Action game NieR Replicant condemned for rewarding players who look up intersex character’s skirt

Apr 22 2021
Written by Ed Nightingale

NieR Replicant. (Square Enix)

NieR Replicant, the remake of the classic action role-playing game due out this week from Square Enix, features a transphobic trophy/achievement.

Ahead of its release, the game’s trophies/achievements have been revealed, including one called “Daredevil” that rewards players for peeking up one character’s skirt ten times.

That would be Kainé, a companion character who (spoiler) is intersex and struggles with her identity throughout the game.

The trophy description reads: “You risked life and limb ten times to discover someone’s secret.”

The NieR series is no stranger to struggles with personal identity and Kainé’s intersexuality is a key part of the character’s story arc.

The trophy, though, trivialises that narrative by crudely focusing on genitalia.

What’s particularly striking is that the original release of NieR did not include this trophy. Instead it’s a new addition to this remake.

It’s likely a nod to a similar trophy found in NieR: Automata, though that’s hardly an excuse.

In Automata, the trophy “What Are You Doing?” is rewarded, so to speak, to the player for angling the camera and successfully looking up main character 2B’s skirt not once, but ten times.

Each time she will push the camera away in annoyance, yet the player must persist.

Notably, the trophies in Automata can be bought with in-game currency so don’t necessarily need to be unlocked by the player to achieve the platinum trophy.

However the existence of these trophies in both games is a gross misstep that fetishises and undermines the complexity of these characters.

Fans have been disappointed with the trophy news. “This is a s**tty way to treat an intersex character, and we should expect better of video games,” said a tweet from Laura Kate Dale.

“Who the f**k thought that was a suitable description for the trophy???” reads another from mint_blossoms. “I get it’s in reference to the 2B trophy of a similar nature from Automata, but given Kainé being intersex it just comes off as completely disrespectful.”