I think it's worth noting that Hansel and Gretel didn't hurt Yonah, at least not explicitly. I think it's very plausible that they just found her and were letting her rest.
Very true! I wonder if it's because they recognise her as they are around the Shadowlord's castle? And she doesn't seem to be hurt or distressed at what happened aside from causing Nier trouble. Maybe she passed out after a coughing fit and they laid her there to mirror the other Yonah, like ah yes, I know this one and she lies down here. Or of course, they were just looking after a kid that clearly meant them no harm. Hansel and Gretel don't get much backstory but that's part of what makes them so interesting to me haha
Haha I've never seen any of the cutscenes with Dad Nier. Him turning to Kaine and saying "Yes! You and I are friends now!" is absolutely hysterical partly because of the delivery of the line, and partly because Kaine seems to be giving him this side-eye like he's starting to really creep her out.
So far it was the best essay about Replicant/Gestalt I've seen! And also the one that made me more understand what actually happens at the end of the game. I know there was a lot of side material to fully comprehend project Gestalt, but only here I finally understood how shadowlord and Gestalt Yonah actually present themselves on the final scene
Thank you so much!! The game ending in itself is a little? Confusing? I had to sit and chew on it for a bit but I loved it. Much as I adore this game, I admittedly haven't looked at any of the side content because BOY is there side content and I don't have the time but I am poised at the edge of the rabbithole when time makes itself available haha. I ended up sticking to only the main games throughout the series mostly for my own sanity hahaha. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
@@HoneyBat It was very confusing! I was also kinda mislead, having played Automata first, most of the details about Project Gestalt were already told by the Reports and I thought the Replicant/Gestalt itself was going to delve into the details. Yeah, it does not. Only at playthrough B I understood the game was more about the interactions between the main cast and getting to know the Replicants point of view about the world state than understading the implications of the lore. It actually makes a lot of sense having that litlle exposition and getting to know Nier and later finding about the lore, it was just going with the wrong expectations that bothered me at first.
Your videos are really helping me through a depressive episode, and I parasocially love you for your continued references to Terry Pratchett who is my favourite person ever
I'm sorry you're having a rough time and I hope it passes soon. Terry Pratchett is wonderful and a massive inspiration in my work, I listen to the old audiobooks when I'm feeling bad as well. Mind how you go 💛
I always liked the reading of Nier as a trans narrative, because its a story in which bodies are at war with the people inhabiting them. Because the replicants are people in bodies that reject them, they're obstacles in the way to living their lives. The bodies even attack them (in the form of the scrawl), and old identities will try to kill the new ones (shades relapsing) in a futile attempt to reclaim their lives. Oh also Kaine is there. The reading would have worked regardless but she kinda stamps a seal of approval on it.
YEAH absolutely!! I love that. I find it difficult to connect to my body from several different angles and I spent a long time hating it, but everyone in Nier ends up with people that care about them regardless even when they all have different things going on with their bodies, from illness to gender to curses. And yeah Kaine definitely seals the deal with that reading!
One thing I find really interesting about alchemy with regards to humanity and the body is the frequency of fusion of multiple characters in the NieR series of a man and a woman, thus fulfilling the concept of the Rebis, the apotheosis of alchemy, a "perfect" creature who possesses both masculine and feminine traits. Emil with his sister, Kaine with a masculine shade, and even concepts in Automata near the end of the game when a character repairs themself with parts from a different android.
This was such an incredible video it's always nice to see Nier Gestalt/Replicant get some love and in-depth analysis since it's not as popular as its sequel. In terms of humanity I think what really strikes me personally going off of what you said about the main cast all being a group of aspects is how it ties into this larger theme of the damages of an "us vs them mentality" and what can motivate someone to kill another. While the main cast is this group of outcasts and underdogs they're also kinda guilty of othering the shades as well either out of ignorance (like Nier himself and the player on a first playthrough) or because it's the only way they can hold on to their own "humanity" (like with Kaine) and it's really interesting to see this cast of ultimately good but flawed people be guilty of othering a foe that is arguably just as "human" and in some cases are innocent (every day I cry about Kalil and Beepy). Even those that are othered can still be just as guilty of mistreatment that they themselves have suffered and that cycle in both this game and automata is just heartbreaking and also necessary in examining ourselves as well.
Oh definitely!! The main cast are all cast out by the "normal" people but they don't stop to think about their own actions towards Shades, and stick to their guns even when there's that big confrontation in the Aerie when people are choosing to live alongside Shades and end up destroying the whole area rather than either leaving them to it or stopping to actually think. I love that you can see exactly why each of the character behave in the ways they do *and* how they choose to justify it to themselves, especially in the second half of the game after the time skip. I adore works that let you see how characters think and feel, and let you understand why their conclusions are faulty even if they can't or don't want to see it themselves. It's just great! I'm planning on talking a lot more about "us vs them" mentality in the next Automata script due to the set up of androids vs machines and them all trying to figure out how to be human but still different from each other, but it's SO COOL to see the seeds of it here and then get fully developed in the sequel ^.^ Thank you so much for sharing!
I’m really rather new to drakenier (due to the final fantasy xiv raids) but I instantly fell in love with this series and quickly picked up how all these games related to humanity I watched playthroughs of automata because of suggestions from friends but I found Gestalt and it still remains my fav (and original Drakengard) even after a year due to just how human and flawed these characters feel. I even wound up hunting some Nier merch and managed to get a Father Nier coaster (as far as i know the only other merch of him is the acrylic stand which i only managed to find promotional images of unfortunately :( ). The relationship between Emil and Kainé always makes me so happy and I love seeing them together so much. I feel like we simply get a sliver of Emil in automata but I think he would be proud of what he’s done even if he doesnt remember why he did it. When you brought up Emil and Kainé connecting over having the same thoughts and such it made me cry because I have a disability that went undiagnosed for YEARS but once I had a name for it and met someone with it too I knew I had people out there feeling the same things as me. I found this video while scrolling through tumblr and i eagerly await the rest of the series! Thank you for making and sharing this :)
I think Gestalt is still my favourite because it was my first, and I love the characters so so much! I wish they'd have done a little more with Emil in Automata but I was very happy to see him and the Lunar Tear sidequest was just...oof. I have a pillow of Emil's head but I hope to snag a music box for either Automata or Replicant when it comes out! I love music boxes ^.^ I'm really glad that part about Kaine and Emil understanding each other resonated with you too. I developed a chronic illness right around the time I found Nier and seeing that deep, quiet but loving acceptance was something I really needed to see at the time. Obviously my experiences implicitly colour the game that way for me so I didn't want to make it my main talking point. To me though, Kaine and Emil will always be special. I'm so glad you found other people that understand you too! Empathy and kindness are some of the most valuable things you can have I think.
