Protagonist (Nier)
The protagonist of Cavia and Square Enix action role-playing game Nier is a player character whose identity differs depending on the three versions of the game. In the original Xbox 360 version released worldwide, the protagonist is an elder skilled in combat who seeks to find a cure for the disease of his daughter Yonah. In the PlayStation 3 version, the protagonist instead takes the form of a teenager whose relationship with Yonah is instead that of a sibling. When the game was remastered, the protagonist was instead the young one with the father appearing only as downloadable content. The elder Nier is voiced by Jamieson Price in English and Ken'ichirō Matsuda in Japanese.The young Nier is voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto in Japanese during his child persona while Koji Yusa replaces him after the time-skip. Zach Aguilar and Ray Chase voice the character in English. The decision to create two different protagonist came from the developers' desire to appeal to different culture, believing a middle aged warrior would fit more the Western audience while the Eastern would enjoy more a young one. Director Yoko Taro took a preference to the latter when the game was remastered but in order to see the narrative be seen from a different point of view for the Western audience. Though critical response to the elder Nier was generally positive for his caring personality that contrast his barbarian 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 Nier was praised for his energetic persona and being seens as a better protagonist once the time-skip reflect a major change in his look. Creation Two character designs for the protagonist were created for Nier. The developers believed that the Japanese audience would respond more strongly to a younger protagonist, while non-Japanese audiences would prefer an adult protagonist character. Other than changing the protagonists appearance and modifying a few lines of dialogue to fit with him being a father rather than a brother to Yonah, the developers made no changes between the two versions; it was initially believed that the older protagonist was the character's original design. The game was meant to appeal to older players; This influenced the decision to have a main character in his 30s for the international version. The main theme of the story is that of "family love" regardless of the protagonist's nature when interacting with Yonah. The final scene involves the main character enjoying his happy life with Yonah as requested by producer Yusuke Saito. Producer Saito felt this type of happy ending was different from Yoko Taro's previous works but Taro still accepted it. Kainé's relationship with the protagonist was not portrayed as explicitly romantic in-game as Yoko both felt unequipped to write a romance and saw the group dynamic as familial. Saito and Taro had staff members from the United States and Europe gather and have