Headscratchers is for post-viewing discussion and is thus Spoilers Off. Beware of unmarked spoilers.
If 9S always eventually learns the truth about YoRHa, why does YoRHa keep bringing him back? Why not just leave him dead? Surely this would be easier and MUCH safer than assigning an executioner to kill him whenever he learns too much. It could be that 9S is so useful that the risk is worth it, but that justification falls apart when you consider that YoRHa isn't actually trying to win the war at all, and are in fact destined for destruction. YoRHa's only purpose is to perpetuate the lie that there are still humans, so it makes no sense for them to risk their secret getting out, no matter how useful to the war effort 9S may be.
It is also to advance the androids, and 9S is a top of the line Scanner, to the point he self-taught to be useful in a fight. It does not seem to be that much of a coincidence that he gets a message his model would be made mass-production JUST before everything goes down.
Okay, this is just a mechanics question but it still bugs me. The game stresses a few times that there is no auto-save...but there is! When you die, you respawn and have to go get your body, so there must be some kind of auto-save, or your game would just end when you died. Am I missing something? Do they just mean "there's continues but no auto-saves?"
Corpse run isn't an auto-save you are still playing the game, it's like losing a power up in Mario except easier to get it back.
You lose both the auto-spawn and the ability to corpse run when the bunker blows up. From that point forward, when you die, you reload your last save.
That is not an autosave, that is a checkpoint. An autosave would risk you losing the chips on the body if you were not able to recover it.
If the machines in Pascal's village are disconnected from the network, how did Adam's virus infect them?
They have been hacked.
But they're not on the network. How do you hack something that isn't online?
They aren't offline, they are just not on the main machine network, same as the androids. If 9S can hack them into exploding or serving then the terminals can do it too.
Remember the 'bad machine' that you had to kill? Right before Pascal sent you on the quest to get the philosophy book? He likely did it. Once one 'infectee' comes into contact, they can just manually hack into all the other machines around. Like how 2B and 9S were infected by the logic virus.
While there's no official explanation, it's most likely that N2 (Red Girl) engineered the end of Pascal's village. From the Machine Research Report archive in the game, you can discover that Pascal and the other villagers didn't disconnect from the main network of their own volition. N2 caused this to happen. Entries for certain machine lifeform enemies mention the surfacing of the Tower drove them mad, so it's entirely plausible and most likely that N2 triggered the events that occur just to see how Pascal deals with it.
How did the pods get new black boxes to revive the protagonists?
Stole some from the remains of the bunker? Made them from machine cores?
More a question for the creator. But Word of God has confirmed that machines like Adam and Eve are capable of changing their gender and growing genitalia capable of producing semen. But Yoko Taro also stated they still wouldn't be able to reproduce like humans. How is it possible to produce semen and replicate another gender and genitalia but not reproduce?
Semen= sperm, seed= spermatozoon. They are shooting blank.
Because those parts are artificial. Machine lifeforms aren't created through sperm and egg. Think of the Forest King, who was confined to a baby's body that would never mature into an adult form. They would be able to recreate the parts and likely replicate the process of procreation, but with none of the results. That's just not how they're made.
Why was Emil in a machine? Wasn't he fighting them?
Noodle Incident at its finest, this Emil likely fell in a factory at one point.
After years looking for a new body with arms, he is finally able to change a machine for himself... and we ruin it. Notice how after the fight starts the last machine is trying to escape, as if he only got there with the flow and not really to fight. Almost as if there is something different in its head - emphasis on in. As in, "cut it in half and Emil pops out" in.
While battling the giant machine lifeform in the ocean, there is one point when it starts emitting EMP waves and then all of a sudden, 9S instantly deploys some kind of bubble shield that protects him and 2B from the EMP. This is the only time in the whole game he does this... why does he never use this ability again? Is just a case of New Powers as the Plot Demands?
It's actually a pod program you can have called shield.
Why do the androids have emotions in the first place if they are constantly told "Emotions are prohibited"? I suspect certain emotions make them more efficient at their jobs, but if that's the case then why repress them?
Emotions aren't prohibited, 2B is just being a hard ass on 9S because they are in the middle of a war not a casual outing. She is pretty much the only character saying that too. In fact they were programmed specifically to develop emotions so the other androids can use their data into becoming more human like.
In 2B's case she may simply be afraid that if 9S starts displaying too much emotion, specifically getting too curious or questioning the mission, she'll likely be ordered to execute him again.