This was mesmerizing, You have bewitched, hypnotized, and relieved me simultaneously with this video essay. Thank you. "man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."
Taro's great!! I love these games so much I'm probably never gonna shut up about them, I've gotten several of my friends into them just from rambling haha. Thanks so much for watching and commenting ^.^
I gifted my boyfriend the remake and watched him play it with young nier, there were so many things my boyfriend explained to me that i couldntt fully understand at the time but at the same time i was infinitely curious about this whole worlds lore. Despite not understanding everything he would tell me about the characters and how the world works and what it means to replay it. Having seen this i can really feel the tears again and i finally understand the game. I am so excited to see the rest and youre so nice to listen to, like a really good storyteller.
Clunky dialogue aside I really liked that Gestalt's protagonist was a dad and an older adult. This is something that's incredibly rare not only in JRPGs but in video games in general. Usually parents are either long dead as a part of the hero's backstory or they die early in the story as part of the inciting incident.
I simply love your videos, nier is an amazing series and you did this game great justice! Completely heartbroken our fav brave little king wasn’t mentioned but I understand!
I've been binging your channel all day, and I must say, I love your content. This video itself has finally been the interaction i've needed with Nier to convince me to get to Gestalt, and eventually replay Automata. Even with your spoiler heavy discussion I feel there's still plenty to get out of this series (especially seeing as how I didn't even catch everything in this video, lol)
Wow, thank you so much!! I love Gestalt to pieces, I'm a sucker for found family. I will say that the gameplay has aged and feels very much like an RPG of it's time, but it's such an incredible story experience I definitely think it's worth it. There's so many side stories and funny, sweet and painful moments between the characters that I just couldn't fit here! I'm really happy you liked it and I hope you enjoy the game too! 🦇
I enjoyed this video immensely. I will say that, while I love the absolute bananas nature of most jrpg games, my ability to dedicate time to the battle systems has greatly reduced as I get older and my hands are even more button-mashy than ever, but philosophy and video games are totally my jam. I can really tell you spent a long time getting the footage to match your video essay and that attention to detail is very impressive! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!! Yeahhhh I feel that with battle systems haha, I really struggle with turn-based things thanks to their complexity. Gestalt is showing it's age now in the combat (even though it's not turn based) and fetch quests but, it being fairly simple actually works pretty well for me. And it works so well with the visuals too, it's very... soft in it's style and lighting, it feels more storybook and given that all the bosses are named for fairytale characters I'm pretty sure that's intentional. I've been playing the new Replicant and it's so weird having pretty much identical systems but with sharp modern graphics. It's all HD but I feel the old, more sepia version had a sort of charm all it's own. Or maybe that's the nostalgia talking, I found it by chance and it was just the kind of story I needed at the time. It's very comfy...then breaks your heart several times XD
Fun fact! Alchemy has a *wide* variety of schools of thought about what makes a person and the Philosophers Stone, the Tria Prima actually comes from Paracelsian Alchemy (named after its founder, Paracelsus) before this its was more common to only have Mercury and Sulphur as the bases or even just Mercury. These differing schools are beautiful as you research them, and I highly recommend looking into them.
I have so many books on my desk that I need to read but don't have time to yet! But I've got The Golden Chain of Homer, The Art of Distillation, Selected Chemical Universal and Particular Processes as well as a book of symbols ready to go when I have time. Most of what I've read so far has been Paracelsus' school of thought but I am endlessly fascinated by it as a concept!!
I found this video essay and waited before watching it so I could finish playing Replicant and now I'm waiting for the next parts. Very interesting analysis of mind/body/soul, great stuff! 💯
@@HoneyBat I haven't played the original Gestalt but I read all about the story and lore so I knew what Replicant was about and it was still super enjoyable to play. The new Replicant looks really pretty but the PS3 version had good art direction too, and I also liked Kaine's original design more. I'm really glad they added the new ending E (neither C nor D were satisfying endings to me), it greatly improved the story. Also I was afraid my pc wouldn't be able to run it but it actually runs much better than Automata did and I don't have the best gaming pc. Both of the Nier games are really special, I'm happy they made this remake/remaster so more ppl can experience it.
@@maarikaaa :O There's a new ending??!? I'm so excited!! I honestly can't wait to play it but current circumstances mean it's gonna be at least a couple of months! Yeah, from what I've seen of the art style everything looks a lot cleaner and softer with a more realstic palette, which I think is kind of a shame given how warm the original world felt. The whole bloom on the screen made it feel VERY fantasy ^.^ But also...it'll be so nice to see where I'm going in Seafront, the glare plus the beach was blinding hahaha I'm SO happy more people are discovering these games! Automata being such a success means loads more people are going to play that and Replicant now there's a remake. Finished replaying Automata for the next entry of this and you can tell there's so much love going into the world and side stories; every character feels like a person.
