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Kia's Nier Automata (PS4)
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| [September 23, 2018 05:02:49 PM]
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A story of machine and humans, told in three parts. Part three:
So good news and bad news. The good news is that not all the machines are heartless monsters out for death and destruction. Some of them are peaceful. The bad news is 2B is still emotionally deficient and hasn’t experienced another glitch in her matrix. This is demonstrated twice in my play time. Once when 9S invites 2B to call him Nines, like the rest of his friends do. Then again, later, when 2B has the opportunity to reassure her operator in a time of need. Both times she uses her brain to speak instead of her heart. Sad day. That’s not to say she will stay this way forever. I’ve decided the creators designed her this way so as to prolong the story and give her more depth. What would be so interesting about an android who immediately went against her protocol, after all? Nothing! At least not for me. As I’ve said previously, it really bothered me that she was so quick to worry about 9S in the first place. A gradual change of heart is so much better! It also gives the player time to explore and discover as the story unfolds.
As for the machines, they’re not as evil as previously assumed. At least not all of them. Even before you enter the Amusement Park you face passive machines who’re just happy to wander harmlessly about. Only when you attack do they reciprocate. This begs the question, just how dangerous are they truly and why did they attack the humans in the first place? Could the androids understanding of them be completely skewed? I’m not sure, but I’m beginning to think so. In any case, the Amusement Park is where things truly start to get turned upside down. The machines are welcoming and even give you gifts. Many dance and sing, and throw confetti. They aren’t evil. They aren’t broken. To 2B and 9S, though, it’s all wrong. As they make their way through the ominous and creepy park, this unbalance in their understanding is amplified by everything they see and do. Clearly the creators wanted to put the player off their groove and make the protagonists question everything they’ve ever known about machines.
Of course, a single area full of “weird acting” and “weird dressing” machines doesn’t immediately change the protagonist’s views. They still have their doubts. They also have conflicting emotions about machines and the possibility that these said machines have emotions. With every new interaction, you can tell 2B and 9S are getting uneasy. Why? Does having emotions suddenly make murder wrong? Is it because having emotions means you have a conscious or do the two protagonists simply hate the idea that they’re actually hurting someone? Ethically, this matters. To hurt another human being is wrong. To hurt an inanimate object, not so much. It is still frowned upon, because it is considered vandalism, but you’re not judged as harshly. Why? Is it so necessary for an object to have emotions or will anything with an essence be considered precious? I think perhaps, this here, is exactly what Nier is trying to teach. Murder, in any form and towards anything, is wrong. The fact that you as a player and the protagonists do so without all the information in the beginning, is even worse.
Given this, what then could be said about killing your comrades? What if those comrades were trying to kill you against their will? Technically it's still wrong in my opinion. Your comrades cannot control what they are doing and would likely not kill you otherwise, thus you should not kill them. Despite this, that’s exactly what the game makes you do. I find this distasteful. It would have been better for the creators to allot you the chance to avoid their attacks and still go after the boss. Likewise, having the androids die in conjunction with the boss felt like an injustice to me. At least give 9S a chance to save them! But no. It’s better to give the player a lesson then to spare the innocent. This lesson just happened to be in correlation with the protagonists’ entire meaning in life. See, the androids hacked and held captive were only kept alive for one purpose: to kill their enemy. Sound familiar? If it does, then you’ve been paying attention. This ideal is exactly how the protagonists operate when it comes to YoRHa. They are made for YoRHa to be used by YoRHa for only one true purpose: kill their enemy.
Thing is, what happens when there is no more enemies? My guess is that there will always be an enemy. Right now it’s the machines, but later I think it’ll be other androids or even humans themselves. I’m rooting for it to be the humans. If only because I do not trust that these particular humans are actually innocent. In fact, I think they are the whole reason for any and all misunderstanding that lie between the machines and the androids right now. We’ll only know for sure, however, the more 2B and 9S learn. I just hope that what they find is fully laid out for the player to see, because right now the one sided story crap is annoying. I want to know why the machines are here, why they feel and act like humans, and why they have any reason to hurt humans in the first place. But, as a wise machine once said, “the only way to understand someone is to get to know them.” So that’s exactly what I’m going to make my protagonists do.
