Nier: Automata is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix. It is the sequel to Nier (2010). Nier: Automata was originally released for the PlayStation 4 and Windows via Steam. It was ported to Xbox One in June 2018, and Nintendo Switch in October 2022.
Nier: Automata is set during a proxy war between alien-created Machines and human-crafted androids, focusing on the actions of combat android 2B, scanner android 9S, and rogue prototype A2. The story requires multiple playthroughs, with each playthrough revealing new story elements. The gameplay combines role-playing elements with action-based hack-and-slash combat. It also includes gameplay from other video game genres, with elements varying from shoot 'em up to text adventure.
Production began in 2014, with series creator Yoko Taro, producer Yosuke Saito, and lead composer Keiichi Okabe reprising their roles in Nier. Akihiko Yoshida, known for his work in the Final Fantasy series, led character design. The goal was to make a sequel that would be faithful to Nier while improving the combat system. Because the project was new to PlatinumGames, its staff faced multiple challenges when developing the gameplay and open-world environment. The story, written by Yoko, explores themes of finding value in life and the reasons people kill. Automata was localized by 8-4, translators of Nier.
Nier: Automata was announced at E3 2015; it received stage plays and novels expanding its narrative, and both downloadable content (DLC) and crossovers with other games. Critics praised the game's story, themes, gameplay, music and characters but criticized for some visual and technical problems. The PC release drew a mixed response due to technical problems that were not addressed until 2021. Sales surpassed expectations; , Nier: Automata had sold over copies worldwide.
Gameplay
Nier: Automata is an action role-playing game in which players explore an open world. In addition to standard navigation on foot, the game features scenarios with flying mech battles, as well as a special item that can summon wild animals to ride. Non-playable characters (NPCs) found throughout the world offer quest objectives, and shops in hub locations sell various items, including consumables that recover health.
Combat uses a real-time action-based hack and slash system, using both light and heavy attacks and combining them into different combination attacks. The player can also evade incoming attacks, gaining invulnerability or counterattack bonuses based on timing. The player is assisted by a flying "Pod" robot which launches customizable ranged attacks varying from simple gunfire to heavy-hitting hammer attacks. The first protagonist 2B alternates between two weapons, the second protagonist 9S combines light attacks with hacking into enemies, and the final protagonist A2 can sacrifice health to briefly boost her attack power. There are four classes of weapons available; short swords, long swords, bracers, and spears. Attacks with different weapon types can be charged and launched for increased damage.
Players earn experience points through combat, increasing their health, defense, and attack power. Character customization is handled through attribute-changing items called chips. Chips can alter the HUD, add new abilities, and grant status buffs to the player characters. The number of chips that can be installed at any one time is limited to the number of slots a character has. Chips can either be purchased at shops or collected from defeated enemies. If the player character dies, they respawn at their previous save point. The player character can then find their original body and either attempt to repair it or retrieve items and experience from it to gain a bonus. If the repair attempt is successful, the body is resurrected as a temporary ally, but if the attempt is unsuccessful, it becomes an enemy the player can fight. With online features enabled, the bodies of other players can also be retrieved or revived where they died.
At certain points, the gameplay changes to reflect different video game genres, such as shoot 'em up and text adventure segments; many of these are indicated by a shift from the normal third-person perspective to a top-down or side-scrolling view. Some areas also include platforming elements, requiring the player to jump between platforms or over obstacles. Automata has 26 different endings; five main endings lettered A to E, and 21 additional endings lettered F through Z. These additional endings, which act as game over events, are triggered by performing certain actions, failing to progress the narrative, or losing certain battles. There are four difficulties available to the player which can be changed at any time, with "Easy" giving access to chips which automate functions such as attacking, dodging and pod fire.
Synopsis Setting and characters Nier: Automata, which shares the post-apocalyptic setting of Nier, takes place thousands of years after the original game's events. The Nier fictional universe exists in an alternative timeline within the Drakengard series. While carrying over the Drakengard tradition of a dark atmosphere and branching storylines, there is no direct narrative connection between Nier: Automata and the rest of the series. The story is set in 11945 AD, and revolves around a proxy war between the human-made androids and an invading army of alien-made Machines. Though they are prohibited from having emotions and lack true names, each android has a distinct personality. The "YoRHa" android forces are commanded from the Bunker, a reconnaissance base that orbits Earth. Fending off the Machines, the YoRHa forces fight alongside pre-YoRHa Earth androids known as the Resistance.
