Nier is a confusing world, full of entities that seek to emulate the facets of humanity, none of which understanding why or how to go about such an endeavor. With artificial life fighting on the front lines for a war gone on for millennia, there are some that break their programing to experience “life” to find its meaning.
Nier: Automata is a game released in 2017 published by Square Enix and developed by Platinum Games where you play as a menagerie of androids made to protect humanity on the moon from an alien threat that invaded earth thousands of years ago. with the main protagonist being 2B, a battle class android tasked with a recognizance mission with a scanner model, 9S, as they experience the remains of humanities world long gone.
Echoes of Hum[A]nity..
The world Nier creates with both its music and environments is simply beautiful for lack of a better word, as none would do this game justice even for a game nearing a decade old. with environments ranging from overgrown cities. vast deserts, and abandoned factories all accompanied with music to match.
The world Nier builds is… quiet.
Not empty. Not dead. Just… quiet.
Overgrown cities swallowed by nature. Deserts that stretch just a little too far. Factories that feel like they’re still running even when they aren’t. It all feels abandoned—but not forgotten.
And the music carries it.
Every track feels like it’s trying to remember something. Not tell you—remember. It doesn’t just sit in the background, it presses on you. It lingers. It makes even the simplest walk feel important.
Being almost human in its soundtrack, but with a completely gibberish language it still invokes the feeling the music wants to expand
To [B]e More Than Their Code..
These are machines.
They follow orders. They complete objectives. That’s it.
Except… it’s not.
2B is cold. Professional. Straight to the point. “Emotions are forbidden” Like she’s holding something back from herself. but she is the spitting image of what a combat model needs to be. she makes her mind in seconds and that’s all she needs.
9S is the opposite. Curious. Talkative. He pokes at things he probably shouldn’t. And the more he learns, the worse it gets. the world is his oyster, and he plans to crack it open.
Their conversations start normal. where they are, what their doing, then it expands, can they feel? can machines feel? why are they fighting? what happened to the world?
You hear hesitation. Emotion. Doubt.
And the game never makes a big deal out of it. It just… lets it happen. Slowly.
The War That [C]an Never End..
At first, it’s simple.
Androids versus machines. You’re the good side. They’re the enemy.
Then the machines start acting… wrong.
They build. They gather. They imitate. Not strategically—personally. Like they’re trying to be something.
And suddenly the war stops making sense.
It doesn’t feel like a fight for survival anymore. It feels like something that’s just… continuing. Because it always has.
You’re not pushing toward a victory.
You’re stuck in a loop.
Beauty that [D]efies Motion..
This is where PlatinumGames shows up in full force.
Combat is fast. Clean. Aggressive.
You’re dodging at the last second, chaining attacks, swapping weapons mid-combo—it feels good. Really good.
But then the game just… changes.
Side-scroller. Top-down shooter. Bullet hell. Then back again.
It shouldn’t work.
It does.
And instead of feeling messy, it makes everything feel unstable—in a good way. Like the game itself doesn’t want to sit still.
The Cycl[E] Continues..
You don’t finish NieR once.
You think you do. You don’t.
The credits roll, and the game basically tells you: “No, you’re not done yet.”
And it means it.
Each playthrough adds something. New context. New perspective. Sometimes entirely new gameplay. What you thought you understood starts to fall apart piece by piece.
It doesn’t repeat itself.
It builds.
Beyond the [F]irst Credits..
This is what everything circles back to.
What does it actually mean to be human?
Is it emotion? Memory? Choice?
Or is it just… struggling to find meaning where there isn’t any?
NieR never answers that.
It just keeps asking.
And the longer you sit with it, the less clear it gets.
To Be [H]uman..
To put it bluntly—
I love this game.
And also, it messes with me.
It’s confusing on purpose. It withholds things. It makes you sit in ideas longer than you might want to. Not everything lands cleanly. Not everything even makes sense the first time through.
But that’s kind of the point.
NieR: Automata isn’t trying to just tell you a story.
It wants you to feel lost.
And somehow, in all that confusion—
It finds something real.
9/10