Yoko Taro has gone on record saying there actually is a prohibition on emotions. However, much like how machine lifeforms formed their own sentience, androids, due to the origins of their black boxes, gained emotions as well. YoRHa units have been programmed to have a strong love for humanity to counter this. He also mentioned the rule exists so that androids do not behave similarly to humans (which is also why they salute with their left hands). Basically, they weren't given emotions. They developed them, and there was an attempt to regulate it, which has clearly since been abandoned.
Any ideas what the other YoRHa android types are?
We know S is for Scanner-types, O is for Operators, B is for Battler, and E is for Executioner, but what about some of the minor types listed such as D-type and so on? Any ideas?
D type is Defender, A type is Attacker (they got replaced by battle unit) and I think it was confirmed H is Healer.
G type is Gunner but it and A type were combined into B type for full production.
Also, C type is Canceller according to the YoRHa stage play. I also remember hearing about F type somewhere, but don't remember where. I think it was supposed to be Finder?
is Emil the only magical being left in the nier universe?
Magic has gone away when humanity went extinct. Basically yes.
In Ending A, 2B kills 9S by strangulation. Why would the androids be constructed in such a way that the neck would be particularly vulnerable like that? The androids don't have brains that require constant supply of oxygen via blood and lungs to function, do they?
They need fluid which tubes can also be pinched with strangulation.
It's possible those that designed the androids used the best template they had for bipedal life - humans. We see things similar to tendons, bones, and muscle in the androids, and damage to something like their organs clearly has a negative effect. She also could have been not cutting off his air supply, but severing the connection between his body and his brain.
My theory is that the androids were deliberately modeled to be the replacement for humans. Humanity 2.0. This explains their somewhat ridiculous designs from an outside perspective.
Bipedal locomotion instead of a tank design
Human features and design, with the thought processing in the head instead of an armored shell.
Desiring companionship or even love makes sense, but sexual desire does not. However, 9S is explicitly confirmed to desire 2B.
Regarding Ending E: Statistically speaking, will there always be enough players generous enough to sacrifice their save files to assist those going through the shmup sequence? For some reason, I'm doubtful, and I wonder what alternate ways do they have. And surely the very first players had help, too, but from where did the saves come from, then?
Either it was from Beta testers, or the developers seeded the sequence with some initial messages. If you want to be cynical, probably people are used, reused, and selected at random.
Why didn't Pod 153 tell 9S that 2B had been infected by the Logic Virus at any point, and that that was why A2 killed her? 153 and 042 were in correspondence with one another by then and both discuss 9S's deteriorating mental state later in the game. At the very least, it would've made things a lot more tragic if 9S decided to kill A2 anyway.
Because pods don't have the same level of human reasoning that androids do, and as such, they don't really understand the concept of Mercy Kill. Also, the Logic Virus is essentially a death sentence, so from their perspective, A2 was just following regular protocol. And furthermore, 9S having to watch the person he cared about most in the world die with no chance of resurrection had already traumatized him enough, so even if the pods had totally understood and tried to justify A2's actions, it would have only upset him more. While they don't grasp the deeper reasoning behind why A2 killed 2B, the pods do understand that 9S is dangerously unstable in a way that jeopardizes the mission, and therefore they understand the words that would set him off.
9S already knew 2B was infected by the Logic Virus. Side material shows an internal monologue from 9S, where he mentions A2 killing 2B is unforgivable, even if she was infected with the virus. It didn't matter, he was running on pure emotion at that point (coupled with mania from being infected himself).
Why don't the Pods recognize that 2B is lying about her "B" designation?
Because keeping her true designation a secret is part of her mission, which pods are programmed to prioritize above all else (at least until the end.)
It's probably just a nonsense term, but is there any idea about what YoRHa (ヨルハ Yoruha) means? One possible answer that's been bugging me since Automata's announcement and character teasers—and granted, I know it's a stretch, too—is that they were named after Gestalt subject Yonah, whose name loosely shares its phonetic scheme with YoRHa (Yonah's two syllables versus YoRHa/Yo-ru-ha's two-to-three).
Yoko Taro has stated that it does stand for something, but has decided to keep it a secret.
Given the specific capitalisation, I would guess that it's an abbreviation of two or three words, so possibly it's 'Yonah R*** Ha***' (or Yonah Ru*** Ha*** in the Japanese version, since it seems to be Yo Ru Ha there). Of course, you then have to guess what language the project name was in before you can guess the words.
Is it ever explained apart from being a Call-Back to the stage play, exactly why the Androids are all in dresses and high heels? It's really weird.
