Tear Jerker / NieR: Automata

Per troping policy, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

"It always... ends like this..."

Much like its predecessor, NieR: Automata is equally depressing and heartwarming.

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• The machines' way of emulating humans is heartbreaking. They understand feelings but there are a few things they can't grasp, they have sex even though they don't know how, they eat because humans eat, they try to have siblings and they are scared of you for bringing death to them. 9S brushing them aside as "just machines" doesn't help either.
  • The dancer in the amusement park, Simone, was enamored with the machine Sartre/Jean-Paul. Sartre/Jean-Paul, however, is uninterested in romance. She became obsessed with the human concept of beauty, going so far as cannibalizing fellow machines' parts to improve her appearance and eating androids' flesh because of a rumor that doing so will make you more lovely, something she acknowledges as nonsense but she's desperate enough to try anyway. Her realization that she'll never get his love drives her past the breaking point.
    That's when I realized he cares not for jewels. Or songs or beauty or appearance or anything else. I cannot win his love.
    Why have I done this to myself?
    Meaningless.
    Meaningless.
    MEANINGLESS.
    I gaze into the mirror. In its reflection, I see only my own meaninglessness. And so I scream.
    someone please look my way.
    • And to cap it off, her Dying Dream is an image of Jean-Paul finally reaching out to her.
  • Grun, the giant machine dwelling in the ocean? The second playthrough gives it a brief backstory.
    9S: (Voiceover) The child held sway over enormous strength. But sadly, it was also a little bit broken. He spent his long days hurting those around him. He tried his best to be good and kind. But despite his efforts, things never seemed to turn out. They told him he was unwanted. They abandoned him in the deep, dark ocean. And from the cold at the bottom of the sea, he cried out - "Mother... Mother... Mother..." But his voice never reached his mother.
    • Same thing goes for the desert Goliath in Route C, whose internal thoughts are crying for "Mama".
  • The Forest King was once a tall machine who built the kingdom so his people could have a home, even going as far as to give his closest subjects parts of him to protect themselves with. He was so beloved that once his main body shut down his subjects transferred his core and data in baby model machine, hoping to repay the kindness he gave them by raising him as he grows back to be a king. Except machines don't grow...but they still treated the baby as if he were still the king, once they realized that he'll never grow up. And of course, the icing on the cake: A2 straight-up murders the king in his crib.
  • Father Servo keeps asking you to upgrade him, only to yield when you defeat him. The last fight has him refusing to give up and fight to the death as he becomes fully into the concept of Challenge Seeker and praises 2B and 9S for killing him. 9S treats him as an idiot who scammed them for making them get him so many upgrade parts.
  • At the beginning of Route B, we're treated to the sad sight of one small machine trying to wake up another broken machine whom it keeps calling 'brother' with oil in a bucket. After the smaller machine pours the oil on its 'brother', the camera pans out to show 9S, who proceeds to talk about the machines for thinking they understand the concept of family... and it's hard to discern if he's not being sympathetic or if he is.
    • Which comes back in a dark way in Route C, where at the top of a Resource Recovery Unit, 9S is charged by a whole horde of robots carrying buckets, pleading for their brother.
  • The end of the Wise Machine sidequest. After 9S countlessly hacks into the machine, he starts to become increasingly worried about his own existence...and after the final hacking minigame, the Wise Machine jumps off the broken highway to its death. Pod 153 tries to tell 9S not to overthink it, but it's obvious how much 9S is affected by the event.
  • Some machines have discovered religion only to be driven insane by the Logic Virus and come to the conclusion that in order to "become as gods" they must kill themselves. Many of the machines attack 2B and Pascal as they try to escape the Abandoned Factory, while there are even some unaffected cult members who are just outright terrified of the suicidal cultists. Also doubles as Nightmare Fuel.
