Please don't be disheartened by the view count this long video got compared to your other uploads. This is the most ...well, comprehensive, and also moving take on this game that I have seen on YT so far.
Hey you missed to most obvious one!!! 2b.......or not 2b "To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them" Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.
Adam Millard - The Architect of Games That makes sense, I noticed quite a few disparities between the captions and what was spoken, last-minute changes I expect.
@@ArchitectofGames Ok, English is obvious, but Polish and Italian are an interesting mix for a single person. Now I'm wondering about your background :D
@@Siriathion Hi, I'm the translator for Polish subtitles so I dont think that Adam knows this language since he would've corrected my few mistakes :P Anyway I'm happy that someone noticed my work, it was quite weird expircience to just dissapear for 2 weeks, especialy since it was my second piece of media translated :)
The game turned out to be a lot more popular than initially expected as it shipped more than 5 million copies. Outside of a few well known IPs, Japanese games rarely sell this good.
@@weaverquest the problem is I still read reddit comments that say “ yeah I dropped the game after the first ending it wasn’t that special” so it’s likely those that bought it didn’t even finish it haha
Oh, that's an awesome quote. Need to look it up. Finally something to put with my "I don't believe in humanity, but I believe in the potential of humanity" from "No Game No Life".
They're all really good but Angus has the kind of quiet brilliance that a lotta people may not bother doing stuff with him over the "louder" characters.
One of my favorite bits of writing in the whole game is the start of route B. When you see a little bot trying to revive a clearly dead machine by just dumping oil on it, the beginning "It doesn't matter how much oil you give him, little guy" makes you think "You're not going to be able to fix him." But that's not what we get. What we get is "You can't make a machine your brother." It's just really clever and I really like it. ALSO Weight of the World will make me tear up every time I hear it.
there are sooo many amazing lines like this one tho... my favorite is, again from 9s, "better make sure he's actually dead next time", makes you wonder how much he already knew at this point...
I love how weight of the world is just done in three languages of the three characters. English for 2B Japanese for 9S Chaos for A2 (Made up language for the game)
I happened to be taking two philosophy classes when this game came out. Studying the philosophers that this game alludes to while playing it was one hell of a fucking ride. It's why I ended up putting over 200 hours into the game and deleting 3 play throughs. And yet, to this day, I still find myself at near sobs watching/playing the bullet-hell that is Ending E. God I even see my file names (and people's dead bodies that helped me) in some of the early uploads of Ending E here on RUclips. There's no doubt in my mind I wouldn't have liked the game as much as I do were it not for those two philosophy classes I had to take.
As it turns out, the save files that get sacrificed genuinely get stored, but for the first few saves they probably crafted some as otherwise the day 1 players would get shafted. Plus, without at least SOME artifical saves, the total bank would deplete insanely quickly, as most players make a net loss on the save bank.
@@EvanOfTheDarkness I feel like one of the under the hood message of the game is innocence is a bliss I don't know I'm just guessing that if you're an almost immortal being(like a machine) that never dies, why not continue finding every possible thing in the world, going to different planets, finding new creatures, just for the sake of knowing, until maybe the end of the universe. Until then why lead to destruction and lead for self consciousness? Cause it would be meaningless. Then... why ask for truth and knowledge? Why do we play and analyze story driven video games like this? For entertainment. For job? For the sake of surviving. I mean why not let the truth be known to the androids who show signs of humanity and just send them off to another solar system? I just keep asking question after another and possibly leading to the question... Why do we live, What is our purpose, Questions that I would never truthfully find answer because I need to find that myself and make myself believe it is the final answer. innocence is a bliss? maybe? perhaps? I'm not trying to criticize anything, I just thought thoughtless things, and this is one of thousand of them. maybe?
Thank you for choosing to leave Pascal alive with his memories. That is the choice I wanted to make but was stuck in the mindset that my only options were the ones explained to me.
I think you're misunderstanding the cultists a little bit, honestly. It's not that they're rationalizing something away because it doesn't fit their religion. They worship humanity. Humans die. Machines don't. Machines weren't designed to get old and die, or to reproduce, or to feel emotions. So when their 'king' dies, they see it as just him becoming more godlike. More human. It's honestly not very irrational at all.
I thought the cultists were basically just cultists. Their leader/prophet died and they deified him immediately. Their mass suicides were attempts to follow their leader. They assumed he achieved something in dying and that was his form of transcendence. I think them taking control of their deaths was just that because machines die a lot in Nier
I agree. I also found issue with him reading the “Your thinking about how you want to **** 2B right now aren’t you?” Line as you want to fuck 2B. While I agree that’s one of the interpretations it’s also designed to be open. Especially cause 9S is starting to feel conflicted about 2B. The reason it’s censored is because 9S wants to kill her, he wants to hate her, he wants to love her, he wants to kiss her, and he wants to fuck her. The other reason it’s censored is so that you can project your own desires into the statement.
6:38 I think you missed the mark a little here due to a translation difficulty. In the original Japanese 2b expresses her dislike for 9s using formal language. This is typically used between people who aren't familiar with each other, or to distinguish social position. I suspect her frustration arises from the former as at this point 2b has developed feelings for 9s over the unspecified number of times she's been assigned to him and had to kill him, and is bothered by the perceived 'distance'. It's almost like a subtle sign of 2b's emotional barrier breaking down a little
this is a key insight ! in the original context this exchange is 2B going "stop using overly formal language with me [we have a closer relationship than that] ". in this exchange 9S is the one playing at enforcing the "act" of machine-like formality and 2B is the one rejecting it. it's part of a larger back and forth of each of them playing at toeing the line of machine-ness, while the other rejects it for them, and their relationship develops through this process. honestly beautiful writing
Yo, your videos are always amazing, but this one especially is top-notch. I'm too poor and uninterested in shmups to play this game, but I really enjoyed being strung along on this philosophical journey. Sometimes at night I get afflicted with bouts of thanatophobia, and I think your in-depth explanation of the different approaches of deriving meaning from a meaningless world has given me much better tools to fight it. Thanks for all the content you create!
I highly suggest Clemps' videos on Nier:Automata if you are still interested. He include stage plays and other novelas side story in his video and make some arbitary plot much more clearly.
@@tovi3280 The flying battles and hacking are classic shoot'em up right from a 90's arcade, thought. Still, even for me who sucks at it, it was largely manageable (well I suffered in the bullet hell ending, thanks for everybody's help! ).
I haven't even finished watching this video but I already have to say thank you because this is exactly what I've been looking for for months since I've finished the game. I can't believe it doesn't have more views, since it's so spot on.
Psst! You didn't hear it from me but the best way to help this stuff get more views is to share it with people who'd enjoy it, keep it on the dl though I don't want everyone else finding out about that trick. Seriously though, thanks for all the nice words!
Wow. I played the game, I loved the game, but I didn't make the full philosophical connections. I really appreciate you briefly explaining the less common ideas and terms when you introduced them, I would have been completely lost without that. I really enjoyed your break down of the game, not only did it teach me quite a bit it was also flat out enjoyable. Thank you!
Slight correction at 30:45: Androids are NOT Replicants, Replicants are entirely organic and not originally meant to be sentient, just empty shells for humanity to re-inhabit. They are also sterile, and the ability to reproduce would only be activated if the 'real' humans were fused with them once more. Androids are much more synthetic, though with both organic and magical componants, and their sentient intelligance was intended. I just saw this come up just now, so I uh, hope you didn't base a lot of your points on Replicants being the same as Androids lol.
Nah, it's no huge deal, that's just me abreviating too much, apologies. It's much easier to say they're the same thing because they hit a lot of the same conceptual notes than spend 5-10 mins going through the backstory of Nier just to make the distinction when it's not really relevant. Replicants are a technological precursor to androids, but they're not the same thing, you're 100% right.
Though not really even a precursor for Androids considering the androids were already around at the same time and actually were the main governers of the Gestalt plan after all. More like different branches of the same tree than one evolving from the other.
@@ArchitectofGames I mean, the first guy explained the difference in half a minute, not hating or anything, you could just have recognized the mistake but anyway, it's impossible not to make mistakes in a video as long as this one. Congratulations for creating it, I'm really enjoying it after playing the game.
@@toallin5146 The question is not how much time it takes to explain, but whether the information is relevant enough to warrant adding even more to the already massive amount of information you're jamming into the viewer's brains. If the video was just one hour of infodumping it'd be much more boring and it would dilute the overall message and intent that went into it.
Not that it matters several months after you posted the video, but... I haven't watched the whole video yet, but one thing I noticed - I think you've got the perspective of 2B and 9S a bit wrong at some points. You say how 2B only sees machines as mindless enemies, while 9S sees more in them, but it's almost the opposite, as 2B commonly notices how machines actually show the signs of consciousness and it is 9S who repeats to her "no, 2B they cannot understand those concepts" as he notices that this behavior is clearly disturbing for 2B. More than that, in side quests 2B generally relates to machines much more than 9S does - be it Machine Examination or Lord of the Valley, or even Turf Wars - in all the cases she reflects on what machines do, or say, and compares them to herself - "we also kill a lot of machines. Probably someone sees that as a sin", "(about whether the heaven exists) They will find out in the end. And so will we." With all 9S's "open mindedness" he commonly just dismisses the signs of consciousness that machines have, and he also is the one who takes Pascal much less openly. On this one I'd agree more with the guy who pointed out that being in denial is a common thing with 9S.
Yes and no, 2B is not as openly hostile to the machines as 9S is, but as the novel reveals, she actually not that far behind, it isn't really until the end of Route A/B when she finally realizes that machines aren't that different from then. 9S does question what they know about machines in several times before going back to his old pattern and even interface with Pascal at some point, something very risky for androids and machines to do in order to share information, 2B even calls him out on that saying that to remember that machines are the enemy. Of course all 9S possible doubts about then are just thrown aside by Route C, where he doesn't care any more about it and just wants revenge for what they did to YorHa and 2B. Is more like they both have conflicting feelings about then, but one gets better and the other gets worse.
@@spiderbatman97 For me the most character-revealing moment with 9s was probably father Servo's death. It's obviously a sad moment for both him and 2b. Sad music turns on in the background. And yet 9s's reaction, at least verbally, is to continue to curse at the dead machine, going as far as to say he's glad he'll never have to see him again, in a very emotionally-charged voice. 2b reacts to this outburst very calmly, with acceptance, even though she'd clearly capable of arguing with her partner when he says something she percieves as wrong. So why is she staying quiet while 9s spews venom about the death of her friend? Simple. She knows 9s much batter than we do, which is why she knows that he is pretty compassionate, emotional and lonely. The only way he can survive loosing a friend is to tell himself that he never really had one. To sum it up, 9s is a very compassionate, sensitive character. And yet he has to kill machines. Machines that are becoming more and more obviously intelligent, relatable and peaceful. The only way he can convince himself to do it is by telling himself that none of that is real.
