You have to redo the A2 vs 9S fight, I think. Definitely no further back than that.I feel bad for saying "no". The game is borrowed from a friend, so i may remedy that before returning it.
How close to the end can you level select?
I feel bad for saying "no". The game is borrowed from a friend, so i may remedy that before returning it.
How close to the end can you level select?
Once you've beaten the end credits, you can chapter select right to the last ending C cutscene.
Of course, you'll never see that last chapter select marker if you delete your save right away.
So I finished the second Emil fight, got everything I wanted and I was ready to give up my save file... And yet the question doesn't prompt this time. You only have one chance to give up your save file? Now that's cruel lol.
You don't only have one chance lol
Did you do Ending E again, with the whole shooting sequence and what not? I don't remember exactly how it goes, but I didn't delete my save file until later, so I know I got said "second chance" lol
Yes, did it exactly like I did the first time. But the Pod didn't ask about helping others and shit this time. I was ready to martyr up my save data but nope game didn't want it I guess lol.
Maybe your console was offline for that moment?
Wait, you guys went with 9S on your first play through? I selected A2 without even thinking too hard, 9S was clearly crazy as fuck and no good thing would come out of that.
Honestly? No, I don't think they actually remove any of the helpers. It is pretty safe to say that more "lives" are lost than people sacrifice save files, so the pool would have ran dry in a flash if that actually were the case.During that final sequence, when you accept help from other players, if you get it it says that the data of those players are lost. Do we think it is truly deleted from the server??? That would be so amazing!
Honestly? No, I don't think they actually remove any of the helpers. It is pretty safe to say that more "lives" are lost than people sacrifice save files, so the pool would have ran dry in a flash if that actually were the case.
Also, Platinum really got their money's worth out of that spherical boss model and animations.
I've gone on about this at length before, but I loved how they worked in the asset reuse here - the standard 'android' animations are used on 2B, A2 (and the boss versions thereof), the infected and rogue YoRHa, the 210 boss; and I think Devola & Popola as well - yet each of them feel perfectly natural in the context of the game, and you don't come out of it thinking that these elements which completely reuse existing assets feel anticlimactic and cheap. Like, 210 in particular - it's rare that a fight against a boss that has a generic NPC model using another character's animations, recycling existing music and set in an arena that's repeated verbatim three times throughout a single chapter is received as a striking and emotional moment.
A lot of games could learn from how Automata weaves its narrative around the limitations of its budget so effectively.
Emil crashing through emotional scenes blaring his silly song is the best part of the game.
.Engels: After some thinking, I think I understand the concept of sin and I feel great remorse for the thousands I killed.
2B: Gah (looks down in understanding)
9S: But, you're a machine. How can you understand such a concept?
Emil: Doo da doo, laa le laa! Buy my stuff, buy my stuff!
I just finished endings C and D just now. I got to the shooting the credits sequence and decided to give up because it was boring and tedious. I guess finishing that is what gives you ending E? Anyway, I just youtubed ending E. Wholly underwhelmed with all of these endings. I vaguely enjoyed playthrough A, especially at the end, and then felt like the game became a slog once I started B. Saw it through just to see what the fuss was about but there's nothing particularly mindblowing here, imo.
What sold me on buying the game in the first place was Waypoint talking about how philosophically interesting it gets, but I don't really see that. It kinda felt like I was being hit over the head with the idea that machines can have feelings/the nature of humanity, and it never really went beyond that.
Am I missing something?
Wait, you guys went with 9S on your first play through? I selected A2 without even thinking too hard, 9S was clearly crazy as fuck and no good thing would come out of that.
Oh. Well whatever. My network was connected and I died like four times so I was like ehDid you not have your network or w/e turned on? The whole point is that you'd fail, but not give up, and then as you saw through Youtube (Sigh...), people from around the world would help you out to get through that section, thus clearing Ending E. Without that, then that section is practically impossible.
It does go beyond that, and perhaps you are "missing something", but I dunno, instead of us randomly pointing out stuff, feel free to ask questions or make more specific criticisms, or state the parts you thought were hitting you over the head I guess, and then we can go from there.
I just finished endings C and D just now. I got to the shooting the credits sequence and decided to give up because it was boring and tedious. I guess finishing that is what gives you ending E? Anyway, I just youtubed ending E. Wholly underwhelmed with all of these endings. I vaguely enjoyed playthrough A, especially at the end, and then felt like the game became a slog once I started B. Saw it through just to see what the fuss was about but there's nothing particularly mindblowing here, imo. What sold me on buying the game in the first place was Waypoint talking about how philosophically interesting it gets, but I don't really see that. It kinda felt like I was being hit over the head with the idea that machines can have feelings/the nature of humanity, and it never really went beyond that.
