Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 1)

[Cilia]

Ten characters.

In Drakengard 3 Ending D, Zero is consumed by the Flower and ends up sealed in the Spirit World. Accord mentions that Zero is still alive and that we'll meet her again one day and I think that's what happened here. I think that after Nier: Automata Ending E, Zero breaks out of the Spirit World - now a full Grotesquerie/Watcher - and creates 2P using a Seed of Destruction on the repaired 2B. Watcher Zero then leaves Earth to track down The Ark that left in Ending E because why not, the Watchers ain't exactly a friendly group of people. Watcher Zero catches up, The Ark crashes on Novrandt and gets corrupted by Watcher Zero, and the fully repaired and reawakened 2B and 9S catch a ride to Novrandt with Watcher Zero...somehow. Anyways, once on Novrandt, the Dwarves stumble across the Seed of Destruction, the Factory is discovered, we meet 2P, blah blah blah, end of the series involves us beating the tar out of the combined Watch Zero/Red Girl/2P thing while 2B and 9S once again seal her in the Spirit World. At least, that's my best guess from trying to make sense of the story. The third Alliance Raid is done, I don't think we're going to get much more explanations on what the hell happened outside of Konogg sending us the occasional message in his search for Anogg. It blows my mind that this story got added to the game with so many holes and is so disconnected from damn near everything in FFXIV. It's embarrassing and disappointing, especially as someone that is a fan of the lore for both Drakengard and Nier. It's just poorly done fanservice that doesn't tie into FFXIV at all and the barebones story doesn't even manage to provide any answers. It's just references all over the place, references that players new to the series won't get which kinda goes against that statement of "new players won't need Nier to understand what happens." I dunno, I expect nothing from the weekly quests going forward but who knows, maybe I'll be surprised.

I'm not a Yoko Taro buff, but...

As I recall none of the endings to Drakengard 3 lead to the first game; that timeline exists as a sort of mish-mash of various endings to 3 that's only fully detailed in a companion manga. It's Yoko Taro though, so timey-wimey shenanigans are plausibly in play.

The ultimate read I get is that the Machines (and 2B / 9S) didn't literally crash on Norvrandt; rather the Seed of (Resurrection / Destruction) somehow made its way there and recreated them, who then set about building the Factory and replica Bunker as per their directives. That would be why the Factory and Bunker are still around while the Tower is not; as the Tower was a direct creation of the Seed, it disappeared when Her Inflorescence was defeated, but as secondary products of its influence the Factory and Bunker are still around.

Anyway, those with eagle eyes will notice that the first two bosses (Knave of Hearts and Hansel and Gretel) also feature dialogue in hex. It's incomplete, so you have to transliterate it and fill in the gaps like a Wheel of Fortune puzzle, but I went through the trouble of translating it... regrettably it offers no real insight, being just more faux-philosophical dialogue as per Yoko Taro's idiom.

Knave of Hearts
Aggro: In distant memory
Roar (1st cast): Once we
Defeat: Were one

Hansel & Gretel
Aggro (Gretel): People
Aggro (Hansel): Need people
Defeat (1/2): Still you
Defeat (2/2): Take and take

... but yes, if they said you don't need to have played any of Yoko Taro's previous works to understand this they'd be lying. But it's Yoko Taro, so I dunno what you were expecting.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I'm not a Yoko Taro buff, but...

As I recall none of the endings to Drakengard 3 lead to the first game; that timeline exists as a sort of mish-mash of various endings to 3 that's only fully detailed in a companion manga. It's Yoko Taro though, so timey-wimey shenanigans are plausibly in play.

The ultimate read I get is that the Machines (and 2B / 9S) didn't literally crash on Norvrandt; rather the Seed of (Resurrection / Destruction) somehow made its way there and recreated them, who then set about building the Factory and replica Bunker as per their directives. That would be why the Factory and Bunker are still around while the Tower is not; as the Tower was a direct creation of the Seed, it disappeared when Her Inflorescence was defeated, but as secondary products of its influence the Factory and Bunker are still around.

Anyway, those with eagle eyes will notice that the first two bosses (Knave of Hearts and Hansel and Gretel) also feature dialogue in hex. It's incomplete, so you have to transliterate it and fill in the gaps like a Wheel of Fortune puzzle, but I went through the trouble of translating it... regrettably it offers no real insight, being just more faux-philosophical dialogue as per Yoko Taro's idiom.

