What was the Japanese reception to Nier crossover?

[MikkoAkure]

In what way are they canon? They are about as canon as FFXV and FFXIII events if not less...

The NieR raids are permanent, alter the landscape, and even now have a weekly questline. After the very end of the raid, it's finally explained why everything is there and is out of place (though I have no idea why the First and not on the Source?). The FFXI, FFXIII, and FFXV events were all temporary and have no mark at all in the game.

It would take some mental gymnastics to explain that the trashed dwarf town and giant space station that you can see from Kholusia don't exist. Judging by the weekly quests, we're going to see more NieR stuff out in the open world soon as well.

[ItMe]

In what way are they canon? They are about as canon as FFXV and FFXIII events if not less...

But... those things all literally happened in game.
They might not have the MSQ reference them, but that's not a requirement to be considered cannon.
FF14 doesn't host content that's not cannon to itself.

[MikkoAkure]

But... those things all literally happened in game.
They might not have the MSQ reference them, but that's not a requirement to be considered cannon.
FF14 doesn't host content that's not cannon to itself.

Not always true. Koji Fox and Banri Oda have said that the Hildebrand quests are only about as canon as you want them to be, and that's non-crossover content.

[ItMe]

Not always true. Koji Fox and Banri Oda have said that the Hildebrand quests are only about as canon as you want them to be, and that's non-crossover content.

That makes sense.
I suppose the same thing happened when Dr Slump and Dragon Ball crossed over. One is a joke and stops the other from making a lot of sense.

But do we have any statements confirming the cannonicity of Nier?
Since they had to make a statement about Hildebrand, I think it's fair to treat them as cannon until SQEX say otherwise.

[Bright-Flower]

One could argue whether the raids are canon to Automata, but there's really no argument that they're not canon to FFXIV. As said above, they leave a mark on the landscape. They impact the dwarf village, a part of FFXIV's setting, and this clan of dwarves are not isolated to this one questline.

Considering Omega is a thing it's also not even really outside the scope of the setting in general either.

[linayar]

Yep, absolutely no idea. Wth there is an old alien factory? Why did aliens decide they needed to destroy the First? Why are aliens on the First when all other aliens ended up on the Source?

Those are mysteries, not nonsensical things. You don't know them doesn't mean they don't make sense.

Although, with regard to the first question, my guess is it's built by them. It looks old probably because they're recreating something, which as machines, would not make it nonsensical to do.

for sure it is not canon to FFXIV.

How is it not canon to FFXIV? It happens on the First as a full alliance raid series, not a one-off event. Unless it is otherwise stated, you cannot say it is not canon just because you don't like it.

[ItMe]

Oh, I can actually help answer those questions.

Wth there is an old alien factory?

It's actually a new factory built shortly before the alliance raids, it's just a replica of an old factory that the machines have mindlessly copied.

Why did aliens decide they needed to destroy the First?

Because that's what they do: go to worlds and destroy the life there so they can use the planet.
(this is touched in in the raid storyline actually, and spelled out in the journals in the post raid weekly quests)

Why are aliens on the First when all other aliens ended up on the Source?

The first is a place that people can travel to, and the aliens just traveled there.
Nothing is drawing aliens to the source, that's just where we were up until Shadow Bringers so that's where SQEX wrote storylines. If the Omega raids were happening in Shadow Bringers they probably would have taken place on The First instead.

[VirusChris]

It's not a Nier story, though. It's a FFXIV story borne out of a collaboration with Nier creators. The story of Yorha is canon to FFXIV unless otherwise stated, not canon to Nier, unless otherwise stated.

When I said that, I meant 2B and 9S's story in the world of FFXIV. Sorry, but if we have a Crossover with characters from other series I expect to see these characters from different series interacting and bonding together in a Crossover. The bare minimum at least. I wasn't expecting to have it completely a Nier story. A mixture of FF and Nier (considering Drakengard is like the reverse FF in terms of themes).

This was sadly just a FFXIV tale with Nier characters as cameos/guests. You can literally swap them out with other FF or original characters for FFXIV and explain a hidden factory of automatons and it wouldn't have change that much.

There was nothing really unique to warrant the Nier to be here, which is a shame. That's the problem I see.
The barely existed. Anogg and Knogg could've been their first friends and develop a close friendship to get them to stick around more, yet no.

I would've loved to have 2B and 9S meet the locales, learn about this world, hear more about the WoL and grow for a bit in this new settings. Giving layman details about their own history - not enough to spoil anything, but enough to connect it to their world - and their reason for existing.

