To buy, or not to buy 2B’s starting sword?

The Nier franchise is marking its 15th anniversary this year. With Nier: Automata being the most popular, critical, and commercial success in the Square Enix series, it’s obviously a very big part of the celebration plans, and those plans include a very big sword.

Protagonist 2B can amass a sizeable arsenal during the course of a Nier: Automata playthrough, but just like they say you never forget your first love, her first sword has a special place in fans’ hearts. Named Virtuous Contract in English-language versions of the game, or Shiro no Keiyaku (“White Contract”) in Japanese, 2B’s starter sword is a mix of classical katana cues and futuristic flourishes. Even the in-game description for the weapon says that it “looks flashy.”

Coming soon from manufacturer Hibino is a life-size 1:1-scale replica of Virtuous Contract, measuring 139 centimeters (54.7 inches) in length. The designers are fully aware that you’re going to want to swing this thing, and so they say they’ve taken into account the sweet spot between making it too light and too heavy, giving it a satisfyingly balanced amount of heft and what looks to be some very nice hilt wrapping.

▼ That’s an actual human cosplayer, not a scaled-down figure.

When you do swing it, you’ll activate the embedded accelerometer, which triggers a light-up effect along the sword’s edge and a slicing sound effect like the one heard when 2B attacks with the Virtuous Contract in the game. If you do certain motions, the sword will also speak with the voice of 2B’s voice actress Yui Ishikawa, although Hibino is remaining cagey about exactly what sort of movements you’ll need to perform.

With one of Nier’s core concepts being that even the victors don’t make it to the other side of repeated fights to the death unscathed and untarnished, the Virtuous Contract has weathering applied to it in order to add a battle-worn aura to its beauty, and each unit has an individual engraved serial number. Hibino says that the handguard is made of diecast metal, but hasn’t yet specified what the other materials are. Presumably, though, the components and configurations are all within the bounds of Japan’s Firearm and Sword Control Law, so that you can display your Virtuous Contract next to your vibrating Legend of Zelda Master Sword without fear that you’ve become a criminal like you would be for possessing the Harry Potter Sword of Gryffindor in Japan,

Pre-orders are scheduled to start through the Hibino online store here on June 6, priced at 89,100 yen (US$598). That’s admittedly a pretty crazy amount to spend on a single piece of merch, but as Nier’s creator himself has observed, the franchise itself isn’t exactly the most mentally balanced.

Source, images: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Hibino
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