What Year Does Nier Automata Take Place

NieR: Automata and the finish of humanity.*

Those who played through the NieR: Automata demo know that the upcoming game takes full advantage of Platinum's over the summit flair and Yoko Taro'due south knack for mindf*cking the audience. At that place was something heed blowing almost literally fighting the stage, as the manufactory 2B, our new protagonist, was exploring transforms itself into an obscenely large robot. The shenanigans didn't stop at that place.

The demo'south ending completely destroyed expectations fans had coming into it, and created more questions than it answered. Where does this demo fit into the timeline? Are 2B and 9S truly androids? Why are they not allowed to express emotion? If 2B and 9S die at the end, who do we control when the game comes out? What is the truthful state of humanity?

Yoko Taro claims that both NieR games take identify in that same earth, only at vastly different time periods. This is hands seen when comparing dates betwixt the 2 games: NieR Gestalt took place around the yr 3465, and the Nier Automata demo takes place on March 10, 11945. That's not a typo, that'southward simply an age we'd never see in most human being media. Something's not right though…

NieR lore currently states that Gestalts, the actual humans of NieR, go extinct in the yr 4198, and aliens make it on Earth in 5012. This doesn't seem to fit with NieR: Automata, where the humans are said to accept fled to the moon when the state of war against the aliens' living machines turned sour. The aliens didn't make it until nigh 800 years afterwards the functional extinction of humanity. How did humans flee to the moon if they went extinct?

I've got a theory on this.

A new Genesis?

Nier Emil Emil is still around.

In Nier: Gestalt, Emil is an ancient homo that was experimented on to create an ultimate weapon. These experiments granted him seemingly eternal youth, and incredible magical power. Emil is not a Replicant, has no Gestalt, and is seemingly the simply pure human being left alive after the events of NieR: Gestalt. When Gestalts died out in 4198, all of the Replicants would have died also due to Black Scrawl disease, but none of this would affect Emil. This tin can exist seen by the fact that he survives well into the events of NieR: Automata.

By the end of Nier: Gestalt, Emil is the merely known entity that possesses the innate ability to cast magic, which comes from the world of Drakengard, as previously mentioned. More specifically, the magic used past Emil has ties to the Cult of the Watchers, the group responsible for summoning the beast that would eventually crash into Japan and infect the Earth with mortiferous magic particles.

Information technology'southward of import to think Emil's magic and its ties to the Cult of the Watchers, because nosotros afterward come across one of NieR: Automata'due south major new characters, Eve, sporting the symbol of the cult. It's possible that Eve'southward twin brother Adam also possesses the symbol. This is an important point for my theory.

Adam and Eve are both listed as humans, and possess magic powers tied to the Cult of the Watchers, just the but living fauna that was homo and had those very same powers was Emil. It's my belief that Emil is the origin of humans in NieR: Automata, a new Genesis for humanity that's alluded to past the names of Adam and Eve.

Furthermore, I would speculate that the aliens arrived on Earth, and through Emil, revived the man species. Thousands of years later, this would lead to disharmonize between the new humans and aliens. However, that'due south just my theory, and soon time volition tell if information technology holds upwards as well as my Nighttime Souls theories.

What do you think the inevitable twist will exist in NieR: Automata? How practice you feel about Yoko Taro's philosophy on video game stories and their incorporation into game design? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below.

The Twist: It was all a dream, only non really.

Kaine Nier The daughter of your dreams, but with a twist.

Later on the events of Drakengard Ending East, where the Queen Grotesquerie is killed, magic is introduced into the "real world" and begins infecting the people of Japan with the "White Chlorination Syndrome." Humans that come into contact with these particles are either turned into mindless, pale white zombies or turned into statues of common salt. The government of Japan decides the state of affairs is as well far gone and calls for nukes, simply instead of being destroyed the magic particles are spread throughout the globe.

NieR: Gestalt opens with players trying to survive in this post-apocalyptic setting. A man is fighting off monsters to protect his sick girl, and looking for nutrient to proceed them alive. The game then flashes forward to 1,300+ years later and reveals the primary character was just having a weird dream.

Except information technology wasn't a dream.

Players get through the game fighting enemies called Shades, tearing monsters that just want to kill humans. However, as more of the story unfolds, it'due south revealed that not everything is every bit information technology seems: The Shades are more human than anyone knows.