  • The machines of the Amusement Park appear to, for the most part, discover the true meaning of the park - have fun and don't hurt anyone. None of the regular machines will attack you, save for a couple of flyers that mostly exist as railed combat set pieces. However... firstly, the Opera Singer ends up tormenting the denizens of the park due to her constant cannibalizing of them and the nearby androids. After she's killed, a few of the park machines decide to try doing some pacifist parades to spread the word of peace, which usually ends up with over half of the participants dead. Most of the paraders give up after that, with some going off to try and find new horizons. And THEN, in Route C/D, it turns out that the park was hit with the same Logic Virus that hit Pascal's Village... turning all but two machines in the entire park into zombies, decimating the population, tormenting those remaining, and turning the pile of machines the Opera Singer left behind into an orgy of horrific violence. To hit it home, the few remaining, zombified machines still try and keep themselves from attacking, even though they can barely speak through the pain.
  • Engels in Machine Examination quest line, a disabled Goliath who came to realize the hard way why killing is considered a sin: by dying of natural lifespan himself, unable to do anything but contemplate. It tells 2B and 9S to take whatever parts they need from him before he dies.
• The entire "Emil's Memories" sidequest and seeing Kainé's home in a field of Lunar Tears at the end of it is enough to make any person who's played NieR cry hard—especially when 'Kainé (Salvation)' starts playing in the background as you enter the area. And note: Emil's the one who gives you access to the house, meaning he spent thousands of years taking care of this place himself. Doubles as heartwarming.
  • When you equip the Lunar Tear, regardless of who wears it, it will always be in the same spot Kainé wore it in her hair.
  • Another Call-Back to NieR: the Iron Pipe's full story. It's basically one huge reference to Shadowlord Nier and Yonah, with all the dialogue implied to be things Yonah would've said to her father.
  “Dad, if you’re cold, I can give you my hat. You’re the best father in the world after all.”
  “Dad, if you’re hungry, you can have my cookie. You’re my favourite person in the world after all.”
  “Dad, if you’re scared, I can sleep by your side. You’re my closest friend in the world after all.”
  “So please don’t go anywhere. All right Dad? Don’t leave your Yonah all alone...Okay?”
  • The last line of the Virtuous Dignity and Cruel Arrogance weapon story. They both belonged to Nier. A real gut-punch and yet another Call-Back.
  Virtuous Dignity, Level 4: "The fourth owner was a meek young boy who wanted to aid his sickly younger sister. He gave all to this cause - including his very existence and that of all else in the world."
  Cruel Arrogance, Level 4: "The fourth owner was a simple, honest man who wanted to aid his sickly daughter. He gave all to this cause - including his very existence and that of all else in the world."
  • The fate of Facade, the desert kingdom from Nier. After the king and the army of Masks died in the Shadowlord's castle, the kingdom quickly fell. All those friendly, quirky people who accepted Kainé couldn't continue without the king.
• 2B and 9S's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the Prologue. Somewhat mitigated by the fact that they recover their bodies almost immediately after, but 9S didn't upload his data to the bunker since he prioritized uploading 2B first.
• Eve's complete breakdown after Adam's death.
  • Made even worse when you play the boss fight through 9S' perspective, and see the little house at the end of the hacking minigame...
  Listen to me, Adam... I never disliked fighting. But I didn't want you to be hurt. And I especially didn't want to lose you. So let's go somewhere quiet. Together. My brother...
  • Once finally defeated, Eve doesn't even look up at 2B anymore, but calmly accepts his death, all the while softly calling out for his brother.
• Endings A/B, where 2B strangles 9S to death per his request because he's been infected with the logic virus. It becomes even worse in Routes C/D, when you discover that this isn't the first time 2B has had to kill 9S...
  • Reading the supplementary novellas reveals that Route A is the first few times 9S outright asks 2B to kill him.
• Honestly, everything about 2B's true programming is just horrible. Imagine having to be paired up with a Scanner unit who you know will be too curious, and bonding with him time and time again. Imagine having to be programmed to kill said Scanner unit whenever the Scanner unit gets too close to the truth. Imagine having to do this for many, many years on end, with the same memory-wiped Scanner unit. This sums up everything about 9S and 2B's relationship.