Am I missing something?
The story in general was alright. Seeing what happened to the characters was kind of a drive for me to keep playing, but not really enough. I didn't enjoy playing the game. I ended up bumping it down to easy and used all the auto attack chips just to get through it once I got frustrated with the combat at the start of C. Wasn't worth the effort, as far as I can tell.
Honestly it just sounds like you used every oppertunity to make the game a less enjoyable experiance. Obviously using auto-attacks would make the game less engaging (especially in part C) (the game is piss easy on normal anyway). And also youtubing ending E because you found it "tedious" (tedium is part of why the ending works as well as it does) is disappointing to hear. (seriously, you lose EVERYTHING from that ending by youtubing it >.<)
Anywho, Automata goes heavy into themes of existentialism, it isn't a story about "androids and machines can act like people too", everything in the game is related to set themes about "what it means to be human".
Look into all the Boss names, they are names of philosophers and writers who's key works are on topics of existentialism. For example Nietzsche's "God is Dead" is used in large amounts in the game (hell, pascal even outright does a shoutout to Nietzsche). So yeah, look into works from Jean Paul, Nietzsche and Simone de beauvoir if you really wanna see the depth this game has to offer.
Beyond that I recommend this article on the transhumanistic themes of automata, its a good read: https://tanoshimi.xyz/2017/03/21/violet-evergarden-spoilers/
Hope this clears up why many of us think automata is special.
Everything about automata is in relation to its themes. Its a shame you didn't see that.
It wasn't until this week when i've been begging my friend to keep playing the game when he stopped after finishing A because he "Didnt want to replay the entire game over again" That I finally understood the scene that opens part B
One bored Scanner just waiting for orders putting on a puppet show for an empty theatre
Oh shit it was 9S controlling them...
I'll replay this one day when my PC can do it justice. There's gonna be so many things that make more sense on a replay.
I do wish I played Nier the original though, stuff like Devola and Popola would've been much more impactful if I knew what was going on with them beforehand rather than reading up on it afterwards. Hope Taro's next big narrative game has a clean slate, but I guess I know enough about the lore for another sequel to actually work for me.
nah, 9s wasn't controlling them.
I don't really have any questions. It kinda seems straightforward. For the whole game, 9S is like "they're machines, they don't have feelings!" and then eventually he's like "weird, they have feelings after all" and that's kinda as far as that thing goes. I get that it's also talking about how existing is defined by experiences/memories and stuff, but idk, I guess I just went in expecting to have my mind blown and instead I was just like "oh, okay"
From what I understand, the past games in the series (Nier and Drakenguard) had mediocre or bad gameplay, and Automata was the first to change that.nah, 9s wasn't controlling them.
I doubt Taro's next game will be set in a separate universe though. He has a lot of leeway in this current universe to do basically anything he wants (which is good since he doesn't do the same game twice). Hopefully we'll see his next project soon. Automata was announced and released in iirc under 2 years, so I'm hopeful that he will make something good and speedy again. Hopefully w/ platinum again
From what I understand, the past games in the series (Nier and Drakenguard) had mediocre or bad gameplay, and Automata was the first to change that.
It's amazing what having competent gameplay does for a series, I do hope they keep working with Platinum. I always hear how good Drakenguard 1-3 and Nier are, but I have no desire to play them.
In some aspects, Automata even managed to be a downgrade if anything, like the hitfeedback of spells or having the player slash away at high level enemies like Father Servo for 15 minutes.
Just finished tonight. Need a little while to take it in. All-in-all I totally did not "get" every single piece that they gave me, but I definitely enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading through the thread.
Also, who the heck is Emil people are talking about fighting?
Just finished ending E which actually ended up kinda falling flat for me cause I got a significant part of the way into the credits minigame and then figured it was just a weird thing to do and you were supposed to die, so I did, then nothing really happened. Looked it up and was like "god fucking damn it". I also played the prologue of the game through again thinking it was Route D before, again, looking it up and seeing I had to go through chapter select. All my fault I admit, but it still made things very frustrating.
The story lost me pretty hard once I reached the tower. The reveal that 2B is an E unit and kills 9S every time he learns the reality about humans is kinda weak imo, I feel like the game's plot is so far beyond that sort of twist in terms of the crazy shit that is going on that it feels like a step backwards.
So, how does it work exactly? Does everyone planetside get their memories wiped too or are they just programmed not to say anything? Has the bunker been destroyed/rebuilt thousands of times? Are the events always the same? I don't really get it.
