chil[D]hood's end | NieR: Automata - The Movie | "Optimism to Nihilism"

Channel:

Shin FTW

Subscribers:

12,300

Published on September 26, 2019 5:45:00 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQRbWOMaUog

Game:

Nier: Automata (2017)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 3:51:03

95 views

5

This is it. This is the end. The conclusion to what this entire playthrough, this entire story has been leading up to.

... or at least, AN ending. There's still a BIT more to go.

You might be asking yourself if the 3+ hours of... pretty much the entirety of NieR Automata's story leading up to this, was necessary. My answer to that is... I don't know. I originally only had edited the bit beyond "Now on NieR: Automata", myself.

But... I was just... so moved by this story. By 9S' story. He starts out so seemingly carefree, so optimistic, so full of pride and hope, so kind... But then to see that sense of hope and optimism slowly crumble and dissolve as he has the very meaning behind his existence stripped away, as everyone he cares about disappears... and to watch him care less and less about the things he once held in such high importance, until he became a cold black hole of anger and hatred... it was really powerful, and this conclusion to 9S' story just made me think about his character from the beginning and how it changed. It made me think about the story between him and 2B.

So, as a last minute thought, I decided to add ALL of the most relevant/important scenes to the story - especially concerning 9S and 2B - that I could think of, so that you could experience that trip in a streamlined fashion as well.

It took a VERY long time. Saving this 22+ GB video alone took about 20+ hours, when it finally decided to save all the way through and not freeze up and make me start saving it all over again.

But it was worth it. I had a lot of fun editing and weaving the events of Route A and Route B together so you could see both perspectives simultaneously. You get to see, very clearly, 9S' brilliant and tragic character change.

And I think tragic is putting it LIGHTLY. As sad as it is, even even considering he was infected with a logic virus, I still can't blame him for feeling the way he felt. BOTH him and A2 dying wasn't what I wanted, even if 9S did ultimately get to be with 2B again... in some form, but it could've been much worse.

It's just... I've seen quite a few people give 9S shit for his character, such as labeling him as an arrogant "robo racists", when there's lots of instances of that not being the case, and them forgetting how reliable and duty-bound he can be, let alone how he's the one usually doing all the talking and being responsible for the quests being accepted and the story moving forward. They completely mis-label his character to begin with, and then are unable to comprehend his change in character in Route C. They call him "edgy", when I've seen more "edge" coming from A2 than anything.

I mean... 9S goes through A LOT of shit in Route C. He suffers loss after loss, one tragedy after another. His entire meaning and worth is stripped away, and he's left with no one. Who the hell WOULDN'T feel like him in his position? That was the point. Yoko Taro's message to us was THROUGH 9S. 9S was the voice of the player and meant to be representative of our experience with the game. He complains about some side quests and lack of fast travel, as well as asking questions, and we're meant to feel the same sense of loss and insignificance as the story progresses.

So, I'm hoping that this "movie" may have helped streamline that story and experience as well, especially including side missions that are vital to fleshing that story out. If anything, to at least make 9S' character a LITTLE easier to understand. It seems clear as day to me. A perfect and logical example of cause-and-effect.

Also, the benefit to all of those scenes is... I did not show quite a few of them in my own playthrough. Some of them I plucked from YouTube. The Lost SIster quest, for instance. Even that quest I felt had importance to show for this condensed movie, because it establishes the soft and kind nature of 9S' character, before we see him begin to turn cold.

And for anyone who doesn't wanna sit through 3+ hours of basically (brilliant) background exposition to this video, I at least provided a timestamp for you to go to for the main part of the video.

I knew, going into this game, that Yoko Taro and happy endings don't get along (nor does Yoko Taro and save files). I don't know if this game can get sadder than picking 9S and then choosing "I'll stay.", but I guess we'll find out tomorrow...

But for now, thank you for coming with me this far.

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