@@Geo-di7yf If you go to the nier subreddit, you can find some pages on the side that takes you to some links for more info. From the "I just got ending E" link theark.wiki/w/I_just_got_Ending_E This has everything you are looking for, in a suggested reading order. None of it was ever published outside of Japan, so it's all fan translated.
Leaving Pascal instead of making the choice between resetting his memories or killing him, leads to him committing suicide, you can return later after you left him to find him dead by his own hands. So what seems to first be the right choice, may actually end up the worst of all, as you left Pascal all alone and abandoned by his one friend, forcing him to end it all by himself with no one to comfort him.
but at least, its a choice, he or her(what "gender" is pascal meant to be? his name sounds male but his voice is more female gonna go male for ease of typing)made for themself, pascal gave up his "choice" when he asked you to kill him, or erase his memories, but you gave that choice back, forcing him to make a decision himself, whatever the decision was right or wrong is not important here, what is, is that he made his own decision
@@Rezafeild and THATS where i whole heartedly disagree. We see SEVERAL Machines who explicitily express their Gender that they choose for themself. Being a Machine in Nier automata dosnt mean you cant be a he or her. Do they have biological genders? No, they dont. But so do the androids(given they arent biological as well) yet i doubt you would say that 2B or 9S arent her and he respectivly as well. So is it just appearance? well then... the Boss in the amusement park? that one is distinctly female looking, her backstory is about wanting to be beautifull to appeal to a Machine who, distincly, wears male associated clothes of a Tophat etc. The point being, YES they are machines, yes they do not have biological genders, nor the need for genders in the first place, yet, at least some, choose to associated themselfwith one gender over the other, And pascal has not only a distinct name, but also a distinct Model AND distinct voice. The question which gender Pascal is is very much warranted, sure she/he coudl say "i dont associated with either over the other" but thats still a choice pascal would have made
@@weberman173 I could be wrong here, as I played the game a while ago, but somewhere at some point I think it was stated that Pascal identified as a male but chose to use a female voice since it was (I guess for the human standards that they could put their hands on) more soothing for the children robots. Take this with a pinch of salt because it could be just some speculation I saw on some random video.
@@weberman173 Him asking us to kill him or erase his memories were still his choices, in either case he was lookin for a way to end his suffering, walking away that was our choice which led to him doing the same thing he asked us to do just by himself, the choice didn't change only the medium
This video is super awesome! I'm really glad I found it, you deserve a lot more subscribers! As a side note, there are a couple of interesting notes on the philosophers in the game. Confucius and Lao Tzu actually had diametrically opposed philosophies. Confucius founded Confucianism, which has a super long history but can broadly be understood as advocating for the value in human rituals, institutions, and beliefs. Lao Tzu founded Daoism, which also has a long history but advocated a return to a pre-linguistic, pre-civilization way of being that abandons abstract concepts in exchange for non-action (acting without will / acting naturally). These two are, in many ways, the two dominant opposing forces in Chinese philosophy. Also, the first boss you fight with A2 in path C is called Hegel, a reference to the German philosopher of the early 19th century. His main contribution to philosophy was The Master-Slave Dialectic, which says that people become conscious through antagonistic perception of the "other." In other words, people can only be conscious by contrasting their own sense of self with the other. This is super important in that fight, because it is in that fight that A2 perceives 2B's consciousness inside her. The merging of their consciousness ironically contradicts Hegel. By becoming one, both achieve a higher level of self-awareness. Anyways, great video! I especially loved the idea that the bosses you fight are ironic mirrors of the philosophers they were named after.
I really like a lot of your analysis here, especially since most of what I've seen talks about the philosopher expy's and how they demonstrate or deconstruct their namesake's ideas.I do think that you're short changing some of the specific characters though, especially 2B/E, possibly the character with the most subtlety. Granted the characterization you gave of her is pretty valid for a first play through, although I felt when I first played that there was some subtext and depth that I didn't know enough to truly get. We se a bit of this right in the prologue, where she goes from coldly calling out the deaths of her squad mates on the initial attack run to nearly panicking when 9S - who as far as he and we are concerned she barely even knows - is simply injured. Especially after she lectures *him* on not showing emotion. This sequence concludes with her clench-fisted anger back on the Bunker when his memories didn't get transmitted back. Also soon after you can talk to some NPCs that comment on how good it is to see these friends together so often. Once again odd for two that supposedly just met on their first mission together.The revelation about 2E's actual identity also gives a lot of meaning to some sidequests and passing dialogue. Most importantly and commonly, her seeming inability to comprehend the machines can grow - when first it was *9S* brushing those things off - becomes trying to steer her friend away from the kind of thing that would make her have to kill him. And that last bit not only makes her a subtle character, but a tragic one. Because - as shown early by panicking when 9S is hurt - she genuinely cares about him, at *least* as a very close friend, and almost certainly more. And then, again and again she has to kill her best friend. And then not only have the guilt of killing someone she cares for, but then having to *meet the person she just met for the "first time"* over and over. It does make their relationship look amusingly like a "no one can kill 9S but ME!" kinda thing though.
I knew this game was special when I realized on route B that we were literally seizing the means of production (the arm) and using it to smash Engels. What an amazing game. Keep up the great work by the way man, just found your channel and your videos are so well done and enjoyable, crazy that they don't have the views they deserve.
@@Demilich23 Mind keeping your uneducated bullshit to yourself from now on? Or better, actually go read Marxist works, so at least you know your enemy.
@@Demilich23 "seize the means of production and kill [guy who told us to do so]" You had a chance here to make an unironically incredible and poignant "right wing" critique of communism using this frame of "kill the author" with communism and AI being the inevitable conclusion of uncontrolled capitalism. You could have made a post-capitalist philosophical point that wasn't communist. But no. You acted like an ideologue. You're a fucking robot.
@@SaintJames14 holy fucking cringe. how do you unironically talk like this without wanting to throw up? take a shower and grow up you delusional fucking wastrel.
Tearing up everytime the choir kicks in during weight of the world. Ending E is such a gem and actually breaking the 4th wall by literally deleting your save data to save someone else is such a masterpiece
I feel like the emotional impact of these concepts would be much greater if i realised them while playing the game. I'm just not smart enough to figure them out myself
To be fair, I don't think many people got this on their first playthrough. To be able to catch these themes, you'd have to be fairly proficient in philosophy and literature. I didn't get much of what this video explained, but I did get the emotional information that went along with it. I think a good story/ piece of art does both; make you feel something profoundly deep because it is informed by a fundamental understanding of what came before it. It's the same when I listen to classical music, I don't understand the musical theory behind it, but everytime I listen to the conclusion of Ballade #4 from Chopin a universe of emotions overcome me. There is a reason why great art gets analyzed by scholars. These people dedicate their lifes to know how a particular art piece does something new within the framework of what came before it. To have knowledge of this framework takes a lifetime of study and dedication. However, not knowing this framework doesn't take anything away from how a piece of art makes you feel.
Most analyses of Nier: Automata view it through the lens of Nietzsche, and while that's certainly a valid way to read a game all about nihilism, it's refreshing to get a different perspective, so thank you for that! Incidentally, I was wondering if there may actually be a connection between Nietzsches writings and the whole Death of the Author/Replacing the Author thing (even though the former considerably predates the latter). Nietzsche is kind of notorious for his both provocative and evocative writing style. One gets the feeling that sometimes he's even trolling the audience, in an effort to not just present his ideas but make the reader think about and make up his own damn mind about them, challenging them to become the author. What do you think?
I think... that is quite plausible, especially considering he views God is dead not as a moral tragedy, but a celebration. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the book where the quote comes from, has an ultimate message of rejecting previously constructed systems of morality, even the one Zarathustra himself creates, and build a new one, a better one (he was quite sketchy about the details though, either because he was unwilling or, more likely, unable to actually build one)
696190 He was sketchy about coming up with a comprehensive new system of meaning because he saw meaning as inherently perspectival. His whole idea of the Overman was produced in order to emphasize the idea that self realization is a product of distinctive self knowledge brought about by releasing yourself from herd moralities etc and to your individuality; that is, overcoming your nature as a socially moral being. It would be contradictory to Nietzche’s aims to provide some sort of comprehensive replacement system of morality.
Thanks Adam for making the story accessible for me and many others. Even though I'm quite familliar with Philosophy, I'm really bad at understanding finctional stories with all these small symbols and different characters. Your Comprehensive Reading enormously helps to see what effort the developers put into the game. On that note: Thanks for your effort!
I feel like the character Jackass is pretty important in the game. She does give you the answer to what "You're just thinking about how much you want to **** 2B, aren't you?" Its both fuck and kill since in a Jackass side quest she does tell that the Yorha androids get the same emotions as they do from love when they are in combat. So I thought that was a neat point
Ivan III one of the data intel thingys you get also shows that Jackass is still motivated to fight even after she finds out about the backstory of YorHa. it’s really cool.
I'm sharing this, this is amazing. Well done. I've been looking for an in-depth analysis video that covered the story from start to finish while being clear enough to follow (wanted one that would be easy for my friends who aren't gamers to understand) and this is it.
Years later, after dissecting and thinking about this game for hours upon hours, you've still somehow managed to pointed out things that I didn't notice or to interpret them in a way that I hadn't considered. Excellent stuff, AG.
Wonderful analysis. This game is such a work of art. One of the strongest stories ever told in a wonderful medium. The emotions at the end of ending E when you see others' inspring messages brings literal tears to my eyes, and then when players are asked to give up their save data after is so simple, but it's such an incredible effective tool to relay the central theme which Yoko Taro is trying to get across.
Hey you missed to most obvious one!!! 2b.......or not 2b "To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them" Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.
A lot of people try that one... but they actually miss the half of it. 9S, or Nein Es, is german for "not it", with "it" in that case being "to be". I guess it is the closer they could come with their couples of numbers/letters. Still, one will live to kill the other. Truly they are named for their fate.
Absolute banger video. I finally watched this after beating the game yesterday, and it did a great job of helping me organize and come to terms with the mess of emotions I felt after finishing the story.
45:25 "I didn't use B-Mode at all after this boss. I think that's the intended playstyle." Intended or not it, B-Mode is a great way of dealing with large groups of enemies. Think the ambush of Pascals children - there were so many enemies to feast on for health until the fight ends, B-Mode inevitably runs out and you can heal in the peace you just explosively created to keep yourself alive. This crudeness, the inability to reconsider after commitment to a fight, the aggressive self-sustaining and self-destructive motivation of A2 as opposed to the goal-seeking methodical idealistic nature of 2B is imo the key difference between A and B models. Imagine YoRHa ordering a retreat. A2s character and her gameplay mechanics force her and you as the player to keep fighting until the job is done. By trying to retreat A2 becomes vulnerable and immobile just as these traits are needed the most. A2s character development does not lead her to not using B-Mode, it heads to her subsiding fighting as a whole.
