At the end of April 2024, Nier: Reincarnation shut down. For a game about the last survivors of a civilisation living in a distant server, it was an incongruous end.
The importance of digital archaeology in the games industry has become ever more urgent, as the industry shifts towards the live-service model. Even with a game so fundamentally compromised by gacha mechanics - used to gatekeep its otherwise-excellent storytelling - it’s a tragedy when such a creative world is taken offline, locked away in a vault to fester.
So join me as we wander the halls of the Cage, and marvel at the wonders of the last bastion of humankind.
All photos were taken on Android, and post-processed in Affinity Photo.