Knave of Hearts
Aggro: In distant memory
Roar (1st cast): Once we
Defeat: Were one

Hansel & Gretel
Aggro (Gretel): People
Aggro (Hansel): Need people
Defeat (1/2): Still you
Defeat (2/2): Take and take

... but yes, if they said you don't need to have played any of Yoko Taro's previous works to understand this they'd be lying. But it's Yoko Taro, so I dunno what you were expecting.

ten characters

Yoshi p said it himself, along with yoko taro. Granted both lie a lot but still. At this point it really does just feel like an advertisement and i see why they usually leave collabs to mini events because otherwise we get this mess A story that doesn’t fit into 14 at all.

[Beddict]

I'm not a Yoko Taro buff, but...

As I recall none of the endings to Drakengard 3 lead to the first game; that timeline exists as a sort of mish-mash of various endings to 3 that's only fully detailed in a companion manga. It's Yoko Taro though, so timey-wimey shenanigans are plausibly in play.

Ten characters

This is correct, none of the Drakengard 3 Endings lead into Drakengard 1. However, Accord is in Drakengard 3 and she's running around hopping timelines, and the Watchers are already dimension-hopping nutjobs so why not, maybe Watcher Zero was able jump timelines and dimensions like Accord and ended up in the Nier universe. Or maybe Yoko Taro didn't bother writing a proper story and we got fed garbage. I lean towards the latter.

Also, fun fact, Hansel and Gretel have different lines depending on who dies first. Rather than "Take and take", the final hex is "Give and give". So that's nice I guess.

[Cilia]

Ten characters

This is correct, none of the Drakengard 3 Endings lead into Drakengard 1. However, Accord is in Drakengard 3 and she's running around hopping timelines, and the Watchers are already dimension-hopping nutjobs so why not, maybe Watcher Zero was able jump timelines and dimensions like Accord and ended up in the Nier universe. Or maybe Yoko Taro didn't bother writing a proper story and we got fed garbage. I lean towards the latter.

Also, fun fact, Hansel and Gretel have different lines depending on who dies first. Rather than "Take and take", the final hex is "Give and give". So that's nice I guess.

/10 kharacthers

I wouldn't say the story's garbage, it's just that (from what I understand) Yoko Taro's more interested in having his stories be emotionally evocative than make logical sense. The denouement of telling off all the dwarves trying to blame Anogg and Konogg for the Puppet units laying waste to Komra is obviously his signature style, for example. Plus we still haven't seen the "true ending" yet, so I wouldn't be so quick to judge... but again, emotional evocation takes precedence over logical sense in Yoko Taro's idiom, so if you're holding out for an explanation you're (probably) approaching it from the wrong angle.

I figured Hansel and Gretel would have different dialogue depending on which is downed first, but given that I don't really have time to write it down while running the raid myself, and said dialogue is instantly buried in item rolls after the fights, I watched a YouTube video and went from there (and don't feel like combing through such videos to get two with the different results; I'm not that dedicated). Thanks for doing that other bit of work, friend!

[Beddict]

/10 kharacthers

I wouldn't say the story's garbage, it's just that (from what I understand) Yoko Taro's more interested in having his stories be emotionally evocative than make logical sense. The denouement of telling off all the dwarves trying to blame Anogg and Konogg for the Puppet units laying waste to Komra is obviously his signature style, for example. Plus we still haven't seen the "true ending" yet, so I wouldn't be so quick to judge... but again, emotional evocation takes precedence over logical sense in Yoko Taro's idiom, so if you're holding out for an explanation you're (probably) approaching it from the wrong angle.

I figured Hansel and Gretel would have different dialogue depending on which is downed first, but given that I don't really have time to write it down while running the raid myself, and said dialogue is instantly buried in item rolls after the fights, I watched a YouTube video and went from there (and don't feel like combing through such videos to get two with the different results; I'm not that dedicated). Thanks for doing that other bit of work, friend!

Woo 10 character Nier shenanigans.

It is his signature style, but I think that only works if there is a proper build up with the characters. I didn't have any kind of emotional attachment to the Dwarves because I was with them for so little time, and any emotional attachment I have to 2B and 9S only exists because I played a lot of Automata. Even then, 2B and 9S are barely in the story. We bop 9S over the head in Factory, he spends the entirety of Bunker passed out, and he has some lines in Tower. 2B is absent from Factory, appears at the end of Bunker, and has a few lines in Tower but hey, at least she'll remember our time together I guess. There was such a long wait time between each Patch, not to mention a pandemic that further delayed Bunker, and it got real difficult to remember or care about the Dwarves. Going into this patch, I couldn't have told you if Konogg was the Black Dwarf or the White Dwarf, nor could I have told you which Dwarf if the brash one and which is the cautious one. Little characterization spread out over months just didn't allow for that emotional investment. Komra gets bombed and what's his face is upset his wife got injured? Literally who, I don't remember these characters at all. In fact, the most memorable character from the entire storyline is the Dig-site Chief purely because how he says his Lali-ho.