To survive the WCS pandemic, humanity initiated the Gestalt Project. Homo souls were removed from their bodies and made into Gestalts, which held their memories and genetic data. This information would be used to create artificial bodies, called Replicants, that were immune to the disease, could fight the zombies off, and and so go the bodies for humans to return to after the crisis was over and all of the magic particles were gone. Whenever a Replicant would die, its information was added to the Gestalt, and and so a new Replicant would be created.

Nier WCS Humanity survived the WCS pandemic thanks to the Replicant arrangement, simply…

While the programme worked in that WCS and the zombies were wiped out completely, there was a fatal flaw in the plan: Replicants eventually became self-enlightened. These soulless bodies became their own people, and human Gestalts, later chosen Shades, couldn't be put back into a body if it'southward Replicant became self-aware. This is a huge problem.

Replicants cannot reproduce on their ain, they have to be created from a Gestalt. Gestalts can't return to their bodies, and the "Relapse" phenomenon caused by the lack of a proper host body leads to Gestalts becoming less sentient and more violent over time. At the aforementioned time, when a Gestalt Relapses, the Replicant suffers a new disease, called the Blackness Scrawl, and dies. Since the Gestalt has been corrupted, that Replicant cannot be reborn.

These two products of humanity rely on each other for survival but are direct opposed to each other in their goals. The Replicants just want to live, just without Gestalts, they will die. Gestalts want their bodies back before they relapse and become corrupted, merely cannot inhabit them. Opposite to what players are atomic number 82 to believe throughout the game, there are no villains in this story, just victims of circumstance.

To hammer this betoken domicile further, it is revealed that the main character is the Replicant Nier, and the antagonist is the human from the dream sequence, the Nier Gestalt. They're both parts of the aforementioned person, with the verbal aforementioned goal, saving their daughter, but in diametrically opposed positions due to the nature of the Gestalt/Replicant human relationship. There is no hope in this state of affairs either: If Replicant Nier wins his girl'due south Gestalt will go on to corrupt, eventually killing her and making it so she cannot be reborn. Gestalt Nier successfully puts his daughter into her Replicant body, simply she is rejected, dooming both daughters to certain, if eventual, death.

The best New Game+ e'er created.

I've got nothing witty to postal service here, then gaze upon Yoko Taro.

Do y'all like New Game+? It's a absurd characteristic, just most people don't feel the minor changes justify a second, often easier, playthrough of a game they simply beat. NieR breaks that mold. Its New Game+ allows players to understand the dialogue of Shades, as well equally catch more than information on the Tritagonist Kaine.

What does understanding the Shades accomplish to make NieR's the undeniable greatest New Game+ always created? Information technology reveals that the player was the adversary the unabridged time. It'south similar The Usual Suspects' Kaizer Soze reveal, consummate with hints strewn virtually throughout the game, except done in a fashion that can only be accomplished through the superior nature of the gaming medium.

For example:

In the early portion of the game, Shades volition not assault players first. This only changes after the player gets Weiss and the ability to cast magic, which is anathema to them: Magic is the source of virtually all human suffering in their earth.
The tiny shades in the field expanse will drop children'south toys. You may say that the shades could have murdered a Replicant child and taken the toy, just why would a mindless beast that does nil but kill carry these things around?
At one bespeak Weiss explains that a particular Shade is a fully sentient existence, and Replicant Nier still murders it without a second thought. He does non intendance that it'southward an intelligent creature, and throughout the game, he declares his intentions to destroy every concluding Shade there is.
When traversing the Shadowlord's (Gestalt Nier'southward) castle, Kaine begins to tell herself that the enemies are just shades to keep herself from wavering. When players can finally understand what the Shades are saying, the actual story may turn their stomachs.

Replicant Nier, and the rest of Replicant society caved to the generalization of Shades as violent monsters based on the actions of a minority that had Relapsed and get corrupted. The entirety of the game is a made up of Replicant Nier slaughtering every Shade he tin: Shades that have learned to recreate their lives, Shades begging him to spare the children, and fifty-fifty the Shade children calling for their parents.

Replicant Nier is a murderer, and nosotros know how Yoko Taro feels almost the endings murderers deserve.