@@HoneyBat @Honey Bat Yeah, there's a new route E! The last two routes were really repetitive and I wasn't a huge fan of endings C and D as I said, so I would have had more mixed feelings about the game if it weren't for ending E which made it all so worth it. There is some other new content too like the shipwreck side story and some added scenes with Kaine and Emil. I hope you'll get to play the remaster too, I'm sure you'll love it! I gotta replay Automata. 👀
Just discovered this video through some of your newer works, and really enjoyed it as a massive DrakeNieR nerd with some, uh, feelings about one's body. One aspect that ties into this which has only really become accessible in the West in the last year or so unless you were super vigilant with seeking out the various short stories and such online is actually the backstory of the Grimoires as told in one of the Grimoire NieR short stories; namely, that the Grimoires are all humans - child soldiers from the same time as Emil and Halua, in fact, albeit experimented on by a DIFFERENT shady group - who were forcefully Gestaltified and turned into the books, with only Weiss and Noir retaining their sentience. So Grimoire Weiss really does just utterly go through it with having his body and its purpose stripped and altered beyond his control in the interests of some higher power. (There's some other stuff about relationships to the body in the various short stories - shout out to The Red and The Black all my homies are traumatised by The Red and The Black and its depiction of the lengths a young Bro!Nier went to to support Yonah and how he may also feel dissociated from his body as a result) Also also the remake bringing the Little Mermaid short story back into game content and how Louise - implied to be basically an artificial Gestalt with no human/Replicant counterpart - loathes her body and longs to be human and loved. Considering that story through this lens of NieR Replicant/Gestalt as a story about Body actually makes her a fascinating foil to the main cast!
I really loved this essay on Nier - it's probably my favorite one that I've watched. And I've watched a number of them from so many of my favorite UA-camrs. Thank you so much for your hard work on making this and sharing it with us!
Thank you! They sure are a trip, I tried explaining what the game was about to a friend and the best I could do was "There's a weird plague going round and you're trying to cure your daughter accompanied by a flying book, an angry lady dressed in lingerie who swears a lot and a small innocent skeleton boy but it's really good I swear"
I'm so excited for the gang to get back together!! Love me some found family. I know they're bringing back the original voice cast for the remake too, aside from Nier given the age change, but it's gonna be great!
30:18 I love that it makes nier so... well... Human that feeling of anger towards popola comes naturally on this situation... Too naturally to the point where I felt it too especially after the happiness of seeing the squad back together It is insane how yoko taro managed to make us love these characters so much that we genuinely feel for them and that carried to automata as well
I'm going to disagree that it's weird to have a 40 yr old guy talk about the power of friendship. I mean, he needs to speak plainly and bluntly to Kaine in her time of need like that in order for her to understand afterall. Also, she almost died in front of him too and is most likely still in shock and fear for her life in some way. So I never thought it weird for him to be so adamant of friendship with her. Not to mention, does he even have friends outside of her at that point besides Weiss?
The longer you look down the DrakenNier rabbit hole, the deeper it goes! Plus I am a sucker for found family and these games scratch that itch so well (and cause me endless pain thanks to the tragedies Taro inflicts on them haha)
Even though it was unintentional I thought it was a fantastic touch that at times your microphone made your voice sounds grainy with a poor-quality recording. This served to accentuate the dystopian and archaic of the Nier franchise. Audio recording sounded grainy like something recorded from the 80s, and with Nier being a post-apocalyptic story it was very on point.
Hahahaha thank you! The Automata video was the last one I did on a slowly dying laptop with a borrowed mic under a blanket so it's er, very homebrew but I mean, it adds to the mood!
I'm so happy i have found this video and your channel. I have been a long time fan of this series and love watching video essays esapcially about the nier series. Everyone has their take on it and i love listening to what everyones has on their mind but no one has touched the subject of "how does Nier/Drakengard define humanity or beeing human" as well as you did (and so far im only in part one). I very much enjoyed watching your video(s) and also in generall I am looking very much forward to what else you have to talk about. And also on the side note: Every time i got a bit teary about the scene, you usually cursed at yoko taro "whyyy??" just a sceound after .I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets move so much by these scenes so thank you for not making me feel alone in that regard xD. PS: Im no englisch native speaker so sorry for any mistakes or if it's hard to understand at times.
According to a certain interview, Yoko Taro said less "trans rights" and more "STFU TERF." He revealed that Kainé was intersex (or futanari as he put it) because female developers on the team were pushing for a strong female protagonist to the point that it became annoying to him (since they were asking him to change his creative vision around social issues), so he designed Kainé but then made it canon that she had a big pp as a prank or act of rebellion (and she's still only a deuteragonist). One has to wonder if, had they pushed less, we might have gotten a Gestalt version where the heroine was Yonah trying to save her little brother Nier. Of course, in the lore it's definitely worth noting for multiple reasons that Kainé's gestalt is simply female and her intersex nature is a result of a flaw in the process of replicant construction. Since it reveals that Kainé is, in fact, spiritually female and meant to be biologically female, I think this somewhat dulls the questionable choice to make the feminist-icon character "secretly male" (to say nothing of Zero, 2B and A2, or the statement "I just really like girls" to explain the "lore" of the YorHa androids' design choices; Clearly Yoko Taro has no problem with female protagonists, just with people trying to control or direct his creativity), but within the context of the story itself, it offers some insight into why the villagers might have such a startlingly negative reaction to what appears to be a mere genetic abnormality. Often the trope is that in primitive societies, qualities that make somebody unsuitable for reproduction makes them anathema, but once the replicant societies are better understood, that does not make much sense in NieR's setting; However, given the purpose of the replicants, it does make sense that such mutations in a replicant result in fear and rejection within their villages, regardless of whether those rejecting the mutants understand why that is the social norm. This can further be seen as commentary on human social norms and our tendency to unquestionably trust (sometimes without realising we are not questioning something that might ought to be questioned) doctrine which we are taught as children- Whether it is a distinctly negative or selfish doctrine, like "people of this or that group are not human, and their rightful place is as our servants," or one that has a practical humanist purpose behind it, like "eating pork is forbidden by God."
