NieR Replicant Daredevil achievement grossly fetishizes one of its characters
NieR Replicant is set to release this Friday in the West, and a lot of fans – both old and new – are excited to get their hands on the remake. However, some queer fans fervor for the game has cooled somewhat, mostly due to the NieR Replicant Daredevil achievement that’s recently appeared online.
The Daredevil achievement in question can be found via an updated NieR Replicant PS4 trophy list. The achievement is rewarded to players if they ‘risked life and limb 10 times to discover someone’s secret.’ It gives a bronze reward, which feels as weird as it sounds.
But, what has got fans upset about this particular achievement is that the focus is on Kaine, an intersex character who was bullied relentlessly for being that in the first place. Not only is it gross and just plain juvenile to encourage players to look up a fictional character’s skirt for an achievement, but it’s incredibly demeaning for the focus to be on Kaine’s genitals.
The fetishization of individuals who are intersex has a lot to do with their genitals ‘defining’ who they really are. Not only is it blatantly untrue, but it’s a harmful objectification that conveys that the player is entitled to even know what is in between an intersex person’s legs.
What’s so incredibly wild about this achievement, and we don’t mean in a good way, is that it was included in the first place. There are some players who have stated that this trophy was in the original NieR, but as a quick Google search will tell you, that isn’t the case, at all.
There’s also been speculation that the Daredevil achievement in NieR Replicant is to reflect the What Are You Doing? achievement in NieR Automata. If that is indeed the case, then all we can really say is that it wasn’t cute then, and it certainly isn’t cute now. Especially since Kaine is explicit with her discomfort about being bullied for who she truly is.
We have reached out to Square Enix for comments about this particular change to the NieR remake.
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