" conclusion. The main theme of the story was "family love" regardless of the protagonist's nature when interacting with Yonah. The final scene involves the protagonist enjoying his happy life with Yonah as requested by Saito, a decision Yoko accepted despite it clashing with his previous work. Yoko also commented that the overall sad ending, with everyone doomed to die regardless, was his reflection of the real world where death was inevitable regardless of any individual's actions.

The relationship between the protagonist and Kainé was not focused on so the story remained simple, with Yoko's original plan being a simple plot of a brother saving his sister. Yoko envisioned the party dynamic as familial without any romantic elements to the protagonist's relationship with Kainé, though in the guidebook interview Yoko confirmed Kainé developed romantic feelings for the protagonist by the ending. The protagonist's choice whether to kill or save Kainé during the game's final endings was based around how much players would have come to like her. Eishima felt that each ending was better suited to different versions of the protagonist; the father would choose to kill Kainé, while the brother would sacrifice himself. The ending scenario where the protagonist is restored included in Grimoire Nier was initially an alternate proposal if the fourth ending, which involved players' save data being deleted, was not approved. The Grimoire Nier scenario was included in the remaster due to the game's larger budget, and a request from producer Yosuke Saito for more fan service. Yoko stated his wish that the protagonist relive his journeys with Kainé and Emil before the end, with the writers speculating that both the father and brother could experience this ending.

Both versions of the protagonist was designed by Korean illustrator D.K. His younger version was designed to appear like a stereotypical do-gooder lead character, with an early design making him look aristocratic before he was revised to appear more like an adventurer. D.K described his design for the brother as being inspired by a Siberian husky. An early version of the father version had a "fashionable" look with a tight shirt and neckachief. The design team were able to use the same basic character model for both versions of the game, though this resulted in some odd proportions between the two as there were only limited adjustments possible. They also needed to adjust the lighting and camera position to show each character off in the best way.

For the remaster, which was set for a worldwide release, Yoko chose to focus on the brother protagonist. This was due to both the brother being the initial planned protagonist, and the father version seeing mixed reactions overseas. The father protagonist was featured as the player character in the original DLC content, which was incorporated into the game. The characters were redrawn by new artists for the remaster. The artists chosen had previously contributed to the Drakengard and Nier series, and were brought in at Yoko's request. The brother protagonist was redone by Akihiko Yoshida, lead character artist for Nier: Automata; while the father protagonist was handled by Drakengard artist Kimihiko Fujisaka.

Portrayal
For the original Nier, the English voice recording was done first with Yoko supervising along with localization company 8-4. The adult protagonist is voiced by Jamieson Price. In Japan, the Gestalt release used the English dub. Price, who dubbed the role in 2009, enjoyed voicing the character. He drew inspiration for the role from his own relationship with his daughter. In Japan, the protagonist has two voice actors in the Replicant version; his young version is voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto, while his older version is voiced by Koji Yusa. Yusa found playing the older brother interesting due to his subdued behavior and attitude compared to Okamoto's performance which had a brighter and more hopeful tone.

Okamoto and Yusa returned for the 2021 remaster, and at Yoko's insistence two voice actors were also used for the English release to create dissonance in players with the in-game timeskip. In English, the brother protagonist is voiced by Zach Aguilar in his younger version, and Ray Chase as the older version. Aguilar felt honored to be joining the cast as he had looked up to the other pre-established actors in his youth, while Chase enjoyed playing the older version due to both his serious side and displays of "sardonic" humor. Aguilar and Chase were told not to model their performances on each other, reinforcing the differences in character. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voice recording was done remotely. The father protagonist was voiced in Japanese by Kenichirou Matsuda in the remaster. Price was sad that his version of character went unused, but understood the situation upon researching the original game's development and was glad some of his work remained in-game.

Reception
In response to the character, GameSpot found Nier bland. On the other hand, RPGamer said he was surprisingly likable as a result of his relationship with his daughter and companions despite his design making him come across as a barbarian. RPGFan agreed, saying the game "made me feel like a father" due to how the main character is obsessed with taking care of Yonah, but felt some of his tactics will question the player. In a bigger article, the same site noted that Nier is one of the best fathers in gaming history due to his soft side which contrast his dark appearance. Destructoid found the relationship between the father and the daughter "touching" and that his other bonds also help improve the narrative. Several writers said that the elder protagonists was one of the earliest examples appealing fathers in gaming, noting it appears to have led to next similar characters like Kratos from God of War or Joel Miller from The Last of Us. In retrospect, Hobby Consolas said that while Nier's characterization and role might be common within role-playing games, the major plot twists the game presents surprised the audience who believed the title was poor at first.

Aitor Fernández from Universidad de las Illes Balears noted that the trio of Nier, Kaine and Emil represented the people rejected by society with Nier's wounds serving as a mark of what defines his exile though Fernandez noted that Emil is the one that stands out the most. When comparing the localization Nier had between Western and Eastern release, Ramon Mendez Gonzalez frin Universidade de Vigo wondered if there really such a necessary to heavily alter the original protagonist for the former release. He felt it was common for Western players to have characters similar to the father as protagonist in action games, comparing him to each other and finding the result chaotic. In general, Z. Zhou from University of British Columbia sees the protagonist to go through deconstruction of the typical hero's journey found in Japanese video games with a fantasy setting. When comparing the two versions of the protagonist, Zhou claims that the father attracted several fans to the point of calling it "daddening". Meanwhile, the brother incarnation was compared to 9S from Nier: Automata based on their looks. The young protagonist noted to appeal more with the Eastern audience according to Ramón Méndez González from Universidad de Alicante Palabras.

In the book Transnational Contexts of Culture, Gender, Class, and Colonialism in Play, the handling of the two Nier leads was compared to the way Westerns view role-playing game heroes such as Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII alongside his nemesis, Sephiroth, as overly feminine and Japanese due to the handling of masculinity depending on regions. This is reinforced by how Westerns tend to portray Final Fantasy VII characters in Machinima parodies of the game in a negative fashion. Nier is seen as an unfitting Japanese protagonist while the brother is instead seen more fitting for the Japanese audiences due to how his designs is more fitting with the Final Fantasy fans. In Believing in Bits, the protagonist is described the main character as tricky due to how both he and the player discover across the narrative the true nature of the civilians the player encounters and the close relationship Yoko Taro gave Nier to the final antagonist who instead comes across as more sympathetic as a result. This is more notable in replays, where the player can understand the dialogue of the enemies Nier battles.

With the release of Nier Replicant in Western regions, Replicant take on the younger main character was compared to deconstructions of famous games like Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda. Kotaku had found him boring, the writer still felt he was too cliche in role-playing games to the point he often wanted Kaine to replace him as the main character. In another article, Kotaku felt that the plot of game does not carry the same strength as the original due to the handling of the hero. He compared the two Niers, praising the brother for his energetic youth in contrast to the father whom he found tired whenever he was not dealing with his daughter. The fact that the time-skip notoriously changes the brother to the point he is voiced by Ray Chase rather than Zach Aguilar also appealed to Kotaku. While finding his story simple, RPGamer still liked the dynamic Nier has with the rest of the supporting characters. RPGFan and Electronic Gaming Monthly said found that the brother makes a better relationship with Yonah than the original father due to how his characterization noticeably changes in the time-skip. Aguilar and Chase's performances were also praised by Anime News Network they "split the billing as Nier at different points in his life, and they capture the character's many nuanced shades of anger, resilience, compassion, and undying loyalty."