Also, don't forget it is 2B who isn't keen to engage machine lief forms. She says this twice, once in the Amusement Park as herself and 9S board the roller coaster, and once in Pascal's Village. She's the jaded,war weary foot soldier. 9S is the base soldier, for want of a better word. His view of the machine life forms, of the enemy, is from a non-combat viewpoint. He hasn't the experience with them; he hasn't fought them or had dealings with them. 2B has, hence her different viewpoint. The opening sequence has been repeated earlier, in A2 . Command lets its soldiers down hopelessly. Any time any of them are stranded on earth, Command doesn't rescue them. They're automatically deemed deserters and hunted down. Hence the E Types. Command does not look after its soldiers. Also, Command fails to inform 2B and 9S of potential traps. The android corpses in the tunnel leading to the Pit in the Desert Region is one instance. The operation to investigate Black Box signals and Resistance signals in the Amusement Park Opera House is the other. There are the android corpses in the passage leading to the Copied City also. These instances, every YoRHa sortie and the End Of YoRHa all point to one conclusion; YorHa was sabotaged from the start. The Machine Network, in the form of the Red Girls, infiltrated and undermined every YoRHa operation. I ti s the military perspective, and Mankind's extinction, which make Nier Automata. They also make this a difficult game to play. It is still one of my favourties.
It means both, and more. But critically, for androids those two things aren't that different. There's even some dialogue in one of the sidequests that states that Yorha androids are designed to feel something similar to sexual euphoria from combat. Biological organisms are designed to reproduce, Yorha androids are designed to kill.
Wow thanks ! This was the video I've been searching for. I've listened to at least 5 video essays on this game and while they were all great, none of them went as deep as needed to fully recapture the essence of this game. You did just that, I'm very happy about that many thanks to you!
I have been watching your videos for several years now but I never managed to make it all the way through this one until today. Neir: Automata is a game I won't ever play. It has too long a playtime and is not really the type of game I enjoy. However I am really grateful you made this video. This showed an what an incredible story is present in this game. Huge props to the developers for wrapping up so many existential and fundamental questions into something like a video game while giving it what looks like an incredibly compelling story. Huge props to you as well for such an in depth explanation of the game. This was a hour well spent. Thank you.
It's been a few years but still just being reminded of and seeing some of these moments and their emotions push me to tears Genuinely the most attached I've ever been to characters in a video game and the most pain I've felt for the characters
I don't often upvote or comment on videos but I wanted to take the time to say thankyou for taking the time to make this video. You've explained everyone exceptionally well (given just how much there is to this series when you start your way down the rabbit hole). The comments seem to be a mix of positive and negative but do not be disheartened by this. You've explained the game in your own way with your spin and your own understanding of everything and as we all know art in its purest form is always open to interpretation. Credit to you where it's due and also kudos for ending the video as beautifully as the game itself.
29:50 that is not the only 4 letter word that fits into that sentence. kind of reminds me of the beginning of the game. also might explain 9s' reaction a bit more when he gets surrounded by 2bs toward the end of the game
That's interesting actually. I think we naturally assume that because it's a censored word with asterisks that it's referring to 'fuck', but honestly it seemed so out of place that it makes me wonder if again it's a red-herring in the same way that the sexualization and 'anime boys' could arguably be considered that. A set up of pre-conceived notions that the game can then destroy as you play it.
Upon my first encounter with that line, I thought it was "fuck" but looking back, I feel it was more "love". It seems to fit the character of 9s more and provides a more humans aspect towards the androids. I can also see how it could be "hate" but I'd assume its completely subjective and up to the viewer/player.
@@westongardner4206 4 months late, but I think that "Kill" fits very well too, given that 9s was well aware of 2b's Identity and his whole "Don't Worry 2b, I'll Kill you now" or whatever he exactly said.
@@TheChrowne solid interpretation too! I think it just depends on the way you want to look at it. Though given what 2B really is does imply kill the most
I never noticed this before but the androids running around screaming “This can’t be, they’re machines!” whilst being machines themselves reminds me of humans acting the same way about the other animals of our world being so like us, forgetting we too are but animals. Silly robots. And silly humans.
You have singlehandedly deepened my understanding of this game. I didn't understand at first just how far they took the concepts of the meaning of life until you laid it all out so beautifully. I can't thank you enough for this, I can finally feel some closure after playing this game
Well done on this video. I finished this game a few days ago and as I reflect on it, I loved every moment of this game. Maybe not at the moment as sometimes the quest may have felt dull, but looking back, that only added to the feelings I have about how it handles its themes and tackles it's story. Some of those side quests felt like a struggle to get motivated to do and had little to no real payoff aside from in game loot which I didn't need. What I am getting at with this is that it made me connect to the characters even more upon reflection after finishing the game in terms of struggling to go on and why should I. What made that more powerful for me was when trying to get Ending E and shooting the credits, I felt like I couldn't do,.I was outmatched and wouldn't be able to achieve the ending that would give meaning to the whole game and I knew based on what the Pods said it would be the ending I had been hoping for and once I made it with the help of others, and saw the final scene and gave up my data, I just cried for like an hour as everything came into place and just moved me in a way I didn't think games, or any media for that matter, could do anymore.
3 years late, but holy SHIT. this is probably one of the best existentialism reads of Automata. bless you, because i learned a LOT about both the philosophical and psychological themes and their origins. This deserves far more hype. thank you so much for this.
All of this went way over my head. I just remember getting chills whenever a side quest subverted itself, like when you have to find the sword or memory of a teacher for a student on Command, the music shifts and laugh that their respected teacher was really a coward. Or an amnesiac android that discovers they were an E unit and goes from being worried where their friends are to happy they killed them.
I think this is one of the best RUclips videos I’ve ever seen. I just finished a 60+ hour play through, it’s been a roller coaster of emotions, my brain feels fried after spending the last 2 days thinking of nothing but this game and how profound it is. This video did an excellent job of consolidating everything, reinforcing everything and in a few parts actually helped me understand the themes of the story even better. For that I am so so grateful. This game has really affected me... infected me? Haha Also, when you got to describing the End credits part, I literally teared up remembering the choir kicking in during my Play through and being filled with so many emotions... while blowing up the creators of the game.
that sequence with the pod in the elevator at the beginning of ch17 just made it all click for me and I'm glad you kept it untouched in this video also this really helped me understand this game more, thank you so much for the video
This is a stunningly good discussion of what seems to be stunningly good game. Bravo. I had a whole row of videos lined up to watch, but I think I need to chew this one over for a bit! Also, I watched this because I had no intention of playing the game and wanted a comprehensive breakdown of what all the hype was about - the depth of discussion was greatly appreciated! Thanks very much
There really is no hype. The Game is phenomenal. It just cant being said enough :) I Hope you still going to play it. Experiencing it as a Game is what makes it so great, because it really uses its medium to the max.
I know Im a bit late to party, but... We need more long for videos from you man! That was great, just great. It was so interesting to hear you summarizing the game, and sharing your perspective. Thank you for that
Thank you. You made the best video about this game. So many years later and i still hear the music and have to think about this game, the story and your video. It showed me many layers that I have missed. Thank you.
I've watched dozens of these sort of hour-long video essays about the meaning of Nier Automata at this point, everyone brings some new things to the table, and a lot of them hit similar beats. Familiar ones are the significance of the philosophers, what to do with pascal, nihilism, and empathy. That being said, this video is still definitely A+ material, and I'll keep watching and analyzing nier until its a dead, dead horse. Oh, and don't worry about the replicants too much, even though the lore is dense as all get out (and I consider the lore to be a lot of fun to discuss) the creators acknowledge that the main thing that matters is how people felt during the game. And I'd say by the outpouring of all these videos, people felt a *lot*.
I watch this as I’m severely depressed from a bad break up from a woman who killed my self worth. But watching this and beating persona 5 royal (because that last new semester deals with a lot of similar themes I won’t spoil) damn it has me greatly reflecting my life and I think I can move forward.
I finished this game a couple of weeks ago and was honestly lukewarm on it, but I can't stop watching explainers. This one is the first thing that taught me something about it that was non-obvious. The Maslow's Heirarchy piece and the part about the characters that are together finding meaning were new to me.
So the ending's message is pretty MGS2-esque in that the response to nihilism and existential dread is to not look for an "absolute truth", but rather to come up with your own interpretation and then pass it on to others. Pretty sweet
Someone probably already said this, and it is largely inconsequential to the video, but replicants were not androids. They were clones of human bodies created using magic (or something). There were androids at that time, namely Devola and Popola, who were in charge of reincarnating the replicants until their souls (AKA gestalts) would be ready to be placed back into their bodies
Hi I've been crying for the past day or so as i completed every ending. Sitting here in tears again as i start a brand new save file. Good luck to whoever i helped, I genuinely hope this game meant as much to you as it now does to me.
After spending two hours rewatching this I'm planning to have a good and long conversation with my gaming enthusiastic philosophy teacher about this... Many thanks for this insanely good summarization of Nier Automata. And I'm sure I' not the only one that would love to have you take a look at the remake of the old Nier as well... there really arent enough people that actually take games apart to such a high level...
Brilliant video, it's games and philosophical/literary analysis like this that shows the real potential of this medium for profound experiences and stories. Just an addition: We can probably assume Pascal takes his name from Blaise Pascal, of 'Pascal's Wager' fame, that humans 'bet' their body/mind/(soul) on whether God exists...
We could see that as a reference to the humans self-disembodiment and uploading of their minds in pursuit of a sort of heaven. Humans make that bet whilst the Robots are physical embodiments and consciousnesses of humanity in machines, automata. The inanimate robots seem to develop a human “soul” and mind and are materially existing whilst humans have placed a bet on a utopian future by giving up mind and body.... that was a total mess of an explanation, but I think someone will be able to understand what I’m trying to say and word it better
You've earned a like and a sub from me for sure. This game had me questioning so much by the end, this is incredibly helpful. The fact that anyone can question whether video games are art or not anymore saddens me when beautiful masterpieces like this one exist.
Though I disagree with some of the stances the game makes, I think you delivered it in a beautiful way that even I, someone who disagrees could still appreciate. Thanks for making this! Love your stuff
Thanks a great deal for sharing this very comprehensive perspective on what I have to say, is the best game I have played, nearly ever. Your view points are really enlightening and they have actually helped me with something I have been going through personally. Once again, thanks and have a great life.
UNDERRATED!! Absolutely brilliant, thank you for the amazing video NieR: Automata to me is not the best game ever, it is far from perfect, it has many flaws both minor or major, but in the end, it is still my most beloved game I have ever played so far, and I play a hell lot of games Sigh... the combat is not as good nor as complex as DMC, the graphic is not comparable to FFXV, the quests are not as good as the Witcher 3, same for the length and the size, etc etc but dammit I still love it so very much
Not the best game ever but my favorite game ever for the time being, pushing FF X off its pedestal by twisting my emotions in ways I didn't think any story in any medium could.