The game's initial protagonist is 2B (short for "YoRHa No. 2 Type B"), a YoRHa combat android whose main trait is her calm composure. 2B is accompanied by 9S (short for YoRHa No.9 Type S), a male "scanner" reconnaissance android who displays more emotion than other YoRHa units. The game later introduces another player character named A2, an obsolete attack android who often acts alone. The androids are supported by Pod 042 and Pod 153, floating, box-like robots that act as ranged weapons. The game's primary antagonists are Adam and Eve, twin controllers of the Machine Network; and the Red Girls, a construct within the Machine Network. Other characters include the Commander, YoRHa's top officer; the resistance leader Anemone; Pascal, a machine who dislikes conflict and wishes for peace; Devola and Popola, early androids who suffer discrimination from the actions of their model series; and the original Nier character Emil, who has lost his memories in the intervening years after the original game.
Plot The story of Nier: Automata is told across multiple playthroughs and alternating character perspectives. The first and second playthroughs follow the respective viewpoints of 2B and 9S during the latest android strikes against the Machines. After opening a route for future missions, they are sent to clear machine threats for Anemone's Resistance forces. During their missions, 2B and 9S discover the Machines are replicating human societies and concepts. The two work with a pacifist machine group led by Pascal, and battle Adam and Eve, physical manifestations of the Machine Network who reveal their creators were destroyed centuries ago.Adam: The aliens you seek are no longer here. They were wiped out centuries ago ... By us. The machines. (Route A, Chapter 03: Adam and Eve) 2B and 9S also encounter A2, a rogue YoRHa android. Adam is killed by 2B after he captures 9S. During his recuperation, 9S discovers a glitch in YoRHa's servers when syncing himself and 2B, and learns humanity was extinct long before the alien invasion. Humanity's last remnant is a Moon-based server holding their genetic remains. YoRHa perpetuates the myth of their survival to give the androids a reason for existing.Commander: In truth, humans never went to the moon at all. Any transmissions received from the moon are just dummy signals set up in advance. The only thing there is a small bit of data relating to the human genome. / 9S: But why would you— / Commander: Humans were already extinct when the aliens attacked ... No one fights without a reason. And we need a god worth dying for. (Route B, Chapter 9: Deranged Religion) With Adam dead, Eve goes mad with grief and drives connected Machines into a frenzy. 2B and 9S kill Eve, but 9S becomes infected with Eve's logic virus, forcing 2B to kill him. 9S's consciousness survives within the local Machine Network.
The third playthrough begins as YoRHa launches a full-scale invasion. A logic virus attack, which is enabled by the glitch 9S previously discovered, corrupts every YoRHa unit except 2B and the restored 9S.Commander: But tell me—why weren't you infected? / 2B: I don't know! / 9S: It's probably because I deferred our data sync. I noticed some weird noise in the Bunker's server data, so I paused the upload. (Route C, Chapter 11: Full-scale Attack) 2B and 9S are separated in the aftermath, and 2B is infected with the logic virus. A2 discovers 2B, who asks her to take her place. An ignorant 9S sees A2 mercy-killing 2B and swears revenge on her. Simultaneously, a tower created by the Machines rises from the land, separating the two before they can fight. A fortnight later, the perspective splits between A2 and 9S. A2, the survivor of a test run for YoRHa, begins empathising with the Machines; she witnesses the destruction of Pascal's village, then the village's "children" taking their own lives out of fear when they are attacked again. Pascal begs A2 to either wipe his memory or kill him; A2 can perform either task or leave him. An increasingly unbalanced 9S investigates the tower's resource-gathering platforms, fighting Machine remnants and learning the tower is designed to launch a missile at the Moon server. Devola and Popola sacrifice themselves to open the tower, with 9S and A2 both entering. During these events and their final confrontation, the two learn that YoRHa was designed to lose and perpetuate the myth of humanity, and that the Machine Network are using the war to further their evolution; each side has trapped the other in an eternal cycle of war.So then! To sum up: For hundreds of years, we've been fighting a network of machines with the ghost of humanity at its core. We've been living in a stupid ****ing world where we fight an endless war that we COULDN'T POSSIBLY LOSE, all for the sake of some Council of Humanity on the moon that doesn't even exist. (Intel - Archives - Machine Research Report) A2 further learns that 2B's real designation was "2E", an "executioner" unit assigned to repeatedly kill 9S whenever he discovers the truth about humanity, and that 9S was aware of this.A2: The 9S type is a high-end model. They knew you'd discover the truth eventually. But the model designation "2B" was just a cover. The official designation...is "2E". Number 2, Type E. They were a special class of members designed to execute YoRHa units. But you knew that... Right, 9S? (Route C, Chapter 17: The Tower)