Here’s to a future of machines and androids. May they all get along!
Kia
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Sep 26th, 2018 at 18:09:22.
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| [September 22, 2018 07:50:13 PM]
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A story of machine and humans, told in three parts. Part two:
It’s day two of Nier Automata and there’s no improvement in sight. Tragic. I was hoping that the more I played, the better it would get. Albeit the storyline got more intriguing and the machines more 3-dimensional, 2B and 9S left me disappointed. They continue to persist towards being used instead of being their own people, going so far as to carry out “chores” for the rebellion simply because it’s what’s best for YoRHa. It’s a little dull as is. That said, I’m not without hope. 2B hasn’t displayed another glitch in her emotional aptitude, but she has shown concern for the way the other machines are behaving and dressing. If further anomalies like this persist, it’s only a matter of time before something dramatic happens.
Not to say something dramatic hasn’t already happened, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What I’m referring to is a point within the sand ruins when the two protagonists pursue a scared machine into a nest of machines. Now before I go into much detail with the dramatic and disturbing occurrences here, I want to back pedal a bit and focus on said scared machine. Yes, I said scared. It isn’t a typo or a glitch in the game. As the characters progress into the sand ruins they run across deviant machines that get them questioning the machines nature. First the machines start talking. Mostly the words are broken and very few can make a full sentence, but they are making words that have a meaning. Particularly, they are saying things like “enemy, scary, help me, and destroy”. Now why would a mean-old machine, bent on destroying everything, say that? In 9S’s opinion, their words are randomly emitted. I personally believe that not everything is as it seems, especially the means. For what extent did the humans cause their own suffering? Could they perhaps be the whole reason for these machines? And why do the machines hate the androids so much? Find out next time on Drago- err, Nier Automata.
Jokes aside, the fact that the creators make the machines lean towards emulating humans brings up a bunch of questions. None of which I can answer right now. You’ll just have to wait and see if I ever play enough of it to figure it out myself. In the meantime, let’s get back to the big bad dramatic moment within the nest of machines. So the two protagonists rush headlong into a dome full of machines. Thing is, none of the machines are attacking anyone. They aren’t even exhibiting violent tendencies, unless you count bouncing on one other. Yeah, not sure if they were trying to mimic sex or what they were doing. All I know is some of them were wandering around minding their own business, some of them were being physical, and at least one of them was rocking a cradle. Cute? No. Weird. Someone should really tell machines they cannot make babies. Better yet, tell the creators that machines cannot babies, because obviously they didn’t get the memo. It’s one thing to walk in on a nest full of strange-acting, oddly-clothed, machines. It is quite another to see them all ball up and pop out a very naked, very android looking, machine. You may now cue the dramatic and disturbing music.
So up until this point, I kind of enjoyed the game. The characters were decent, the art beautiful, the music extraordinary, the storyline interesting, and the camera view questionably frustrating. What I do not enjoy is seeing a bare ass naked man, android or not, sauntering around my screen with no dick. I’ll admit. I’m a stickler for technicalities and accuracy. The creators should have gone all the way if they were going to showcase a naked man in the first place. It’s called having balls! Literally in this case. At the same time, if they were too chicken to go all the way, then they shouldn’t have implied the gender. When it comes down to rating the game M or R, less is more. As is, the game is rated M for partial nudity and thus at least protects the kids from seeing a naked white ass. Not that I mind either way. Nudity is a part of life, but some people might argue otherwise. I just wish he wasn’t so half-baked. Oh, and I wish the creators had chosen a different way of spawning the second “android-not-android”. There is no plausible way for any machine to pop out of a machine of the same size. Thus it begs the question, is this thing a machine at all or is it born of the machines wishes and desires? I’m gonna go with magical fairy.
It’ll be interesting indeed to see how the story progresses from here. Already I’ve seen a handful of ethical issues and questionable moralities. I’ve also seen some bad writing and a very white ass that’ll forever be burned into my mind, but I digress. This game is definitely taking me on a wild adventure--one of which I wouldn’t have even been close to predicting when I first started playing it. Now here’s to hoping it continues to go up from here! I’d hate to hit the end and see androids fall to the human’s demands. Give me a bit of mutiny dammit!
Hesitantly hopeful,
Kia
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Sep 26th, 2018 at 18:09:39.