Yoko Taro has written some wonderful stories. I love Drakengard 1 and 3, I love Nier and Nier: Automata. These games work because I am able to get invested in the world and the characters which makes the emotional payoff work. These raids just don't do it for me. The story is too short with episodes spaced too far apart, the Nier characters that I do like barely appear and interact with us, and the Dwarves didn't have a lot of defining characteristics to make them memorable to me. The biggest enjoyment I got out of the raids, the things the evoked that emotional response, was seeing all the references and hearing the music I love. Except new players won't get those references and there isn't a whole lot else there.

I want to like the Nier storyline but it just fell flat to me. I need substance to the story and characters, something to get me invested, but the only thing rounded out was the 2B glamour in Factory. I'll keep doing the weekly quests but so far I've just been disappointed in the story.

[Jandor]

So, Nier was basically:

Big white ball appears from another dimension, creates some robots and 24-man alliance raids, then leaves? That about sum it up?

Man, I had a lot of hope they'd knock it clean out the park with the finale but that story was by far the most disappointing alliance raid story so far.

I hope that 6.0 can reverse the trend of the 24-man stories getting worse with every expansion.

[BlitzAceRush]

I really liked Nier, though I crave more so here's hoping as its not quite over just yet.
Though if I had to rate the Alliance raid stories, given Nier's isn't finished, I'd put them:
1. Crystal Tower
2. YoRhA
3. Mhach
4. Ivalice

I'm curious where the weeklies might go, I'm not expecting all the answers or any, just more from this story line as it intrigues me and I actually like the Dwarfs.

[KizuyaKatogami]

regarding nier items

Ngl i’m just still upset we didn’t get a 9s outfit in the end. They gave us 2b’s coffer(female outfit) and the final raid gear is mainly female themed. Where’s the male clothes?I get Nier is mainly females and stuff but there’s at least some male outfits they could’ve given out (9s or Adam for starters. It was all i was looking forward to from the raid really and despite yoshi p’s promise of “you’ll get what you want.” I didn’t get any of the things that really should’ve been there considering i believe 9s is a pretty big character in automata.

[Vyrerus]

regarding nier items

Ngl i’m just still upset we didn’t get a 9s outfit in the end. They gave us 2b’s coffer(female outfit) and the final raid gear is mainly female themed. Where’s the male clothes?I get Nier is mainly females and stuff but there’s at least some male outfits they could’ve given out (9s or Adam for starters. It was all i was looking forward to from the raid really and despite yoshi p’s promise of “you’ll get what you want.” I didn’t get one of the things that really should’ve been there considering i believe 9s is a pretty big character in automata.

Aren't the striking and scouting sets from Copied Factory a FFXIV rendition of 9S's outfit when worn by guys? I know the black's a little off, but coulda sworn that set was in the game already.

[Alleo]

About the last point...spoilers for final surprise for the endings of Nier and Nier: Automata below.

In Nier and Nier: Automata (albeit optional there) you sacrificed the entirety of your save data. Considering Yoko Taro would want people to sacrifice something else, but be unable to do anything extravagant due to this being an MMO, I won't be surprised if you are forced to forfeit all rewards from that run of the duty in order to get the other ending, or that he'll do a more story "sacrifice" type thing, making it so that section of Kholusia is "reset" back to before the 24 mans first started (albeit with differences) without any NPCs or the WoL remembering either other as if it never happened.

About those points

And I honestly would still not care more for the raid. Having to give up your rewards (I guess you mean unique rewards otherwise it makes it even less harsh) feels just bad in a MMO where rewards are often the big carrots to continue playing. People would also just take the rewards and watch the cutscene on youtube.

It being reset is not something that makes much sense to me. So would you be 100% locked out of a whole raid forever or have to just unlock it again (which would be imo tedious)? The characters forgetting everything would make the raid imo even more useless because in the end it also changed nothing for the people on this world.

Having to do certain things to get an ending in a game including deleting your save file is logical in a game that you probably wont even play more after finally seeing the big ending.