@@SophiaOfAthens I think 2b and 9s read it out on a stream. But of course that won't really top the performance that the stage plays had. The few clips I've seen the actors are really hamming it up and giving it their all, and the choreography is incredibly impressive.
-spoiler- 2B's desire to kill God makes complete sense once you learn that her main task was to basically kill the person she loved, 9S, over and over again.
And that 9s technically is the "god" who created them. The original 9s model that was meant to be just a test for his personality went crazy (what a surprise) when his all male training team was all killed, and when he took control of the yorha project, he created the backdoor that the machines get in with and the false gods of humanity, since he found out that, surprise, all humans are dead, and knew that the androids needed a god to continue living. (Most of this told by the side story content that came out, specifically the male stage play)
but the Twist is that 9S's predecessor, and the original Android that 9S is a descendant of is Model No.9 the one that created YoRHa, the counsel of humanity, The Lie of Humanity, and 2B was killing this God, Again and Again, unknowningly, and what drove 9S to Insanity is being a descendant of his own original personality
@@alexisthompson376 Where did you get all this info? I just finished Ending E (and deleted all my data without knowing :( ) and didn't know that 9S was the one who created all of this
The beauty of this game is that it manages to be so profound while also being so gamey. In fact without its gaminess it would arguably not have been as effective and certainly not as fun as well. This is what people mean when they say that games probably have the greatest potential as a medium and this is why games like these earn my respect. This is truly a masterpiece
Nier Automata could only be achieved through the medium of videogames and it honestly serves as irrefutable proof that videogames are art and that they are, at the very least, a unique story telling medium. At most, it shows that videogames are the best storytelling medium we have yet to encounter.
me too it was so crappily designed that i vowed to never play it again it utterly succeeded in making me angry annoyed bored notice so many mistakes in level design and gameplay as a whole i ended up feeling hollow and stolen from the story was fun on its own but becouse of al of its bullshit made meaningless to me
Nier: Automata has permanently raised the bar for video game storytelling and philosophical exploration. Even despite the budget it was a complete masterpiece. I will never forget it.
@@mattg6106 raised what ? There are a LOT of videogames with a lot of toughts and ''philosophical' exploration' even yokotaro himself have been trying over and over to make nier automata since 2000... Nier only raised the bar for today's AAA games (just a little cause SH, Shock series, crono cross, suikoden 3, Fallout 1, 2 & New Vegas, games writen by chris avellone, lovedelic, Suda51, (this one it's a little to absurd but still, on a lynchian (good) way) SWERY, MGS and MOTHER series exist a long ago and always were almost mainstream)... oh and i almost forgot the biggest Surreal satire in game industries, Xenogears (wich if you didnt played you really should) ANYWAY i love nier as well, it just seems wrong and being a little too much tolerable with shitty developers to say philosophical exploration it's something new...
@@Leon-hp1wm Raised the bar... It's a saying... I never stated that the exploration of philosophy is *new* with Nier: Automata. But it did it all in a way that can't be done well through any other form of media and much better than the vast majority of games that tried. Nier: Automata was also not a AAA game nor does it matter how many previous games Yoko Taro made before. That has nothing to do with the subject.
I just finished ending E, and I was a mess. I was sad but then once I saw all those messages left by other players stating in their various ways, “do not give up, keep going, we’re rooting for you, we’re here for you”, I lost it. Those things were things I needed to hear. Not just to keep going through the game but through just life in general... because it’s a struggle. Defiance in the face of struggle, pushing us all forward and banding us all together. I hope that someone reads my message they feel the same way too. This game is truly a masterpiece.
I'm trying to 100% complete the game right now. All achievements. All log files. All endings. Everything. I'm almost done. All I need now is to beat the Underground Colosseum (where the mobs are like lvl 130). I've gotten so close. Once I beat that, I plan to conclude everything by deleting my save data through ending E. See you in the end. :)
@@sigmaloner5611 it's... Technically 3 "whole" playthroughs, as the 4th one can be quickly completed with chapter select, thus unlocking the 5th ending.
For me, the final boss of N;A was the best boss fight I've ever had. I felt like I could do it, I felt like it's impossible, I felt like I had no option but to fight on. Never in my gaming experience I wanted to Win that badly in a fight I couldn't win. Trying to kill gods, pitting my stubbornness and pride, my will - against the cruelty of the world and Fate, and at that moment - the feeling of someone fighting beside me... just because we all hate giving up. That was the greatest emotion a game, a book or a movie ever gave me.
RUclips is much too big,I miss too much. I wish I could've seen this when it was posted and actually been apart of the conversation. I have grown to love this channel,specifically because of videos like this one which help me attain a deeper understanding of something I already loved. So, even if it's a year late, Thanks for this,Max,and everything you do here.
it will be dissected for generations to come. I can't wait for the day it starts to be studied in the classrooms, among grapes of wrath and other philosophical works we use today to teach students.
@@nickmagrick7702 As a philosophy student (and not a first-year), I would rather consider NieR (both Replicant and Automata) as great introductions to philosophy. And a great way to convey its importance and inner beauty.
@@nickmagrick7702I guess so. We need "good pop-culture" if such a thing can ever be claimed about anything. Something someone said about "educating the masses" etc... ;)
It is incredibly fascinating, but also quite disturbing for me to see that the problem my mind is stuck on has been so vastly explored and so precisely expressed by many others before me. I do find myself in a state of lacking value and meaning in myself, in my life, and in everything that exists; unable to define my own purpose or motivation to continue living, unable to take shelter on empty sources of support like religions, but also unable to get rid of my own life as I face the reality that this one life is everything I got, and once it's done, well, it's game over for me. These thoughts strike my mind pretty much at every second of free time I have, and they have driven me to become quite emotionally unstable and socially incapable, as I find myself unable to connect with the people that can just happily go on with their lives, not having to stop and think about these issues at all. If you took a couple of seconds to read this, thank you. I have very few opportunities to vent out a bit of the pressure that builds up in my head.
As tough as your comment was to read due to the relatability of it, the catharsis I felt in knowing that I am not alone in this was exactly what I needed. Everything that you said, I've been feeling too and the ending of this video only further reinforced that feeling of relief I got from your comment. The refusal to give up on the things that matter and finding and knowing there's others out there in search of the same thing you're searching for, the same thing that I Am searching for, who also refuse to give up, makes it all worth it imo. Thank you for taking the time to express that. For our sakes and your own sake. Thank You. Keep on keeping on. We got this. You got this. I got this.
I would watch exurb1a's video called absurdism if you haven't already, it's very inspirational in spite of the types of dark rabbit holes these many lines of thinking can lead you down. He doesn't have some profound answer that no one else has ever come up with, and there likely won't be anyone who can simply teach someone else to cultivate their own meaning for existence ever, but his take at the very least leaves you feeling good and primes you for success despite whatever dread you may have. Also see Everything Everywhere all at Once if you haven't already.
Nier Automata was the best game of 2017. The plot was nice and I loved how beautiful the world was and how Beautiful the android waifus were. Quality game all around
I'd say the part at ending E where the players join you, and you are presented the option to sacrifice your data was the most profound to me. Bringing real life into the game really helped solidify the questions the game had been asking for the last 20 hours. These were problems that not only the fictional characters where facing, but that everyone must and will face. The most satisfied I felt during the entire game was the last moment when I sacrificed my data. I wasn't sad watching my stuff get deleted, I was happy thinking about helping someone else, and that's what life is about.
Past two days I have watched/listened to most of your game and movie related videos. You are my new favourite smart person on the youtube. Thank you for your content.
As always Max, an excellent insight. Nier: Automata happens to be one of the games that changed my perspection in one way or another, and you helped me further construct what exactly made it so special. Keep up the good work!
As someone who struggles with mental illness (Panic Disorder, Pure OCD, Major Depression) I often find myself ruminating over existential dilemmas such as the ones presented in this video. The "truth" of our reality is uncomfortable and challenging to think about, and one can quickly find themselves drowning in darkness if they're not careful. I know, I've been there. It really is true that love is the connection that keeps us here, and gives us the strength to fight to survive through the uncomfortable uncertainty that is existence. Love is the light that burns away the darkness, the only thing that truly creates balance between beauty and suffering. Thanks for so eloquently describing the themes this game brings to light. Love your videos man keep up the great work!
It's why I hope to write a story about an Absurd Hero (as Camus put in, imagine the man forced to roll a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down again on completion and be happy). Someone with no meaning or purpose in a cruel world, shrugs it off, and keep moving forward while doing what can be described as unimportant nonsense, and is happy doing it - so that he can at least look back on his life and say "Look how many times I was able to push that boulder up that hill. I was pretty awesome for a person."
