Nier Replicant characters recreated as origami models after 200 hours of work

Two stunning origami recreations of the Nier Replicant's leading characters has been revealed.

In the trailer below, you can get a look at the origami recreations of The Protagonist and Emil, two of the leading characters in Nier Replicant. It's Finnish artist Juho Könkkölä who's responsible for the stunning recreations of both characters in the classic origami fashion.

These incredible creations took a mind-boggling 210 hours to finish from Könkkölä. That's all the way from the inception of both characters, as Könkkölä set about planning how he'd carefully fold and bend each bit of paper, all the way to the finer details like weapons.

Just below, you can check out the recreation of Emil in greater detail. The planning and preparation for this entire process by Könkkölä really is something spectacular. Origami is tricky at the best of times, let alone when you're recreating two extremely distinctive figures over the course of 200-odd hours.

Nier Replicant releases this Friday, April 24, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, as well as for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S via backwards compatibility. It's not a true remake of the 2010 original from creative director Yoko Taro, but is more of an overhaul, with better visuals and reworked combat by developer ToyLogic.

If you, like many others, experienced the fantastic Nier Automata in 2017 but never played the precursor, then fear not. Nier Replicant isn't a full-blown prequel to Automata, and requires no former knowledge of the series going in. In other words, whether you've played Automata or not, it's a perfect place to begin for newcomers.

For a full list of all the other games launching throughout the current year, head over to our new games 2021 guide for more.