How can I forget NieR: Automata

*** Spoilers for the Main Campaign of NieR: Automata***

I recently ended my playthrough of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 and was touched on the story and premise it delivers. I won’t go into any details regarding Replicant, but as I was playing, I marveled on how much was learned and improved upon in NieR: Automata. I wanted to play through the 2017 masterpiece and make notes on my thoughts what touched me in each ending. I want to talk about the merits of this game and put to writing this feeling I get whenever I think or talk about NieR. Something about this game with the ugly aesthetic, stunning music, and memorable main characters just clicks on so many levels that I am compelled to share to the whole world.

The best place to start talking about NieR: Automata would be the soundtrack. After finishing Replicant I was stunned on the absolute beauty and the themes each song gives. When revisiting Automata, the beautiful use and transformation of each of the main themes invoked emotion in me. Using subtle musical themes, the game reminds us that this Automata takes place in the same world as Replicant. As the most epic of set pieces unfold, I was reminded on battles on the Aerie, about Kaine’s grandmother, and other fights for pure survival. Automata’s soundtracks hold no punches when trying to evoke emotion through music, but the punch may hit a more sensitive spot if one took the time to play its older brother.

In the same vein on how Replicants soundtrack effects Automata of there are hints and foreshadowing on the ultimate plot revel in Automata. Automata is relying on the player to be educated as it doesn’t give you all the information you need. The audience is only superior if you have taken the time to make yourself so. Through subtle hints and dialogue a player is quickly able to tell on the fate and status of the world. The best example I can give on this matter is the masked robots in the desert, as they modeled their culture based on the desert people in Replicant.

One does not need to play Replicant to enjoy Automata as it’s perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet. The transition from melee combat to bullet hell set pieces are beautiful ways to tell the player dialogue and things that are happening outside of the character while still advancing the story. I enjoy the mix up on the games flow as I find both enjoyable. The combat and gameplay loop of this game I find relaxing while working on finding pieces of story to sink my teeth into.

Stories like the animal sanctuary in the forest, tales of revenge against mortal enemies, or individuals swooning over a philosopher. The side quests in the game are marvelous. In my first play through I maybe did 2 or 3, but not nearly the amount I have accomplished in this first play through. I feel I am not playing Automata for its combat. I am playing for the small stories of those fighting for their meager claims of existence or trying to justify that they should exist. Automata does a fantastic job of delivering clean and though provoking stories that are sprinkled through out it’s main campaign.

But the creme de la crème is the main story and the struggle that 2B goes through in her love for 9S. 2B refuses to take make any attachment to 9S until he goes missing. There are small attempts at her dipping her toes in the water of affection towards Nines, but ultimately is shut down until 2B and 9S are reunited after his events with Adam. She simultaneously exists to protect 9S and kill him should he grow too strong. She has probably done this hundreds, if not thousands of times. I could not imagine living a fate where you must kill the ones you love at the drop of a hat, only for that person to come back with no recollection of you.

As I play through the second time, I find it ironic that the robots are justifying their free will to the androids, but they themselves have none. Automata’s story is about 2B and 9S fighting to decide their own fate instead of having a shame council decide it for them. 2B looks overjoyed to the fact that 9S has found a way to escape the fate of her hands, as now it could be time for 2B and 9S to make their own stories.

See you when I beat ending B.