Nier Automata was a true masterpiece. And I'm very happy that thanks to Platinum Games, the series has finally gotten a title with good gameplay to draw enough players in. And what a dream combo it was. It had Yoko Taro, Keiichi Okabe and Emi Evans, who made the first Nier so great. But Platinum Games was the perfect addition for what the first Nier was lacking. Now that you liked Automata so much, did you consider playing the first Nier? IMO, while the gameplay is certainly not on Automata's level, the voice performances and sequences certainly are. The music is just as good or at parts even better and the party of characters is without exaggerating the best mix of characters ever made in any game. The English voice acting is also phenomenal. Just listen to Laura Bailey's raging monologue right at the start of the game. It was true art. But the best part about Nier 1 is actually the story. When you eventually finish even just the first playthrough, it will completely change the way how you think about conflicts and arguments. It might be a little more down to earth compared to Automata, but it has just as important messages in it. Yoko Taro is a real genius. And it's no coincidence that Dragon Quest producer Yosuke Saito threatened to leave Square Enix if they didn't let Yoko Taro make another Nier (which turned out to be Automata).
CycloneFox aaaaaaye don’t forget about Drakengard, and Drakengard 3. Those games do an excellent job on exploring the different styles of insanity and lust, in a much more perverted “honest” manner. Sadly, they don’t get a lot of attention.
This and Undertale have been my favourite games for three years now. I hope there will be more games that can have such beautiful and thought provoking video game narratives in the future, I think everybody is yearning for the perfect combination of story and gameplay... so far there have been very few
I love how clearly and succinctly you provide the philosophical nature of Nier Automata's sophisticated and layered narrative and how it's all beautifully intertwined within the games characters and story. For me personally, Nier Automata exemplifies the apotheosis of evolution in video games in being an extraordinary interactive and immersive storytelling experience that differentiates itself apart from most other contemporary games, books and movies. I'm just grateful that I was able to experience this game in 2017 and now consider it among my top five favorite games of all time as one that's earned its esteemed ranking as a renowned pantheon in the video gaming world. And Dammit, I want a sequel!
THANK YOU for understanding that Nietzsche quote in context! I am deeply religious, but respect him, because he actually weighed the benefits and cost of following a religious system, and rejected it. Paradoxically, many folks who reject religion as dogmatic do so from a lack of understanding. I disagree with Nietzsche's approach, but he went for it, and you gotta respect that tenacity.
SkinnySnorlax I completely agree. I feel like the fault in a lot of these philosophers, is that they cannot lose their arrogance. They tend to assume that all other forms of life must share our faults and perspective. That for whatever reason, “god” has to be a selfish human as weak as us. Our inability to accept that fact that all peril in life may just be our own fault, is what causes disparity to begin with. And that’s the one thing Neir doesn’t touch. The idea that these machines and aliens don’t have to act human. They can be completely different, and refuse to act human. But I guess the whole point of the game is worshiping humanity “glory to human kind”
The trouble with Nietzsche is that he is angry enough for young men to identify with, but he is too complex for most young men to actually understand his points
I'd say they CAN be art. Although it depends on how you define art. Personally I think, that not every product, hammered together by demographic analytics, is worth being called "art".
I remember crying multiple times playing through this game. I've never cried at any other game. Maybe not all games are art, but this one definitely is.
@@lynnmorgan5897 exactly. As much as this game deserves to be loved and cherished for what it's about and trying to convey...it is actually a rather shitty game for what you are actually playing (Platinum Games-Combat saves it...mostly). If it just wouldn't be soooo fugly... ;)
@@tydendurler9574 fugly? I have played demon souls on the ps5, ghost of tsushima, red dead redemption 2, horizon zero dawn,, and I've seen (insert any pretty looking game here) on youtube. NieR:Automata is the most gorgeous looking game I have ever played. It's rather dull when a game is considered to look stunning just from its poly count and how saturated with detail it is. Take ghost of tsushima for example. In terms of actual texture quality, even things as important as Character faces and skin textures are shit in CUTSCENES. Not just gameplay but cutscenes. Yet that game is still beautiful because of how the world is constructed and presented despite not having impressive graphics from a technical standpoint. Automata is the same thing. Low poly by comparison, but the way the world is constructed is stunningly beautiful. A games environment doesn't just serve as a 3d space for the character model to roam around in, it's the literal stage of the story and all events that transpire. Having the story and themes and feelings be strongly linked to the environment is super important for establishing the environment as both important and even more gorgeous than from just looking at it. Why is Automatas color palette so monotone, grey, despairing even? It's because the game is dangerously depressing and despairing. The look and feeling of the environment perfectly matches the story and themes. Isn't it lonely, depressing, relieving, and peaceful that you, a human, are controlling an android that looks like a human and thinks like one, and are roaming through a ghost city where humans are no longer present but are completely extinct. Isn't that powerful? You as a human get to experience 3 perspectives all at once through this world's design and the games story. The perspective of a human watching an Android that practically worships humanity just roaming through one of our species mass Graves we currently call cities? The perspective of 'being' an android and discovering the fate of your creators? The perspective of a human thinking about what that world would be like if you were in it? The last human roaming until he dies in a desolate landscape that's also filled with life. Wouldn't it be peaceful to escape from humanity into a world of quiet and lack of human conflict? But wouldn't it get lonely and despairing to be, alone? I personally can gather all these perspectives from connecting the story, themes, characters and myself with the games environment, it's world. Something like red dead redemption 2, the last of us 2, horizon zero dawn, ghost of tsushima dont have that. They have pretty looking polygons. Automatas world is legitimate fine art by comparison. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I refuse to sit back and let people bash this game that has a soul and purpose in its visual design and isn't something hollow like triple A games just having a nice coat of paint.
@@trevorveillette8415 ugh...yes, it has a soul and purpose in it's visual design and isn't some hollow Triple A Mainstream BS...yet, it's FUKKIN UGLY from a technical stand point! It looks and runs like a PS3 game. Period Just deal with reality my philosophy appreciating friend
Though I suppose the ending that i take away with is the Rediscovery of Love. When 2E sent away Nines from her after the destruction of the bunker, that was the event that allowed him to break the cycle, as otherwise 2E would have executed him again and started the new sequence of the 10000+ year war. The machines we observing and collecting data on love and when ot was finally achieved they sent the Ark into space with Adam and Eve on it. And even in the end "ending E" 2E/2B and Nines are reunited and most likely rebooted, and they could have a new mission which could be to go to the moon and recover the data and try to resurrect the humans. If anything i believe or at least interpret the meaning of the game as the quest and rediscovery of God and Love. It's actually quite an uplifting game ending.
For those that haven't experienced, nier replicant is a game that is just as profound and ends up with players making an ultimate sacrifice to get what they want as players but more importantly as humans and emphasizes that our desire is fickle and temporary and humans will always be this way. Nier automata does expand on this too and delivers an exceptional narrative that also addresses the human condition and I think the ending compliments replicant beautifully.
I put off playing this game for so long, carefully avoiding all spoilers, and when i finally played it (this week 50 hour playthrough), i was really a lot less than i was expecting. The potential story that i built up in my head was so much better and more interesting than the actual story.
Eh to each their own. Thats the problem with overbuilding things in your head it's never going to match the reality as what u imagine is never going to match. Elden ring dlc is suffering from the same rn all these people mad they made up their own wild fantasy story that was never going to actually exist
finished ending E in 2023. After couple years of pushing this game (for stupid reasons), I did it. The ending broke me. So many players sacrificed their data to help. Beautiful. So much depth and profundity in everything in this game. Man. It just taught me one thing. There's no one coming to our help. There is so much suffering in this world. Only together and only by kindness and sacrifice can we go ahead. Glory to mankind.
I sold my save data long ago to help those in need, but I’m equally as willing to play this masterpiece of a game to do it all over again, thanks to your video.
omg I'm sooo glad for this beautiful video, I loved this game so much and made me think a lot - and cried at those endings all the time - and even watching this video almost teared me up again
God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife, - who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise?
@@Xirnatts I played it this winter for the first time and finished it yesterday. Thanks for your help and those of all the others. Have no regrets. I'm pretty sure people will still play this cult game in 20 years :)
The only other thing that comes close to this kind of existential angst neir shows is the anime girls last tour. Both managed to change how I think about my existence all within months amazingly. Keep up the awesome work man!
Ending E was everything I wanted as this game's conclusion as it plays perfectly on the themes of the game and after all the heartache, finally gave us that hope to grasp onto. I haven't been this enraptured by a video game's narrative since the Metal Gear games.
@@carsonj4031 It's amazing. Just be prepared for this lazily designed section of the game were they tell you a story through text. Also, don't bother with the sidequests--stick to the main story and you'll love it.
i Played Autmata but still need find some enging and other cutscene like the robot who wished to be killed in this video the samarei on i dont know how to kill him because the doenst allow me or i need walk out and come back.. but i also really want play the 1 version because i want know emil story there i only need find the game in store or buy from online site
11:30 to the end is silliness. Love has no basis in objective reality. Why should we love? Yes, we acknowledge love has a ‘powerful quality’. But why should I be motivated to love?
