50 Fun Facts About NieR: Automata

After NieR: Automata's last ending, what can players sacrifice to help strangers beat the credits?

Their save data is wiped if they accept, and in return a message of encouragement reaches another player struggling through the same sequence.

Critics read the designation of NieR: Automata heroine 2B as a nod to which Shakespeare tragedy?

Hamlet gives the name its echo of the prince's famous soliloquy, and one reviewer called it a sign of the game's obsession with existentialist philosophy.

NieR: Automata was first pitched as NieR: Android until which tech giant's trademark got in the way?

Google owns the Android operating system name, so Square Enix turned down the director's first-choice title to avoid a possible trademark conflict.

Which drinks brand's vending machines linking India and Pakistan inspired NieR: Automata's finale?

Coca-Cola linked machines in the two countries by livestream to nudge people past a political rivalry, and the director reworked the idea into encouraging messages between players.

Where are the androids of NieR: Automata told that the last surviving humans have taken refuge?

On the Moon is where the Council of Humanity supposedly sits, the body in whose name the YoRHa androids fight to reclaim Earth from the Machines.

Which Japanese studio said NieR: Automata's strong sales rescued it after a run of disappointments?

PlatinumGames developed the game for Square Enix, whose sales expectations it greatly exceeded, and the hit renewed interest in the studio's other work.

Producer Yosuke Saito asked that 2B's design in NieR: Automata be fun for fans of which hobby?

Cosplay was part of the brief from the start: the artist was given a guideline of sleek black designs and asked for a heroine people would enjoy dressing up as.

NieR: Automata was first planned as a mobile or PlayStation Vita title inspired by which casual hit?

FarmVille was the model the team first had in mind, before development shifted to the PlayStation 4 and a far more action-heavy design.

Which NieR: Automata director dislikes being photographed and usually wears a mask in interviews?

Yoko Taro wrote the story as well as directing, and once gave a video interview through a glove puppet rather than show his face.

Yui Ishikawa, Japanese voice of 2B in NieR: Automata, also plays Mikasa Ackerman in which anime?

Attack on Titan gave her one of her biggest roles, and for 2B she began recording before the cutscenes were finished, trusting the director's guidance over a story she only half knew.

What name is given to the orbiting base that commands the YoRHa androids of NieR: Automata?

The Bunker is a reconnaissance base circling Earth, and its destruction in the third playthrough leaves 2B and 9S cut off from the rest of YoRHa.

What are the floating, box-shaped robots that give NieR: Automata's androids ranged fire called?

Pods do more than shoot: after the main endings, units 042 and 153 defy an order to erase YoRHa's records and rebuild the three heroes instead.

Which special ability sets 9S apart from 2B and A2 in NieR: Automata's combat?

Hacking fits his role as a reconnaissance model: where 2B alternates between two weapons, 9S pairs light strikes with breaking into enemy systems.

Which blade was 2B given to add a hint of myth and magic to NieR: Automata's sci-fi setting?

A katana was chosen for exactly that contrast, and 2B's graceful way of swinging it came from a designer who imagined a dancing woman when building the combat.

Which NieR: Automata upgrades add abilities, grant buffs and can even alter the on-screen display?

Plug-in chips update the Words system of the original Nier to suit androids, and each character can fit only as many as their slots allow.

Which original Nier character returns in NieR: Automata, memories lost after endless self-copying?

Emil cloned himself again and again to fight the invaders, and a group of those copies, driven mad by losing their sense of self, forms the game's secret boss.

Which shunned twins from the original Nier do the riskier jobs at NieR: Automata's Resistance camp?

Devola and Popola were programmed to feel endless guilt for their model line's part in the first game's catastrophe, and they give their lives to open the tower for 9S.

What does the S stand for in the designation of 9S, NieR: Automata's reconnaissance android?

Scanner models are built for investigation rather than front-line fighting, which is why curious, talkative 9S keeps uncovering things YoRHa would prefer stayed hidden.

What does the E stand for in 2E, the true designation hidden behind 2B in NieR: Automata?

Executioner units police YoRHa itself: 2B's standing order is to kill 9S and wipe his memories each time he learns too much, which is why she keeps him at a distance.

What informal nickname does 9S, the talkative partner of 2B in NieR: Automata, also go by?

Nines stuck with fans and cast alike: his English voice actor dubbed the embittered, vengeful 9S of the later story emo Nines.

Which Bravely Default artist designed 2B and the other lead characters of NieR: Automata?

Akihiko Yoshida was thought too busy to take the job, but he signed on because so many colleagues at his own studio were fans of the first Nier.

Which Tekken 3 composer led the NieR: Automata soundtrack with his own studio, Monaca?

Keiichi Okabe founded Monaca in 2004 after struggling as a freelancer, and wrote the soundtrack so that its songs flow into one another as the player moves between areas.

Which NieR: Automata theme song has its chorus sung by the development team in the last ending?

Weight of the World was recorded in different versions by J'Nique Nicole, Emi Evans and Marina Kawano before the staff themselves joined in for the closing one.

NieR: Automata earned three nominations at The Game Awards 2017 but won in only which category?

Best Score/Music was its only win that night: Best Role Playing Game went to Persona 5 and Best Narrative to What Remains of Edith Finch.

Which fighting game added NieR: Automata's 2B as a guest in 2018, with a white variant called 2P?