The Legendary True Catastrophe

The true ending to Nier is a flake of a legend amongst gamers. There are more people that have heard of the catastrophe than have actually played the game. Why is that? Because information technology erases all of your relieve data in front end of you, which is nightmare fuel to a sure subset of gamers. Non merely the electric current relieve either, whatever NieR salve information on your organisation gets trashed.

NieR's true ending can merely exist obtained by doing several playthroughs, as it requires players to unlock the other endings and collect all of the weapons subconscious throughout the game. This plays into the genius of the ending: The player and Replicant Nier continually repeat their mistakes. Each ending becomes worse and worse as players apply Replicant Nier to kill more innocents in the process of trying to uncover all of the endings.

Ending A looks similar it volition be adept, only Replicant Nier killed his ain Gestalt, ensuring his and his girl's expiry via Black Scrawl, and destroyed the simply means of forcing humanity back into a united whole. Ending B reveals Gestalt Nier'south despair at having failed to salve anyone, including his daughter Yonah. It closes with the surprise that Emil survived his credible expiry and he foreshadows a clash between Replicant Nier and Kaine.

Ending C is a continuation of A and B, which reveals that Kaine actually succumbs to both Black Scrawl and Relapse, due to her nature as half Replicant and Shade. Replicant Nier battles and kills her to stop her suffering then lives out the remainder of his short time with his girl as he did in Ending A. And don't forget, every Shade that Replicant Nier kills dooms a fellow Replicant to dice of Blackness Scrawl. He has doomed all of humanity to extinction.

nier erase The but expert conclusion y'all'll always make you filthy degenerate.

Ending D is the true ending and shows that Nier's murderous path has been and so horrible that the simply way to redeem him is to sacrifice his entire being for Kaine's life. By doing this, he is removed from having ever existed, significant he was never there to commit the countless atrocities of all his previous playthroughs, and this is represented by the role player losing their completed salve file.

The affair that interests me the most, is the evolution of Yoko Taro's philosophy from Drakengard to NieR. In Drakengard, players controlled abjectly horrible people and put them into increasingly worse situations with endings befitting their actions. Each new ending requires players to struggle more, only to find progressively worse endings.

In Nier, Replicant Nier is an asshole throughout the game, but he'due south mostly ignorant of his transgressions. There are no happy endings for Replicant NieR, every bit he'southward still a murderer, but the punishment lashes out at the players themselves. Replicant NieR had little to no thought that he was becoming i of history's greatest monsters, only the players not only became aware of the truth, they connected on in spite of it by continuing into New Game+.

The players are willfully murdering innocents for their own selfish sense of satisfaction that comes from completion, and that is why players are "rewarded" past seeing all of their hard work erased in front of their very eyes.

Nier Automata, my style besides early on choice for Game of the Year 2017, is almost upon united states of america! The demo has been well received, thank you to its unique visual style, the slickest UI ever created, and simplified controls. Platinum Games has been working hard to distil the experience of a full-on grapheme action game into a simplified Action-RPG, with great success. When combining that with Platinum'south flair for over the top set pieces and Foursquare Enix'due south superior visual designs, the result is something I can only describe every bit "Eyegasmic."

There'south besides a healthy buzz making the rounds in most gaming communities, and there's even tons of fanart going around. Most of which is due to an NSFW photoshop, made by a troll. It turned into a minor-scale scandal and resulted in one of the best responses from a developer ever. In fact, let this response be your first exposure to Yoko Taro if y'all're non familiar with his previous works.

Yoko Taro is different from your typical game developer, and that'south why games bearing his name have some legendarily twisted stories, which stalk from his own personal behavior. To look at this, nosotros're going into spoiler territory for Drakengard and the original NieR, before speculating on a possible twist in NieR: Automata. The odds are good most of you reading this have never played these games and never volition, so you might too disregard the spoiler warning for games that are over a decade old.

My theory on NieR: Automata, which may become a spoiler for the upcoming game and volition spoil the end of the demo, will exist tucked abroad safely on the last folio.

Murderers do non become to have happy endings.

Caim Not your kind of heroes.

The driving theme backside Yoko Taro's stories is his belief that people shouldn't exist rewarded for killing, and all the same virtually video games focus on merely that, and so he puts killing into his games. With that in mind, he tries to write stories backward: He creates endings that range from depressing but positive, to holy sh*t what the hell is happening. These are all endings that killers deserve, with the more positive endings tied to the offending players and characters, invariably murderers in someone's eyes, having to suffer.