Cells didn't put with each other by loce, be careful. There is no volonty, no motivated direction and no love in evolution, it's just that nothing prevented cells (and before them, atoms, molecules, nucleic acids and so on) from coming together, so on the billions of billions of them that inhabited the world, some managed to get this ability, they were selected by evolution and in the end, they remained. This has nothing to do with love :)
@@JohnMcSayer they're just grilling you on semantics. It's a bad habit of people deep in sciences (especially if they're having a bad day.) Emotional motivation is an important (and inseparable) feature of our species. No matter how rational we may become we will be driven by emotion. Love is not only positive for our psyches but encourages cooperation which is our species' greatest strength. To that end we often find progress through those emotions which encourage cooperation and action. Such examples include love, hatred, and despair. We also have emotions which encourage inaction such as contentedness. Logos and Pathos are intrinsically linked in our species to the point that wishing for only cold logic to prevail is tantamount to begging for the apocalypse. Despite this you'll often see some debaters putting Pathos or Logos as the absolute truth (more often the latter in my experience.) When it comes down to it those types of arguments are only constructed by idiot pseudo-intellectuals like myself and shouldn't be taken seriously.
I haven't played too many of the games on that list at the beginning but Tales of Berseria definitely has some very well executed themes especially in the field of free will vs control. Also the first Nier on the PS3 and 360 has a fantastic storyline with characters that are (in my opinion) leaps and bounds better than in Automata. The game may even help you if you ever needed further insight into some of the characters and plot revelations in Automata for one of those video plans you mentioned.
@@tovi3280 I managed to get so far into that game with all weapons upgraded and verses completed. However I never could quite finish it and I'm sure you can guess the section at the end that caused this :/.
@@tovi3280 I'm not too familiar with the ins and outs of what makes a fun real time combat system but from playing the game I'd say that despite the increase in weapon variety you gain as the game progresses, I just got more tired of playing the further I got into thr game to the point where I would have just preferred the game was on autopilot. If the game was shorter I don't think I would really have an issue with it though but the game becomes so grindy that it just becomes a bit tedious
This game is in my top 10 of favorite/best games of all time. I was left speechless by the very end, and I had unforeseen emotional attachment to characters. My daughter [she was 8 at the time] watched me play this game, and she was fully immersed in the more mature themes this game sifts thru. Truly a masterpiece.
Look more into Hegel. Our formulations of reality only exist through external input and other lives. Absolute reality can and does exist. Hegel is the ultimate philosopher
The Mouse Utopia Experiment. Basically an experiment where a they bred a group of mouse to have absolutely EVERYTHING they wanted. Food, entertainment, sex etc. But things go downhill & they became kinda crazy. I don't know if anyone has ever linked Nier Automata with this experiment before, but to me it strikes a chord. To live a good meaningful life, you kinda need to have a good amount of struggle & pain. Even though they're in a war, 2B & 9S was kinda chill before they found YorHa's fake facade. They had a purpose, even it's about death & destruction. There's no Utopia. There's a need for balance; light & dark, creation & destruction, joy & sadness. This game has impacted me on how I view life in general; And in a positive way, that pain & suffering has it's purposes too. Here's a video of the experiment explained by a pretty cool RUclipsr, to anyone who's interested. ruclips.net/video/5m7X-1V9nOs/видео.html
Nier:Automata final question from gaming perspective offers player to put a real meaning to spending time of their life (in game). Sure, there are many games where players help each other both in killing and building, but only Nier:Automata brought this to the place where everyone can put a real price on the time of their life themselves (including save backups and stuff). I'm think watching someone play and finish this game can reveal their personality way better than any questionary and way more that this person will want to share ever.
That ending E really had me thinking about my save file like my life. Did I spend it well? (Ngl I speedran some of it and cheated here and there but that’s not the point) And if even did, how much did it mean to me? When pod asked if I was willing to give up my save to help others, that was crazy cuz I felt a little selfish for a moment but realized this game becomes much better when everyone helps each other. I wanted to be a part of that, so I gave up my save file. I can’t believe that moment gave me a small purpose.
teehundeart agreed was all philosophy and fluff did not explain the story at all. did not mention much from story, if at all. i stopped listening with a couple minutes left. the title of this video is misleading. there are other places i can go for general philosophy analyses.
Your analysis is one of the only ones that grasps the central point articulated by Nietzsche and Automata! As Pod 042 says in the end, basically there is no way to ensure this same chaos wont perpetuate itself but continuing to try and HOPE for a better outcome is axiomatically better than NOT TRYING! A lot of other people simply brush Taro’s work off as being despair driven and nihilistic but it is the OPPOSITE! The point is that through collaboration/unity/the connecting ideological principle you brilliantly highlight, we can have HOPE. Thus, as you said, the meaning of life is to 1. Continue to persevere/strive 2. Perhaps do so collectively/by helping each other since the alternative is going to end up worse for everyone. REALLY REALLY GREAT WORK, bro.
Hey, I just wanted to put your attention to a hidden gem of a game called Soul Sacrifice for the PS Vita. This game was phenomenal and i honestly wish it had more coverage. I would love to see you take a dive into it.
I have platinum'd both the original and Delta and it's among my list of favorites of all time. The story could even be called motivational and inspiring. I would like to see a video on it to raise awareness to people of it. The Vita was before its time in my opinion and because of that alot of great games aren't known of.
@@rimethefox1 absolutely agree. I haven't even seen a movie which has influenced my way of thinking as much as soul sacrifice. I must play it now. Actually I might not have platinum delta. Time to take care of that...
@@rimethefox1 and the way they worked in the mechanic of epithet saving or sacrificing your kills was just amazing. I loved my glass canon 99 sacrifice build. Good times.....
The problem with individuals creating meaning is that there is no individual meaning. We are provided with other people's meaning from the moment we are born and creating a truly different meaning or a universal 'truth' is difficult, in fact nearly impossible. Defiance is not meaning, it just means you believe your constructed meaning is more true than other people's meanings, I think. Personally, I am interested in knowledge, interpretation and meaning, but I struggle with it. I sometimes wonder if 'meaning' is a meaningless term. The question of love at the end of the game, should not be 'Do you still wish to rescue a total stranger?' because you can imagine something good about a total stranger, that makes you want to save them. You can create a meaning for your continued struggles and for your life in your imagination. The question should be 'Do you still wish to rescue the enemy, who has tortured you throughout, has killed or destroyed everything you love and live for.' Of course, no one has really done those things to you in the game, so the answer is easy: it doesn't matter which you choose. There are no real-world consequences. I like games that make you think, but games are simulations and do not carry the heavy burdens of reality in any way. In games, the designers hold the control device, you only really have one option: you only really have the on-off switch. In life, you can stop playing a game. Life itself may be a game. While life may be a game, I find that I have no choice but to treat it as reality. How can I treat others as automata or non-real people, when I would not like to be treated as an unperson myself? Life has pain for me so I presume it has pain for everything around me. Until we develop telepathy, I have no real way of knowing and understanding other people's meanings. There are limits to our ability to walk in another man's shoes. Why is destruction the objective in so many games? Why are there no games, which seek to deal with difficult questions by having people offer their saved data and help at the beginning of the game rather than at the end? Isn't that how we should tackle problems? Why do we only reward people after enormous and, in the case of games, often lengthy efforts, with no real-world consequences? Thank you for making this video and making me think.
Maybe you should give a try to Chu-Lip a game developed by Love De Lic. Even though it isn't the same you discribed it is quite intresting and it's objetive isnt destroy
You kinda missed an important second layer of subelty here with Kirkengard at 7:23. Here the point isn't some imagined afterlife, but to die as humans (=gods) would, and like Adam has done in pursuit of true humanity
Anyone that starts his thesis that games are a form of art by showing scenes of Soma have my attention. I could watch a two hour video about how the WAU interacted with marine life and a four hour video about if the copies of brain scans are still some form of human and the existential dread of the coin flip at the end. That was the first game that blew my mind totally and completely. The Drakengard/Nier series is another wonderfully thought provoking game. I played Nier: Gestalt before Automata came out and the way it would show you things you've done previously that you believed at the time was right but as the story continues you see your decisions become worrisome midway to downright remorseful near the end. Automata also unpacks it's tale in such a way that you can't help but be wholely engaged. And that's when the trap is sprung.
Literally anything can be considered art. A gatekeeper to what is and is not, is merely a snob trying and failing to sound intelligent. The original Drakengard, along with it's joke ending that led to the Nier series is what I personally refer to as, an exercise in depression. I was depressed by the characters, their struggles, their suffering... and I enjoyed it. Yoko Taro is a mad genius.
I do think there are limitations to what can be considered art, I don't believe every object in the universe is art. That being said, video games, from Pong to Call of Duty, are definitely art. Not always as deep and meaningful as games like Nier:Automata, but definitely still art.
@@thenew4559 I merely went with the purest definition of "art". "The expression or application of human creative skill and *imagination."* That last word being of immense importance. What is good or bad art we'll leave up in the air.
Great video.. Religion, politics, cults, beliefs; none of it will ever stop the eternally self-perpetuating conflict of Us vs. Them no matter how hard or earnestly we try, until we stop identifying with that conflict itself. For better or worse, we're all one people, and we're all in this shit together.
This back catalog video just made a sale and a willingness to invest a chunk of time in playing this game to explore the story and underlying philosophical ideas. With all the focus on the visuals, sexy character designs, and typical Japanese video game tropes, NieR completely flew under my radar.
