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[Ruff]

whoever created YoRHa. The entire purpose of YoRHa was to perpetuate the human lie, and then perish so that the war never ended. They were sacrifices to the continuation of the war. Hence the machine core AI systems, as their creators didnt feel comfortable creating their sacrifices with actual android AI cores. Pricks.

Actually not quite, YoRHa were never originally supposed to be martyrs dying to keep a lie preserved. they were originally just a group of advanced androids brainchild of a single Android named Zinnia who would fight for mankind and give false hope to the others. When the Prototype of 9S: No.9, found out his creator had constructed him and No.2 (and the rest) from Machine Cores and that they were only here to spread a lie he went berserk, killed him and went on to add the backdoor and disposal idea to Yorha to make the lie even harder to uncover before getting killed by Number 2.

You can also see the Voice Actors of 2B and 9S act this out on his twitch stream here

 

[lukeskymac]

Humanity being gone was really obvious, OP, so it's not really a plot twist. Literally everything concerning this screamed "THIS IS A SHAM AND THE CHARACTERS DON'T REALIZE IT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT GENRE-SAVY, HAHA"

I don't see the second one being a twist either. It's more like a final piece of the puzzle of understanding stuff we already had been exposed to than something that actively changes the way the story will proceed.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Actually not quite, YoRHa were never originally supposed to be martyrs dying to keep a lie preserved. they were originally just a group of advanced androids brainchild of a single Android named Zinnia who would fight for mankind and give false hope to the others. When the Prototype of 9S: No.9, found out his creator had constructed him and No.2 (and the rest) from Machine Cores and that they were only here to spread a lie he went berserk, killed him and went on to add the backdoor and disposal idea to Yorha to make the lie even harder to uncover before getting killed by Number 2.

You can also see the Voice Actors of 2B and 9S act this out on his twitch stream here

I havent read or had the chance to watch all of that, however the black box reasoning and martyr plan is from the [Top Secret] Black Box file in game

Each YoRHa unit is equipped with a "black box", and item created by reusing the core of a machine lifeform. As such it could be said that the consciousnesses of YoRHa units and machine liferoms share the same structure. Said black boxes were installed after determining that it would be inhumane to install standard AI in androids that are ultimately destined for disposal.

though was this the document that was modified later?

EDIT: It is, though I checked the Japanese text and it still talks about the black box machine core reasoning.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

There are two side missions that did some heavy foreshadowing too.

One of them is about an android with memory loss which asks you to recover her memory from a helper droid to find out who killed her friend, after recovering her data you find out she's an executioner Android that recently killed one of her friends, unwilling to live with that erased her own memory banks.

Another one is about a couple in which a couple decides to reset both their memories at the same time because their relationship isn't working, so their plan is to reset in hope this time it will work, they count down for the reset but the lady bails out at the last second because she only wants him to be improved.

More than just two!

"I have no more Romeos. I have slain them each and all."

 

[Nephtes]

Thanks for the rundown on this OP.

This seems like a plot I would have wanted to experience... But having played the demo, I decided that the gameplay and I just didn't really gel. I enjoyed the third person action hack-n-slash segments but then the game twists into a top down bullet hell and 2D platformer and I was just like "no". Also, the enemy robot design was offputting.

Anyway, I'm glad I got the gist of it, it sounds like it would have been a heck of an emotional rollercoaster... I just wish they meshed that story on top of gameplay systems I wanted to interact with.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

More than just two!

"I have no more Romeos. I have slain them each and all."

that side quest is one of my favorite retrospect moments. Like in the moment I wouldve never believed that that play was anything other than comedic effect.

 

[MMarston]

I really enjoyed how the game was pretty nonchalant about the first twist, to the point where I wouldn't even call it a twist. It was a nice way of playing with your expectations in that it just shrugs and says you're right about that one.

Commander: "9S, I see you've been looking at things you shouldn't."

9S: "Yeah! And I found that--"

Commander: "Oh yeah, they're totally dead."

9S: "Wat."

Commander: "Yup."

9S: "..."

Commander: "Anything else?"

9S: "...No?"

Commander: "Okay. Move along."


What's also ingenious about it is that it's actually a pretty great of foreshadowing for 9S's character too as the plot progresses.

 

[Raven117]

The story is interesting enough, but for me, it fell flat when it didn't write 2B and 9S (and A2) well enough for me to actually care. I didnt really care about them as characters. It never drove home the point that these were sentient beings. Instead (and don't get me wrong, I dig the idea), it goes on to say that both the machines and the androids are merely attempting to imitate humans.

It just missed for me on those notes.

Its still fantastic, but it did miss the gut punch for me for those reasons. As a matter of fact, the only gut punch for me was Pascal coming up on all the kid robots that committed suicide because Pascal taught them fear.

 

[Mubrik]

Surprised you didn't mention 2B's opening monologue OP. Went from being rather cheesy/edgy to being quite depressing.

Lol. This so much.
Was so cheesy when I first heard it but then after everything gaddamn.

 

[Wagram]

Honestly if you played the first Nier the twists weren't really that impactful. The one I really did appreciate was that YorHa created the open back door to repeat the cycle with the machines endlessly.

We already knew humanity was long gone. Also the 2B is there only to murder 9S could have been handled better rather than shoehorning a line in the final battle. I wanted to see her straight up murder 9S at some point confusing the fuck out of the player.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Honestly if you played the first Nier the twists weren't really that impactful. The one I really did appreciate was that YorHa created the open back door to repeat the cycle with the machines endlessly.

We already knew humanity was long gone. Also the 2B is there only to murder 9S could have been handled better rather than shoehorning a line in the final battle. I wanted to see her straight up murder 9S at some point confusing the fuck out of the player.

I much prefer the subtle introspective approach over this kind of thing. Automata is a champion of hidden subtlety and introspection

 

[Atomicfireman]

I have to disagree. Maybe it's just that I knew it was written by Yoko Taro, but I expected plot twists and therefore were not very surprised by them. Additionally, the game tries so hard to be dramatic, bizzare, and emotional, that I found most the of the plot twist moments to be more comical than anything else. It was a very entertaining game, with regards to both gameplay and story, but perhaps not in the way it was meant to be.

I also never played Nier 1, I don't know if that would affect my perspective or not.

 

[LotusHD]

There are two side missions that did some heavy foreshadowing too.

One of them is about an android with memory loss which asks you to recover her memory from a helper droid to find out who killed her friend, after recovering her data you find out she's an executioner Android that recently killed one of her friends, unwilling to live with that erased her own memory banks.

Another one is about a couple in which a couple decides to reset both their memories at the same time because their relationship isn't working, so their plan is to reset in hope this time it will work, they count down for the reset but the lady bails out at the last second because she only wants him to be improved.

Lol OP literally mentioned both of these.

 

[kenji]

This game led me to depression. Along with other things that happened, but this game had a big part in it. I'm still recovering, but I also don't want to forget. It was an incredible experience.

The epilogue to Emil's story was also amazing and depressing at the same time