  • Two of the weapon stories, 'Virtuous Contract' and 'Cruel Blood Oath', reference 2B and her relationship with 9S respectively. 'Virtuous Contract' has 2B lamenting about how shitty her situation is and how much longer she has to suffer through all the lies and killing. 'Cruel Blood Oath' has her talk about how much pain she causes 'him' (9S) whenever she's around him, with the last level stating how she can be 'as close as possible, yet eternally distant'. In other words, if she's emotionally distant from him, then maybe she won't feel as bad when she has to kill him later.
• 9S crossing the Despair Event Horizon after 2B dies.
  • Finding 2B's final message to 9S in her flight suit where she crashed in the Flooded City is downright heartbreaking. It sounds as if there was so much more she wanted to say before she crashed, yet she didn't have time.
  2B: The memories I had with you...they were like pure light...
  • If you finish the sidequest to retrieve the fallen Resistance members' tags and have access to Kainé's home, 9S will make a grave for 2B amongst the Lunar Tears. He only knows the tradition behind it vaguely, but he still wants to honor 2B properly. What's worse is that his dialogue after setting up the makeshift grave sounds like he's planning to kill himself soon...
    9S: 2B, I'm not quite sure what it means to mourn, or even if we have a soul to concern ourselves with... But I hope you're at rest 2B. Sweet dreams. I'll be with you before long.
  • 9S being forced to fight the infected 21O, who's been like a mother figure to him the entire game. He's horrified when Pod 153 tells him that she modified herself for combat and was deployed hours before everything went to hell...but was reported to be dead. A2 dealing the killing blow probably didn't help either, even if the reason she did it was to protect 9S.
    • Even worse is the dialogue during 21O's fight. She's still struggling against the virus, and starts tearfully talking about her regrets and what she wasn't able to do
  21O: I...just wanted a family... I was so lone...ly... I wanted to be...with 9S...
  • The boss fight in the Tower with the 2B clones. Many would agree this is truly the point where 9S just snaps and stops caring about everything else.
    • Right after the fight, when the game focuses back on 9S, we see him armless and victorious, lying next to one of the 2B clones. For a brief moment, he touches the clone's cheek—then rips her forearm off and attaches it to his armless stump. He must know this will infect him, but at this point he's beyond caring.
• This game offers a hope that Humanity got its shit together after the colossal failure of the Project Gestalt in the previous game, and escaped Earth just because the aliens were planning to overrun the planet. 9S's route puts a hard stop on that, informing that no, Humanity didn't make it.
• The bonus boss fight of the game is Emil's clones, all having gone insane from an eternity of fighting against the machines and losing. Just hearing them crying out about the pain of eternity is heart wrenching, which makes the audio recording of his speech to Kainé to keep living even harder to hear. And then the lone still sane, still friendly Emil clone dies. Made even worse in the Japanese version of his final words, where he dies overwhelmed by despair instead of a faint hope of seeing his friends again.
  • Honestly, hearing Emil (Sacrifice) again as the clones begin to break down crying is enough to drive most players of the first game to follow suit.
  Emil clones: This pain! This sadness! This desperation! You know nothing about it!
• Pascal, the pacifist machine, his village killing each other due to the logic virus, successfully securing the children only for them to kill themselves because Pascal taught them fear which drove them to suicide. His last request to A2 is to either kill him or wipe his memories.
  • If you choose to simply walk away from him instead, he asks you how you can be so cruel. Killing him doesn't make it any easier, either. During Ending D/E, when the camera pans over to the various different areas, the camera will automatically pan over to where Pascal would've been standing, had you chosen to spare/memory wipe him...
  • You even find the remains of "Little Sister" and "Big Sister". What's more horrific and tragic is you find a machine that was cannibalizing their remains, with "Little Sister"'s body leaning over her siblings, implying she died trying to shield her from the attack.
