Written and Illustrated by Jessica Chan
“Everything that lives is designed to end.”
NieR:Automata was released in 2017 as the third installment to the Drakengard series, and is now renowned in the JRPG community as a cult classic. The first time you play the game, you might think that it’s nothing special: attractive characters, slick gameplay, but a sci-fi story that seems average. So why is there still a dedicated fanbase lauding it with so much enthusiasm? If you have the patience to sink 50 hours into playing until the true ending, then you might just be able to understand why. Yes, it sounds crazy, but there is a method to this madness that any fan of the game can attest to.
Firstly, for any of you that are at all familiar with NieR:Automata, the first thing that might come to mind is the character 2B: the white bob cut beauty that wears the blindfold better than Gojo Satoru ever could. In my opinion, white-haired androids might as well be trademarked and slapped with a big NieR stamp on their face. Needlessly elegant and detailed uniforms, high heels, and those blindfolds – just why on earth would a combat android wear heels and a blindfold? Whatever the reason, each character is undeniably stylish and forever iconic.
Each part of the map is a desolate portrayal of Earth, overrun by machines and nature persevering through the destruction. The landscapes and environments are gorgeous works of art that speak for themselves. It’s a masterfully entrancing way of letting the player get as much from the game as they put in. Exploring feels undeniably smooth. You slide in the sand like a hot knife through butter; you can triple jump and swing on your Pod to get more airtime; you run like a race horse in a G1 race with nine star speed. The controls in this game are incredibly slick, to the point of feeling slippery. The perfect evades that morph into slowed time sequences are immensely satisfying. Is there anything that feels better than parrying?
The care and thought put into every design element, graphic and cinematic cutscene creates a game brimming with such a unique identity. The UI and sound design integrates so neatly into the playable characters being androids, which I find utterly charming. I love the plug-in chip menu that acts as your stats and skills tree. I love that you can take elements of the HUD away to make room for upgrades. I love that there’s a self-destruct button and an OS chip that kills you if you take it out. They make it blatantly clear to you, the player, that you’re an android built of code and mechanical parts, and I find that wonderfully immersing.
What I like about the design team’s philosophy is that it’s both a case of Chekov’s gun and just an aesthetic choice. You can see them as intentional design choices in a sci-fi setting where things are more flexible and advanced, but also appreciate that the main character simply looks attractive because the director “just really likes girls”.
So, what is special about Nier:Automata apart from the surface-level polish that makes it look good? What makes it play good?
If Nier:Automata was made by any other game developer, it would probably end after the first playthrough. But thankfully, it was made by Yoko Taro, who wrote a story so insane that it’ll make you think whoever pitched this to the executives of Square Enix could sell water to a fish. I have even watched my friend flounder and meander through her faulty keyboard controls for over 100 hours after completing the game myself two whole times because of how great this game is.
Before I move on to its stellar writing, the music in NieR is unforgettable. The labour of love that is this game’s soundtrack is worth relistening to at least once, and it’s an OST that is so deserving of their grand orchestral concerts. Beautiful vocals in a language that belongs to the Drakengard series. Each region that you explore in the map has its own melody — melancholic, serene and even playful in specific situations. Whenever I walk into the Resistance Camp, a sense of serene calm completely overtakes me. It doesn’t matter if I was just in the most infuriating boss fights of all time, that soundtrack manages to completely ease my mind. One of my personal favourite songs is the most sickeningly depressing one that plays in some of the most haunting sidequests you will ever complete, appropriately named ‘The Color of Depression’.
The boss fights in Automata have some of the most majestic and expressive scores that, when paired with the visuals and challenging gameplay, will have you on the edge of your seat. One of the first boss fights in the dilapidated theatre is an absolute spectacle from environment to boss mechanics, and has one of the most heart-wrenching stories in the game.
The tonal variation in the game creates levity for breaks from the gravity of the situation that the main cast finds themselves in, but will also gut you in unexpected moments to remind you that the world can be harsh and unforgiving. And what drives these charming dialogue scenes are the lively characters, all so full of personality and individuality. Each one has motivations, backstory and interests – despite being androids and machines –that makes every single character feel human. The main cast are so near and dear to my heart, and there’s so much more to them than their first impressions.
Replaying the game is like opening Pandora’s Box. The breadth that they manage to achieve in this game makes it seem like you’ve downloaded a DLC pack, but really, the main story has only just begun once you start replaying it. A game with a narrative of this caliber is something for the history books. It manages to interweave different gameplay styles and camera angles to fit the storytelling purposes of the director in a way that is not needlessly pompous, but rather fittingly individualistic in its artistic vision. I wish more story-telling games were directed like this: to be able to create a true identity and soul that is irreplaceable and impossible to evoke without being a blatant ripoff.
You enter the game with praise that seems daunting to live up to, and you come out of it a changed person. It will infest your brain and live in it like a parasite. Cutscenes will haunt you, and the core message of the game will live with you in the forefront of your mind. The ending song that plays when you beat the game still has a powerful grip on me to this day, to the point that my eyes water a little when I hear it.
NieR:Automata is the first game I would ever point to if someone asked me to demonstrate that the video game medium can create a piece of art. It’s an expectation-defying, heartwrenching and subversive masterpiece that sets an impossibly high standard for story games. I might just be the biggest peddler of this game that I know, but I really cannot stop shamelessly promoting it. Please buy this game! It’s worth every penny!