Huh, it would've been really cool if we had a Gestalt version with older brother Nier and a Replicant version with older sister Yonah considering they made two versions anyways. I wonder if that's why we got 2B as a main character in Automata, even though we still play as 9S and A2, so he could actually just make a female character with his own intent behind it rather than being pushed into it. Yeah! I think I mentioned Kaine's Replicant's DNA was written funny because of a glitch in my Automata one? (It's been a hot minute since I wrote that so I could absolutely be wrong) but it makes me wonder how many other characters are "glitched" and how they were treated, especially by the androids watching over the villagers. Like did they treat them as wrong somehow and needing replacing with correct copies and the human villagers took their lead? Or whether it's just basic human prejudice, because there's definite vitriol towards Kaine even though she's literally just existing. Maybe that made her body react strangely to shades even before Tyrann? Also I genuinely have no idea if Replicants can even have children?? Because Nier ages so surely people get old and die? Are people then rewritten to become other people's children to preserve that DNA again or are we getting genuinely new children with a mix of the parents Replicant DNA?? That might cause some strange mutations as well I guess. Kaine's plot is defintiely meant to put her in the role of outcast but the social why (beyond "not like us") isn't really expanded on so it could be any number of things!
@@HoneyBat I think you mentioned the glitch in Kainé's replicant later in this video, actually. I've never been totally clear on replicant biology; Since they're meant to contain the gestalts again eventually, to revive humanity, presumably they should be biologically able to both live human lives and have children, but from what we see it seems their "children" are just loose families that may or may not have actually been blood relatives before Project Gestalt, as a replicant cannot survive without a corresponding gestalt (they get the black scrawl); My guess would be that if they do have children, their children are always BORN with the scrawl, which would be pretty tragic (so right in line with the rest of the setting). With that said, when a replicant dies (of natural causes or otherwise) they are rebuilt from the pattern of their gestalt. Unlike Automata, which I think is a pretty thoroughly coherent experience once you have uncovered each piece of what's going on, Gestalt/Replicant's lore leaves some confusing points a bit ambiguous (unless I'm forgetting something- it's been a while and I only recently started playing the remake), and I think it was written more for its philosophical and emotional points than to deliver a cohesive, straightforward narrative.
I just live to see Captain Holt appear in things. :D Re; having to type something in at the end, Yatzee of Zero Punctuation would have had to type in something very silly...
Great video! I love watching Nier analysis videos Just a question though- you repeat throughout the video on how this group is a group of outcasts but I don't think I understood how Nier himself is an outcast, he doesn't really seem to be in any way
Thanks!! And yeah you're definitely right, Nier himself is much more normal than the rest of the party. I think maybe that helps his role as a player surrogate but his connection to the Shadowlord still makes him special. I think that's another thing that got a little lost with the change from brother to father; he'd have been an orphan teenager raising his sister on the outskirts of the village so would have felt like a lot more of a character on the fringes of the village. Father Nier still physically lives on the outskirts but he feels more like a handyman than a lost kid running jobs out of desperation. Even so, brother Nier would still be far more accepted in society than Kaine, Emil or Weiss and he does recognise it when the others are rejected by the village as a whole. And the whole village seems to love Yonah and worry about her rather than treating her as liability so he's not got a negative association there either.
wow. I think this might be one of my favorite game essays ever! No seriously, I wish I could write half this good…😔 anyways As someone who’s only ever played Automata, I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on. I didn’t think I needed to get Replicant before but this video has convinced me to do so. I have this nagging feeling that Kainé will be my favorite character in that game. There’s a lot to unpack and alot that I can relate in her but I’ll just leave it at that. Amazing video, im so glad to have been recommended the bloodborne essay, this channel is such a gem. Can’t wait to see what you tackle in the future!
Thank you so much!! I love Kaine and Emil a lot, I'm very attached to both of them but I'm really happy this video means more people are going to try out Gestalt/Replicant (gosh I need to get around to the Replicant remake). While you don't *need* to play them, I think they're wonderful stories in their own right and add in that extra bit of spicy pain for characters like Popola and Devola in Automata.
@@HoneyBat The Replicant remaster is great! Ending E adds an important coda that I would've felt was missing if it was just ending D, particularly to someone like me who played Automata first. also the combat is better if i have one complaint, it's that you can't toggle the original soundtrack mix, it's only the new mix and some of them are not as good (temple of drifting sands especially)
Project gestalt was bound to fail, the replicants gained sentience, personality, consciousness. Even if Nier didn’t kill the shadow lord and the gestalts merged together with the replicants again, it would’ve failed. Nier just accelerated the process
Hahaha it's a bit clunky but I love it. Then again I will suffer a lot of bad gameplay for a story I'm invested in, like Rule of Rose is my favourite game and that combat is BROKEN. I'm glad Yoko Taro got to make his weird little bullet hell fusion smoothly in Automata and the remake because damn I got stuck in so many corners
"I hope you didn't name him something silly..." and thus, Yonha's favorite thing was revealed to be "FartSmeller"
I think it's worth noting that Hansel and Gretel didn't hurt Yonah, at least not explicitly. I think it's very plausible that they just found her and were letting her rest.
Very true! I wonder if it's because they recognise her as they are around the Shadowlord's castle? And she doesn't seem to be hurt or distressed at what happened aside from causing Nier trouble. Maybe she passed out after a coughing fit and they laid her there to mirror the other Yonah, like ah yes, I know this one and she lies down here. Or of course, they were just looking after a kid that clearly meant them no harm. Hansel and Gretel don't get much backstory but that's part of what makes them so interesting to me haha
Haha I've never seen any of the cutscenes with Dad Nier. Him turning to Kaine and saying "Yes! You and I are friends now!" is absolutely hysterical partly because of the delivery of the line, and partly because Kaine seems to be giving him this side-eye like he's starting to really creep her out.