I finished the game some time ago, and got everything from it. I'm so glad it developed the way it did because it wasn't just a game, nor a story, not a movie. Videos like this make me happy that there's a lot of people out there who value the unique and meaningful narrative, and also share their experiences and conclusions. Nice video, perfectly explained, yet with all the tools for the viewers to make statements of their own. Nier will always be special as I haven't found anything that compares to it. Glory to Mankind!
I just had the courage to watch this hour long video. Was not disappointed at all. Great video Adam!
6 лет назад+4
This video is by far the best I've ever watched about a game. Absolutely fantastic! You definetely made me try the game even though the last time I played any game was years ago. (Oh and did I mention that I hate hack'n'slash...?) So thank you very much!
Thank you for providing me the joy of this absolutely amazing game without playing through it. Stunning video - and actually very touching. Please continue :)
Man I just found your channel today and watched your videos for like 4 hours straight. Then I stumbled upon this video. I never played NieR: Automata and never intended to do it, so I watched this video. I almost cried about the brilliance of this game (and of course the way you explained it) and its conclusion like twice or thrice and had frequent goosebumps after the first 30 minutes. It's like 5 am in the morning and i'm pretty mindfucked right now but I can't say more than that you deserve much more attention. You belong to the good side of RUclips. Also I gotta play this game now because I won't remember all of this brilliance until tomorrow. EDIT: I didn't remember everything, so I guess I am gonna watch this video again.
There’s nothing quite like the final Route E credits... the rush of emotions you get when other players in your exact same shoes come to help you, And then you realize that they had to delete their save game and ALL their progress to do it. It’s a highlight.
Excellent breakdown, thank you for taking the time. Nier is horribly overlooked and underestimated. I'm floored it didn't make more of an impact on the gaming landscape, but maybe that's an indictment of the industry at large.
One of the best videos on youtube. I cannot imagine the amount of effort put into this. Thank you and good job. There are a few things you may have alluded to that I think are worthy of highlighting: 1. I do not think the battle between A2 and 9S is meaningless. In fact, it is an extension of two possible philosophies which must coexist. The differing philosophies of 9S and A2 are two forms of “life meaning.” In the bleak context of the story, they might seem meaningless but in the subtext of “look at these androids creating a meaning” they are two different but ultimately similar climaxes. A meaningless battle would be if someone were to pascal reset them both. 2. The correct Pascal choice is to leave for the reasons you mentioned and also to preserve meaning. Pascal tried his best with analyzing humans and his good intentions led to negative consequences. Still, his efforts are valiant! If he dies, he is essentially giving up to the author as he never was meant to have any meaning. If he is reset, he loses all his meaning. 3. The multiple character dichotomies are the narrower view of what matters which this video explained as basically sharing our shared meaningless with people to establish meaning. The broader point of the game is simply to FIND meaning. The future will not be given to you. You must make something of it aka giving up and accepting that “nothing matters” is critically limited and intellectually lazy. 4. I would argue that the bleak, dilapidated, hopeless and seemingly nihlistic tone the game adopts, especially in route A, is meant to give way to its destruction. The game is NOT NIHILISTIC! It is the opposite! Meaning is ascribed one way or another. In route A, 2B reluctantly accepts her ascribed meaning by killing 9S as is her role. She does so out of necessity and at least understands that this meaning is not sufficient and not what she wants. It just is what must be done. Similarly, 9S and A2 have meaning ascribed to them by circumstance and emotional reaction. It also is not what should be done. The real heroes are the pods who break the mold and ascribe their own meaning into the story and then reconstruct 2B and 9S from broken parts (perhaps a symbolic combination of all the players that died and that help each other out. Their save files deleted but their parts used to ultimately save 2B and 9S). The pods give the androids the ultimate opportunity! The opportunity to be a new form of Adam and Eve (the biblical ones) to hopefully create a better world, unlike the game’s Adam and Eve who were not very good. The doves symbolize a new day and hope. 5. While I said the broad philosophy of the game is to have us “find meaning”, the structure of the game and the credits battle serves to encourage us to find meaning in helping others because that is the ultimate meaning and legacy you can have. How we impact each other is more important than our own legacy/enlightenment/transcendence, things sought by the characters, specifically the antagonists. The pods who ultimately are the tool of the author (the player) recognize that meaning comes from helping, improving, and ultimately giving a chance to others to shape the world correctly. With that being said, I am sure that Nier 3 will take place thousands of years after, in a society created by 2B and 9S somehow.
Dear Adam, thank you for this story you have strung for us. Its meaning is beautiful and it confirmed a theory I had about the conscious and unconscious appreciation of games a player has. I saw below a comment telling you not to be disheartened by the low views of this video and I truly wish to echo it. You have aided me in my study of game design. I wish to carry the torch Yoko Tarou-san lit so bravely. Should I one day succeed, know that it is in no small part because of this video -- because of you. Thank you. Sincerely, Galin Todorov
I remember playing through most of this game in one weekend, and how hard it was to put down the controller each time...Probably the best game I ever played, and very glad I did. Wonderfully explained in this video btw. Really puts into perspective how much more than “just” a game NieR Automata is. Also “however, this is NieR Automata” is definitely a catchphrase I can get behind
I once saw Nier Automata as just a hack and slash, and because I am someone with very low energy levels to play games, decided to watch a playthrough video and stopped at part 3 of the youtuber I chose. This video showed me that this could be the most meaningful game I could try. Just watching this video got me teared up, great design, and great explanation on your part. Simply splendid job here.
This video needs to be seen by more people. After watching this, I had to take a walk outside to simply take everything in properly, and Lord did it feel amazing! This video made me take a whole different look at life. Thank you for analysing so thoroughly this Masterpiece, it just made the experience so much more valuable than it already was.
I need to say: Thank you. After playing all the endings from A to E and some of the others mostly by mistake, I honestly failed to see what it was portraying, I failed to see why so many people called it so great, and now I think I might have finally come to understand it, even if only a bit
Thanks for this video, I'm watching a lot of your dhorter formats recently and found this one. I played nier automata and loved it but was stuck at what I thought was the final boss (route A) and didn't push through. Now your video tells me that the experience was so much more than that (which was already awesome to me) thank you! Beyond revering the game your video help some people see how games are an art form like litterature, sculpture, performance, painting, not because of the graphical quality but because it can present you philosophical questions of the same density and quality as contemporary art pieces.
this game was a MASSIVE contributor toward me starting to squint my eyes at games and think "what is the purpose of this?" and it's made playing games so much more rich. going back and playing games you played when you were younger and turning them upside down, changing them from a story in service of action gameplay into social commentary that mirrors history and the way we exist as a collective.
Knowing the ending, from a non-player perspective, I teared up as I once again realized what was written on the screen at the very end. It was damn beautiful.
Frankly, I doubt I'd never taken the time to play Nier, and yet, thanks to this video, I'm able to get some of the most valuable parts of the game in just one hour. Wow, I feel so lucky. Thank you a lot for taking the time to make this video. BTW, if you ever make a Patreon, count me in. I really feel that you deserve some cash, at least enough to buy a well deserved cold beer!
2B’s death was one of the hardest hitting deaths for me in any game... and then endings C and D just sent me into tears... this game is the most emotional game I’ve ever played. Listening to that music at the end (Weight of the World) made me cry so hard. Don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard at anything in my life. This game is truely perfect
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Please don't be disheartened by the view count this long video got compared to your other uploads. This is the most ...well, comprehensive, and also moving take on this game that I have seen on YT so far.
its probably mostly the length scaring people away, but its totally worth
Hey you missed to most obvious one!!! 2b.......or not 2b
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them"
Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.
This has been on my Watch Later for ages. I've just been trying to find the time to watch it. I'm glad I finally did.
Its so moving that i cried, and then, decided to change my life for the better!
@@ajmosutra7667 6 months later. Did you?
Hey guys, can we just appreciate the person that did the subtitels for this whole video, whoever you are thank you
You're welcome, it was me! (it's literally just the script for the video though)
Adam Millard - The Architect of Games
That makes sense, I noticed quite a few disparities between the captions and what was spoken, last-minute changes I expect.
@@ArchitectofGames great work!
@@ArchitectofGames Ok, English is obvious, but Polish and Italian are an interesting mix for a single person. Now I'm wondering about your background :D
@@Siriathion Hi, I'm the translator for Polish subtitles so I dont think that Adam knows this language since he would've corrected my few mistakes :P
Anyway I'm happy that someone noticed my work, it was quite weird expircience to just dissapear for 2 weeks, especialy since it was my second piece of media translated :)
I remember a review of the game stating: “the masterpiece that most people won’t play.”
That’s good enough for me.
@skillup Skill Ups Nier:Automata review is one of the best
The game turned out to be a lot more popular than initially expected as it shipped more than 5 million copies. Outside of a few well known IPs, Japanese games rarely sell this good.
@@weaverquest the problem is I still read reddit comments that say “ yeah I dropped the game after the first ending it wasn’t that special” so it’s likely those that bought it didn’t even finish it haha
Nihilism is a very niche market
it became pretty damn popular though
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
-The best Night in the Woods character.
Oh, that's an awesome quote. Need to look it up. Finally something to put with my "I don't believe in humanity, but I believe in the potential of humanity" from "No Game No Life".
They're all really good but Angus has the kind of quiet brilliance that a lotta people may not bother doing stuff with him over the "louder" characters.
Another masterpiece of a game
One of my favorite bits of writing in the whole game is the start of route B. When you see a little bot trying to revive a clearly dead machine by just dumping oil on it, the beginning "It doesn't matter how much oil you give him, little guy" makes you think "You're not going to be able to fix him." But that's not what we get. What we get is "You can't make a machine your brother."
It's just really clever and I really like it.
ALSO Weight of the World will make me tear up every time I hear it.
there are sooo many amazing lines like this one tho... my favorite is, again from 9s, "better make sure he's actually dead next time", makes you wonder how much he already knew at this point...
I love how weight of the world is just done in three languages of the three characters.
English for 2B
Japanese for 9S
Chaos for A2 (Made up language for the game)
Weight of the world is sad but what about kaine salvation? I visited kaine shack after 2B's death and the cutscene was crushing
@@Spartan-sz7km isn't it french?
@@SajedHaq no, it's a made up language
I happened to be taking two philosophy classes when this game came out. Studying the philosophers that this game alludes to while playing it was one hell of a fucking ride. It's why I ended up putting over 200 hours into the game and deleting 3 play throughs. And yet, to this day, I still find myself at near sobs watching/playing the bullet-hell that is Ending E.
God I even see my file names (and people's dead bodies that helped me) in some of the early uploads of Ending E here on RUclips. There's no doubt in my mind I wouldn't have liked the game as much as I do were it not for those two philosophy classes I had to take.