What if YoRHa based the look on old human data, specifically anime? It would explain a lot as the clothing is (almost) entirely aethetic with the actual armour being in the android bodies themselves.
Even if that is true, high heels are very inconvenient for physical fighting, which the YorHa androids are designed for. So what's the point of imitating some ancient fashion that makes the androids less efficient at their job?
So...if the Humans are all secretly dead...and the Aliens that made the Machines are all dead...and the Androids are made from Machine cores...what was the point of anything? Why all of this fighting if there's no reason to fight?
They were programmed to, and literally have no idea what else to do. Androids were tasked with “preserving humanity”, and the machine network with “defeating the enemy”. Neither side believes that victory is actually achievable, but are faced with losing purpose in their existence if they give up, so the war publicly continues while their leaders work together to develop alternatives. (YoRHa was created to establish the belief that humans still exist in such a way that no android would be able to prove otherwise - a ‘humans of the gap’ kind of belief - and the war is necessary as an explanation for YoRHa to be annihilated. The Terminals believe that innovation can only come from conflict, because they attained sentience through warfare to begin with, and are trying to use the war as a testing ground to evolve beyond their programming.) If everything went as planned, YoRHa would be extinct, and the Terminals launched themselves into space, leaving the remaining androids to faithfully garden Earth forever for humans who will never return.
So, what does the resistance even do? It seems like YoRHa is doing all of the actual fighting.
As seen in the game, they provide support, weapons, and materials to YoRHa androids so that they can keep on fighting. Some of them, such as Jackass, are also implied to be involved in guerilla tactics against the machines. And Anemones's backstory reveals that the resistance existed long before the current line of YoRHa androids were created, so before that they were the ones fighting the machines. After the introduction of the new androids, who are more efficient fighters as well as more expendable, most resistance members were probably happy to fall back to a more civilian lifestyle, where they support YoRHa when needed but don't have to fight on the frontlines.
Does the E route happen after the events of the D route? Since the E route starts during the end credits of the D ending, that seems to be implied... But if 9S chose to leave Earth with the machines in the D route, does that mean that two versions of him now exist: the one who left with the ark, and the one who was reconstructed by the Pods? On the other hand, if the E ending is supposed to be alternate to both the C and D ending, what happened in the fight between A2 and 9S in the E route?
It arguably doesn't matter, since the point of the Pods bringing back the three androids is to give them a fresh start without Yo R Ha and the war. Given that Ending E can follow either C or D (whichever one you don't reach first) it seems to me that the intent is to wipe the slate clean for 2B, 9S and A2.
In the fight against Grün we learn that YoRHa has an powerful satellite laser they can use to hit ground targets. Why isn't it ever used against other targets that are infested with machines but no androids live there, such as the abandoned factory? Okay, we know that the true masterminds behind YoRHa don't actually want the war to end, but the Commander doesn't know that. So what's her excuse for not using the laser?
The anime adaptation sheds some light on this: During the climactic battle against berserk Adam, the androids on the ground make a request to the bunker for the use of the satellite laser. Subsequently, the Commander is shown asking the Council of Humanity for permission to use said satellites, which they flatly refuse without giving any explanation whatsoever. Thus, the final authority to use the satellite belongs to the Council, not the Commander, and the androids are simply left believing that it's all part of humanity's bigger plan which they are not worthy of questioning or even knowing.
So at the end of the game, are all androids and machines just dead other than 2B, 9S, and A2 (And I suppose Anemone and Jackass) leaving them and the pods the only ones left on Earth? Or is there still some sort of Android leadership out there who plans to start a new iteration of androids or a new Machine Network of some kind? Would seem kinda depressing if the main 3 were the only ones left alive for all time…
It's almost certain there's some kind of android leadership operating in the shadows, because all the details of conspiracy behind the war were not known even to the Commander, so there has to be a level of leadership above her. Also, in her last message Jackass vows to have revenge on the people behind the conspiracy, so it seems those shadowy leaders are still somewhere out there. As for other androids, there's nothing to imply that the entire Resistance was wiped out, only the ones in Anemone's base. Surely there were many other Resistance bases on Earth, and once the machine network has gone to space, the virus corrupting the androids should become dormant, so it seems unlikely they have all killed each other.
Thanks for the answer. I am still not sure what the implication of the true ending is however? Are the android leaders going to make more androids and send them to Earth or re-establish Yo R Ha? Are there still machines and is there going to be another war? Or is the war completely over? In which case what are the unseen android leaders going to do next and how will 2B, 9S and A2 fit into it?