So far it was the best essay about Replicant/Gestalt I've seen! And also the one that made me more understand what actually happens at the end of the game. I know there was a lot of side material to fully comprehend project Gestalt, but only here I finally understood how shadowlord and Gestalt Yonah actually present themselves on the final scene
Thank you so much!! The game ending in itself is a little? Confusing? I had to sit and chew on it for a bit but I loved it. Much as I adore this game, I admittedly haven't looked at any of the side content because BOY is there side content and I don't have the time but I am poised at the edge of the rabbithole when time makes itself available haha. I ended up sticking to only the main games throughout the series mostly for my own sanity hahaha. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
@@HoneyBat It was very confusing! I was also kinda mislead, having played Automata first, most of the details about Project Gestalt were already told by the Reports and I thought the Replicant/Gestalt itself was going to delve into the details. Yeah, it does not. Only at playthrough B I understood the game was more about the interactions between the main cast and getting to know the Replicants point of view about the world state than understading the implications of the lore. It actually makes a lot of sense having that litlle exposition and getting to know Nier and later finding about the lore, it was just going with the wrong expectations that bothered me at first.
Your videos are really helping me through a depressive episode, and I parasocially love you for your continued references to Terry Pratchett who is my favourite person ever
I'm sorry you're having a rough time and I hope it passes soon. Terry Pratchett is wonderful and a massive inspiration in my work, I listen to the old audiobooks when I'm feeling bad as well. Mind how you go 💛
I always liked the reading of Nier as a trans narrative, because its a story in which bodies are at war with the people inhabiting them. Because the replicants are people in bodies that reject them, they're obstacles in the way to living their lives. The bodies even attack them (in the form of the scrawl), and old identities will try to kill the new ones (shades relapsing) in a futile attempt to reclaim their lives.
Oh also Kaine is there. The reading would have worked regardless but she kinda stamps a seal of approval on it.
YEAH absolutely!! I love that. I find it difficult to connect to my body from several different angles and I spent a long time hating it, but everyone in Nier ends up with people that care about them regardless even when they all have different things going on with their bodies, from illness to gender to curses. And yeah Kaine definitely seals the deal with that reading!
Dude.. That parallels so dang well. Beautifully said!!
One thing I find really interesting about alchemy with regards to humanity and the body is the frequency of fusion of multiple characters in the NieR series of a man and a woman, thus fulfilling the concept of the Rebis, the apotheosis of alchemy, a "perfect" creature who possesses both masculine and feminine traits. Emil with his sister, Kaine with a masculine shade, and even concepts in Automata near the end of the game when a character repairs themself with parts from a different android.
Absolutely!! I completely forgot about that for the Automata one but yeah, it's really underlines that concept!
This was such an incredible video it's always nice to see Nier Gestalt/Replicant get some love and in-depth analysis since it's not as popular as its sequel.
In terms of humanity I think what really strikes me personally going off of what you said about the main cast all being a group of aspects is how it ties into this larger theme of the damages of an "us vs them mentality" and what can motivate someone to kill another. While the main cast is this group of outcasts and underdogs they're also kinda guilty of othering the shades as well either out of ignorance (like Nier himself and the player on a first playthrough) or because it's the only way they can hold on to their own "humanity" (like with Kaine) and it's really interesting to see this cast of ultimately good but flawed people be guilty of othering a foe that is arguably just as "human" and in some cases are innocent (every day I cry about Kalil and Beepy).
Even those that are othered can still be just as guilty of mistreatment that they themselves have suffered and that cycle in both this game and automata is just heartbreaking and also necessary in examining ourselves as well.
Oh definitely!! The main cast are all cast out by the "normal" people but they don't stop to think about their own actions towards Shades, and stick to their guns even when there's that big confrontation in the Aerie when people are choosing to live alongside Shades and end up destroying the whole area rather than either leaving them to it or stopping to actually think. I love that you can see exactly why each of the character behave in the ways they do *and* how they choose to justify it to themselves, especially in the second half of the game after the time skip. I adore works that let you see how characters think and feel, and let you understand why their conclusions are faulty even if they can't or don't want to see it themselves. It's just great!
I'm planning on talking a lot more about "us vs them" mentality in the next Automata script due to the set up of androids vs machines and them all trying to figure out how to be human but still different from each other, but it's SO COOL to see the seeds of it here and then get fully developed in the sequel ^.^ Thank you so much for sharing!
I’m really rather new to drakenier (due to the final fantasy xiv raids) but I instantly fell in love with this series and quickly picked up how all these games related to humanity
I watched playthroughs of automata because of suggestions from friends but I found Gestalt and it still remains my fav (and original Drakengard) even after a year due to just how human and flawed these characters feel. I even wound up hunting some Nier merch and managed to get a Father Nier coaster (as far as i know the only other merch of him is the acrylic stand which i only managed to find promotional images of unfortunately :( ).
The relationship between Emil and Kainé always makes me so happy and I love seeing them together so much. I feel like we simply get a sliver of Emil in automata but I think he would be proud of what he’s done even if he doesnt remember why he did it.
When you brought up Emil and Kainé connecting over having the same thoughts and such it made me cry because I have a disability that went undiagnosed for YEARS but once I had a name for it and met someone with it too I knew I had people out there feeling the same things as me.
I found this video while scrolling through tumblr and i eagerly await the rest of the series! Thank you for making and sharing this :)
I think Gestalt is still my favourite because it was my first, and I love the characters so so much! I wish they'd have done a little more with Emil in Automata but I was very happy to see him and the Lunar Tear sidequest was just...oof. I have a pillow of Emil's head but I hope to snag a music box for either Automata or Replicant when it comes out! I love music boxes ^.^
I'm really glad that part about Kaine and Emil understanding each other resonated with you too. I developed a chronic illness right around the time I found Nier and seeing that deep, quiet but loving acceptance was something I really needed to see at the time. Obviously my experiences implicitly colour the game that way for me so I didn't want to make it my main talking point. To me though, Kaine and Emil will always be special. I'm so glad you found other people that understand you too! Empathy and kindness are some of the most valuable things you can have I think.
This was mesmerizing, You have bewitched, hypnotized, and relieved me simultaneously with this video essay. Thank you. "man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."
As a big Yoko Taro fan, I really loved your take on the material, it even got me to look at certain aspects in a different light.
Taro's great!! I love these games so much I'm probably never gonna shut up about them, I've gotten several of my friends into them just from rambling haha. Thanks so much for watching and commenting ^.^
@@HoneyBat and thank you for your wonderful content!