This game and metal gear solid franchise are basically the deepest thoughtful and designed game in gaming history, you will always find new thing to learn from even the game becomes decades old, btw after beat the game the first time I realized 2B is the best waifu a person can get, her action alone change my view of life forever
This was a milestone, this was one of those moments when a work of art makes the whole medium make a whole step forward in maturity and potential. Unfortunately It is "just a videogame" and so i could never convince people outside of this world to try it, and it pains me.
I understood your question. I think that changing your relationship to pain and suffering is the only way to bear the burden of knowing the truth. Seeking truth beyond what is presented to us through our 5 senses involves our thoughts. When we learn to subdue our thoughts, to not engage the part of our mind that is responsible for any sort of negative reaction/response we might have to truth, the many borders of life that divide pain from pleasure, light from darkness, and chaos from order become blurred. Instead of us giving some sort of negative meaning or even positive, we perceive it as something that simply is. Just a sensation. Again, we're changing our relationship with pain, and conversely pleasure. Do this consciously enough times, and your body will learn to be at peace in the face of meaninglessness, doom, or misfortune. The trick is knowing how to and being able to not engage that part of your brain at any given moment, if you feel the need or desire to. For me personally, I found that it requires me to effectively kill off "myself": my personality, my desires, my memories, goals, grudges.. because without my thoughts, non of those things exist.
i think i was born dumb or incapable of complex thought or something. i played the game and i payed attention but i didn’t get anything you talk about here really. i feel like i have no ability for media analysis or comprehension at all. it’s really frustrating because every time i consume media that everyone finds to be really meaningful i just don’t get it like other people do :(
This game is an absolute masterpiece from top to bottom. after finishing the 3 main endings, it left me floating in a soup of emotions, that to this day, still cannot fully decipher 2B's thicc thighs are just the icing on the _cake_ if you know what i mean
I must admit: I played the game till ending A, B, C and then grew impatient to see this revelatory feat other players seem to experience. So I'm looking up a few videos whether I just basically missed everything. And now I'm quite disappointed if that's it. Maybe this is deep philosophical knowledge offered by the game for someone who was never confronted with this question before but that school of thought is nothing new. And the game mechanics hardly compliment the topic. Just think of Dark Souls and the sunbros which communicates this idea without a single line of text. Or a newer example is Death Stranding [which has many other issues but still conveys this idea through mechanics alone]. No offence, but I think people have lost touch with philosophy so much so that now confronted in a new medium with even the most shallow philosophical thesis seems profound to them. That, or I am still too stupid to understand it at all XD
Dark Souls? Seriously? The point of Nier is not to reference Nietzsche. The point of nier is to make you play as a war machine, enjoying murdering everyone, and than make you actually wonder about why are you doing it, what is the system that guides your action, or, as the game itself puts it, "do you think video games are silly?" And Dark Souls is deep as the pond outside my porch, come on.
i concur. for anyone who has delved in the most adressed philosophical matters or has a good knowledge of the universal classics in literature this is really disappointing since these are really well known interrogations explored by some of the most brilliant minds in critical thinking and the nier automata adds nothing new to any of these themes. had the same experience, was hoping for a really mature and compelling take on any philosophical subject, went somewhat blind, only knowing people where revering the writing. not only the themes are lacking in profoundness as the narrative is really formulaic with some lazy tropes. Still think that there is some merit to automata but it's not what people are making it to be.
@@Edo_has_a_marvelous_persona I strongly disagree in regards to what the game actually reveals about the player through mere gameplay mechanics. You might have misunderstood me: I was only talking about the covenant mechanics in Dark Souls - not Dark Souls as a whole. But I think these specific mechanics, shallow as they might be, get the point across just as good without any text, in a more personal way, much more concise, and might I add a lot less pretentious. I encourage you to look at them again through this lens - at least to me, it was pretty obvious from that point on. Oh and just to be clear, of course, I'm not saying that automata is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, only that this aspect of the game was a disappointment for me.
Thank you for this video. Though I loved the original Nier (which I'd recommend adding to your profound games list), Nier Automata didn't click with me when I played it back in 2017. Now I see that the reason why is because I need a better understanding of classic philosophy in order to get the most out of the story. Maybe I'll replay it someday when I'm more knowledgeable. Been subscribed to your channel for 2 weeks now btw. Loved everything I've scene. Thanks again for all the great content.
I don't remember where I first heard it, but the best summation of the message being said by Automata: I believe in a world that doesn't care. And people who do.
Nier : Automata
Come for the cute androids
Stay for the existential crisis
"for the cute androids". Yeah right ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Yoko taro : *GOT'EEEEMM*
@Ryoshikari exaclty
did you pinch that quote from a Honest Trailers i cuda swron i heard that already somewhere
@@ВадимБузмаков-м7г idk who that is so no
The guy behind NIER AUTOMATA
*"I just love girls"*
Were the only male models the S types?
I swear every other model was female
@@biotenki9760 The mad man actually made an entire play explaining that very question.
@@SophiaOfAthens it's hard to get a hold of, the only version I found with english subs got taken down.
@@SophiaOfAthens I think 2b and 9s read it out on a stream. But of course that won't really top the performance that the stage plays had. The few clips I've seen the actors are really hamming it up and giving it their all, and the choreography is incredibly impressive.
@@SophiaOfAthens Clemps on RUclips does a recap of the play. It’s called Yorha Boys and it explains why every combat unit was made female.
-spoiler-
2B's desire to kill God makes complete sense once you learn that her main task was to basically kill the person she loved, 9S, over and over again.
And that 9s technically is the "god" who created them. The original 9s model that was meant to be just a test for his personality went crazy (what a surprise) when his all male training team was all killed, and when he took control of the yorha project, he created the backdoor that the machines get in with and the false gods of humanity, since he found out that, surprise, all humans are dead, and knew that the androids needed a god to continue living. (Most of this told by the side story content that came out, specifically the male stage play)
but the Twist is that 9S's predecessor, and the original Android that 9S is a descendant of is Model No.9 the one that created YoRHa, the counsel of humanity, The Lie of Humanity, and 2B was killing this God, Again and Again, unknowningly, and what drove 9S to Insanity is being a descendant of his own original personality
@@alexisthompson376 yeah it's the ultimate irony
@@alexisthompson376 Where did you get all this info? I just finished Ending E (and deleted all my data without knowing :( ) and didn't know that 9S was the one who created all of this
@@LuzMcFly the RUclipsr Clemps did a very in depth review of the entire series
The beauty of this game is that it manages to be so profound while also being so gamey. In fact without its gaminess it would arguably not have been as effective and certainly not as fun as well. This is what people mean when they say that games probably have the greatest potential as a medium and this is why games like these earn my respect. This is truly a masterpiece
@@mylord4775 bro the creator of the game literally asked for it.
Yes! I love how this piece of art makes the most of its medium. There is no other way we could have had such an experience.
Ye
Nier Automata could only be achieved through the medium of videogames and it honestly serves as irrefutable proof that videogames are art and that they are, at the very least, a unique story telling medium. At most, it shows that videogames are the best storytelling medium we have yet to encounter.
Yeah that's how it is its a game after but a story first
“Video games are art”
*cut to climbing a ladder to look up 2B’s skirt*
Ah yes, a man of culture.
hahahaha
Real art man
What a thrill...
"Do you still wish to rescue someone - a total stranger- in spite of this?"
>Yes
God's speed my friends
Nier: Automata. One of those games that, on completion, will leave you forever changed.
So true. After I finished the game I had a different outlook on life in general.
me too it was so crappily designed that i vowed to never play it again it utterly succeeded in making me angry annoyed bored notice so many mistakes in level design and gameplay as a whole i ended up feeling hollow and stolen from the story was fun on its own but becouse of al of its bullshit made meaningless to me
Nier: Automata has permanently raised the bar for video game storytelling and philosophical exploration. Even despite the budget it was a complete masterpiece. I will never forget it.
@@mattg6106 raised what ? There are a LOT of videogames with a lot of toughts and ''philosophical' exploration' even yokotaro himself have been trying over and over to make nier automata since 2000...
Nier only raised the bar for today's AAA games (just a little cause SH, Shock series, crono cross, suikoden 3, Fallout 1, 2 & New Vegas, games writen by chris avellone, lovedelic, Suda51, (this one it's a little to absurd but still, on a lynchian (good) way) SWERY, MGS and MOTHER series exist a long ago and always were almost mainstream)... oh and i almost forgot the biggest Surreal satire in game industries, Xenogears (wich if you didnt played you really should)
ANYWAY i love nier as well, it just seems wrong and being a little too much tolerable with shitty developers to say philosophical exploration it's something new...
@@Leon-hp1wm Raised the bar... It's a saying... I never stated that the exploration of philosophy is *new* with Nier: Automata. But it did it all in a way that can't be done well through any other form of media and much better than the vast majority of games that tried. Nier: Automata was also not a AAA game nor does it matter how many previous games Yoko Taro made before. That has nothing to do with the subject.
I just finished ending E, and I was a mess. I was sad but then once I saw all those messages left by other players stating in their various ways, “do not give up, keep going, we’re rooting for you, we’re here for you”, I lost it. Those things were things I needed to hear. Not just to keep going through the game but through just life in general... because it’s a struggle. Defiance in the face of struggle, pushing us all forward and banding us all together. I hope that someone reads my message they feel the same way too. This game is truly a masterpiece.
