YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse - A summary, feelings and Final Thoughts, beginning to [E]nd

[Bright-Flower]

It's a quirk of some of Taro's games when it comes to endings - they're usually titled something, and a letter in the title is either in brackets or coloured differently, and said letter signifies which ending it is (i.e. Ending F, or Branch B). For example, using some of the games he's directed:

the End of the Dragon Sphere (Drakengard 1)
the [E]nd of YoRHa (Nier: Automata)

And my favourite, [L]one wolf (Again, Nier: Automata), where 2B decides to go fishing instead of dealing with the more immediate matters of robot attacks.

As for the topic at hand, a few posters have already said the things I want to far better than I ever could. I just wonder, will they maybe release some sort of dev blog post on what would've happened if people had voted in favour of Konogg instead of Anogg? Would've been interesting to see the differences there, or at the very least a very general or rough draft of what could've been.

E also tends to be specifically important.

Drakengard 1's ending E went into Nier. THe first Nier game only had A to D, but there was a canonical ending E added into a book published after the game. Drakengard 3 has a canon ending E that leads into Drakengard 1. And the true ending of Automata is ending E.

This is part of why I don't think ther'es a hidden new game plus story or anything in the Yorha storyline, they just went ahead and gave us E off the bat.

[Gula]

I enjoyed it a lot. [E]pilogue wasn't what I expected. Could have used a little more existential crisis' but looking forward to some mention of bizarre tiny adult children in any other Drakengard/NieR content.

[Vahlnir]

I feel like I was missing some context here at the end. Or all of it. The title was cool though so I guess there's that. Overall I loved the raids themselves (though Tower at Paradigm's Breach probably the least of them) but the story was nonexistent. For a crossover with a game that seems to pride itself on endless existential crises they really came up short, and that's putting it mildly. It was basically just one big expensive advertisement saying "Play Nier now!" and very little else.

[Bright-Flower]

I feel like I was missing some context here at the end. Or all of it. The title was cool though so I guess there's that. Overall I loved the raids themselves (though Tower at Paradigm's Breach probably the least of them) but the story was nonexistent. For a crossover with a game that seems to pride itself on endless existential crises they really came up short, and that's putting it mildly. It was basically just one big expensive advertisement saying "Play Nier now!" and very little else.

No you werne't missing context, all playing the games does is let you catch more references to them. The story was sadly just lacking.

[Fenral]

So, now that I'm done with Ending A of Replicant 1.22, and well on my way to Ending B...

Why, by all that is holy, was the decision made to cross over with Automata and not Replicant? Brand recognition? Worried about spoilers for an upcoming remaster?

NieR Replicant/Gestalt spoilers:

Art deco precursor civilization? Check. Wiped out by an unknown alien force? Check. Seeking to restore the world that was? Such check. Trying to replace a successor race they can "prove" is less than the original humanity? Very much check.

We could have had a NieR Replicant raid series that dug into Amaurot in the same way that FFXIV's Crystal Tower raids expanded on the Allagans, and now I'll never be able to think otherwise.

[Bright-Flower]

So, now that I'm done with Ending A of Replicant 1.22, and well on my way to Ending B...

Why, by all that is holy, was the decision made to cross over with Automata and not Replicant? Brand recognition? Worried about spoilers for an upcoming remaster?

NieR Replicant/Gestalt spoilers:

Art deco precursor civilization? Check. Wiped out by an unknown alien force? Check. Seeking to restore the world that was? Such check. Trying to replace a successor race they can "prove" is less than the original humanity? Very much check.

We could have had a NieR Replicant raid series that dug into Amaurot in the same way that FFXIV's Crystal Tower raids expanded on the Allagans, and now I'll never be able to think otherwise.

Recognition probably. Nier was a cult classic but Automata was a surprise hit.

Even that aside, there are ways they could have tied Automata into things as well. Artifical lifeforms created by a society that's no longer around? They could have easily been tied to Aumoraut as some sort of failed attempt to stave off the end days, or the bad future that the CE was sent back from etc.

The problem isn't that they went with Automata instead of Replicant but more that they decided to go with a lazy 'they came from another world' filler crossover plot rather than inegrate things into FFXIV's world and lore like the crystal tower and ivalice raids did.

[Fenral]

I have yet to play Automata, but I agree there's no denying the more fundamental problems. The above is just what immediately occurred to me as I stormed the Shadowlord's castle.

[Cilia]

Like it or not the gynoid with the booty is just more iconic than anything else from Yoko Taro.

It's also worth noting that the Drakengard and NieR stuff is ultimately just window dressing, given the story is really about Anogg and Konogg. The setup could be replaced with a lot of things, but those two are the central characters in the story - not 2P, 2B, or 9S.

[GoldStarz]

It's also worth noting that the Drakengard and NieR stuff is ultimately just window dressing, given the story is really about Anogg and Konogg. The setup could be replaced with a lot of things, but those two are the central characters in the story - not 2P, 2B, or 9S.

I honestly wish they had cut the NieR stuff and just focused on the dwarf part of the conflict since that feels like where Yoko Taro's heart was actually set. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if he was told that he had to tie it back to NieR Automata though.

[Gruntler]

Some of the naysayers saying this raid/story had no place in XIV - respectfully I disagree to a point. A lot of us found the raid tier fun and being able to obtain gear and items from these raids were awesome. I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting the ending we got from the conclusion. To be honest, I was hoping for an ending fitting for XIV - but again, TARO.

This doesn't address the concern you're trying to address. If I say that the raid doesn't feel like it belongs in the FFXIV world, because the lore for it doesn't build on or inform the world of FFXIV, you're literally ignoring the concern. The raids were enjoyable mechanically--but the story around them didn't tie into the world at all, except for 'has dwarves in it.'

This is far below the bar that is set by raids such as Crystal Tower, and Return to Ivalice, which both built on the existing universe of FFXIV, and expanded on it. And there is no reason why it needed to be this way, none at all. The Seed of Destruction could have been, for example, an Ancient device that made creations and sought to terraform the world. Instead, the bar for this crossover was set too low--it was set at the 'DQ crossover' level of relevance. Fine for a fun 'do fates and get glamour' thing, but not for a 24 man series.

It's sad, because a lot of effort was put into it, and had it been a more *relevant* story, the extra stuff done would have been fantastic.