Nier Automata & How We Define Meaning in Video Games (SPOILERS) - [game array]

[@tofu042]

Its almost spooky how much praise this game gets, from every Direction possible. Its even spookier that it deserves every last bit of it.

[@PelvicGaming]

100% AGREE.

[@derdrie4237]

foodid its spookiest how not a lot of people know about this game.

[@PatacoinsTV]

5spoopy6me

[@lenyekpenyek]

yeah, and Ending E pays homage to other games Yoko Taro made. It always ends with tragedies, sometimes all endings are tragedies (I'm looking at you drakengard) so you're given the chance to fight the developers in the credit minigame, to save their memories from getting deleted and for once, get a happy ending...

[@Tri2Realize]

I got somewhat sentimental watching this. After I played through the game, the term "meaning" is what I ultimately associated the game with. I felt understood by Yoko Taro as a person who plays, loves and appreciates video games.

[@cathalmcgrath1334]

this game is for all the nines out there speaking as a wise machine

[@ItsKatsuragi]

He doesn't reference other video games only, he also criticizes us as human beings. If you do side quests there are little things like when they find the diet pills and the pod tells them it's because humans liked to ingest more calories than they needed. 9S reacts very confused to this, calling humans weird. What's the point of eating too much if you want to be skinny afterwards. This is just one of the examples, but there are more.

[@PelvicGaming]

Agreed.

[@user-xw1yh2py4j]

I would not say that it was ever a blatant criticism of humanity, rather, he simply addressed the good, the poor, and the oddities of it. Furthermore, it seemed quite contrary to a mere criticism-- to never look at something so black and white, and not to assume the best nor the worst. Additionally, including something which seems rather bizarre to androids which may be considered somewhat normal to humans is just how a sense of aloofness is created. The developers of the game specifically wanted to distance humanity from the picture so that humanity could be better reflected in the androids instead. Humanity _is_ depicted through its remnants, but the most blatant of those remnants are the androids themselves. They certainly have their flaws, but they are also just as capable of mercy and compassion if they so choose.

[@voices0000]

I lost sleep and fell behind on work over Automata. My best friend just dropped it at some point and went back to playing Hearthstone and Diablo 3. Took me a while to recover from that.

[@BleedingSnow]

I was getting emotional throughout your video just by listening to that song in the background, that song itself is a disease consuming your mind making you re-think and imagine the whole story, efforts, sacrifices you've gone through to get to the end, when everything is lost....

[@Zanyotaku]

I liked Nier Automata so much that I went back and tired to experience all I could from Yoko Taro's previous titles and ... god. I don't have the space in a comment to describe how deeply the universe created within the Drakengard/Nier games has affected me over the past year since I first came into contact with Automata, but just know that it has changed the way I see gaming as a medium and absolutely given me unfair expectations for deep character writing in both video games and media at large. If you go looking the sheer depth held in most all of the games in the series is mind-boggling and, to me at least, very rewarding. So, yeah, Nier Automata was the best game that came out in 2017. By far.

[@afw3371]

The level of insight you provided in this video is astonishing! Great video, sir!

[@zachgoodrich2845]

I very much enjoyed this game because I enjoyed Bayonette 2 for the Wii U which is why I got this game in the first place. Got endings C, D, and E in the same afternoon just about two months ago and I have to say NieR: Automata to me is my favorite game so far in the eighth console generation! It's the first JRPG that I myself completed alone in my life because it plays so different from a majority of games of its genre. The recent game I remember when I lost all my data in was back in the sixth console generation with Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for the PS2 and just thought "screw it" because I had absolutely no patience with many with frustrating glitches or demanding challenges but for more games than not I've gotten better overtime. Lately I've been to more story driven games like NieR: Automata as well as the Uncharted franchise. For NieR: Automata I enjoyed the storyline very well!

[@reflexlevel0744]

NieR : Automata is the best game I have ever played. At the ending I deleted my file and cried so hard ;-; Good job Yoko Taro and everyone behing NieR : Automata. I rate NieR : Automata/10 *insert loud clapping noise* P.S. thx for making this video :)

[@TheMemoman]

Amazing video, so helpful when it comes to thinking about exploring, prodding and pushing the medium's boundaries.

[@PapaCharlie9]

Well said. This is an important contribution to the analysis of N:A. Right up there with the analysis by Writing on Games.

[@FlattyMchesterson]

Fucking underrated video... Yoko needs to see this

[@jakqatif]

This is "THE" GOAT game for me for sure I never get bored of it

[@nancynicholls2056]

teared up from remembering all those moments in the game ;-;

[@PelvicGaming]

Hi! I'm new here, but this was a really interesting, and eye opening video. It's funny, as you said, we both experienced the same game... but got two different, and overlapping things from it. Great video nonetheless. :)

[@Peahnuts]

wow definitely resonated with some of your points, nice video man

[@j.dinquisitor2770]

As I am a new Fan of the the series, I devoured videos and stories after stories and eventually found a fanfic in Spacebattles forum that you might like and find interesting. forums.spacebattles.com/threads/to-inherit-the-future-mass-effect-nier-automata-crossover-fusion.504556/ I do hope that more people will read about crossovers like this. Because I think that a lot of fanfic stories out there deserves more recognition and follows.

[@Somebodylost]

XxXLoli_ Chief_XxX I've devoured the spacebattles forum like you. it's sad they don't post it in ffdotnet or ao3 and you'll have to dig deep to read them. D:

[@zip2kx]

It's the first satire (not parody e.g. Conker) in the video game medium. Thus it's not something unique in what it is (since movies and books have already done this), but unique in it's medium.

[@incontinentia3119]

I would not say it's the first satire, there are definitely others. Saints Row 3 and 4 come to mind. However it's true that it's never been done to such a scale and quality before.