Same. I didn’t realise those were other player messages until the game prompted me to write my own. When I realised, I started to cry
@@psyb0rgz447 same! Omg. I have goosebumps now.. It was so emotional and at this time I truly felt love for all the humans
Just finished the game. It's one of the most saddest yet heartwarming and uplifting games I've ever played
Yes absolutely. Thank you. I needed that too.
Not gonna lie, I cried throughout the ending credits. Quite the powerful game.
Me too bro
Same
Tear-jerking.
Yup, that ending does that.
...aaand i choked at the ending here again. So goddamn powerful
Me too! I have no idea how I finished it 😂
I'm trying to 100% complete the game right now. All achievements. All log files. All endings. Everything. I'm almost done. All I need now is to beat the Underground Colosseum (where the mobs are like lvl 130). I've gotten so close. Once I beat that, I plan to conclude everything by deleting my save data through ending E. See you in the end. :)
I did the exact same thing a couple years back, it's so emotional yet so rewarding
Glory to mankind! ... and Ryan Gibson.
How many time it takes to complete this game?
@@sigmaloner5611 it's... Technically 3 "whole" playthroughs, as the 4th one can be quickly completed with chapter select, thus unlocking the 5th ending.
The perfect Purge
Even after the pacifist ending of Undertale, this games ending E hit me harder than Pascal punched that Engels bot
yup
For me, the final boss of N;A was the best boss fight I've ever had. I felt like I could do it, I felt like it's impossible, I felt like I had no option but to fight on. Never in my gaming experience I wanted to Win that badly in a fight I couldn't win. Trying to kill gods, pitting my stubbornness and pride, my will - against the cruelty of the world and Fate, and at that moment - the feeling of someone fighting beside me... just because we all hate giving up. That was the greatest emotion a game, a book or a movie ever gave me.
I just got through ending E about 20 minutes ago... what a trip
Same!
Same :)
Same, I’m just soaking in it’s beauty rn
It's such an amazingly wonderful game❤️
Neir got me with the booty,
Played to death with swords and shooty.
The ending though.
F
E was actually the true ending 😏
Glory to mankind!
2B climbing and dropping g from those ladders, but players have the camera ability to look up.
*E*
*finger snaps*
This game's true ending was one of the greatest I've experienced in my 45 years on Earth.
I gave up playing games years ago after MGS and I'm only 26 but your comment might have been the last drop to my bucket, time to get NieR: Automata.
You have had a stale life
Yashar ending E wasn’t even good, it was cool and a nice touch I guess but like it wasnt that mind blowing tbh
@AztecaDNA E. I really felt what they were trying to go for and for me, it was really great.
@@charel5222 So how did you like it? Just played through it myself, what an amazing experience.
RUclips is much too big,I miss too much.
I wish I could've seen this when it was posted and actually been apart of the conversation.
I have grown to love this channel,specifically because of videos like this one which help me
attain a deeper understanding of something I already loved.
So, even if it's a year late, Thanks for this,Max,and everything you do here.
Always looking forward for more Nier Analysis. There is so much to this game.
I always had great appreciation for it's depiction of pacifism. Both in Pascal's trials and in side quests like protecting the joy parade.
it will be dissected for generations to come. I can't wait for the day it starts to be studied in the classrooms, among grapes of wrath and other philosophical works we use today to teach students.
@@nickmagrick7702 As a philosophy student (and not a first-year), I would rather consider NieR (both Replicant and Automata) as great introductions to philosophy. And a great way to convey its importance and inner beauty.
@@hungriarckie right?
@@nickmagrick7702I guess so. We need "good pop-culture" if such a thing can ever be claimed about anything. Something someone said about "educating the masses" etc... ;)
It is incredibly fascinating, but also quite disturbing for me to see that the problem my mind is stuck on has been so vastly explored and so precisely expressed by many others before me. I do find myself in a state of lacking value and meaning in myself, in my life, and in everything that exists; unable to define my own purpose or motivation to continue living, unable to take shelter on empty sources of support like religions, but also unable to get rid of my own life as I face the reality that this one life is everything I got, and once it's done, well, it's game over for me. These thoughts strike my mind pretty much at every second of free time I have, and they have driven me to become quite emotionally unstable and socially incapable, as I find myself unable to connect with the people that can just happily go on with their lives, not having to stop and think about these issues at all.
If you took a couple of seconds to read this, thank you. I have very few opportunities to vent out a bit of the pressure that builds up in my head.
You are not alone.
As tough as your comment was to read due to the relatability of it, the catharsis I felt in knowing that I am not alone in this was exactly what I needed. Everything that you said, I've been feeling too and the ending of this video only further reinforced that feeling of relief I got from your comment.
The refusal to give up on the things that matter and finding and knowing there's others out there in search of the same thing you're searching for, the same thing that I Am searching for, who also refuse to give up, makes it all worth it imo.
Thank you for taking the time to express that. For our sakes and your own sake. Thank You.
Keep on keeping on. We got this. You got this. I got this.
I would watch exurb1a's video called absurdism if you haven't already, it's very inspirational in spite of the types of dark rabbit holes these many lines of thinking can lead you down. He doesn't have some profound answer that no one else has ever come up with, and there likely won't be anyone who can simply teach someone else to cultivate their own meaning for existence ever, but his take at the very least leaves you feeling good and primes you for success despite whatever dread you may have. Also see Everything Everywhere all at Once if you haven't already.
Looks like the initial stages of awakening....
Nier Automata was the best game of 2017. The plot was nice and I loved how beautiful the world was and how Beautiful the android waifus were. Quality game all around
"2BOOTY or not 2booty, that is the question?" - A2S/ASS2
"2BOOBS or 2BOOTY, that is the question!"
Hellsblade:Senua´s Sacrifice beg to differ...even though Nier is a great game, storywise and depth Senua takes the crown.
@@kurok1tenshi I disagree
@@kurok1tenshi I disagree too.
@@kurok1tenshi i disagree.
Ngl at the end when he was writing "I did my best. One thing is certain. I'm rooting for you." made me teary.
I'd say the part at ending E where the players join you, and you are presented the option to sacrifice your data was the most profound to me. Bringing real life into the game really helped solidify the questions the game had been asking for the last 20 hours. These were problems that not only the fictional characters where facing, but that everyone must and will face. The most satisfied I felt during the entire game was the last moment when I sacrificed my data. I wasn't sad watching my stuff get deleted, I was happy thinking about helping someone else, and that's what life is about.
Past two days I have watched/listened to most of your game and movie related videos. You are my new favourite smart person on the youtube. Thank you for your content.
As always Max, an excellent insight. Nier: Automata happens to be one of the games that changed my perspection in one way or another, and you helped me further construct what exactly made it so special. Keep up the good work!
As someone who struggles with mental illness (Panic Disorder, Pure OCD, Major Depression) I often find myself ruminating over existential dilemmas such as the ones presented in this video. The "truth" of our reality is uncomfortable and challenging to think about, and one can quickly find themselves drowning in darkness if they're not careful. I know, I've been there. It really is true that love is the connection that keeps us here, and gives us the strength to fight to survive through the uncomfortable uncertainty that is existence. Love is the light that burns away the darkness, the only thing that truly creates balance between beauty and suffering. Thanks for so eloquently describing the themes this game brings to light. Love your videos man keep up the great work!
To me, it seems love itself is responsible for all beauty and suffering.
The deep narrative plus an amazing musical composition makes this game a truly incomparable experience. Glory to Mankind
It's why I hope to write a story about an Absurd Hero (as Camus put in, imagine the man forced to roll a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down again on completion and be happy). Someone with no meaning or purpose in a cruel world, shrugs it off, and keep moving forward while doing what can be described as unimportant nonsense, and is happy doing it - so that he can at least look back on his life and say "Look how many times I was able to push that boulder up that hill. I was pretty awesome for a person."
Did you do it?
@@---lt5br We do it many times over and over again lmao
Camus called that absurd hero The Rebel
isn't that the whole point of getting over it game lol
El Quixote?
Nier Automata was a true masterpiece. And I'm very happy that thanks to Platinum Games, the series has finally gotten a title with good gameplay to draw enough players in. And what a dream combo it was. It had Yoko Taro, Keiichi Okabe and Emi Evans, who made the first Nier so great. But Platinum Games was the perfect addition for what the first Nier was lacking.
Now that you liked Automata so much, did you consider playing the first Nier? IMO, while the gameplay is certainly not on Automata's level, the voice performances and sequences certainly are. The music is just as good or at parts even better and the party of characters is without exaggerating the best mix of characters ever made in any game. The English voice acting is also phenomenal. Just listen to Laura Bailey's raging monologue right at the start of the game. It was true art. But the best part about Nier 1 is actually the story. When you eventually finish even just the first playthrough, it will completely change the way how you think about conflicts and arguments. It might be a little more down to earth compared to Automata, but it has just as important messages in it. Yoko Taro is a real genius. And it's no coincidence that Dragon Quest producer Yosuke Saito threatened to leave Square Enix if they didn't let Yoko Taro make another Nier (which turned out to be Automata).