Soulcalibur VI got her after she was considered for Tekken 7, and the director joked that the P in her white 2P costume stood for Panasonic.

YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse, outlined by NieR: Automata's director, is a storyline in which online RPG?

Final Fantasy XIV ran the crossover in three parts of its Shadowbringers expansion between 2019 and 2021, and 2B's outfit became a popular item there.

Which studio animated NieR: Automata Ver1.1a, the anime whose broadcast the pandemic delayed twice?

A-1 Pictures was handed the game's own CG character models as a starting point, and sometimes simplified the clothing so it was manageable to animate.

NieR: Automata is set in an alternative timeline of which series known for dragon-flight combat?

Drakengard shares its dark tone and branching storylines with the Nier games, though nothing in the plot connects it directly to the androids' war.

NieR: Automata designer Takahisa Taura went on to direct which 2019 Nintendo Switch action game?

Astral Chain so impressed producer Yosuke Saito that he asked for a Switch port of the android epic to mark its fifth anniversary.

To direct NieR: Automata on site, its freelance director had to move from Tokyo to which city?

Osaka is home to the developer, which agreed to make the sequel only if he directed it and stayed close at hand to help with production.

Which pacifist Machine village leader in NieR: Automata later begs A2 to erase his memory?

Pascal dislikes conflict and longs for peace, and the player, as A2, may wipe his memory, kill him or simply walk away after his village is destroyed.

Which philosopher's strict estate led a NieR: Automata Machine to be renamed outside Japan?

Jean-Paul Sartre lends the Machine his surname in Japan, but Square Enix advised a change abroad, so the director kept only the philosopher's first name.

The manga telling A2's NieR: Automata backstory is named for a descent on which Second World War battle site?

Pearl Harbor Descent Record follows the YoRHa test run that A2 survived after her squad was left to die, and the game's director supervised its story.

In which medium did NieR: Automata's YoRHa first reach audiences, before the game was announced?

A stage play called YoRHa was performed in 2014 during the game's pre-production, and it was later revised and joined by an all-male spin-off.

Which leader of NieR: Automata's Resistance camp shares a backstory with the rogue android A2?

Anemone runs the camp that 2B and 9S are sent to help, and her history with A2 was told before the game in a separate prequel production.

The heroine of which cyberpunk manga inspired 2B's fighting style in NieR: Automata?

Battle Angel Alita supplied the template, and the designers then set 2B apart by giving her movements a more elegant, refined style.

NieR: Automata describes the black blindfold worn by 2B as which piece of equipment?

A visor is the official term, and the director wanted it because so few game characters had ever been given a blindfold.

Which Japanese voice actor, also Tanjiro in Demon Slayer, plays 9S in NieR: Automata?

Natsuki Hanae was handed what the producer called a difficult job, because 9S has so much dialogue to get through.

Which English voice of 2B in NieR: Automata is also Jolyne Cujoh in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?

Kira Buckland recorded 2B before she had gone full-time as a voice actor, and found the reserved android a challenge after playing more outgoing characters.

What corrupts almost every YoRHa unit during the invasion in NieR: Automata's third playthrough?

A logic virus gets in through a server glitch that 9S himself had found earlier, and 2B is infected soon afterwards.

What truth about humanity does 9S uncover in YoRHa's servers in NieR: Automata?

It is already extinct, and was so long before the invasion; YoRHa keeps the myth of survivors alive to give androids a reason to exist.

A fan project to run NieR: Automata on which operating system became a core part of Valve's Proton?

Linux was the goal of Philip Rebohle's 2017 graphics translation work, and its success won him a Valve contract; the project became DXVK, which the Steam Deck relies on.

Which 2015 role-playing game's side quests set the standard NieR: Automata's designers aimed for?

The Witcher 3 partly inspired the role-playing side of the game, which was new ground for a studio whose earlier titles were linear action games.

Players demanding a translation into which language review-bombed NieR: Automata in April 2017?

Chinese players posted the negative reviews only weeks after the March 2017 PC launch, pressing the publisher for a localised version.

Which series loved by designer Takahisa Taura inspired NieR: Automata's side-scrolling parts?

Castlevania shaped the moments when the camera swings to a side-on view, one of several perspective shifts the team used to echo other genres.

NieR: Automata's downloadable content added colosseums and boss fights against which real people?

Company presidents Yosuke Matsuda of Square Enix and Kenichi Sato of the developer both appear as bosses, but only for players with a completed playthrough on file.

Which now-defunct studio developed the original 2010 Nier, the game that NieR: Automata follows?

Cavia was absorbed into AQ Interactive soon after Nier shipped, which is why its director went freelance and a different developer built the sequel.

Which rock band made a promotional song for NieR: Automata and later an ending theme for its anime?

Amazarashi came aboard because singer Hiromu Akita was a fan of the first Nier, and the game's director supervised the video for the band's tie-in song.

Why could D.K, character designer of the first Nier, not return to draw NieR: Automata's cast?

He broke his elbow and could not draw, so he personally recommended the artist who went on to design 2B and the rest of the cast.

Which performer did the motion capture for both 2B and A2 in NieR: Automata's cutscenes and fights?

Kaori Kawabuchi acted out cutscenes and fight moves separately, and her performance was used as a guide for the Japanese voice recording of 2B.