I gifted my boyfriend the remake and watched him play it with young nier, there were so many things my boyfriend explained to me that i couldntt fully understand at the time but at the same time i was infinitely curious about this whole worlds lore. Despite not understanding everything he would tell me about the characters and how the world works and what it means to replay it. Having seen this i can really feel the tears again and i finally understand the game. I am so excited to see the rest and youre so nice to listen to, like a really good storyteller.
I gifted my boyfriend suckie suckie.
“Why can’t you give me suckie suckie? Me sooo hornie!” Ghangis Khan
Clunky dialogue aside I really liked that Gestalt's protagonist was a dad and an older adult. This is something that's incredibly rare not only in JRPGs but in video games in general. Usually parents are either long dead as a part of the hero's backstory or they die early in the story as part of the inciting incident.
I love that Beatrice laugh at 4:50 LMAO
Hahahaha I WILL get more people into Umineko, even if just via sound bytes 😂
I simply love your videos, nier is an amazing series and you did this game great justice! Completely heartbroken our fav brave little king wasn’t mentioned but I understand!
I've been binging your channel all day, and I must say, I love your content. This video itself has finally been the interaction i've needed with Nier to convince me to get to Gestalt, and eventually replay Automata. Even with your spoiler heavy discussion I feel there's still plenty to get out of this series (especially seeing as how I didn't even catch everything in this video, lol)
Wow, thank you so much!! I love Gestalt to pieces, I'm a sucker for found family. I will say that the gameplay has aged and feels very much like an RPG of it's time, but it's such an incredible story experience I definitely think it's worth it. There's so many side stories and funny, sweet and painful moments between the characters that I just couldn't fit here! I'm really happy you liked it and I hope you enjoy the game too! 🦇
I can see you've put a lot of love into this topic, love and thought and it's a beautiful video
Thank you so much!! ^.^
Can't wait for this channel to blow up. You're so good at this.
Thank you!!
keiichi okabe’s music is the only thing that can make me cry on command
I enjoyed this video immensely. I will say that, while I love the absolute bananas nature of most jrpg games, my ability to dedicate time to the battle systems has greatly reduced as I get older and my hands are even more button-mashy than ever, but philosophy and video games are totally my jam. I can really tell you spent a long time getting the footage to match your video essay and that attention to detail is very impressive! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!! Yeahhhh I feel that with battle systems haha, I really struggle with turn-based things thanks to their complexity. Gestalt is showing it's age now in the combat (even though it's not turn based) and fetch quests but, it being fairly simple actually works pretty well for me. And it works so well with the visuals too, it's very... soft in it's style and lighting, it feels more storybook and given that all the bosses are named for fairytale characters I'm pretty sure that's intentional. I've been playing the new Replicant and it's so weird having pretty much identical systems but with sharp modern graphics. It's all HD but I feel the old, more sepia version had a sort of charm all it's own. Or maybe that's the nostalgia talking, I found it by chance and it was just the kind of story I needed at the time. It's very comfy...then breaks your heart several times XD
Fun fact! Alchemy has a *wide* variety of schools of thought about what makes a person and the Philosophers Stone, the Tria Prima actually comes from Paracelsian Alchemy (named after its founder, Paracelsus) before this its was more common to only have Mercury and Sulphur as the bases or even just Mercury. These differing schools are beautiful as you research them, and I highly recommend looking into them.
I have so many books on my desk that I need to read but don't have time to yet! But I've got The Golden Chain of Homer, The Art of Distillation, Selected Chemical Universal and Particular Processes as well as a book of symbols ready to go when I have time. Most of what I've read so far has been Paracelsus' school of thought but I am endlessly fascinated by it as a concept!!
You liked nier automata because 2B is sexy, I like nier automata because 9S is cute, we are NOT the same.
I just watched your bloodborne video and loved it! As a big fan of the nier/drakenguard series, I can't wait to watch these all!
Thank you so much! I hope you find somethign interesting in these ones too ^.^ (thank you for the comment boost!)
I thought I'd played enough Nier to inure myself to The Emotions.
Hearing Aeris' theme during the scene of Kainé talking to Emil proved me wrong.
I found this video essay and waited before watching it so I could finish playing Replicant and now I'm waiting for the next parts. Very interesting analysis of mind/body/soul, great stuff! 💯
Hi hi, I'm glad you enjoyed it! How did you like Replicant? I don't have the tech to run the new game but it looks so good! ^.^
@@HoneyBat I haven't played the original Gestalt but I read all about the story and lore so I knew what Replicant was about and it was still super enjoyable to play. The new Replicant looks really pretty but the PS3 version had good art direction too, and I also liked Kaine's original design more. I'm really glad they added the new ending E (neither C nor D were satisfying endings to me), it greatly improved the story. Also I was afraid my pc wouldn't be able to run it but it actually runs much better than Automata did and I don't have the best gaming pc. Both of the Nier games are really special, I'm happy they made this remake/remaster so more ppl can experience it.
@@maarikaaa :O There's a new ending??!? I'm so excited!! I honestly can't wait to play it but current circumstances mean it's gonna be at least a couple of months!
Yeah, from what I've seen of the art style everything looks a lot cleaner and softer with a more realstic palette, which I think is kind of a shame given how warm the original world felt. The whole bloom on the screen made it feel VERY fantasy ^.^ But also...it'll be so nice to see where I'm going in Seafront, the glare plus the beach was blinding hahaha
I'm SO happy more people are discovering these games! Automata being such a success means loads more people are going to play that and Replicant now there's a remake. Finished replaying Automata for the next entry of this and you can tell there's so much love going into the world and side stories; every character feels like a person.
@@HoneyBat @Honey Bat Yeah, there's a new route E! The last two routes were really repetitive and I wasn't a huge fan of endings C and D as I said, so I would have had more mixed feelings about the game if it weren't for ending E which made it all so worth it. There is some other new content too like the shipwreck side story and some added scenes with Kaine and Emil. I hope you'll get to play the remaster too, I'm sure you'll love it! I gotta replay Automata. 👀
Just discovered this video through some of your newer works, and really enjoyed it as a massive DrakeNieR nerd with some, uh, feelings about one's body.
