Warning: Contains spoilers for the final of Nier: Automata Ver1.1a.After two seasons spread over one year and many delays, Newer: Automata ver1.1a has finally ended. The series ultimately did not change much about the original story or the overarching Drakengard franchise as people thought it would, but thanks to its stellar execution, it’s still the best kind of adaptation as a game Kidney: Automata Could have asked for.
Newer: Automata ver1.1a Season 2 kicked off on a somber note with YoRHa’s destruction by the machine lifeforms and 2B is killed by A2 before she can be corrupted by the Logic VirusWith 9s saw that as 2B being killed in cold blood. 9S and A2 spent the next few episodes being further broken by one more loss after another, and it all built up to a climactic final battle between the two. The anime tried to incorporate the multiple endings that are a trademark of the video game franchise, so there’s a lot to explain.
How the final battle of Nier: Automata Ver1.1a started
The beginning of the end of Nir: Automata
After the deaths of Devola, Popola, Pascal and the Resistance, 9s and A2 both made their way to the Tower to put an end to the machine lifeforms once and for all. The tower’s defense system attacked 9S with an army of 2B replicas, and with 9S having just learned that 2B was secretly an executioner model that had killed him countless times in the past, his sanity was shattered even further, until The point that 9S became infected with the Logic Virus after replacing one of his arms with one of the 2Bs..
A 2, meanwhile, ended up in a facsimile of the Nyers village library, which had more information about the tower. there, A2 learned that the tower functioned as a cannon that the machine lifeforms would use to destroy humanity’s data on the moonWhich would spell the complete annihilation of what is left of humanity. After the growth she had gone through, A2 wanted to avoid it, but when she met 9S at the top of the tower, he was too far gone to want to see death other than her, and a fight broke out in vain. .
Who won 9S & A2’s final battle in Nier: Automata Ver1.1a?
The end of Yoharha
While the battle between the two YoRHa models continued, the two main personalities of the Car Network also started fighting each other, after being “infected” by one of the YoRHa pods. They have conflicting opinions about the best course of action for the machine lifeforms: either fire the cannon on the moon to destroy humanity’s servers, or use the weapon to launch their digital consciousness into the stars, looking for a new planet to inhabit.
Meanwhile, 9S and A2 keep fighting. A2 initially had the advantage using her berserker mode until 9S hacked into her and tried to break her by reminding her of all the pain and loss she had been through. This only made A2 remember how important her family was to her, and with this heightened determination, A2 fought back against 9S’s manipulations, reversing his hacking and ending the fight.
After defeating 9S, the surviving personality of the Machine Network appeared before A2 and explained that they decided to launch the collective AI of the machine lifeforms into space to try to find a new home on another planet. Refusing to join them, A2’s last remaining mission was to protect 9S, and to do so, A 2 sacrificed her remaining power To purge the logic virus from 9S’ system and thus cannot escape the Tower before it collapses after launching the machine lifeforms into space.
How Nier: Automata Ver1.1a handled the game’s iconic ending
Nier: Automata Ver1.1a is finally coming to a close
With the departure of the machine lifeforms, all the surviving pods announced the completion of the YoRHa Project and moved to delete every proof of its existence, including the data from 2B, 9S and A2 that Pod 042 and Pod 153 managed to save. Pod 042 and Pod 153 wanted them to survive three orders, and fought against the other pods to preserve their data, at the cost of their lives. in this way, 2B, 9S and A2 are revived and given a chance to live their lives free from their past suffering.
This is a version of Kidney: Automatas “good” ending, ending E, which was built around game mechanics. The player has to clear a difficult shoot-em-up minigame to unlock the ending (after completing endings C and D), which plays exactly like in the anime. After that, the player has a chance to clear their save data to help other players in the future (making the final minigame easier). The anime equivalent is the fight sequence with pod 042 and pod 153 fighting all other pods. Newer: Automata ver1.1a‘s ending sorely lacks the emotional impact of the original game’s endingBut considering the limitations of this medium, it could have been much worse.
Related
Nier: Automata Ver1.1a teases more of the franchise in the works
More Drakengard may be coming soon
One notable element of Newer: Automata ver1.1aThe bottom line is that it does more than that Drakengard Franchise may be in the works through the character accord from Drakengard 3. While Accord was briefly alluded to in the original Kidney: Automata game, the anime had characters talk about her much more explicitly in season 2, and the finale even gave Accord a cameo as the one who saved A2 from the collapse of the Tower. This may indicate a new one Drakengard Project is in development.
It also makes sense with other things going on in the franchise lately. The season 2 ending, for example, directly referenced Zero From Drakengard 3 Through some of the pictures from 2B and the last one Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139… called further Drakengard 3 With the content of its new ending, so the new Franchise is definitely a lot of effort to remind people about the bigger Drakengard Franchise. Whether this will be anything is unclear.
Nier: Automata Ver1.1a was a wonderful game from start to finish
A great adaptation for old and new fans
As divisive as video game adaptations in any medium tend to get, Newer: Automata ver1.1a Succeed on all fronts. From a purely visual standpoint, Newer: Automata ver1.1a is one of the best-looking and best-animated A-1 Pictures anime in recent yearsWith each episode featuring great visuals accompanied by even greater animation and overall direction. Kidney: Automata has always been known for its stellar action and inventive gameplay, and overall, the anime did a great job of translating that into animation.
The writing, of course, was the biggest driving force behind the anime’s quality. Not only does it have all the same great dramatic writing that made the game such a hit, but The way Newer: Automata ver1.1a Changed or expanded on certain points The game fleshes out the cast to an incredible degree to be even stronger characters than they were before. A2 benefited the most from this, as the extra focus given to her backstory and the Resistance turned A2 from a largely one-note character to one of the most engaging characters in the entire story.
While the anime may have missed some important or popular elements of the game and also lost a lot of steam due to various delays, between the visual presentation and how well it handled old and new writing, Newer: Automata ver1.1a Was a great series from start to finish And ended on a strong note as one could hope. It may not be a perfect substitute for playing the game, but overall, Newer: Automata ver1.1a More than justified its existence as an adaptation, and it was great to see play out.