• The fact that 9S knew about 2B's true programming the entire time and still went to the trouble of trying to bond with her. Even though deep down, a part of him hated her for constantly betraying him, his loneliness and desire for companionship won out.
  • It also puts into perspective 2B's curt responses to his efforts to get closer to her, as well as all those times she told him to just focus on their mission. She didn't want him to step out of line because if he did, she'd have to kill him. Again. And possibly repeat the entire process all over again.
• Devola and Popola's narrative log, where they describe how the people they had to watch over died and were forced to Walk the Earth because the other androids ostracized them. They don't understand why they have to suffer the way they do when it was the work of a different Devola and Popola pair that ruined everything—and they certainly don't think it's fair, but they can't do anything about it.
  • All Devola and Popola models have been reprogrammed to feel guilt but that doesn't matter; their memories are wiped after the collapse of Project Gestalt. They don't even remember why to begin with.
  • And then, after millennia of completely unjustified suffering, they finally find peace and redemption in death by pulling a Heroic Sacrifice, still holding each other as close as they did their whole life — and yet, in her final moments, Devola is still worrying about atonement:
  Devola: "Did we... did we manage to help?"
  • After reviewing the log, Pod 153 inquires why both of them stayed behind when one of them could've made it out fine, to which 9S replies, in an obviously troubled manner, that he hopes the pod never has to understand that concept, drawing the obvious parallel. The delivery hits HARD.
• The final boss fight between 9S and A2. 9S has flat-out given up on everything and he honestly doesn't give a shit if he ends up destroying the moon server. A2 just wants to carry out 2B's final wishes and protect him, despite hating everything about the system.
  9S: It doesn't matter! NONE OF THIS MATTERS!
  A2: 9S!
  9S: But if it doesn't matter...why do I long for humans like this?! Why do I desire the touch of something that no longer exists?!
  A2: It's how we were made. Androids were made to protect their human masters. Our core program demands that we—
  9S: Shut up! Shut up, shut UP, SHUT UP! Fine then...I'll just destroy it! Hee hee... if it all goes away, that'll solve everything!
  • Compare 9S and Eve. Not so different, is it?
  • Another gut punch right before the final fight: A2 tries to dissuade 9S from going through with the final fight, who snaps back at her that she understands nothing about either him or 2B. What makes it tragic is that A2 is using 2B's own sword, which she stored her memories in before dying, and A2 has seen some of them; she knows exactly what 2B has gone through and is trying to get through to 9S that this isn't what 2B wanted. Twisting the knife further is that it demonstrates that the Constantly Curious 9S we knew is long gone: if he weren't completely consumed by madness and the Logic Virus and had at least tried to ask questions like he usually did, the last fight to the death could have been avoided.
  • Ending C, even though A2 helped save the androids from despair, she still sacrifices herself for a system she utterly despises, not to mention it's possible that she just killed whatever that's left of the Machines by collapsing the Tower.
  • The entirety of Ending D, really. Especially since the above dialogue only occurs if you choose to fight as 9S. He succeeds in killing A2, but ends up falling on A2's sword at the last minute. 9S is left to writhe in a pool of his own blood, screaming in total agony until the pain becomes too much and he just gives up, breaking down into perhaps the most soul-rending crying you'll ever hear in a video game. We are then shown a memory log gathered by his pod, which reveals the main reason why he went crazy in the first place: he was alone for most of his existence and meeting 2B changed him. The only bright side to this ending is that the Terminals change their missile into a beacon so the machines can restart a peaceful civilization elsewhere and a newly made Adam invites 9S to join them.
    • 9S being impaled is even more tragic considering the fact that the sword originally belonged to 2B and is where her memories are stored. Even after her death, 2B still ended up killing 9S one final time. And by the way, A2 was trying not to kill him to honor 2B's last wishes. 9S fell onto the sword unintentionally.
  • If 9S declines, he mentions why: he believes YoRHa doesn't deserve to be loved, and as such they aren't worthy of living in this world. The only thing that keeps it from being completely depressing is his final words as the ark leaves.