After watching this video, I want to take philosophy classes
Hum. Ok but who helped the firsts guy to finish the game?
@@HoplessNihilist I would suspect the devs or people who play tested; could be they set up pre-made saves to serve this purpose
As a total stranger to you and pretty much to this game too up until this video, I am inexpressibly glad that you could enjoy this game as you did.
As it turns out, the save files that get sacrificed genuinely get stored, but for the first few saves they probably crafted some as otherwise the day 1 players would get shafted.
Plus, without at least SOME artifical saves, the total bank would deplete insanely quickly, as most players make a net loss on the save bank.
That moment when you've finally beaten the game to ending E, and you feel like it's finally time to watch a video from almost exactly a year ago.
Damn it i've been discovered xD
@@nikopteros1659 guilty as well lol
Me right here
I’m in this comment and I don’t like it
that's exactly what happened to me but the video is 3 years old now
Bloody hell, I knew NieR: Automata was deep, I didn't realise just how deep. Amazing video.
"You just took your first step, in a much bigger world" :)
I was thinking the same thing this entire Video. My word.
And there is soo much more. This is just the outline of all the questions Automata raises, and maybe attempts to answer.
@@EvanOfTheDarkness I feel like one of the under the hood message of the game is innocence is a bliss
I don't know I'm just guessing that if you're an almost immortal being(like a machine) that never dies, why not continue finding every possible thing in the world, going to different planets, finding new creatures, just for the sake of knowing, until maybe the end of the universe. Until then why lead to destruction and lead for self consciousness?
Cause it would be meaningless.
Then... why ask for truth and knowledge? Why do we play and analyze story driven video games like this? For entertainment. For job? For the sake of surviving.
I mean why not let the truth be known to the androids who show signs of humanity and just send them off to another solar system?
I just keep asking question after another and possibly leading to the question...
Why do we live, What is our purpose, Questions that I would never truthfully find answer because I need to find that myself and make myself believe it is the final answer.
innocence is a bliss? maybe? perhaps? I'm not trying to criticize anything, I just thought thoughtless things, and this is one of thousand of them. maybe?
@@sorosoro2690 Don't you mean ignorance is bliss? Innocence doesn't seem to make any sense regarding what you're saying.
Thank you for choosing to leave Pascal alive with his memories. That is the choice I wanted to make but was stuck in the mindset that my only options were the ones explained to me.
Same! Didn't think of walking away..
Never thought of this option before, I choose to erase his memory, I regretted it ever since.
wait you can do that?? yoko taro played me like a damn fiddle!.. again.
I thought that was the most fucked up option lol all options sucked imo tho
i was so surprised! I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it.
I think you're misunderstanding the cultists a little bit, honestly.
It's not that they're rationalizing something away because it doesn't fit their religion. They worship humanity. Humans die. Machines don't. Machines weren't designed to get old and die, or to reproduce, or to feel emotions. So when their 'king' dies, they see it as just him becoming more godlike. More human.
It's honestly not very irrational at all.
Could you elaborate on that one? I'm genuinely interested in what is wrong with Adam's analysis.
Honestly no one interpretation is right. Both interpretations are equally possible
I thought the cultists were basically just cultists. Their leader/prophet died and they deified him immediately. Their mass suicides were attempts to follow their leader. They assumed he achieved something in dying and that was his form of transcendence. I think them taking control of their deaths was just that because machines die a lot in Nier
I agree. I also found issue with him reading the “Your thinking about how you want to **** 2B right now aren’t you?” Line as you want to fuck 2B. While I agree that’s one of the interpretations it’s also designed to be open. Especially cause 9S is starting to feel conflicted about 2B. The reason it’s censored is because 9S wants to kill her, he wants to hate her, he wants to love her, he wants to kiss her, and he wants to fuck her.
The other reason it’s censored is so that you can project your own desires into the statement.
@@marcodragon4995 That is one hell of a statement to posit. Not all interpretations are equally possible - or equal for that matter.
6:38 I think you missed the mark a little here due to a translation difficulty.
In the original Japanese 2b expresses her dislike for 9s using formal language. This is typically used between people who aren't familiar with each other, or to distinguish social position. I suspect her frustration arises from the former as at this point 2b has developed feelings for 9s over the unspecified number of times she's been assigned to him and had to kill him, and is bothered by the perceived 'distance'. It's almost like a subtle sign of 2b's emotional barrier breaking down a little
You saw right through me...... damn it
this is a key insight ! in the original context this exchange is 2B going "stop using overly formal language with me [we have a closer relationship than that] ". in this exchange 9S is the one playing at enforcing the "act" of machine-like formality and 2B is the one rejecting it. it's part of a larger back and forth of each of them playing at toeing the line of machine-ness, while the other rejects it for them, and their relationship develops through this process. honestly beautiful writing
He even follows it up with "a" 9S and 2B
He knew, but just didn't want to spoil it yet.
Yo, your videos are always amazing, but this one especially is top-notch. I'm too poor and uninterested in shmups to play this game, but I really enjoyed being strung along on this philosophical journey. Sometimes at night I get afflicted with bouts of thanatophobia, and I think your in-depth explanation of the different approaches of deriving meaning from a meaningless world has given me much better tools to fight it. Thanks for all the content you create!
the shmup segments are (sadly, imo) not very prominent in the game.
I highly suggest Clemps' videos on Nier:Automata if you are still interested. He include stage plays and other novelas side story in his video and make some arbitary plot much more clearly.
Wdym “shmups”? Do you know hat type of game this is? It ain’t really a shmup
@@tovi3280 The flying battles and hacking are classic shoot'em up right from a 90's arcade, thought. Still, even for me who sucks at it, it was largely manageable (well I suffered in the bullet hell ending, thanks for everybody's help! ).
Biouke same here tbh
I haven't even finished watching this video but I already have to say thank you because this is exactly what I've been looking for for months since I've finished the game. I can't believe it doesn't have more views, since it's so spot on.
Psst! You didn't hear it from me but the best way to help this stuff get more views is to share it with people who'd enjoy it, keep it on the dl though I don't want everyone else finding out about that trick.
Seriously though, thanks for all the nice words!
Wow. I played the game, I loved the game, but I didn't make the full philosophical connections. I really appreciate you briefly explaining the less common ideas and terms when you introduced them, I would have been completely lost without that. I really enjoyed your break down of the game, not only did it teach me quite a bit it was also flat out enjoyable. Thank you!
Slight correction at 30:45: Androids are NOT Replicants, Replicants are entirely organic and not originally meant to be sentient, just empty shells for humanity to re-inhabit. They are also sterile, and the ability to reproduce would only be activated if the 'real' humans were fused with them once more. Androids are much more synthetic, though with both organic and magical componants, and their sentient intelligance was intended. I just saw this come up just now, so I uh, hope you didn't base a lot of your points on Replicants being the same as Androids lol.
Nah, it's no huge deal, that's just me abreviating too much, apologies.
It's much easier to say they're the same thing because they hit a lot of the same conceptual notes than spend 5-10 mins going through the backstory of Nier just to make the distinction when it's not really relevant. Replicants are a technological precursor to androids, but they're not the same thing, you're 100% right.
That makes sense yeah. Either way, a human construct goes off the rails and ruins the plan. XD
Though not really even a precursor for Androids considering the androids were already around at the same time and actually were the main governers of the Gestalt plan after all. More like different branches of the same tree than one evolving from the other.
@@ArchitectofGames I mean, the first guy explained the difference in half a minute, not hating or anything, you could just have recognized the mistake but anyway, it's impossible not to make mistakes in a video as long as this one. Congratulations for creating it, I'm really enjoying it after playing the game.
@@toallin5146 The question is not how much time it takes to explain, but whether the information is relevant enough to warrant adding even more to the already massive amount of information you're jamming into the viewer's brains.
If the video was just one hour of infodumping it'd be much more boring and it would dilute the overall message and intent that went into it.
Not that it matters several months after you posted the video, but...
I haven't watched the whole video yet, but one thing I noticed - I think you've got the perspective of 2B and 9S a bit wrong at some points. You say how 2B only sees machines as mindless enemies, while 9S sees more in them, but it's almost the opposite, as 2B commonly notices how machines actually show the signs of consciousness and it is 9S who repeats to her "no, 2B they cannot understand those concepts" as he notices that this behavior is clearly disturbing for 2B. More than that, in side quests 2B generally relates to machines much more than 9S does - be it Machine Examination or Lord of the Valley, or even Turf Wars - in all the cases she reflects on what machines do, or say, and compares them to herself - "we also kill a lot of machines. Probably someone sees that as a sin", "(about whether the heaven exists) They will find out in the end. And so will we." With all 9S's "open mindedness" he commonly just dismisses the signs of consciousness that machines have, and he also is the one who takes Pascal much less openly. On this one I'd agree more with the guy who pointed out that being in denial is a common thing with 9S.
Yes and no, 2B is not as openly hostile to the machines as 9S is, but as the novel reveals, she actually not that far behind, it isn't really until the end of Route A/B when she finally realizes that machines aren't that different from then. 9S does question what they know about machines in several times before going back to his old pattern and even interface with Pascal at some point, something very risky for androids and machines to do in order to share information, 2B even calls him out on that saying that to remember that machines are the enemy. Of course all 9S possible doubts about then are just thrown aside by Route C, where he doesn't care any more about it and just wants revenge for what they did to YorHa and 2B.
Is more like they both have conflicting feelings about then, but one gets better and the other gets worse.
@@spiderbatman97 For me the most character-revealing moment with 9s was probably father Servo's death. It's obviously a sad moment for both him and 2b. Sad music turns on in the background. And yet 9s's reaction, at least verbally, is to continue to curse at the dead machine, going as far as to say he's glad he'll never have to see him again, in a very emotionally-charged voice. 2b reacts to this outburst very calmly, with acceptance, even though she'd clearly capable of arguing with her partner when he says something she percieves as wrong. So why is she staying quiet while 9s spews venom about the death of her friend?
Simple. She knows 9s much batter than we do, which is why she knows that he is pretty compassionate, emotional and lonely. The only way he can survive loosing a friend is to tell himself that he never really had one.
To sum it up, 9s is a very compassionate, sensitive character. And yet he has to kill machines. Machines that are becoming more and more obviously intelligent, relatable and peaceful. The only way he can convince himself to do it is by telling himself that none of that is real.
@dark zeratul which novel are you talking about, is there some extra content on the game in books or something? Would really like to check it out.
@@Geo-di7yf If you go to the nier subreddit, you can find some pages on the side that takes you to some links for more info. From the "I just got ending E" link
theark.wiki/w/I_just_got_Ending_E
This has everything you are looking for, in a suggested reading order. None of it was ever published outside of Japan, so it's all fan translated.
@@gunnarschlichting9886 shit man, really apreciate it, thanks a lot!
