This review contains spoilers
A humanist tale that doesn't get enough appreciation.
Yoko Taro joined Platinum Games not only to create just another playable piece of media, but to surpass and create a masterpiece in the game industry, delivering a satisfactory and wonderful gameplay. Going beyond all the expectations of what a "game with a robot with a big ass" may look like, creating a devastating story with characters that possess tragic arcs, Nier Automata story must be told exclusively through a videogame.
You can not tell the story of this game with a linear storytelling by any means. To tell his story, Yoko Taro, the game director, first wrote the overall plot with a quite simple premise: androids and robots in war. After that, he begins to dismount his own story, filling the empty spaces with different characters perspectives.
Taro divides his linear storytelling with 4 different timelines and perspectives, because the important point here is not the chronological order, but the emotions and feelings of each character.
The repetitive nature presented in the game combat, interlaces with the repetitive narrative, creating a "(...) never ending cycle of life and death". With this alliance between this topic and playstyle, this ludonarrative challenges the player to break this conflict of power, creating a hopeful future. Nier Automata is an artistic work that breaks new grounds with a spectacular message, where the only way to escape this infinite cycle, is by committing a senseless and unselfish act of compassion to the unknown. Only then can we finally be free.
Yoko Taro joined Platinum Games not only to create just another playable piece of media, but to surpass and create a masterpiece in the game industry, delivering a satisfactory and wonderful gameplay. Going beyond all the expectations of what a "game with a robot with a big ass" may look like, creating a devastating story with characters that possess tragic arcs, Nier Automata story must be told exclusively through a videogame.
You can not tell the story of this game with a linear storytelling by any means. To tell his story, Yoko Taro, the game director, first wrote the overall plot with a quite simple premise: androids and robots in war. After that, he begins to dismount his own story, filling the empty spaces with different characters perspectives.
Taro divides his linear storytelling with 4 different timelines and perspectives, because the important point here is not the chronological order, but the emotions and feelings of each character.
The repetitive nature presented in the game combat, interlaces with the repetitive narrative, creating a "(...) never ending cycle of life and death". With this alliance between this topic and playstyle, this ludonarrative challenges the player to break this conflict of power, creating a hopeful future. Nier Automata is an artistic work that breaks new grounds with a spectacular message, where the only way to escape this infinite cycle, is by committing a senseless and unselfish act of compassion to the unknown. Only then can we finally be free.