CycloneFox aaaaaaye don’t forget about Drakengard, and Drakengard 3. Those games do an excellent job on exploring the different styles of insanity and lust, in a much more perverted “honest” manner. Sadly, they don’t get a lot of attention.
This and Undertale have been my favourite games for three years now.
I hope there will be more games that can have such beautiful and thought provoking video game narratives in the future, I think everybody is yearning for the perfect combination of story and gameplay... so far there have been very few
play omori and you will definitely add it to the list
if you haven't already done so
I love how clearly and succinctly you provide the philosophical nature of Nier Automata's sophisticated and layered narrative and how it's all beautifully intertwined within the games characters and story. For me personally, Nier Automata exemplifies the apotheosis of evolution in video games in being an extraordinary interactive and immersive storytelling experience that differentiates itself apart from most other contemporary games, books and movies. I'm just grateful that I was able to experience this game in 2017 and now consider it among my top five favorite games of all time as one that's earned its esteemed ranking as a renowned pantheon in the video gaming world. And Dammit, I want a sequel!
What are the other 4?
THANK YOU for understanding that Nietzsche quote in context! I am deeply religious, but respect him, because he actually weighed the benefits and cost of following a religious system, and rejected it. Paradoxically, many folks who reject religion as dogmatic do so from a lack of understanding. I disagree with Nietzsche's approach, but he went for it, and you gotta respect that tenacity.
SkinnySnorlax I completely agree. I feel like the fault in a lot of these philosophers, is that they cannot lose their arrogance. They tend to assume that all other forms of life must share our faults and perspective. That for whatever reason, “god” has to be a selfish human as weak as us. Our inability to accept that fact that all peril in life may just be our own fault, is what causes disparity to begin with. And that’s the one thing Neir doesn’t touch. The idea that these machines and aliens don’t have to act human. They can be completely different, and refuse to act human. But I guess the whole point of the game is worshiping humanity “glory to human kind”
Once you understand something completely, you dont really reject things, you simply discard them because its unnecessary to keep dead weight on you.
The trouble with Nietzsche is that he is angry enough for young men to identify with, but he is too complex for most young men to actually understand his points
@@timsickler5125 Anger is a weird reading of Nietzche's work. He's combative not angry.
@@wilburforce8046 You sound like the arrogant one to be quite fair lmao
Games are actually the most sophisticated art form.
Technically they're mixed media art installations
I'd say they CAN be art. Although it depends on how you define art.
Personally I think, that not every product, hammered together by demographic analytics, is worth being called "art".
I remember crying multiple times playing through this game. I've never cried at any other game. Maybe not all games are art, but this one definitely is.
And profound in every way. Sound, music, gameplay, story, character development, enemies, timeline, time period... Did I miss anything?
I think you meant profoundly shit gameplay
@@lynnmorgan5897 gameplay was great in my opinion. Just finished all the main endings. Top game for sure.
@@lynnmorgan5897 exactly.
As much as this game deserves to be loved and cherished for what it's about and trying to convey...it is actually a rather shitty game for what you are actually playing (Platinum Games-Combat saves it...mostly).
If it just wouldn't be soooo fugly... ;)
@@tydendurler9574 fugly? I have played demon souls on the ps5, ghost of tsushima, red dead redemption 2, horizon zero dawn,, and I've seen (insert any pretty looking game here) on youtube. NieR:Automata is the most gorgeous looking game I have ever played. It's rather dull when a game is considered to look stunning just from its poly count and how saturated with detail it is. Take ghost of tsushima for example. In terms of actual texture quality, even things as important as Character faces and skin textures are shit in CUTSCENES. Not just gameplay but cutscenes. Yet that game is still beautiful because of how the world is constructed and presented despite not having impressive graphics from a technical standpoint. Automata is the same thing. Low poly by comparison, but the way the world is constructed is stunningly beautiful. A games environment doesn't just serve as a 3d space for the character model to roam around in, it's the literal stage of the story and all events that transpire. Having the story and themes and feelings be strongly linked to the environment is super important for establishing the environment as both important and even more gorgeous than from just looking at it. Why is Automatas color palette so monotone, grey, despairing even? It's because the game is dangerously depressing and despairing. The look and feeling of the environment perfectly matches the story and themes. Isn't it lonely, depressing, relieving, and peaceful that you, a human, are controlling an android that looks like a human and thinks like one, and are roaming through a ghost city where humans are no longer present but are completely extinct. Isn't that powerful? You as a human get to experience 3 perspectives all at once through this world's design and the games story. The perspective of a human watching an Android that practically worships humanity just roaming through one of our species mass Graves we currently call cities? The perspective of 'being' an android and discovering the fate of your creators? The perspective of a human thinking about what that world would be like if you were in it? The last human roaming until he dies in a desolate landscape that's also filled with life. Wouldn't it be peaceful to escape from humanity into a world of quiet and lack of human conflict? But wouldn't it get lonely and despairing to be, alone? I personally can gather all these perspectives from connecting the story, themes, characters and myself with the games environment, it's world. Something like red dead redemption 2, the last of us 2, horizon zero dawn, ghost of tsushima dont have that. They have pretty looking polygons. Automatas world is legitimate fine art by comparison. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I refuse to sit back and let people bash this game that has a soul and purpose in its visual design and isn't something hollow like triple A games just having a nice coat of paint.
@@trevorveillette8415 ugh...yes, it has a soul and purpose in it's visual design and isn't some hollow Triple A Mainstream BS...yet, it's FUKKIN UGLY from a technical stand point! It looks and runs like a PS3 game. Period
Just deal with reality my philosophy appreciating friend
Though I suppose the ending that i take away with is the Rediscovery of Love. When 2E sent away Nines from her after the destruction of the bunker, that was the event that allowed him to break the cycle, as otherwise 2E would have executed him again and started the new sequence of the 10000+ year war.
The machines we observing and collecting data on love and when ot was finally achieved they sent the Ark into space with Adam and Eve on it.
And even in the end "ending E" 2E/2B and Nines are reunited and most likely rebooted, and they could have a new mission which could be to go to the moon and recover the data and try to resurrect the humans.
If anything i believe or at least interpret the meaning of the game as the quest and rediscovery of God and Love. It's actually quite an uplifting game ending.
I'm a simple man, I see Nier Automata, I like it.
the opening had me hooked. from music to game play to narrative. god, all of it was too much.
once in a lifetime experience this game was.
For those that haven't experienced, nier replicant is a game that is just as profound and ends up with players making an ultimate sacrifice to get what they want as players but more importantly as humans and emphasizes that our desire is fickle and temporary and humans will always be this way. Nier automata does expand on this too and delivers an exceptional narrative that also addresses the human condition and I think the ending compliments replicant beautifully.
I put off playing this game for so long, carefully avoiding all spoilers, and when i finally played it (this week 50 hour playthrough), i was really a lot less than i was expecting.
The potential story that i built up in my head was so much better and more interesting than the actual story.
Eh to each their own. Thats the problem with overbuilding things in your head it's never going to match the reality as what u imagine is never going to match. Elden ring dlc is suffering from the same rn all these people mad they made up their own wild fantasy story that was never going to actually exist
finished ending E in 2023. After couple years of pushing this game (for stupid reasons), I did it. The ending broke me. So many players sacrificed their data to help. Beautiful.
So much depth and profundity in everything in this game. Man. It just taught me one thing. There's no one coming to our help. There is so much suffering in this world. Only together and only by kindness and sacrifice can we go ahead.
Glory to mankind.
I sold my save data long ago to help those in need, but I’m equally as willing to play this masterpiece of a game to do it all over again, thanks to your video.
omg I'm sooo glad for this beautiful video, I loved this game so much and made me think a lot - and cried at those endings all the time - and even watching this video almost teared me up again
The atmosphere in the mission where robots start believing in god was so surreal
WE BECOME AS GODS!
This is the only game I've ever played that consistently nailed me in the feels. Great breakdown of the game too.
Thank you Max! I was wishing you would do this and you finally did!! So awesome!
God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him!
How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife,
- who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise?
This has Bloodborne written all over it xD
NieR: Automata made me cry frfr when i got ending E
same.
I cried because I lost my save files. And it was all for nothing since almost noone plays the game anymore
@@Xirnatts amirite?
@@Xirnatts I played it this winter for the first time and finished it yesterday. Thanks for your help and those of all the others. Have no regrets. I'm pretty sure people will still play this cult game in 20 years :)
@@Biouke
The only other thing that comes close to this kind of existential angst neir shows is the anime girls last tour. Both managed to change how I think about my existence all within months amazingly. Keep up the awesome work man!
I wanna say land of the lustrous but yeah girls last tour aswell
If you liked Girl's Last Tour I would recommend Made in Abyss.
i’m on my 3rd playthrough now. 💛😍 can’t wait to see the rest of your videos on this game, man!
I came for the 2Booty
Stayed for the story
Ending E was everything I wanted as this game's conclusion as it plays perfectly on the themes of the game and after all the heartache, finally gave us that hope to grasp onto.