Leaving Pascal instead of making the choice between resetting his memories or killing him, leads to him committing suicide, you can return later after you left him to find him dead by his own hands.
So what seems to first be the right choice, may actually end up the worst of all, as you left Pascal all alone and abandoned by his one friend, forcing him to end it all by himself with no one to comfort him.
but at least, its a choice, he or her(what "gender" is pascal meant to be? his name sounds male but his voice is more female gonna go male for ease of typing)made for themself, pascal gave up his "choice" when he asked you to kill him, or erase his memories,
but you gave that choice back, forcing him to make a decision himself, whatever the decision was right or wrong is not important here, what is, is that he made his own decision
@@weberman173 It's a robot. Not a he or her.
@@Rezafeild and THATS where i whole heartedly disagree.
We see SEVERAL Machines who explicitily express their Gender that they choose for themself.
Being a Machine in Nier automata dosnt mean you cant be a he or her.
Do they have biological genders? No, they dont. But so do the androids(given they arent biological as well) yet i doubt you would say that 2B or 9S arent her and he respectivly as well.
So is it just appearance? well then... the Boss in the amusement park? that one is distinctly female looking, her backstory is about wanting to be beautifull to appeal to a Machine who, distincly, wears male associated clothes of a Tophat etc.
The point being, YES they are machines, yes they do not have biological genders, nor the need for genders in the first place, yet, at least some, choose to associated themselfwith one gender over the other, And pascal has not only a distinct name, but also a distinct Model AND distinct voice. The question which gender Pascal is is very much warranted, sure she/he coudl say "i dont associated with either over the other" but thats still a choice pascal would have made
@@weberman173 I could be wrong here, as I played the game a while ago, but somewhere at some point I think it was stated that Pascal identified as a male but chose to use a female voice since it was (I guess for the human standards that they could put their hands on) more soothing for the children robots. Take this with a pinch of salt because it could be just some speculation I saw on some random video.
@@weberman173 Him asking us to kill him or erase his memories were still his choices, in either case he was lookin for a way to end his suffering, walking away that was our choice which led to him doing the same thing he asked us to do just by himself, the choice didn't change only the medium
This video is super awesome! I'm really glad I found it, you deserve a lot more subscribers!
As a side note, there are a couple of interesting notes on the philosophers in the game. Confucius and Lao Tzu actually had diametrically opposed philosophies. Confucius founded Confucianism, which has a super long history but can broadly be understood as advocating for the value in human rituals, institutions, and beliefs. Lao Tzu founded Daoism, which also has a long history but advocated a return to a pre-linguistic, pre-civilization way of being that abandons abstract concepts in exchange for non-action (acting without will / acting naturally). These two are, in many ways, the two dominant opposing forces in Chinese philosophy.
Also, the first boss you fight with A2 in path C is called Hegel, a reference to the German philosopher of the early 19th century. His main contribution to philosophy was The Master-Slave Dialectic, which says that people become conscious through antagonistic perception of the "other." In other words, people can only be conscious by contrasting their own sense of self with the other. This is super important in that fight, because it is in that fight that A2 perceives 2B's consciousness inside her. The merging of their consciousness ironically contradicts Hegel. By becoming one, both achieve a higher level of self-awareness.
Anyways, great video! I especially loved the idea that the bosses you fight are ironic mirrors of the philosophers they were named after.
I really like a lot of your analysis here, especially since most of what I've seen talks about the philosopher expy's and how they demonstrate or deconstruct their namesake's ideas.I do think that you're short changing some of the specific characters though, especially 2B/E, possibly the character with the most subtlety. Granted the characterization you gave of her is pretty valid for a first play through, although I felt when I first played that there was some subtext and depth that I didn't know enough to truly get. We se a bit of this right in the prologue, where she goes from coldly calling out the deaths of her squad mates on the initial attack run to nearly panicking when 9S - who as far as he and we are concerned she barely even knows - is simply injured. Especially after she lectures *him* on not showing emotion. This sequence concludes with her clench-fisted anger back on the Bunker when his memories didn't get transmitted back. Also soon after you can talk to some NPCs that comment on how good it is to see these friends together so often. Once again odd for two that supposedly just met on their first mission together.The revelation about 2E's actual identity also gives a lot of meaning to some sidequests and passing dialogue. Most importantly and commonly, her seeming inability to comprehend the machines can grow - when first it was *9S* brushing those things off - becomes trying to steer her friend away from the kind of thing that would make her have to kill him.
And that last bit not only makes her a subtle character, but a tragic one. Because - as shown early by panicking when 9S is hurt - she genuinely cares about him, at *least* as a very close friend, and almost certainly more. And then, again and again she has to kill her best friend. And then not only have the guilt of killing someone she cares for, but then having to *meet the person she just met for the "first time"* over and over.
It does make their relationship look amusingly like a "no one can kill 9S but ME!" kinda thing though.
I knew this game was special when I realized on route B that we were literally seizing the means of production (the arm) and using it to smash Engels. What an amazing game. Keep up the great work by the way man, just found your channel and your videos are so well done and enjoyable, crazy that they don't have the views they deserve.
Mind keeping your commie bullshit to yourself from now on?
@@Demilich23 It's Marx and Engels...it's literally in the game, what do you want?
@@Demilich23 Mind keeping your uneducated bullshit to yourself from now on? Or better, actually go read Marxist works, so at least you know your enemy.
@@Demilich23 "seize the means of production and kill [guy who told us to do so]"
You had a chance here to make an unironically incredible and poignant "right wing" critique of communism using this frame of "kill the author" with communism and AI being the inevitable conclusion of uncontrolled capitalism.
You could have made a post-capitalist philosophical point that wasn't communist.
But no. You acted like an ideologue. You're a fucking robot.
@@SaintJames14 holy fucking cringe. how do you unironically talk like this without wanting to throw up? take a shower and grow up you delusional fucking wastrel.
Tearing up everytime the choir kicks in during weight of the world.
Ending E is such a gem and actually breaking the 4th wall by literally deleting your save data to save someone else is such a masterpiece
I feel like the emotional impact of these concepts would be much greater if i realised them while playing the game. I'm just not smart enough to figure them out myself
To be fair, I don't think many people got this on their first playthrough. To be able to catch these themes, you'd have to be fairly proficient in philosophy and literature. I didn't get much of what this video explained, but I did get the emotional information that went along with it. I think a good story/ piece of art does both; make you feel something profoundly deep because it is informed by a fundamental understanding of what came before it.
It's the same when I listen to classical music, I don't understand the musical theory behind it, but everytime I listen to the conclusion of Ballade #4 from Chopin a universe of emotions overcome me.
There is a reason why great art gets analyzed by scholars. These people dedicate their lifes to know how a particular art piece does something new within the framework of what came before it. To have knowledge of this framework takes a lifetime of study and dedication. However, not knowing this framework doesn't take anything away from how a piece of art makes you feel.
haha i feel the exact same way I
Most analyses of Nier: Automata view it through the lens of Nietzsche, and while that's certainly a valid way to read a game all about nihilism, it's refreshing to get a different perspective, so thank you for that!
Incidentally, I was wondering if there may actually be a connection between Nietzsches writings and the whole Death of the Author/Replacing the Author thing (even though the former considerably predates the latter). Nietzsche is kind of notorious for his both provocative and evocative writing style. One gets the feeling that sometimes he's even trolling the audience, in an effort to not just present his ideas but make the reader think about and make up his own damn mind about them, challenging them to become the author. What do you think?
I think... that is quite plausible, especially considering he views God is dead not as a moral tragedy, but a celebration. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the book where the quote comes from, has an ultimate message of rejecting previously constructed systems of morality, even the one Zarathustra himself creates, and build a new one, a better one (he was quite sketchy about the details though, either because he was unwilling or, more likely, unable to actually build one)
696190 He was sketchy about coming up with a comprehensive new system of meaning because he saw meaning as inherently perspectival. His whole idea of the Overman was produced in order to emphasize the idea that self realization is a product of distinctive self knowledge brought about by releasing yourself from herd moralities etc and to your individuality; that is, overcoming your nature as a socially moral being.
It would be contradictory to Nietzche’s aims to provide some sort of comprehensive replacement system of morality.
Thanks Adam for making the story accessible for me and many others.
Even though I'm quite familliar with Philosophy, I'm really bad at understanding finctional stories with all these small symbols and different characters.
Your Comprehensive Reading enormously helps to see what effort the developers put into the game.
On that note: Thanks for your effort!
I feel like the character Jackass is pretty important in the game. She does give you the answer to what "You're just thinking about how much you want to **** 2B, aren't you?" Its both fuck and kill since in a Jackass side quest she does tell that the Yorha androids get the same emotions as they do from love when they are in combat. So I thought that was a neat point
Ivan III one of the data intel thingys you get also shows that Jackass is still motivated to fight even after she finds out about the backstory of YorHa. it’s really cool.
@@mintyfresh7867 Jackass and A2 are by far my favorite characters
"Fuck, Marry, Kill?"
9S : *2B*
@@satriosukarji1777 or not to be
I personally see the word "Save", but that is the beauty of putting a 4 letter censored word is that you put in the meaning of what fills that spot.
I'm sharing this, this is amazing. Well done. I've been looking for an in-depth analysis video that covered the story from start to finish while being clear enough to follow (wanted one that would be easy for my friends who aren't gamers to understand) and this is it.
Also, side note - I also greatly appreciated the pop-up titles on what music was being played in the background and the subtitles. Very, very good.
That final credit sequence breaks me every time I see it.
Every single time.
Years later, after dissecting and thinking about this game for hours upon hours, you've still somehow managed to pointed out things that I didn't notice or to interpret them in a way that I hadn't considered. Excellent stuff, AG.
Wonderful analysis. This game is such a work of art. One of the strongest stories ever told in a wonderful medium. The emotions at the end of ending E when you see others' inspring messages brings literal tears to my eyes, and then when players are asked to give up their save data after is so simple, but it's such an incredible effective tool to relay the central theme which Yoko Taro is trying to get across.
Hey you missed to most obvious one!!! 2b.......or not 2b
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them"
Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.
Heres a fun tidbit did u know that 2b 9s and a2 references to pencil, pen and paper?
A lot of people try that one... but they actually miss the half of it. 9S, or Nein Es, is german for "not it", with "it" in that case being "to be". I guess it is the closer they could come with their couples of numbers/letters. Still, one will live to kill the other. Truly they are named for their fate.
@@xunk16 god i love this fucking game
I always thought a2 was a reference to the Quote ,et tu‘ because of the treason committed against her.
@@felixschaefer2540 it can be a numerous references tbh
unquestionably beautiful and inspirational. Touching in a deep and meaningful way.
The world needs more of this.
Absolute banger video. I finally watched this after beating the game yesterday, and it did a great job of helping me organize and come to terms with the mess of emotions I felt after finishing the story.
45:25
"I didn't use B-Mode at all after this boss. I think that's the intended playstyle."