Has Pascal always been friendly and does his village get destroyed every time?
Are the two little girls the end point of the machines evolving over all these repeated cycles and they're effectively breaking the cycle by shooting off the ark? If 9S goes with them then he too is breaking free?
Thanks in advance!
While the machine lifeform network was destroyed following the collapse of the Tower, a great deal of previously unknown information regarding machine lifeforms and aliens was recovered from the wreckage. As part of this analysis, we compiled research and conjecture regarding both the machine lifeform network and the lifeform Codename N2—commonly known as the Red Girls—that was thought to have been commanding them.
- Machine lifeforms are weapons created by the aliens. The only command given for their behavior was to "defeat the enemy." However, it appears that their capacity for growth and evolution went too far, and they eventually turned on and killed their creators.
- At this point, machine lifeforms recognized that the goal of "defeating the enemy" actually REQUIRED an enemy. In order to maintain this singular objective, they reached the contradictory conclusion that their current enemies—the androids—could not be annihilated completely, lest they no longer have an enemy to defeat.
- In order to resolve this inherent contradiction, the machine lifeforms began to intentionally cause deficiencies in their network, diversifying the vectors of evolution for all machines. This is the cause behind some of the more "special" machine lifeforms, such as Pascal and the Forest King.
- Meanwhile, the deficient network began repeating a process of self-repair while incorporating surrounding information, until it finally reached a fixed state as a new form of network. Traces of information regarding human memories from the quantum server of the old model were discovered, indicating that it had integrated them during the final stages of its growth process. Said server contained a record of the discarded "Project Gestalt," as well as information on the human who was the first successful example of the Gestalt process.
- Having acquired information regarding humanity, the network's structure changed once more, becoming what might better be called a meta network (or a "concept", to borrow the words of the machines). This led directly to the formation of the ego we identify as N2.
...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.
I don't know what the point is to all this, but I swear I will kill every evolutionary dead-end machine lifeform, as well as every single asshole behind Project YoRHa.
I'm coming for all your heads. ***** you.
Information Analysis Officer,
Jackass
So when I say you're wrong I mean that it's the machines perpetuating this cycle, not the androids.
-I get that she was programmed to kill 9S every time he found out the truth, but the reveal where she was "secretly an E unit" really didn't hit me at first because I have no idea what the hell an E unit is. Is this provided somewhere previously with context to other E units?
-Adam and Eve. All of it. So they are Robots that look like Androids that were created by the Robots? Does this tie into how it seems they are absorbing Earth culture and reading their texts and are trying to assimilate themselves into a piece of it?
-After reading some posts previous, I get the twins a bit more, since I guess they were part of the original Nier (which I never played.) But basically they (along with their equivalents) were programmed to oversee and record the Human efforts to take back Earth and their equivalents in all the other outposts went crazy and killed humans? And they didn't, but were persecuted and fled. But then killed a human during an act of persecution before ending up at what we know as the Resistance Camp?
-snip-
So is the gist of it this (feel free to knock me if I totally missed the point):
-Aliens came to Earth and created robots to take over, Humans fled
-Humans created Androids to fight back
-Humans went extinct partially through not winning the fight / time passing & partially through the red twins malfunctioning and killing them
-Robots also eventually turned on their Alien masters and killed them
-So now the Robots & Androids are taking part in a never-ending proxy fight based on their original orders that is driven partially by them self-motivating / hiding the truth because if they didn't, they would question their existence / purpose and get wiped out
Then with that being the over-arching story, we're given a lens into that through 2B/9S/A2 and their adventure within this one specific segment of the self-perpetuating cycle.
Things I don't quite get / missed / am ignorant to:
-I get that she was programmed to kill 9S every time he found out the truth, but the reveal where she was "secretly an E unit" really didn't hit me at first because I have no idea what the hell an E unit is. Is this provided somewhere previously with context to other E units?
-Adam and Eve. All of it. So they are Robots that look like Androids that were created by the Robots? Does this tie into how it seems they are absorbing Earth culture and reading their texts and are trying to assimilate themselves into a piece of it?
-After reading some posts previous, I get the twins a bit more, since I guess they were part of the original Nier (which I never played.) But basically they (along with their equivalents) were programmed to oversee and record the Human efforts to take back Earth and their equivalents in all the other outposts went crazy and killed humans? And they didn't, but were persecuted and fled. But then killed a human during an act of persecution before ending up at what we know as the Resistance Camp?
-stuff-
Now this is where it gets real interesting. The machines and their weirdness (dressing in tribal clothes or as clowns or as medieval soldiers) is all part of a deliberate attempt to give the Androids a chance basically.