One aspect that ties into this which has only really become accessible in the West in the last year or so unless you were super vigilant with seeking out the various short stories and such online is actually the backstory of the Grimoires as told in one of the Grimoire NieR short stories; namely, that the Grimoires are all humans - child soldiers from the same time as Emil and Halua, in fact, albeit experimented on by a DIFFERENT shady group - who were forcefully Gestaltified and turned into the books, with only Weiss and Noir retaining their sentience. So Grimoire Weiss really does just utterly go through it with having his body and its purpose stripped and altered beyond his control in the interests of some higher power.
(There's some other stuff about relationships to the body in the various short stories - shout out to The Red and The Black all my homies are traumatised by The Red and The Black and its depiction of the lengths a young Bro!Nier went to to support Yonah and how he may also feel dissociated from his body as a result)
Also also the remake bringing the Little Mermaid short story back into game content and how Louise - implied to be basically an artificial Gestalt with no human/Replicant counterpart - loathes her body and longs to be human and loved. Considering that story through this lens of NieR Replicant/Gestalt as a story about Body actually makes her a fascinating foil to the main cast!
I really loved this essay on Nier - it's probably my favorite one that I've watched. And I've watched a number of them from so many of my favorite UA-camrs. Thank you so much for your hard work on making this and sharing it with us!
Beato's laugh took me by surprise lol
Fantastic commentary. Some day I'll get around to these games, they sure seem wild o.0
Thank you! They sure are a trip, I tried explaining what the game was about to a friend and the best I could do was "There's a weird plague going round and you're trying to cure your daughter accompanied by a flying book, an angry lady dressed in lingerie who swears a lot and a small innocent skeleton boy but it's really good I swear"
@@HoneyBat honestly that sounds dope as fuck
Excellent.
Thank you!! I'm glad you enjoyed it ^.^
I can’t wait to hear the banter between everyone 😩
I'm so excited for the gang to get back together!! Love me some found family. I know they're bringing back the original voice cast for the remake too, aside from Nier given the age change, but it's gonna be great!
30:18 I love that it makes nier so... well... Human that feeling of anger towards popola comes naturally on this situation... Too naturally to the point where I felt it too especially after the happiness of seeing the squad back together
It is insane how yoko taro managed to make us love these characters so much that we genuinely feel for them and that carried to automata as well
I love your hard work you did for this! Thank you!
Thank you so much!!
I'm going to disagree that it's weird to have a 40 yr old guy talk about the power of friendship. I mean, he needs to speak plainly and bluntly to Kaine in her time of need like that in order for her to understand afterall. Also, she almost died in front of him too and is most likely still in shock and fear for her life in some way. So I never thought it weird for him to be so adamant of friendship with her. Not to mention, does he even have friends outside of her at that point besides Weiss?
Well this rules. I played a bit of Automata, but I never really got why my friend was so obsessed
The longer you look down the DrakenNier rabbit hole, the deeper it goes! Plus I am a sucker for found family and these games scratch that itch so well (and cause me endless pain thanks to the tragedies Taro inflicts on them haha)
Even though it was unintentional I thought it was a fantastic touch that at times your microphone made your voice sounds grainy with a poor-quality recording. This served to accentuate the dystopian and archaic of the Nier franchise. Audio recording sounded grainy like something recorded from the 80s, and with Nier being a post-apocalyptic story it was very on point.
Hahahaha thank you! The Automata video was the last one I did on a slowly dying laptop with a borrowed mic under a blanket so it's er, very homebrew but I mean, it adds to the mood!
I'm so happy i have found this video and your channel.
I have been a long time fan of this series and love watching video essays esapcially about the nier series.
Everyone has their take on it and i love listening to what everyones has on their mind but no one has touched the subject of "how does Nier/Drakengard define humanity or beeing human" as well as you did (and so far im only in part one).
I very much enjoyed watching your video(s) and also in generall I am looking very much forward to what else you have to talk about.
And also on the side note: Every time i got a bit teary about the scene, you usually cursed at yoko taro "whyyy??" just a sceound after .I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets move so much by these scenes so thank you for not making me feel alone in that regard xD.
PS: Im no englisch native speaker so sorry for any mistakes or if it's hard to understand at times.
According to a certain interview, Yoko Taro said less "trans rights" and more "STFU TERF." He revealed that Kainé was intersex (or futanari as he put it) because female developers on the team were pushing for a strong female protagonist to the point that it became annoying to him (since they were asking him to change his creative vision around social issues), so he designed Kainé but then made it canon that she had a big pp as a prank or act of rebellion (and she's still only a deuteragonist). One has to wonder if, had they pushed less, we might have gotten a Gestalt version where the heroine was Yonah trying to save her little brother Nier.
Of course, in the lore it's definitely worth noting for multiple reasons that Kainé's gestalt is simply female and her intersex nature is a result of a flaw in the process of replicant construction. Since it reveals that Kainé is, in fact, spiritually female and meant to be biologically female, I think this somewhat dulls the questionable choice to make the feminist-icon character "secretly male" (to say nothing of Zero, 2B and A2, or the statement "I just really like girls" to explain the "lore" of the YorHa androids' design choices; Clearly Yoko Taro has no problem with female protagonists, just with people trying to control or direct his creativity), but within the context of the story itself, it offers some insight into why the villagers might have such a startlingly negative reaction to what appears to be a mere genetic abnormality. Often the trope is that in primitive societies, qualities that make somebody unsuitable for reproduction makes them anathema, but once the replicant societies are better understood, that does not make much sense in NieR's setting; However, given the purpose of the replicants, it does make sense that such mutations in a replicant result in fear and rejection within their villages, regardless of whether those rejecting the mutants understand why that is the social norm.
