NieR Automata Ver1.1a: Episode 1

Nier: Automata is my very favourite game. I love the music. I love the combat. I love the appearance. But most of all, I love the story. I want to talk about the anime and how Nier was adapted for it.

This post will be the first in what I hope is a series of posts about Nier. I'll be discussing the the first episode.

Consider this your spoiler warning.

Firstly, I wanna talk about the opening and ending monologues. Here are the four monologues along with who delivers them:

Anime Intro (2B):

How long will I keep on fighting within this blood-soaked vortex of the battlefield?
How long will I keep protecting within these infinite killings that never end?
How long will I keep believing in this world filled with deception and fabrication?
How long will I keep telling lies while continually feeling despair at the bleak future?

Anime Outro (2B):

All existence is designed to become extinct.
We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending cycle of life and death.
Is this a curse... or is it a punishment?
However...
If I am allowed to, I would like to make a wish.
For his happiness.
That is my...

Game Intro (2B):

Everything that lives is designed to end.
We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending cycle of life an death.
Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment?
I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle...
and wonder if we'll ever have the chance to kill him.

Game Outro (Pod 153/9S's pod):

Everything that lives is designed to end.
They are perpetually trapped in a never-ending cycle of life and death.
However... Life is all about the struggle within this cycle.
That is what "we" believe.

There's several things to discuss here: - The game's intro plays as the player goes from a pure-white screen to seeing the clouds 2B's squadron is flying over. The anime's intro plays as 2B carries 9S through a battlefield littered with machine corpses, then stops before the clouds begin. - The game outro plays at the very end of the game after the ending [E] credits. The anime outro plays just before 2B meets 9S in the Bunker. - The anime intro is a clear outlier in words compared to the other three. It's possible that this is meant as an episode intro and the anime "outro" is meant to be the "intro" for the series. - The anime intro references how Project YoRHa is a farce. - The anime intro is actually the weapon story for 2B's signature sword, Virtuous Contract.

I'm a bit annoyed that they open the anime by foreshadowing the twist about YoRHa. Sure, it doesn't explicitly say what the "deception" and "lies" are, but it puts people on edge to look for it. One thing that I particularly liked about the game was that you could go for all of Route A without knowing any of the shadier business. It sold the idea that 2B was really a battler android and not an exterminator.

Still, I'm curious about what this means for future episodes. Will each episode have a different weapon story? Will each episode focus on a different character, as this one focused on 2B?

I'm kind of torn on the change in the "Everything that lives..." monologue.

On one hand, I think the allusion to Nietzsche's eternal recurrence and death of "god" is a great way to summarize Nier's story. The definition of "god" is a great area for debate and analysis. Is it YoRHa? The machines? 9S, as a surrogate for No.9, creator of YoRHa? Is it the concept of the council of humanity - the "god" that was created for androids? It's a fun thought that's completely missing now.

On the other hand, the "player" is now a "watcher". They're no longer able to participate in the killing of that god. On top of that, the entire thing is rendered null if I'm correct that they'll be focusing on a different character each episode.

Unrelated to the monologues, there were a few things that bothered me about extra things. - 2B seeing the birds and her focus interruption by 9S. For some reason, the "Oh, the birds..." line stood out to me when I played the game. - Spoiling Engels by showing its activation rather than waiting for the Marx to attach to it as the introduction. - Completely skipping the dual-Marx fight, which causes a continuity error as 2B runs back towards Engels toward the factory after previously being inside it and has the two Marx appear from behind her. I understand they are limited for time, but that doesn't mean this isn't an issue.

My expectation for this week's episode is to either be centered on 9S, Anemone, or the Commander. I expect they'll continue the story from where they left off, and end somewhere just after the Adam fight.