  9S: Ah...so that's where you were... 2B.
  • The fact that 2B and 9S meet roughly the same ends; smiling, thinking of each other and even saying the other's name with their dying breath, while being granted release by A2 (albeit unintentionally in 9S's case) from not just the Logic Virus but the unrelenting agony of what their lives and relationship had become. As mentioned above, 9S seems to anticipate joining 2B in death, and should you turn down Adam's offer to join the Machines' venture into space, he gladly does just that. Even when the main trio is brought back to life by the Pods and given a chance at living without having to fight, suffer and die for YoRHa any more, there's still a lot for 2B and 9S to talk about and work through considering everything about their relationship and 9S' potential still-lingering contempt for 2B deep down and PTSD from, well, everything he went through/learned in Route C.
  • Even though it's the least bleak of the endings and it also doubles as a heartwarming moment, Ending E has other players sacrificing their save data to help you get through the credits mini-game. Whenever any of them take a hit for you, you will get a message of "[Player Name]'s data has been lost". Considering how difficult the sequence is alone, you will likely see this message more than once. While it ultimately results in a happier ending, much like Nier beforehand, many sacrificed their being to get you there.
• Many of the weapon stories are either Nightmare Fuel or this, actually. From a kindhearted princess who died cold and alone because her outward appearance repelled everyone away from her to a YoRHa unit killing herself after trying to duplicate her own core into another body to a child machine crying that its existence is meaningless, the weapon stories can be very, very heartbreaking.
  • The Weapon story for the Engine Blade manages to capture the sadness of that game just as well as the game itself does, as it focuses on Noctis and Regis's relationship when Noctis was a young boy.
  • The story for Iron Will makes it clear that the blade will never know peace. Just when it seemed like the weapon was finally going to fall to dust and the spirit within could rest at long last, someone once again takes it up and bathes it in the blood of their enemies, ensuring that Iron Will can never be free of violence and bloodshed. This weapon has existed since the time of the Intoners and the person bound to the blade just wants to be free of all of the torment and horror.
• The Pearl Harbor logs that Anemone kept on her computer for centuries in order to constantly remind herself why she's fighting and why she's still alive. The logs details how Anemone and her fellow Resistance androids met up with the Type A androids Number 2, Number 4, Number 16, and Number 21 and how despite being initially mistrustful of the YoRHa androids, both groups eventually become Fire-Forged Friends. The water works begin flowing during the third and final log, however, which details the conclusion of the mission which left Anemone and A2 (although Anemone didn't know of A2's survival until the game proper itself) as the only survivors. Ever since the conclusion of the incident, Anemone and A2 have never been the same since with the former becoming a Shell-Shocked Veteran and Death Seeker and the latter becoming The Cynic.
  • Once you've finished reading the last log, A2 outright apologizes to her fallen YoRHa companions for even being alive, promising to join them after she wraps up a few things. Coupled with how she already found out YoRHa considered them all disposable, it's not surprising she greets her end in Ending C with elation and relief over joining her long-gone comrades in death.
• The coded message in the game's soundtrack is another one of 9S' memories, with this one detailing the ark Post-Ending D, which is said to be like the original Garden of Eden. Even after death, though, it seems like 9S still won't forgive himself—and who knows, maybe he never really will—for all the bad things he's done or said to the machines because he laments that he feels unworthy of being in such a beautiful paradise.
• If 2B sent 6O a picture of a flower as a gift, you're happily treated with her final attempt to reach 2B as the Bunker succumbs to the logic virus - thanking 2B for the flowers as her mind deteriorates. 2B's reaction is small but she's obviously affected by it.
  6O: Two-Bee, I... am Operator 6O. ThANk you for ...foR the FLOWErs. Desert FLOWErs are BEAUTIF, arEN't thEY... Th-Th-thank You... SoMEdAY I...
  2B: !!