I haven't been this enraptured by a video game's narrative since the Metal Gear games.
Don't know if you've played the original Nier, but I strongly encourage it. It has an amazing story as well.
It's on my game list now I played Automata
CerN is spot-on. Nier 1 has one of the best gaming stories around.
i bought a xbox 360 just to play the original
@@carsonj4031 It's amazing. Just be prepared for this lazily designed section of the game were they tell you a story through text. Also, don't bother with the sidequests--stick to the main story and you'll love it.
i Played Autmata but still need find some enging and other cutscene like the robot who wished to be killed in this video the samarei on
i dont know how to kill him because the doenst allow me or i need walk out and come back..
but i also really want play the 1 version because i want know emil story there i only need find the game in store or buy from online site
11:30 to the end is silliness. Love has no basis in objective reality. Why should we love? Yes, we acknowledge love has a ‘powerful quality’. But why should I be motivated to love?
Cells didn't put with each other by loce, be careful. There is no volonty, no motivated direction and no love in evolution, it's just that nothing prevented cells (and before them, atoms, molecules, nucleic acids and so on) from coming together, so on the billions of billions of them that inhabited the world, some managed to get this ability, they were selected by evolution and in the end, they remained.
This has nothing to do with love :)
@@JohnMcSayer they're just grilling you on semantics. It's a bad habit of people deep in sciences (especially if they're having a bad day.)
Emotional motivation is an important (and inseparable) feature of our species. No matter how rational we may become we will be driven by emotion. Love is not only positive for our psyches but encourages cooperation which is our species' greatest strength.
To that end we often find progress through those emotions which encourage cooperation and action. Such examples include love, hatred, and despair. We also have emotions which encourage inaction such as contentedness. Logos and Pathos are intrinsically linked in our species to the point that wishing for only cold logic to prevail is tantamount to begging for the apocalypse.
Despite this you'll often see some debaters putting Pathos or Logos as the absolute truth (more often the latter in my experience.) When it comes down to it those types of arguments are only constructed by idiot pseudo-intellectuals like myself and shouldn't be taken seriously.
I haven't played too many of the games on that list at the beginning but Tales of Berseria definitely has some very well executed themes especially in the field of free will vs control. Also the first Nier on the PS3 and 360 has a fantastic storyline with characters that are (in my opinion) leaps and bounds better than in Automata. The game may even help you if you ever needed further insight into some of the characters and plot revelations in Automata for one of those video plans you mentioned.
Ryuji Sakomoto try Drakengard 3, it’s amazing (not good technically speaking) and has my favourite characters in the entire NieR storyline
@@tovi3280 I managed to get so far into that game with all weapons upgraded and verses completed. However I never could quite finish it and I'm sure you can guess the section at the end that caused this :/.
Ryuji Sakomoto danggg I’ve yet to actually play it. Is the gameplay fun?
@@tovi3280 I'm not too familiar with the ins and outs of what makes a fun real time combat system but from playing the game I'd say that despite the increase in weapon variety you gain as the game progresses, I just got more tired of playing the further I got into thr game to the point where I would have just preferred the game was on autopilot. If the game was shorter I don't think I would really have an issue with it though but the game becomes so grindy that it just becomes a bit tedious
Learning about Nietzche's "God is dead" quote really recontextualizes and explains the depth of NieR's second half.
This was an experience. It had me and my guy in tears at the end of it all.
This game healed my soul and broke my heart at the same time
Neir: Automata, the greatest underrated game of this console generation.
Yeah...i'd rather call it "the best shitty game i ever played"
@@tydendurler9574 its soo much more then just a game
This game is in my top 10 of favorite/best games of all time. I was left speechless by the very end, and I had unforeseen emotional attachment to characters. My daughter [she was 8 at the time] watched me play this game, and she was fully immersed in the more mature themes this game sifts thru. Truly a masterpiece.
Look more into Hegel. Our formulations of reality only exist through external input and other lives. Absolute reality can and does exist.
Hegel is the ultimate philosopher
Hegel is a shit philosopher because he was quite incorrect lmao.
The Mouse Utopia Experiment. Basically an experiment where a they bred a group of mouse to have absolutely EVERYTHING they wanted. Food, entertainment, sex etc. But things go downhill & they became kinda crazy. I don't know if anyone has ever linked Nier Automata with this experiment before, but to me it strikes a chord. To live a good meaningful life, you kinda need to have a good amount of struggle & pain. Even though they're in a war, 2B & 9S was kinda chill before they found YorHa's fake facade. They had a purpose, even it's about death & destruction. There's no Utopia. There's a need for balance; light & dark, creation & destruction, joy & sadness. This game has impacted me on how I view life in general; And in a positive way, that pain & suffering has it's purposes too.
Here's a video of the experiment explained by a pretty cool RUclipsr, to anyone who's interested. ruclips.net/video/5m7X-1V9nOs/видео.html
what is the game at 0:01
Looks like modded Skyrim
@@gangatalishis Thanks
Nier:Automata final question from gaming perspective offers player to put a real meaning to spending time of their life (in game). Sure, there are many games where players help each other both in killing and building, but only Nier:Automata brought this to the place where everyone can put a real price on the time of their life themselves (including save backups and stuff). I'm think watching someone play and finish this game can reveal their personality way better than any questionary and way more that this person will want to share ever.
That ending E really had me thinking about my save file like my life. Did I spend it well? (Ngl I speedran some of it and cheated here and there but that’s not the point) And if even did, how much did it mean to me? When pod asked if I was willing to give up my save to help others, that was crazy cuz I felt a little selfish for a moment but realized this game becomes much better when everyone helps each other. I wanted to be a part of that, so I gave up my save file. I can’t believe that moment gave me a small purpose.
Hoped for an explanation of the story, got a philosophy lesson instead. I still don't understand the plot and timeline of the game though :/
teehundeart agreed was all philosophy and fluff did not explain the story at all. did not mention much from story, if at all. i stopped listening with a couple minutes left. the title of this video is misleading. there are other places i can go for general philosophy analyses.
The title clearly says story 'explanation ' - ANALYSIS. I hope you understood and I hope you found the video you needed.
Yeah all he do is blahblahblah about stuff nobody cares
@@adalbertootero9907 245k people do
Bunch of people liked it
Mabye u don't like it because you have no idea what he's talking about
Your analysis is one of the only ones that grasps the central point articulated by Nietzsche and Automata! As Pod 042 says in the end, basically there is no way to ensure this same chaos wont perpetuate itself but continuing to try and HOPE for a better outcome is axiomatically better than NOT TRYING! A lot of other people simply brush Taro’s work off as being despair driven and nihilistic but it is the OPPOSITE! The point is that through collaboration/unity/the connecting ideological principle you brilliantly highlight, we can have HOPE. Thus, as you said, the meaning of life is to 1. Continue to persevere/strive 2. Perhaps do so collectively/by helping each other since the alternative is going to end up worse for everyone. REALLY REALLY GREAT WORK, bro.
Hey, I just wanted to put your attention to a hidden gem of a game called Soul Sacrifice for the PS Vita. This game was phenomenal and i honestly wish it had more coverage. I would love to see you take a dive into it.
Omg. I've been screaming for a ps4 remake for YEARS now. That game probably has the best story of ever. Not to mention the gameplay is on point.
One of the few games I've actually platinumed
I have platinum'd both the original and Delta and it's among my list of favorites of all time. The story could even be called motivational and inspiring. I would like to see a video on it to raise awareness to people of it. The Vita was before its time in my opinion and because of that alot of great games aren't known of.
@@rimethefox1 absolutely agree. I haven't even seen a movie which has influenced my way of thinking as much as soul sacrifice. I must play it now. Actually I might not have platinum delta. Time to take care of that...
@@rimethefox1 and the way they worked in the mechanic of epithet saving or sacrificing your kills was just amazing. I loved my glass canon 99 sacrifice build. Good times.....
Good analysis. Automata is a beautiful work of art on so many levels. It deserves the love it gets.
Ergo Proxy seemed to try to tackle the same question. Have you watched it?
Definitely one of my favorite animes.
If you're going to actually do videos for each of the main characters, then i'm hyped. Thanks for the hard work, man.
Stay tuned. ;)
@@maxderrat omg yes!!
The problem with individuals creating meaning is that there is no individual meaning. We are provided with other people's meaning from the moment we are born and creating a truly different meaning or a universal 'truth' is difficult, in fact nearly impossible. Defiance is not meaning, it just means you believe your constructed meaning is more true than other people's meanings, I think. Personally, I am interested in knowledge, interpretation and meaning, but I struggle with it. I sometimes wonder if 'meaning' is a meaningless term.
The question of love at the end of the game, should not be 'Do you still wish to rescue a total stranger?' because you can imagine something good about a total stranger, that makes you want to save them. You can create a meaning for your continued struggles and for your life in your imagination.
The question should be 'Do you still wish to rescue the enemy, who has tortured you throughout, has killed or destroyed everything you love and live for.' Of course, no one has really done those things to you in the game, so the answer is easy: it doesn't matter which you choose. There are no real-world consequences.
