How can I forget NieR: Automata

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

Oh 9S. What a tragic hero. Someone who is burdened by endless curiosity. An android who is cursed to find answers that just burden instead of lifting. Throughout this play though I noticed the burden of knowledge that 9S is doomed too. Instead of a protagonist being uplifted by answers, 9S slowly descends into madness by the facts he is learning though out his journey.

At this point I do not have much more to contribute from what was revisited in ending A as it’s largely the same story but from a different character’s perspective. I do have a couple of highlights from this playthrough that I would like to touch on due to there emotional significance to me.

Emil is a complicated character. When we left him in the remaster of Replicant he had built himself a new body helping Kaine in her quest to resurrect Nier. Those were the people most important to his existence. Now 8000 years later, the clones of Emil have forgotten about his original purpose. It really is a beautiful foil to Automata’s story. One is finding the purpose of existence while the other is the rediscovery of why you fight. Walking though a field of Lunar Tears and looking at an ugly portrait was a perfect cap to Nier’s story.

Nier fought in the wrong. Nier was wrong. Nier did not know he was wrong. Nier fought for his goals and what he thought was right. Nier just wanted to save the people he loved. Nier damned everyone. I do not blame Nier. Nier’s story is a Shakespearean tragedy. Automata put the headstone on Niers story and resolved all questions that Replicant did not answer. Everyone died. No more humans. I just hope that Nier was happy as the world around him, the world he fought so hard for, slowly died.

As we round the corner in Automata’s story, I learned to love 9S. Just a selfless character that works to make the lives around him better. Unfortunately, the best parts of his character lead to his downfall, but that we will visit after C.