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Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a Season 2
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ktarf
Posts: 29 |
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I consider both Nier games to be masterpieces and they're in my top 3 games of all time, which means I have very strong emotions about this adaptation, and the first episode of this second part left me truly baffled. Seriously, what the hell were they thinking? The most important and shocking reveal of the game just randomly thrown before route C's prologue. I genuinely cannot understand the reasons behind such an absurd change, as it makes it way less impactful and the timing just feels awkward. This is probably Yoko Taro trolling, but wow, he might have gone too far. I'm wondering if there's going to be a new ending, and I'm scared.
It's all the more frustrating when everything else has improved greatly from the first cour. The CG is much more acceptable and, credit where it's due, episode 3 adapted one of my favourite parts of the game extremely faithfully, and consequently, extremely well. They even put credits in the exact same way the game did! The whole bunker part was perfect. If only the entire anime was like that. While I'll probably never make peace with episode one and this adaptation will never dream of matching its source material, let alone surpass it, it's still Nier Automata, and next episode should be massive, so I'm hyped. Really hope they don't change anything of what happens there. By the way, the new ending song was written by the genius madman Yoko Taro himself, and I recommend every game fan to check its lyrics. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 419 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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I agree. But they did the same thing in the first season with the Pearl Harbor Descent episodes when they showed A2's entire backstory before 2B and 9S's first encounter with her, which completely ruined the mystery of her parting comment to them at that time. To me it almost seemed like the reason they did it was to give 2B a reason to have a powered up mode to fight infected androids with. Don't get me wrong watching her dual wielding Virtuous Treaties, operating at a higher spec that Type Bs even with her limiter on, and then really going all out with her limiter off was really cool but it also felt like a bit much in the context of the story. Also, did you get a chance to play Neir: Reincarnation? It explains the discrepancies and contradictions of how "everything is canon". And based on the opening, I'm expecting them to burn another episode to do the story about the original No.2 and No.9 from the prologue of 'YoRHa Boys'. |
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ktarf
Posts: 29 |
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Yeah, I didn't like that either. I was especially annoyed that the random swapping of Anemone and Lily resulted in the absence of the best part of the Pearl Harbor in-game text, Number 21's death scene, which I was eagerly awaiting ever since the first announcement of the anime. What a bummer that was. Also, I thought the episode felt too much like 86 and while I really liked that show, the mood didn't fit Nier. Still, that was nowhere near as bad as moving the final twist to the halfway point of the story. It feels like they're afraid of showing first and explaining later, and it's something I'm noticing in many adaptations lately. How sad. Another example of this is how in the first cour they put scenes of spoiler[9S acting weirdly merciless and violent, probably as foreshadowing of his incoming blood fury... but said fury has a very specific reason, so I didn't get the need.] No, I've never played Reincarnation because I'm allergic to both mobile and gacha games. I did hear it's got some interesting Yoko Taro madness and Nier-relevant lore, so maybe I should read more about it. I only played the two games and everything else I know I found on the wiki or on YouTube, but I'm planning to read the Pearl Harbor manga when it's finished. I actually don't know how much of the Nier-related stuff Yoko Taro has scattered around outside the games is available translated. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 419 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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I wound up powering through Reincarnation when two months before end of service Yoko Taro made the very Yoko Taro reveal that it's Nier 3 and the final arc connects it directly to Automata.
To TL;DR Reincarnation (and this is the big reveal in the last chapter): spoiler[the entire Nier/Drakengard timeline is a loop. All of human/android history has happened over and over and over again (which may or may not have mostly just been countless simulations on a quantum server, I wasn't entirely clear on that part). Discrepancies in continuity just means it's happening on a different loop.] I thought it was a real cop out of an explanation, but it was satisfactory enough that the contradictions don't bother me anymore. |
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KaidoYuji8Shinji
Posts: 131 Location: Manchester, NH |
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Well then…. They was really depressing.
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jdnation
Posts: 2109 |
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The best way to experience this story is to play the game for yourself. It even has an easy 'godmode' option from the start using autochips, so anyone can easily go through it.
The adaptation is rushed and leaves a lot to be desired. The best parts are the callbacks to Nier, and the bits adapting material from the novels, stage plays etc. that are canon lore and not in the game. So the anime is a neat companion piece, but there are also discrepancies, and a lot of things missing. I do like the direction and presentation of the new scenes and dialogue, but I agree that they showed a bunch of stuff too early, however, doing the game properly would require a much longer show that takes its time. So it's serviceable enough for fans who've already played the game. I don't know how newbies are receiving it, but they are missing out on A LOT. And even then, the story feels like it's moving extremely fast, and a lot of the interactions with the machines are simply not there, unless they are saving those perspectives exclusively for A2. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 419 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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I wonder about this. Yes, A2's backstory and the 2E reveal came too soon, but I already knew these things coming in so revealing them early doesn't actually affect ME in a real way, but I do wonder how it was for people who are blissfully unaware of what they missed out on. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2116 |
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Natsuki Hanae went full Tanjiro with 2B's death. This scene was probably even more insane in the game since we were forced to control a weak 2B ever the Commander's death until she finds A2 like a way of Yoko Taro telling us that our character is dead no matter what we do.
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 419 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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Should be 50. When they tapped black boxes in episode 1 was the 48th time she killed him. Then she strangled him at the end of season 1. I wasn't sure if when she killed him in the first episode of season 2 was a flashback or not since the continuity in the first two episodes of season 2 is a mess, so it might only be 49 times. Considering the two of them are only 4 years old, that means she kills him on average once a month. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 419 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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Four years. At this point in the story, it has been four years since the Pearl Harbour Descent Operation. And A2 is at most eight years old. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2116 |
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Something strange about Yoko Taro is that he started Nier Automata by writing the current route and then come up with a proper way to explain 9S's change of characterization. Kinda reminds me to the writing of The Last of Us 2 since it puts the players in everybody's feet but we can choose who can win in contrast to the obligatory ending from The Last of Us 2.
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Vanadise
 Posts: 531 |
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This is pretty standard for Taro; his approach to storytelling is that he writes the ending and thinks about what emotions he wants to evoke first, then works backwards to create a story that leads to that ending. He gave a pretty interesting presentation on it at GDC 2014: https://archive.org/details/GDC2014Yoko2 |
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Daidan12
Posts: 60 |
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"Inconsistency in the character models"
That's not the way I would call the massive A2's ass view we are being served here, I will thank again Yoko Taro and the anime team for this glorious episode, it wouldn't be NieR without it. |
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Daidan12
Posts: 60 |
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The episode was great and another masterful diversion of the events of the game.
I lost it with the last puppet show with the, not subtle at all, way of the staff complaining about bad management and strict deadlines, last time I saw a show being so honest about it was in my beloved Gintama. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2116 |
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Wait. They actually changed all deaths? I remember Pascal' final appearance in the game was heartbreaking and I kinda wonder if the staff will use the Emil subplot
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