This can further be seen as commentary on human social norms and our tendency to unquestionably trust (sometimes without realising we are not questioning something that might ought to be questioned) doctrine which we are taught as children- Whether it is a distinctly negative or selfish doctrine, like "people of this or that group are not human, and their rightful place is as our servants," or one that has a practical humanist purpose behind it, like "eating pork is forbidden by God."
Huh, it would've been really cool if we had a Gestalt version with older brother Nier and a Replicant version with older sister Yonah considering they made two versions anyways. I wonder if that's why we got 2B as a main character in Automata, even though we still play as 9S and A2, so he could actually just make a female character with his own intent behind it rather than being pushed into it.
Yeah! I think I mentioned Kaine's Replicant's DNA was written funny because of a glitch in my Automata one? (It's been a hot minute since I wrote that so I could absolutely be wrong) but it makes me wonder how many other characters are "glitched" and how they were treated, especially by the androids watching over the villagers. Like did they treat them as wrong somehow and needing replacing with correct copies and the human villagers took their lead? Or whether it's just basic human prejudice, because there's definite vitriol towards Kaine even though she's literally just existing. Maybe that made her body react strangely to shades even before Tyrann? Also I genuinely have no idea if Replicants can even have children?? Because Nier ages so surely people get old and die? Are people then rewritten to become other people's children to preserve that DNA again or are we getting genuinely new children with a mix of the parents Replicant DNA?? That might cause some strange mutations as well I guess. Kaine's plot is defintiely meant to put her in the role of outcast but the social why (beyond "not like us") isn't really expanded on so it could be any number of things!
@@HoneyBat I think you mentioned the glitch in Kainé's replicant later in this video, actually. I've never been totally clear on replicant biology; Since they're meant to contain the gestalts again eventually, to revive humanity, presumably they should be biologically able to both live human lives and have children, but from what we see it seems their "children" are just loose families that may or may not have actually been blood relatives before Project Gestalt, as a replicant cannot survive without a corresponding gestalt (they get the black scrawl); My guess would be that if they do have children, their children are always BORN with the scrawl, which would be pretty tragic (so right in line with the rest of the setting). With that said, when a replicant dies (of natural causes or otherwise) they are rebuilt from the pattern of their gestalt. Unlike Automata, which I think is a pretty thoroughly coherent experience once you have uncovered each piece of what's going on, Gestalt/Replicant's lore leaves some confusing points a bit ambiguous (unless I'm forgetting something- it's been a while and I only recently started playing the remake), and I think it was written more for its philosophical and emotional points than to deliver a cohesive, straightforward narrative.
I took a look under her skirt while playing, and she in fact does not have a big pee pee. I was very disappointed.
I just live to see Captain Holt appear in things. :D
Re; having to type something in at the end, Yatzee of Zero Punctuation would have had to type in something very silly...
I just looked up that review and oh my, that name would have really er, solidified that ending in my mind XD
Great video! I love watching Nier analysis videos
Just a question though- you repeat throughout the video on how this group is a group of outcasts but I don't think I understood how Nier himself is an outcast, he doesn't really seem to be in any way
Thanks!! And yeah you're definitely right, Nier himself is much more normal than the rest of the party. I think maybe that helps his role as a player surrogate but his connection to the Shadowlord still makes him special. I think that's another thing that got a little lost with the change from brother to father; he'd have been an orphan teenager raising his sister on the outskirts of the village so would have felt like a lot more of a character on the fringes of the village. Father Nier still physically lives on the outskirts but he feels more like a handyman than a lost kid running jobs out of desperation. Even so, brother Nier would still be far more accepted in society than Kaine, Emil or Weiss and he does recognise it when the others are rejected by the village as a whole. And the whole village seems to love Yonah and worry about her rather than treating her as liability so he's not got a negative association there either.
wow. I think this might be one of my favorite game essays ever! No seriously, I wish I could write half this good…😔 anyways
As someone who’s only ever played Automata, I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on. I didn’t think I needed to get Replicant before but this video has convinced me to do so. I have this nagging feeling that Kainé will be my favorite character in that game. There’s a lot to unpack and alot that I can relate in her but I’ll just leave it at that.
Amazing video, im so glad to have been recommended the bloodborne essay, this channel is such a gem. Can’t wait to see what you tackle in the future!
Thank you so much!! I love Kaine and Emil a lot, I'm very attached to both of them but I'm really happy this video means more people are going to try out Gestalt/Replicant (gosh I need to get around to the Replicant remake). While you don't *need* to play them, I think they're wonderful stories in their own right and add in that extra bit of spicy pain for characters like Popola and Devola in Automata.
@@HoneyBat The Replicant remaster is great! Ending E adds an important coda that I would've felt was missing if it was just ending D, particularly to someone like me who played Automata first. also the combat is better
if i have one complaint, it's that you can't toggle the original soundtrack mix, it's only the new mix and some of them are not as good (temple of drifting sands especially)
4:10 ...was that a Clemps reference?
It was!! Clemps is how I got into the series in the first place so I had to give them a little homage hahaha
Thank you for mind blowing idea
Thank you for watching!!
Project gestalt was bound to fail, the replicants gained sentience, personality, consciousness. Even if Nier didn’t kill the shadow lord and the gestalts merged together with the replicants again, it would’ve failed. Nier just accelerated the process
Right in the feels. Oof.
I'd say I'm sorry but... welcome to the suffering pit! We have a variety of baked goods ^.^
Found your channel and loving every second. One question, is the yellow glove in the beginning a reference to Mr. Clemps? If so, well played.
I don't know much about Nier but I love your essay style and as a trans nonbinary person I really enjoy the perspective you bring!
What do you think of Nier ver. √(1.5)'s ending E?
Would it be cheesy to call this video "great work"?
wow the OG game really looks bad
Hahaha it's a bit clunky but I love it. Then again I will suffer a lot of bad gameplay for a story I'm invested in, like Rule of Rose is my favourite game and that combat is BROKEN. I'm glad Yoko Taro got to make his weird little bullet hell fusion smoothly in Automata and the remake because damn I got stuck in so many corners