The Answer to the Nier Raid Everyone has Discovered but No One has Realized. (Spoiler

[Eloah]

Okay, so I've seen a lot of people trying to figure out what the meaning of the Nier Raid was. Fans of the Drakengard/Nier series are like, "It's Yoko Taro, he always throws in some symbolism and psychological torment", and he has, but not how people expected. In the simplest of terms, Yoko Taro played with our expectations by subverting them. I'll try and explain.

Going into this raid series, everyone was expecting something grand, because it was being made by Yoko Taro. People were expecting revelations at the end that were hinted at in the beginning, but ultimately this amounted to nothing. But the players are still discussing what could be there; there has to be something with the numbers, try playing New Game +, it has something to do with the twins, etc. But in the end, none of that seems to mean anything, and that is the true meaning of this raid series: Meaninglessness.

Yoko Taro psyched us out by not giving us a twist when we were expecting one. Everyone headed into this raid series expecting something, and tried to find meaning in many things, but in the end it was meaningless. There was no deeper meaning to anything. Sometimes life is just strange, and you'll drive yourself mad if you try to make rhyme or reason out of everything. Just enjoy the wild ride that you're on, cause you never know when something meaningless will happen to you.

I'm sure many people will claim that I'm just trying to give credit to a "bad" story, and maybe I am. But if you are a fan of Yoko Taro's and know how he likes to add in all of these little nuances, isn't this exactly something he would do?

[LariaKirin]

Sure, let's pretend this garbage is not the garbage it actually is.

[Vahlnir]

That's some hardcore mental gymnastics. I'm actually kind of impressed.

[lezard21]

A new Nier game was coming out. The Nier raids were made to promote said Nier game. There's your meaning. We just played through a 3 part ad.

[Iscah]

A new Nier game was coming out. The Nier raids were made to promote said Nier game. There's your meaning. We just played through a 3 part ad.

A three-part ad convincing me that I never want to willingly sit through any further storytelling by this writer if it's going to be as poorly explained and unengaging as this was.

[AziraSyuren]

A three-part ad convincing me that I never want to willingly sit through any further storytelling by this writer if it's going to be as poorly explained and unengaging as this was.

None of it is nearly as uninteresting as this raid series was, honestly. This was a black mark on an otherwise stellar record.

[lezard21]

A three-part ad convincing me that I never want to willingly sit through any further storytelling by this writer if it's going to be as poorly explained and unengaging as this was.

Heck, same. I'd only ever heard of Nier from some friends and all said positive things about it. But these raids, whether it was a good representation of it or not, has turned me away from ever wanting to play any of these games almost to the point of actually despising them.

[AziraSyuren]

Heck, same. I'd only ever heard of Nier from some friends and all said positive things about it. But these raids, whether it was a good representation of it or not, has turned me away from ever wanting to play any of these games almost to the point of actually despising them.

You're missing out. The problem with this raid storyline was that Yoko Taro can't do any of the things that actually make his games interesting in an MMO.

[MilkieTea]

A three-part ad convincing me that I never want to willingly sit through any further storytelling by this writer if it's going to be as poorly explained and unengaging as this was.

I was engaged just enough to be intrigued and confused, but not engaged enough to want to buy the game. I wanted to understand but... what am I trying to understand?

[Vahlnir]

I was engaged just enough to be intrigued and confused, but not engaged enough to want to buy the game. I wanted to understand but... what am I trying to understand?

Honestly, the raids didn't do the games justice. At all. Nier Replicant and Automata are works of art, though I'd say Replicant takes the cake there and then some. I would highly recommend buying the games, or at least one of them. Unlike the crossover raids there's some actual story telling and character development. I get that the crossover probably didn't make the greatest impression, but I wouldn't hold it against the series itself. They are worth it. The raids in this game were better enjoyed if you didn't really question anything, because none of it actually made any sense. The epilogue did very little to address this either.