Nier: Automata (Platinum Games)

with Kevin Ghouchadra (Host), Jeremy Andriano, and Alexander Hurezeanu 

Broadcast date: March 14th, 2023

Writer: Kevin Ghouchandra

Producer: Patrick Dolan 

The last of humanity has fled to the moon to avoid extinction. Androids 2B and 9S, on the frontline of humanity’s resistance, fight the 14th Machine War, aiming to take back the earth from a robot army of mindless destruction…or at least that’s what they think.

Just as the robots and androids repeatedly fight the same endless war over and over again, Nier: Automata’s story seems to ask the player to replay the same game again and again. The full story is only revealed after repeated playthroughs: but will every player persevere to learn how it really ends?  

All audio clips in the podcast quoted from Nier: Automata, except the piano track, quoted from the Nier: Automata Piano Collection soundtrack (Track #4 – City Ruins).

Sources and Resources: 

• Nier: Automata Wiki: https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/NieR:Automata 
• HarryNinetyFour, “Nier: Automata – All 26 Endings (Main, Secret, True, Joke Endings and Y Ending)”: https://youtu.be/1_3VgUD5GdU 
• Yoko Taro’s 2014 GDC talk, “Making Weird Games for Weird People”: https://gdcvault.com/play/1020815/Making-Weird-Games-for-Weird 
• Playstation, “Drakengard 3 – Philosophies of Violence” (interview with Yoko Taro): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD6xCLlF5dY
• Jeremy Andriano, “Nier: Automata: Unanimously Divisive.” Nerds of a Certain Age, January 14, 2018: https://nerdsofacertainage.com/2018/01/14/nier-automata-unanimously-divisive/
• Hunter Galbraith, “First as Farce, Then as Tragedy: Chronicling Transactional Storytelling from Drakengard to Nier: Automata.” Planck Storytime, April 25, 2017: https://planckstorytime.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/nier-automata-analysis/                               
• Lovre Marusic, “Explaining the Wonderful Music of the Nier Series.” RPG Overload, October 28, 2022: https://rpgoverload.com/nier-series-music-explained/ 
• Reddit threads on the philosophers and philosophies referenced in Nier: Automata:
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/nier/comments/5ytpei/list_the_philosophyphilosopher_references_in/
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/nier/comments/68of1s/all_philosophers_in_the_game_update/