I like games that make you think, but games are simulations and do not carry the heavy burdens of reality in any way. In games, the designers hold the control device, you only really have one option: you only really have the on-off switch. In life, you can stop playing a game. Life itself may be a game. While life may be a game, I find that I have no choice but to treat it as reality. How can I treat others as automata or non-real people, when I would not like to be treated as an unperson myself? Life has pain for me so I presume it has pain for everything around me. Until we develop telepathy, I have no real way of knowing and understanding other people's meanings. There are limits to our ability to walk in another man's shoes.
Why is destruction the objective in so many games? Why are there no games, which seek to deal with difficult questions by having people offer their saved data and help at the beginning of the game rather than at the end? Isn't that how we should tackle problems? Why do we only reward people after enormous and, in the case of games, often lengthy efforts, with no real-world consequences?
Thank you for making this video and making me think.
Maybe you should give a try to Chu-Lip a game developed by Love De Lic. Even though it isn't the same you discribed it is quite intresting and it's objetive isnt destroy
@@Leon-hp1wm Thanks, Leon. That sounds like an interesting different game.
You kinda missed an important second layer of subelty here with Kirkengard at 7:23. Here the point isn't some imagined afterlife, but to die as humans (=gods) would, and like Adam has done in pursuit of true humanity
I'd love to see one day a *Hotline Miami* 1& 2 analysis.
Anyone that starts his thesis that games are a form of art by showing scenes of Soma have my attention. I could watch a two hour video about how the WAU interacted with marine life and a four hour video about if the copies of brain scans are still some form of human and the existential dread of the coin flip at the end. That was the first game that blew my mind totally and completely. The Drakengard/Nier series is another wonderfully thought provoking game. I played Nier: Gestalt before Automata came out and the way it would show you things you've done previously that you believed at the time was right but as the story continues you see your decisions become worrisome midway to downright remorseful near the end. Automata also unpacks it's tale in such a way that you can't help but be wholely engaged. And that's when the trap is sprung.
Literally anything can be considered art. A gatekeeper to what is and is not, is merely a snob trying and failing to sound intelligent.
The original Drakengard, along with it's joke ending that led to the Nier series is what I personally refer to as, an exercise in depression. I was depressed by the characters, their struggles, their suffering... and I enjoyed it. Yoko Taro is a mad genius.
I do think there are limitations to what can be considered art, I don't believe every object in the universe is art.
That being said, video games, from Pong to Call of Duty, are definitely art. Not always as deep and meaningful as games like Nier:Automata, but definitely still art.
@@thenew4559 I merely went with the purest definition of "art". "The expression or application of human creative skill and *imagination."* That last word being of immense importance.
What is good or bad art we'll leave up in the air.
beautiful done Max, from the bottom of my heart i give great thanks to your kind soul.
Great video..
Religion, politics, cults, beliefs; none of it will ever stop the eternally self-perpetuating conflict of Us vs. Them no matter how hard or earnestly we try, until we stop identifying with that conflict itself. For better or worse, we're all one people, and we're all in this shit together.
This back catalog video just made a sale and a willingness to invest a chunk of time in playing this game to explore the story and underlying philosophical ideas.
With all the focus on the visuals, sexy character designs, and typical Japanese video game tropes, NieR completely flew under my radar.
Glad someone mentioned Xenogears.
This game and metal gear solid franchise are basically the deepest thoughtful and designed game in gaming history, you will always find new thing to learn from even the game becomes decades old, btw after beat the game the first time I realized 2B is the best waifu a person can get, her action alone change my view of life forever
One of the absolute beat games i have ever played
Barely has any game made me feel so much
im replaying it right now, its great, again.
This was a milestone, this was one of those moments when a work of art makes the whole medium make a whole step forward in maturity and potential. Unfortunately It is "just a videogame" and so i could never convince people outside of this world to try it, and it pains me.
How bout an analysis of the original Nier if you haven't already done so?
would be interested in your take
Excellent analysis, thank you so much for this.
Oh man.. Looking at the messages in ending E, I wonder if someone got my message, heck, I don't remember what message I left behind!
I understood your question. I think that changing your relationship to pain and suffering is the only way to bear the burden of knowing the truth. Seeking truth beyond what is presented to us through our 5 senses involves our thoughts. When we learn to subdue our thoughts, to not engage the part of our mind that is responsible for any sort of negative reaction/response we might have to truth, the many borders of life that divide pain from pleasure, light from darkness, and chaos from order become blurred. Instead of us giving some sort of negative meaning or even positive, we perceive it as something that simply is. Just a sensation. Again, we're changing our relationship with pain, and conversely pleasure. Do this consciously enough times, and your body will learn to be at peace in the face of meaninglessness, doom, or misfortune. The trick is knowing how to and being able to not engage that part of your brain at any given moment, if you feel the need or desire to. For me personally, I found that it requires me to effectively kill off "myself": my personality, my desires, my memories, goals, grudges.. because without my thoughts, non of those things exist.
A sacrifice of sorts if you will. But once I'm on the other side. Looking back, it felt good!
i think i was born dumb or incapable of complex thought or something. i played the game and i payed attention but i didn’t get anything you talk about here really. i feel like i have no ability for media analysis or comprehension at all. it’s really frustrating because every time i consume media that everyone finds to be really meaningful i just don’t get it like other people do :(
No Story in this video, just philosophy.
This game is an absolute masterpiece from top to bottom. after finishing the 3 main endings, it left me floating in a soup of emotions, that to this day, still cannot fully decipher
2B's thicc thighs are just the icing on the _cake_ if you know what i mean
One of th e best games I've ever played. The story, gameplay, characters, graphics, open world, all were 10/10
"PUBG > NieR Automata" - game journalists
What was the game is said at 1:34? It sounded like Dave Sacks? I Googled it but couldn’t find anything. Anyone know what game it is?
Life is inarguably objectively meaningless, and that is beautiful.
drivel
@@steampunknoodles well aren't you fun
Wow, that was damn good video. Well done Max, that was awesome.
Blah blah blah, story begins @ 2:40 ..
The best analysis of Nier out there. Thanks!
I must admit: I played the game till ending A, B, C and then grew impatient to see this revelatory feat other players seem to experience. So I'm looking up a few videos whether I just basically missed everything. And now I'm quite disappointed if that's it. Maybe this is deep philosophical knowledge offered by the game for someone who was never confronted with this question before but that school of thought is nothing new. And the game mechanics hardly compliment the topic. Just think of Dark Souls and the sunbros which communicates this idea without a single line of text. Or a newer example is Death Stranding [which has many other issues but still conveys this idea through mechanics alone]. No offence, but I think people have lost touch with philosophy so much so that now confronted in a new medium with even the most shallow philosophical thesis seems profound to them. That, or I am still too stupid to understand it at all XD
I think this was indeed a (re) introduction to philosophy for many. I too don't seem to see the depth others describe. I am glad they felt it though.
Dark Souls? Seriously? The point of Nier is not to reference Nietzsche. The point of nier is to make you play as a war machine, enjoying murdering everyone, and than make you actually wonder about why are you doing it, what is the system that guides your action, or, as the game itself puts it, "do you think video games are silly?"
And Dark Souls is deep as the pond outside my porch, come on.
i concur. for anyone who has delved in the most adressed philosophical matters or has a good knowledge of the universal classics in literature this is really disappointing since these are really well known interrogations explored by some of the most brilliant minds in critical thinking and the nier automata adds nothing new to any of these themes. had the same experience, was hoping for a really mature and compelling take on any philosophical subject, went somewhat blind, only knowing people where revering the writing. not only the themes are lacking in profoundness as the narrative is really formulaic with some lazy tropes. Still think that there is some merit to automata but it's not what people are making it to be.
@@Edo_has_a_marvelous_persona I strongly disagree in regards to what the game actually reveals about the player through mere gameplay mechanics. You might have misunderstood me: I was only talking about the covenant mechanics in Dark Souls - not Dark Souls as a whole. But I think these specific mechanics, shallow as they might be, get the point across just as good without any text, in a more personal way, much more concise, and might I add a lot less pretentious. I encourage you to look at them again through this lens - at least to me, it was pretty obvious from that point on. Oh and just to be clear, of course, I'm not saying that automata is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, only that this aspect of the game was a disappointment for me.
Thank you for this video. Though I loved the original Nier (which I'd recommend adding to your profound games list), Nier Automata didn't click with me when I played it back in 2017. Now I see that the reason why is because I need a better understanding of classic philosophy in order to get the most out of the story. Maybe I'll replay it someday when I'm more knowledgeable.
Been subscribed to your channel for 2 weeks now btw. Loved everything I've scene. Thanks again for all the great content.
Thanks for subscribing and commenting, dude! I'll continue to produce the best content I can. :)
“The most profound game ever?” No. That honor goes to Big Rigs. Renounce that statement, please.
No, it belongs to Big Chungus
I don't remember where I first heard it, but the best summation of the message being said by Automata:
I believe in a world that doesn't care.
And people who do.
That one dude who says Detroit: Become Human is the most profound game will be memed for days.
Fantastic Vid as usual Dude. Hope you are well. :)