Intended or not it, B-Mode is a great way of dealing with large groups of enemies. Think the ambush of Pascals children - there were so many enemies to feast on for health until the fight ends, B-Mode inevitably runs out and you can heal in the peace you just explosively created to keep yourself alive.
This crudeness, the inability to reconsider after commitment to a fight, the aggressive self-sustaining and self-destructive motivation of A2 as opposed to the goal-seeking methodical idealistic nature of 2B is imo the key difference between A and B models.
Imagine YoRHa ordering a retreat.
A2s character and her gameplay mechanics force her and you as the player to keep fighting until the job is done. By trying to retreat A2 becomes vulnerable and immobile just as these traits are needed the most.
A2s character development does not lead her to not using B-Mode, it heads to her subsiding fighting as a whole.
Also, don't forget it is 2B who isn't keen to engage machine lief forms. She says this twice, once in the Amusement Park as herself and 9S board the roller coaster, and once in Pascal's Village. She's the jaded,war weary foot soldier. 9S is the base soldier, for want of a better word. His view of the machine life forms, of the enemy, is from a non-combat viewpoint. He hasn't the experience with them; he hasn't fought them or had dealings with them. 2B has, hence her different viewpoint. The opening sequence has been repeated earlier, in A2 . Command lets its soldiers down hopelessly. Any time any of them are stranded on earth, Command doesn't rescue them. They're automatically deemed deserters and hunted down. Hence the E Types. Command does not look after its soldiers. Also, Command fails to inform 2B and 9S of potential traps. The android corpses in the tunnel leading to the Pit in the Desert Region is one instance. The operation to investigate Black Box signals and Resistance signals in the Amusement Park Opera House is the other. There are the android corpses in the passage leading to the Copied City also. These instances, every YoRHa sortie and the End Of YoRHa all point to one conclusion; YorHa was sabotaged from the start. The Machine Network, in the form of the Red Girls, infiltrated and undermined every YoRHa operation. I ti s the military perspective, and Mankind's extinction, which make Nier Automata. They also make this a difficult game to play. It is still one of my favourties.
29:50 After beating route C I see that line more as kill, as you can see some of the joy 9S has when defeating the 2B clones in the tower.
I agree
Ever notice the scene where he repeatedly stabs 2B? Hinting at something maybe?
I figure it means both.
I Think it's a play on words. It's censored so it can mean both.
it's both,it is probably implying fuck but i'd guess by the end of route C and finding out she is 2e it's kill. xD
It means both, and more. But critically, for androids those two things aren't that different. There's even some dialogue in one of the sidequests that states that Yorha androids are designed to feel something similar to sexual euphoria from combat. Biological organisms are designed to reproduce, Yorha androids are designed to kill.
Wow thanks ! This was the video I've been searching for. I've listened to at least 5 video essays on this game and while they were all great, none of them went as deep as needed to fully recapture the essence of this game. You did just that, I'm very happy about that many thanks to you!
I've been watching several videos trying to find one that fully explains the game, and this is by far the best. I am in tears.
I have been watching your videos for several years now but I never managed to make it all the way through this one until today. Neir: Automata is a game I won't ever play. It has too long a playtime and is not really the type of game I enjoy. However I am really grateful you made this video. This showed an what an incredible story is present in this game. Huge props to the developers for wrapping up so many existential and fundamental questions into something like a video game while giving it what looks like an incredibly compelling story. Huge props to you as well for such an in depth explanation of the game. This was a hour well spent. Thank you.
It's been a few years but still just being reminded of and seeing some of these moments and their emotions push me to tears
Genuinely the most attached I've ever been to characters in a video game and the most pain I've felt for the characters
I don't often upvote or comment on videos but I wanted to take the time to say thankyou for taking the time to make this video.
You've explained everyone exceptionally well (given just how much there is to this series when you start your way down the rabbit hole).
The comments seem to be a mix of positive and negative but do not be disheartened by this. You've explained the game in your own way with your spin and your own understanding of everything and as we all know art in its purest form is always open to interpretation.
Credit to you where it's due and also kudos for ending the video as beautifully as the game itself.
2B, “I want to kill the creator of this someday.”
I’m glad she got her wish (even if she didn’t know it).
Ah yes the DLC where 2B gets to fight Square's CEO
@@iaxacs3801 More like shooting Yoko Taro during as the credits roll.
29:50 that is not the only 4 letter word that fits into that sentence.
kind of reminds me of the beginning of the game.
also might explain 9s' reaction a bit more when he gets surrounded by 2bs toward the end of the game
That's interesting actually. I think we naturally assume that because it's a censored word with asterisks that it's referring to 'fuck', but honestly it seemed so out of place that it makes me wonder if again it's a red-herring in the same way that the sexualization and 'anime boys' could arguably be considered that. A set up of pre-conceived notions that the game can then destroy as you play it.
Upon my first encounter with that line, I thought it was "fuck" but looking back, I feel it was more "love". It seems to fit the character of 9s more and provides a more humans aspect towards the androids. I can also see how it could be "hate" but I'd assume its completely subjective and up to the viewer/player.
Honestly, it doesn't matter what words you try to fit in there, because at the end of the day, it is 4 blank spaces...
@@westongardner4206 4 months late, but I think that "Kill" fits very well too, given that 9s was well aware of 2b's Identity and his whole "Don't Worry 2b, I'll Kill you now" or whatever he exactly said.
@@TheChrowne solid interpretation too! I think it just depends on the way you want to look at it. Though given what 2B really is does imply kill the most
I never noticed this before but the androids running around screaming “This can’t be, they’re machines!” whilst being machines themselves reminds me of humans acting the same way about the other animals of our world being so like us, forgetting we too are but animals. Silly robots. And silly humans.
39:47 Sir, I believe you owe Pod 153 a formal apology. She’s nothing like Pod 175. I will not abide such slander on an upstanding Pod!
Glory to you my man. Awesome work.
You have singlehandedly deepened my understanding of this game. I didn't understand at first just how far they took the concepts of the meaning of life until you laid it all out so beautifully. I can't thank you enough for this, I can finally feel some closure after playing this game
Well done on this video. I finished this game a few days ago and as I reflect on it, I loved every moment of this game. Maybe not at the moment as sometimes the quest may have felt dull, but looking back, that only added to the feelings I have about how it handles its themes and tackles it's story. Some of those side quests felt like a struggle to get motivated to do and had little to no real payoff aside from in game loot which I didn't need. What I am getting at with this is that it made me connect to the characters even more upon reflection after finishing the game in terms of struggling to go on and why should I. What made that more powerful for me was when trying to get Ending E and shooting the credits, I felt like I couldn't do,.I was outmatched and wouldn't be able to achieve the ending that would give meaning to the whole game and I knew based on what the Pods said it would be the ending I had been hoping for and once I made it with the help of others, and saw the final scene and gave up my data, I just cried for like an hour as everything came into place and just moved me in a way I didn't think games, or any media for that matter, could do anymore.
This is one of the best videos about Automata that I have seen, nice good mate. This game is hard to do justice, but you did an awesome job.
B mode was brilliant with the life steal chips.
badjazy what’s B mode?
Berserk
3 years late, but holy SHIT. this is probably one of the best existentialism reads of Automata. bless you, because i learned a LOT about both the philosophical and psychological themes and their origins. This deserves far more hype. thank you so much for this.
All of this went way over my head. I just remember getting chills whenever a side quest subverted itself, like when you have to find the sword or memory of a teacher for a student on Command, the music shifts and laugh that their respected teacher was really a coward. Or an amnesiac android that discovers they were an E unit and goes from being worried where their friends are to happy they killed them.
I think this is one of the best RUclips videos I’ve ever seen. I just finished a 60+ hour play through, it’s been a roller coaster of emotions, my brain feels fried after spending the last 2 days thinking of nothing but this game and how profound it is. This video did an excellent job of consolidating everything, reinforcing everything and in a few parts actually helped me understand the themes of the story even better. For that I am so so grateful. This game has really affected me... infected me? Haha
Also, when you got to describing the End credits part, I literally teared up remembering the choir kicking in during my Play through and being filled with so many emotions... while blowing up the creators of the game.
Cried at the end, especially every time someone helping me died.
that sequence with the pod in the elevator at the beginning of ch17 just made it all click for me and I'm glad you kept it untouched in this video
also this really helped me understand this game more, thank you so much for the video
This is a stunningly good discussion of what seems to be stunningly good game. Bravo. I had a whole row of videos lined up to watch, but I think I need to chew this one over for a bit!
Also, I watched this because I had no intention of playing the game and wanted a comprehensive breakdown of what all the hype was about - the depth of discussion was greatly appreciated! Thanks very much
There really is no hype. The Game is phenomenal. It just cant being said enough :) I Hope you still going to play it. Experiencing it as a Game is what makes it so great, because it really uses its medium to the max.
I know Im a bit late to party, but...
We need more long for videos from you man! That was great, just great. It was so interesting to hear you summarizing the game, and sharing your perspective. Thank you for that
29:50
Fuck or love?
It could be that love is censored because emotions are prohibited and 9S refuses to see it in plain text
That could be true, but it’s funnier and more shocking to assume it’s related to sex
Thank you.
You made the best video about this game.
So many years later and i still hear the music and have to think about this game, the story and your video. It showed me many layers that I have missed.
Thank you.
I didn`t think i`d watch it till the end. Good video
this is the best analysis of NieR i've seen on yt yet. good work man
I've watched dozens of these sort of hour-long video essays about the meaning of Nier Automata at this point, everyone brings some new things to the table, and a lot of them hit similar beats. Familiar ones are the significance of the philosophers, what to do with pascal, nihilism, and empathy.
That being said, this video is still definitely A+ material, and I'll keep watching and analyzing nier until its a dead, dead horse. Oh, and don't worry about the replicants too much, even though the lore is dense as all get out (and I consider the lore to be a lot of fun to discuss) the creators acknowledge that the main thing that matters is how people felt during the game. And I'd say by the outpouring of all these videos, people felt a *lot*.
I’ve been binge watching your videos and this is honestly the best Nier Automata video I’ve ever seen. Well done!
I watch this as I’m severely depressed from a bad break up from a woman who killed my self worth. But watching this and beating persona 5 royal (because that last new semester deals with a lot of similar themes I won’t spoil) damn it has me greatly reflecting my life and I think I can move forward.
I finished this game a couple of weeks ago and was honestly lukewarm on it, but I can't stop watching explainers. This one is the first thing that taught me something about it that was non-obvious. The Maslow's Heirarchy piece and the part about the characters that are together finding meaning were new to me.
So the ending's message is pretty MGS2-esque in that the response to nihilism and existential dread is to not look for an "absolute truth", but rather to come up with your own interpretation and then pass it on to others. Pretty sweet
SUCH AN AMAZING VIDEO! Thank you for the energy you put into enlightening us!
