These elements are also present in “City Ruins – Shade-,” which features a richer, yet solemn, sound, vocals by Emi Evans, and is a bit more engaging overall. The overall atmosphere has a haunting quality to it, befitting for a ruined civilization. “City Ruins – Rays of Light-” features acoustic guitar, piano, and progresses from a softer sound to a more dynamic and lush arrangement featuring vocals by J’Nique Nicole. Many of the area themes also incorporate vocals and capture the essence of the area fairly well. On the flip side, “Emil ~ Despair,” is similar in style to “Grandma,” but the power is kept a bit better throughout the tune, even when absent vocals. The melody itself still works as well as it does in the original, thanks to the retention of the original vocals, but like the arrangement of “Grandma,” when the vocals are removed, the tune itself becomes much less powerful. The strings accompaniment on this tune also is a bit lacking. Similarly, “Song of the Ancients ~ Atonement” is reminiscent to “Song of the Ancients ~ Fate” from the first soundtrack, although less rich in sound. “Grandma ~ Destruction” takes the poignant original and adds a dramatic flair to it by incorporating choir, forgoing the original vocals, however, due to how it is mixed on the soundtrack, when the vocal aspects are removed, it lacks the impact and power the choir brings in. Both “Faltering Prayer ~ Dawn Breeze” and “Faltering Prayer ~ Starry Sky” prominently feature the melody in “Dispossession” from the first NieR soundtrack with the former featuring atmospheric synth, piano, and vocals by Emi Evans that give it a haunting touch while the latter is more melancholic due to the music box rendition. Of course, there are some fan favorites that return with new arrangements. However, overall, I feel that the more atmospheric tracks are an afterthought and while they work well in the context of the game, fail to stand out when listened to in isolation. Another such tune, “The Color of Depression,” is tense, darker, and features some industrial tones, while “Widespread Illness” adds some ethereal synth, but is largely forgettable. Slightly better is “Fortress of Lies,” which provides a similar electronic ambiance, but has an atmosphere that is certainly more beautiful than other purely electronic tunes on the album. The second title screen music, simply “Significance,” features a richer sound, a slightly more prominent use of vocals, although quite subtle compared to the other vocals on the album, and continues with the piano as well. It immediately tells you that, at least to some degree, the music in this game will have some differences compared to the original. The album opens up with the first title screen music, “Significance – Nothing,” featuring an atmospheric backing track, piano, subtle vocal usage, and some electronic elements. Does their sequel live up to the lofty expectations set by fans of the original soundtrack? Body
Okabe and Hoashi return and this time are joined by Kuniyuki Takahashi, who debuted in the world of game music with his work on Drag-on Dragoon 3, also directed by Yoko Taro. I can only imagine the pressure that they felt when composing the soundtrack for this game, as they certainly had big shoes to fill. It was generally well-regarded and really accentuated the atmosphere of the game. 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”.It’s still hard to believe that 7 years after the first NieR, that we were getting a sequel, given that the game wasn’t a critical smash hit, but one thing that did stand out was the music by Keiichi Okabe and his team (Keigo Hoashi, Kakeru Ishihama) at MONACA. NieR: Automata Original Soundtrack peaked at number 2 on the Oricon charts, with over 28,000 copies sold in its first week in Japan. 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. 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.
A soundtrack album for the game was released worldwide by Square Enix on March 29, 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 sequel to Nier, Nier: Automata, was released in February 2017.