Starting with the ending makes it easier to come up up with events that would justify their dark nature. Yoko Taro's characters are so created with flawed traits and unique situations that would put them into said events. This is something Drakengard plays straight, and NieR subverts, equally you'll encounter going forward.

In Drakengard, players control a character named Caim. He was a prince that was loved by his family and people, lived a charmed life, and was taught by his just and righteous father. Tragedy would strike when the Empire instigated an attack on his kingdom, which resulted in its fall and Caim witnessing the fell expiry of his parents, who are mauled by a blackness dragon. This is a adequately typical, if somewhat more than graphic than usual, prepare for a fantasy hero's tragic backstory.

Except Caim is a protagonist, not a hero: He gives in to the honey of killing. Caim becomes a sociopath that uses his claims of revenge and condition as a soldier to indulge in the pleasure he feels from murder. While some of the killing is done out of necessity, not all of information technology is. There are clearly times where Caim is killing considering he wants to experience the rush he gets from the act itself. For case, he slaughters an entire strength of kid soldiers. Caim's party member Leonard begs him not to kill the children, as he murders every single 1 of them in front of Leonard. (It's edited to make it less awful in the English release) Fifty-fifty the man-hating Red Dragon begins to feel Caim is taking information technology a bit also far.

Caim sounds like a great guy, correct? Look until yous see the rest of his political party: The previously mentioned Leonard is a pedophile, and his little brothers were murdered while he was busy getting his rocks off in the woods. Arioch is a woman that went mad after the murder of her children, her bouts of screaming are often interrupted by fits of laughter, and her only want is to protect children…by cannibalizing them and keeping them safe in her womb. The terminal member is Seere, a six-year-old child that has lost his ability to age due to a pact with the Golem. He'southward quickly taken under Leonard's fly…

Twisted twist endings.

The endings to Drakengard were so messed upwardly because they were a reflection of these corrupted protagonists' deportment. The best possible catastrophe sees the chief antagonist, Manah, forced to live as long as possible, forced to face up the fact she volition exist the most hated entity of all eternity. On summit of that, the Red Dragon, the only living thing left in the world that Caim has a somewhat functional relationship with, sacrifices itself to become the goddess seal, an undying being that protects the social club of the world at the toll of eternal suffering.

That may seem more bittersweet than twisted until you realize Manah was a six-year-old daughter that was treated similar the "Kid Called Information technology" by her mother, before being mind raped by otherworldly entities and forced to fix the world on course for the apocalypse. In this ending, her mind is freed after her concluding boxing, she'southward pleading to exist killed so she can die believing someone loved her, and the protagonist refuses and swears to make her live through her worst fright: The realization that every single person hates her guts.

Again, that is the good ending, and they only become worse from there. How much worse? Drakengard is said to have the most horrific ending to ever be put into a video game. Ending D. I've embedded the video higher up, because if you haven't seen it, you're going to retrieve I'thou pulling the details of this game and this ending straight from my ass for shock value. Information technology's nigh as shocking every bit the quality of the early oughts voice interim.

NieR: A serious spinoff from a joke catastrophe.

Drakengard's Ending E was seen as a troll catastrophe. Caim and the Reddish Dragon fly through a dimensional portal to mod day Tokyo, where the duo defeats the Queen Grotesquery in a singing rhythm game. After their foe is destroyed and the world is saved, a pair of fighter jets killed them with missiles, trivializing the incredible power of dragons and making a mockery of the unabridged game in some fans' eyes.

Drakengard was panned by critics as a game, with its story receiving most of the praise, simply loved by fans. It was a dark, different, and well-crafted story that descended into madness, which leads to a cult post-obit. Drakengard 2 did not have Yoko Taro as a director, was panned by critics, and by and large panned by fans. This lead to him being put dorsum into the director'south seat for the next entry into the franchise.

Where did he selection upwardly the story? twoscore years after Ending Due east of the original Drakengard. That's correct: Yoko Taro made NieR, the next entry in the Drakengard franchise, the entry he personally considered to be the truthful Drakengard three, a follow-up to what many fans idea was a shitty attempt at a funny catastrophe. This man, this genius, fucks with his fans in such a glorious manner that I but desire to shake his hand.