[@ZARN1234O]

Amazing video. Loved your incite on the experience of playing and it's context. truly fascinating. Nier Automata is a game that will go down in history.

[@dantess2693]

I played the Nier on PS3, haven't gotten round to playing this yet. I'll add to Watch Later to avoid spoilers. Glad to see this getting almost universal praise though! Especially after Nier was an underappreciated gem.

[@Muzatsu309]

You are so underrated, this video was really eye opening!

[@dan_dai]

This video is great. I played the game almost fully, and I agree with this video. Hope more people can give a chance to play this game, I'm sure they are not going to be disappointed. GOTY for me

[@rzdakira]

This is such a great writing. Keep up the good work!

[@ReneeSitra]

That 8 bit version of Adam and eve's theme is too sexy

[@fluyd9]

This takes me back to 2005+ consolitis wars and stuff it's like you all never grew out of your nutella hands.

[@Bluezero03]

Writing on Games brought me here. Good vid. Hold this sub!

[@FlattyMchesterson]

Replace "what it means to be a video game," to "what it means to be human." Get your mind blown away xD

[@Dark_Magnolia]

Thank you so much for this video. Truly...

[@xcom54]

Funny thing during the ending E when the game ask "Is it all pointless?" I briefly thought of...Metal Wolf Chaos, with its hilarious quote "Nothing is pointless and the reason is, because I'm the President of the Great United States of America!" LOL

[@MrWhowatchesme]

Best game to have ever been made since Bloodborne.

[@nicefat5370]

Gabriel agreed

[@priabernamadimas]

yeayy after delete your save data then Dlc with new ending come out and you screwed damn you yoko taro

[@firstnameandlastnameples9570]

Fuuck. I can't watch this cause I haven't played Nier Automata yet

[@highlandrab19]

you can i didn't notice any spoilers. he's more talking about how games convey meaning to their audience than nier itself

[@JC-0021]

wat u smoking? There are spoilers

[@gamearray]

There are spoilers. Come back when you finish :)

[@highlandrab19]

It seems everyone has a very different definition of spoilers to me i'll try to remember that in the future

[@firstnameandlastnameples9570]

Definitely will. :D Always super excited to see another video. ^^

[@NitroMorrison17]

what are those hacking levels startin 2:44 ? I 100% almost everything except for fishing and some archives and had never seen those

[@Soundaholic92]

It's when you hack into A2 during the final fight. I won't spoil it to you, but the last hack (not shown in this vid) has a moment that rivals Ending E to me.

[@pwnageprata]

torn between getting this or nioh

[@shadowboxingmatt]

Krieg Papagai i have both but while im still playing nioh and having some fun nier gave me an experience ill never forget it surpassed the original in every aspect

[@shadowboxingmatt]

buy nier youll thank all of us

[@CariagaXIII]

schrodinger Nier they are all dead and alive at the same time until observed.

[@Falzar2142]

Now go play NieR Gestalt good sir

[@S590573]

Aw-Taw-muh-Ta not Auto Maw tuh. Otherwise, great video and good analysis

[@tbolland1991]

please stop doing that thing with your voice where you talk... like...... this.

[@gamearray]

I... will......try

[@sKiiTs8]

hahah i only really noticed it now - it adds dramatic effect to what you're saying ;) Great vid, I think Taro really understands humans and feelings, not just games.

[@_gamma.]

You should look up how to pronounce automata

[@ProzacStylings]

Automata was pronounced as aw-TOM-uh-tuh, yes. That much is true. However, two problems. One, Yoko Taro pronounces with a Japanese localization, AH-toe-MAH-tah, both in interviews and in-game dialogue. Two, Nier: Automata the game is now more popular than any other usage of the word automata. Because English has no central authority, and as a language is completely subject to popular usage, Automata is now pronounced AH-toe-MAH-tah, not aw-TOM-uh-tuh. So, he does know how to pronounce it. Cheers!

[@ProzacStylings]

Is [game array] speaking Greek? No? Then you pronounce it as an English word. As mentioned in the comment above yours, English is a language without a central authority where the correct pronunciation is simply and only "the most popular pronunciation". Which is why the language is so fucked up(but also versatile and adaptive), and why many words are pronounced different from their etymological roots. Before this game, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automaton?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=a&file=automa15 was the most common pronunciation, and the standard English pronunciation, similar to the pronunciation of Autonomous and Automaton. However, this game is very popular, and the word automata was not, so it can be argued that this game will effectively change the pronunciation from the prior standard English pronunciation, to the new pronunciation used by Taro(japanese localization) / this game.

[@arrak_]

GammaGames, if you finished the game you'd know how the game title was intended to be pronounced.

[@ProzacStylings]

You are still wrong across the board, Johnny. 1.) Here is a Greek person pronouncing αυτόματα, AKA, automata. forvo.com/word/%CE%B1%CF%85%CF%84%CF%8C%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1/ The Taro/Game pronunciation is not the Greek pronunciation. The legacy/prior English pronunciation /is/ the Greek pronunciation. 2.) Taro/The Game's version /is/ what got popularized. Which is why you're linking a video with a japanese-localized pronunciation of automata, in the comment section of a video using the japanese-localized pronunciation of automata. Why? Because Nier is ten times as popular as the word automata was when the game was released, and the new pronunciation has dwarfed(and therefore overwritten) the old pronunciation. You don't have to argue about how other languages influence English. If your opinion on the subject is anything other than "English speakers say whatever they decide to start saying, and dictionaries try to keep up so they'll remain accurate", you'd be wrong.

[@gamearray]

Yeah, yeah. I decided to pronounce the way the game pronounced it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npXZpKmaj9qXnNUm55s