And keep all of the boss battles to, those were great.

However, the final part felt SO rushed that I couldn't take in that the characters from the Nier universe are here and they were gone as soon as they got here. Especially 9S! He's finally back online after the first raid and weirdly enough goes back to his friendly outgoing self. No mention of the WoL and 9S fighting before? No apologizes for the confusion? You didn't even talk to him and after the final raid was done, he's gone. I was peeved when I learned that.

Just 2B and 9S (with some cameo from 21O)... No A2, no Commander White, no Devola and Popola. I wasn't expecting a lot of characters. When I saw 2P I was hoping for an original take on the Nier characters. Like they were part of the FFXIV world from the start or something.

Well... no use crying over spilled milk. I'll keep on doing the weekly to see what the rest of the story is.

PS: Also, isn't it kinda canon to Nier? Yoko Taro has a way to bind all his stories together one way or another.

[linayar]

When I said that, I meant 2B and 9S's story in the world of FFXIV. Sorry, but if we have a Crossover with characters from other series I expect to see these characters from different series interacting and bonding together in a Crossover. The bare minimum at least. I wasn't expecting to have it completely a Nier story. A mixture of FF and Nier (considering Drakengard is like the reverse FF in terms of themes).

This was sadly just a FFXIV tale with Nier characters as cameos/guests. You can literally swap them out with other FF or original characters for FFXIV and explain a hidden factory of automatons and it wouldn't have change that much.

There was nothing really unique to warrant the Nier to be here, which is a shame. That's the problem I see.
The barely existed. Anogg and Knogg could've been their first friends and develop a close friendship to get them to stick around more, yet no.

I would've loved to have 2B and 9S meet the locales, learn about this world, hear more about the WoL and grow for a bit in this new settings. Giving layman details about their own history - not enough to spoil anything, but enough to connect it to their world - and their reason for existing.

And keep all of the boss battles to, those were great.

However, the final part felt SO rushed that I couldn't take in that the characters from the Nier universe are here and they were gone as soon as they got here. Especially 9S! He's finally back online after the first raid and weirdly enough goes back to his friendly outgoing self. No mention of the WoL and 9S fighting before? No apologizes for the confusion? You didn't even talk to him and after the final raid was done, he's gone. I was peeved when I learned that.

Just 2B and 9S (with some cameo from 21O)... No A2, no Commander White, no Devola and Popola. I wasn't expecting a lot of characters. When I saw 2P I was hoping for an original take on the Nier characters. Like they were part of the FFXIV world from the start or something.

Well... no use crying over spilled milk. I'll keep on doing the weekly to see what the rest of the story is.

I'm not sure I understand your complaint. In terms of character interaction, I feel it's no different than the Monster Hunter event, the FFXV event, the DQ event, the FFXI event with the girl, etc. All of them are still FFXIV stories and you can swap the characters in those events with FFXIV original characters. In fact, what characters were there in the Garo event? And the Ivalice raids were even FFXIV original versions, not the actual characters from FFXII/Tactics. A collaboration depends on each specific collaboration and can be as involved or not as they choose to be.

PS: Also, isn't it kinda canon to Nier? Yoko Taro has a way to bind all his stories together one way or another.

Technically it can be, but until they confirm it, there is no reason to think it has to until there is any effect that can be seen on a Nier game.

[Mansion]

The first is a place that people can travel to, and the aliens just traveled there.
Nothing is drawing aliens to the source, that's just where we were up until Shadow Bringers so that's where SQEX wrote storylines. If the Omega raids were happening in Shadow Bringers they probably would have taken place on The First instead.

I can accept a lot of what is going on with the Nier raid but that's my main gripe. Sure, I get the "the expansion is on the First so the raid must be", but that's not an in game explanation.
Midgar and Omega landed on the Source after the Sundering, through space travel. So my understanding was that in the physical plane, The Source would be accessible physically through travelling. And Shards are just other dimensions which you can travel to through more complex means (Ascian magics for instance). But anything coming from outer space would see the Source, and land on the Source.

But now, we have the Nier aliens that came directly on the First (I don't recall any mention that they came to the Source before "phasing" into the First). So did Hydealyn's Sundering applied further from the original planet, and the Nier aliens only exist in that dimension? (which would technically mean that this is the "same" dimension as our real world, or at least Drakengard/Nier's depiction of it.) Or is there something I am missing?