Wow I finished the whole game, and thought the story was really clever, but your explaination took it to a whole other level
Someone probably already said this, and it is largely inconsequential to the video, but replicants were not androids. They were clones of human bodies created using magic (or something). There were androids at that time, namely Devola and Popola, who were in charge of reincarnating the replicants until their souls (AKA gestalts) would be ready to be placed back into their bodies
Hi I've been crying for the past day or so as i completed every ending. Sitting here in tears again as i start a brand new save file. Good luck to whoever i helped, I genuinely hope this game meant as much to you as it now does to me.
After spending two hours rewatching this I'm planning to have a good and long conversation with my gaming enthusiastic philosophy teacher about this... Many thanks for this insanely good summarization of Nier Automata.
And I'm sure I' not the only one that would love to have you take a look at the remake of the old Nier as well... there really arent enough people that actually take games apart to such a high level...
Brilliant video, it's games and philosophical/literary analysis like this that shows the real potential of this medium for profound experiences and stories. Just an addition: We can probably assume Pascal takes his name from Blaise Pascal, of 'Pascal's Wager' fame, that humans 'bet' their body/mind/(soul) on whether God exists...
We could see that as a reference to the humans self-disembodiment and uploading of their minds in pursuit of a sort of heaven. Humans make that bet whilst the Robots are physical embodiments and consciousnesses of humanity in machines, automata. The inanimate robots seem to develop a human “soul” and mind and are materially existing whilst humans have placed a bet on a utopian future by giving up mind and body.... that was a total mess of an explanation, but I think someone will be able to understand what I’m trying to say and word it better
You've earned a like and a sub from me for sure. This game had me questioning so much by the end, this is incredibly helpful.
The fact that anyone can question whether video games are art or not anymore saddens me when beautiful masterpieces like this one exist.
Though I disagree with some of the stances the game makes, I think you delivered it in a beautiful way that even I, someone who disagrees could still appreciate. Thanks for making this! Love your stuff
Thanks a great deal for sharing this very comprehensive perspective on what I have to say, is the best game I have played, nearly ever. Your view points are really enlightening and they have actually helped me with something I have been going through personally. Once again, thanks and have a great life.
UNDERRATED!!
Absolutely brilliant, thank you for the amazing video
NieR: Automata to me is not the best game ever, it is far from perfect, it has many flaws both minor or major, but in the end, it is still my most beloved game I have ever played so far, and I play a hell lot of games
Sigh... the combat is not as good nor as complex as DMC, the graphic is not comparable to FFXV, the quests are not as good as the Witcher 3, same for the length and the size, etc etc but dammit I still love it so very much
It is something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Best game ever for me.
Not the best game ever but my favorite game ever for the time being, pushing FF X off its pedestal by twisting my emotions in ways I didn't think any story in any medium could.
@@PetrisonRocha I guess you could call it a - gestalt ;)
Manish Seeruthun How? How is that a soul...
@@tovi3280 search for the phycological definition of gestalt
This is your best video yet. Thank you for making such a great content.
I finished the game some time ago, and got everything from it. I'm so glad it developed the way it did because it wasn't just a game, nor a story, not a movie. Videos like this make me happy that there's a lot of people out there who value the unique and meaningful narrative, and also share their experiences and conclusions. Nice video, perfectly explained, yet with all the tools for the viewers to make statements of their own. Nier will always be special as I haven't found anything that compares to it. Glory to Mankind!
I just had the courage to watch this hour long video. Was not disappointed at all. Great video Adam!
This video is by far the best I've ever watched about a game. Absolutely fantastic! You definetely made me try the game even though the last time I played any game was years ago. (Oh and did I mention that I hate hack'n'slash...?)
So thank you very much!
Thank you for providing me the joy of this absolutely amazing game without playing through it.
Stunning video - and actually very touching. Please continue :)
Man I just found your channel today and watched your videos for like 4 hours straight. Then I stumbled upon this video. I never played NieR: Automata and never intended to do it, so I watched this video. I almost cried about the brilliance of this game (and of course the way you explained it) and its conclusion like twice or thrice and had frequent goosebumps after the first 30 minutes. It's like 5 am in the morning and i'm pretty mindfucked right now but I can't say more than that you deserve much more attention. You belong to the good side of RUclips. Also I gotta play this game now because I won't remember all of this brilliance until tomorrow.
EDIT: I didn't remember everything, so I guess I am gonna watch this video again.
Dude, wtf?! Just play the game! You gotta experience that.
There’s nothing quite like the final Route E credits... the rush of emotions you get when other players in your exact same shoes come to help you,
And then you realize that they had to delete their save game and ALL their progress to do it. It’s a highlight.
Excellent breakdown, thank you for taking the time. Nier is horribly overlooked and underestimated. I'm floored it didn't make more of an impact on the gaming landscape, but maybe that's an indictment of the industry at large.
30:46 Hey, androids and replicants are two different things, just for the record. Great video :)
One of the best videos on youtube. I cannot imagine the amount of effort put into this. Thank you and good job. There are a few things you may have alluded to that I think are worthy of highlighting:
1. I do not think the battle between A2 and 9S is meaningless. In fact, it is an extension of two possible philosophies which must coexist. The differing philosophies of 9S and A2 are two forms of “life meaning.” In the bleak context of the story, they might seem meaningless but in the subtext of “look at these androids creating a meaning” they are two different but ultimately similar climaxes. A meaningless battle would be if someone were to pascal reset them both.
2. The correct Pascal choice is to leave for the reasons you mentioned and also to preserve meaning. Pascal tried his best with analyzing humans and his good intentions led to negative consequences. Still, his efforts are valiant! If he dies, he is essentially giving up to the author as he never was meant to have any meaning. If he is reset, he loses all his meaning.
3. The multiple character dichotomies are the narrower view of what matters which this video explained as basically sharing our shared meaningless with people to establish meaning. The broader point of the game is simply to FIND meaning. The future will not be given to you. You must make something of it aka giving up and accepting that “nothing matters” is critically limited and intellectually lazy.
4. I would argue that the bleak, dilapidated, hopeless and seemingly nihlistic tone the game adopts, especially in route A, is meant to give way to its destruction. The game is NOT NIHILISTIC! It is the opposite! Meaning is ascribed one way or another. In route A, 2B reluctantly accepts her ascribed meaning by killing 9S as is her role. She does so out of necessity and at least understands that this meaning is not sufficient and not what she wants. It just is what must be done. Similarly, 9S and A2 have meaning ascribed to them by circumstance and emotional reaction. It also is not what should be done. The real heroes are the pods who break the mold and ascribe their own meaning into the story and then reconstruct 2B and 9S from broken parts (perhaps a symbolic combination of all the players that died and that help each other out. Their save files deleted but their parts used to ultimately save 2B and 9S). The pods give the androids the ultimate opportunity! The opportunity to be a new form of Adam and Eve (the biblical ones) to hopefully create a better world, unlike the game’s Adam and Eve who were not very good. The doves symbolize a new day and hope.
5. While I said the broad philosophy of the game is to have us “find meaning”, the structure of the game and the credits battle serves to encourage us to find meaning in helping others because that is the ultimate meaning and legacy you can have. How we impact each other is more important than our own legacy/enlightenment/transcendence, things sought by the characters, specifically the antagonists. The pods who ultimately are the tool of the author (the player) recognize that meaning comes from helping, improving, and ultimately giving a chance to others to shape the world correctly.
With that being said, I am sure that Nier 3 will take place thousands of years after, in a society created by 2B and 9S somehow.
Dear Adam,
thank you for this story you have strung for us. Its meaning is beautiful and it confirmed a theory I had about the conscious and unconscious appreciation of games a player has.
I saw below a comment telling you not to be disheartened by the low views of this video and I truly wish to echo it. You have aided me in my study of game design. I wish to carry the torch Yoko Tarou-san lit so bravely. Should I one day succeed, know that it is in no small part because of this video -- because of you. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Galin Todorov
I remember playing through most of this game in one weekend, and how hard it was to put down the controller each time...Probably the best game I ever played, and very glad I did.
Wonderfully explained in this video btw. Really puts into perspective how much more than “just” a game NieR Automata is. Also “however, this is NieR Automata” is definitely a catchphrase I can get behind
I once saw Nier Automata as just a hack and slash, and because I am someone with very low energy levels to play games, decided to watch a playthrough video and stopped at part 3 of the youtuber I chose.
This video showed me that this could be the most meaningful game I could try. Just watching this video got me teared up, great design, and great explanation on your part. Simply splendid job here.
Everytime I re-play or analyze this game (or listen to someone do it), I'm brought nearly to tears of the beauty of this story. Absolutely amazing.
Loved the video even 6 years later. Thank you for all the philosophy analysis
This video needs to be seen by more people. After watching this, I had to take a walk outside to simply take everything in properly, and Lord did it feel amazing! This video made me take a whole different look at life.
Thank you for analysing so thoroughly this Masterpiece, it just made the experience so much more valuable than it already was.
Insanely well made video. Thank you for the crazy hours you must have put into making this.
I need to say: Thank you.
After playing all the endings from A to E and some of the others mostly by mistake, I honestly failed to see what it was portraying, I failed to see why so many people called it so great, and now I think I might have finally come to understand it, even if only a bit
Thanks for this video, I'm watching a lot of your dhorter formats recently and found this one. I played nier automata and loved it but was stuck at what I thought was the final boss (route A) and didn't push through. Now your video tells me that the experience was so much more than that (which was already awesome to me) thank you!
Beyond revering the game your video help some people see how games are an art form like litterature, sculpture, performance, painting, not because of the graphical quality but because it can present you philosophical questions of the same density and quality as contemporary art pieces.
this game was a MASSIVE contributor toward me starting to squint my eyes at games and think "what is the purpose of this?" and it's made playing games so much more rich. going back and playing games you played when you were younger and turning them upside down, changing them from a story in service of action gameplay into social commentary that mirrors history and the way we exist as a collective.
I don't know how i saw this hole video, but that's fantastic. Thank you for making that!
I remember tearing up when I went through the final ending. This video brought it all back. Excellent analysis, and thank you.
Knowing the ending, from a non-player perspective, I teared up as I once again realized what was written on the screen at the very end. It was damn beautiful.
Frankly, I doubt I'd never taken the time to play Nier, and yet, thanks to this video, I'm able to get some of the most valuable parts of the game in just one hour. Wow, I feel so lucky. Thank you a lot for taking the time to make this video.
BTW, if you ever make a Patreon, count me in. I really feel that you deserve some cash, at least enough to buy a well deserved cold beer!
love this view!! just finished the game and am amazed by it all.
2B’s death was one of the hardest hitting deaths for me in any game... and then endings C and D just sent me into tears... this game is the most emotional game I’ve ever played. Listening to that music at the end (Weight of the World) made me cry so hard. Don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard at anything in my life. This game is truely perfect