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| [September 21, 2018 05:45:20 PM]
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A story of machine and humans, told in three parts. Part one:
For a game that was developed by Platinum Games and published by Square Enix, I've got to say I'm not disappointed. This machine versus machine game feels very much like the Final Fantasy games I'm used to playing. It has got great graphics, beautiful music, and a solid story-line. The characters are interesting and the game intriguing. At least, for now. Given I've only played a few hours of this action role-playing game, anything is susceptible to change. As of right now, however, I have very few qualms.
The game itself is set in the year 11945, during the 14th Machine War, and follows two androids: 2B and 9S. Both are badass machines designed to fight the war humans couldn't. I did mention that earth has been invaded by alien machines who ran humanity to the moon, right? No? Okay, well that's pretty much the prologue of NieR. Humans couldn't combat against machines, so they built their own to try and win the war. Hence 2B and 9S, and all the other androids who reside under the group called YoRHa. It's a smart enough idea, given the humans were losing, but it's one that I personally have to question. To what extent should we ever let anyone, or anything, fight our wars for us?
This brings me to my first problem with the game so far. Machine versus machine is fine. Building a machine to fight other machines is less fine. Some might argue that there is no harm, it's just a bunch of nuts and bolts. Except, that's not true. In NieR the androids have been programmed with human emotions and feelings. They can feel, hurt, and love just as much as we can. What's so good about that? Nothing! This action is pretty much like chicken fighting, or making prisoners fight your wars. In this case, the androids are the expendable ones and humans are standing on the sidelines, safe. If that’s not bad enough, even if the androids do win, it's the humans that'll reap the rewards. They’ll be able to go back to Earth and the androids will cease to be useful. It’s all a load of shit in my opinion. If you're going to have a machine war pitting machine against machine, at least build it with some decorum.
Giving the androids emotions makes me wonder what the creators were trying to say. Maybe they built the game with the intention that the androids eventually rise up against the humans and tell them to stuff it. Or maybe they just wanted to make interesting characters. I know in 2B's case it gives her more of a reason to worry about 9S, despite the fact that it's part of her protocol to not feel emotional. What? You mean they gave the androids emotions and then told them they couldn't feel emotional?! Yep. In spite of this, 2B betrays herself within the first 30-90 minutes of gameplay simply because 9S nearly kills himself. Which is fine for character growth, so long as this isn't the first time she does this. As of right now, though, I can't say I approve of 2B's sudden concern for her comrade. It feels like it comes out of nowhere. It also feels wrong for a soldier to ignore a basic command, and thus makes 2B feel weak in design.
Of course, if I'm going to nitpick about the emotions, I should also point out my final issue with Nier: the wardrobe. Have you ever heard of a soldier going to war in a dress? Me neither. So why would anyone put an android in a tight little black dress that looks more suitable for a bdsm doll then a fighter? Two words: sex appeal. I hate to admit that this design isn't new or unusual for Square Enix. They're very comfortable with throwing their female characters into unreasonable attire just for the appeal. I distaste it. Not only does it give the character a cheap look, but it's honestly unpractical! In a real life situation that dress would hinder more than it would help, android or not. Not to mention those shoes! It's one thing to walk in high-heels. It's another thing to flip around and fight in them. Not that she has to worry about twisting an ankle, given she is an android, but that doesn't take away from the fact that that entire get up is the farthest thing from a warriors outfit. Besides, the heel could break and then where would our adorable 2B be? I can't imagine they have android strip-malls on the moon, but who knows. Not my game! Just my blatant opinion on the over beaten horse called sex appeal.
My issues aside, I do really enjoy this game. Not as much as other games I've played by Square Enix, but it does have a soothing feel about it. Maybe it's just the music. I'm a sucker for good music. In any case, I hope to learn more about the story and see if 2B really is capable of emotion or if that glitch was a one-time thing. Maybe I'll even see a change of heart and a shift in the tide of war! Yes? No? Fine, I'll find out myself. Here's to hoping I won't be disappointed!
Until next time,
Kia
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Sep 26th, 2018 at 18:09:51.
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Kia's Nier Automata (PS4)
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Current Status: Played occasionally
GameLog started on: Friday 21 September, 2018
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