• The DLC pack, 3C3C1D119440927, will hammer in the fact that the machines are forced into the Gambler's Colosseum against their will. Several times, the machines say that they can only escape by killing an android, and you'll hear them cry out for their family members as they're thrust into combat. And none of the androids in charge of the fights show any remorse to them, and in fact one of them justifies their cruelty by pointing out that the androids running the colosseum and watching the fights have all lost loved ones to the machines.
• Something of a Fridge Sadness is the realization that, despite having relationships that are based entirely on romantic desires and no sexual hang-ups or taboos, neither androids nor machines have managed to avoid falling into the pitfall of abusive or dysfunctional relationships. In fact, the relationships of these artificial lifeforms can get so messed up that it's honestly scary.
  • Amongst the machines, you have Sartre/Jean Paul, a Know-Nothing Know-It-All narcissistic who arrogantly dismisses the affections of three machines who all adore him, and who drove another machine to murderous insanity with his apathy.
  • Amongst the YoRHa androids, there's the story of 16D and 11B, where 11B was planning to abandon YoRHa and her girlfriend, and if you tell 16D this, then 16D will spit that she's glad 11B got killed in the attempt, because she was an abusive girlfriend who tormented 16D just for being a D-type model.
  • And then there's the Wandering Couple quest, where it's ultimately revealed that you've been duped into helping a Control Freak bitch of a Resistance Android in her sixth effort at duping her boyfriend into being reformatted, so she can erase his brain and reprogram him into a personality she finds more pleasing.
• The singer's heavy breathing and breaking voice towards the end of the soundtrack's Japanese version of "Weight of the World."
• In Route C, trying to reach the shopping mall area as 2B is slowly ruined by the virus, watching the damage slowly reduce her to barely being able to stumble there with the knowledge that the best you can accomplish is to get her to a location where she can't endanger any other androids before the virus turns her into a monster. And to rub it in how awful this is, part way through a distorted message is broadcast from the fake Council of Humanity that is clearly just a pointless recording and emphasizes how everything's ruined and 2B wasn't even fighting for a real cause.
• The sidequest "Amnesia" tasks 2B and 9S with helping an amnesiac Resistance member find her friend's killer, only to discover that she was the killer all along. Worse than that, she's an E-class YoRHa model designed to execute deserters and traitors, and that wasn't even the first friend she executed, and the guilt finally drove her to try and wipe her memories. The revelation causes her to snap and go Laughing Mad.
  YoRHa E-Type: I am a YoRHa E-Type. E for "Execution". I follow orders. I kill my friends. Eee hee hee!
  • What's even worse is that this entire quest is foreshadowing for 2B's true identity as 2E, an executioner assigned to execute 9S whenever he learns too much about Project YoRHa.
  • The reward for the quest is Pod Program A090: Wire, which allows you to pull yourself to enemies and attack with melee. It fits, seeing as how a wire (or "garrote" in this context) is a common assassination/murder weapon used to strangle someone after getting close to them. And just like the quest-giver's mental state, wires are prone to snapping.
• The novelization adds in a lot more foreshadowing from 2B's POV that she's an E unit. From her referencing other side stories, like the first time she killed 9S in the desert during "The Memory Cage" as well as providing more context to what she's thinking at various parts of the game, it's just heartbreaking.
  • At the end of the prologue the pods even point out that 2B was noticeably disturbed after 9S didn't remember her and she privately thinks back to this event later on when he's been kidnapped by Adam. She says she "never wants to go through that again" and her fear that Adam could kill 9S and make her relieve that pushes her to disregard her own safety during the fight.
  • The buildup to her dying message to 9S, that their memories together were like "pure light" is also sad for readers who know it's coming. She consistently describes 9S "lighting up" with curiosity and having a "radiant" smile and other similar descriptions.
• Even if almost naught is known about them apart from their wish to colonize Earth, the fact that the aliens have been rendered extinct can be a bit of a downer, and shows that it wasn't just humanity that was met with a tragic fate. What makes it worse is that the aliens died by their own idiocy - having given the machine lifeforms the relatively vague order to "destroy the enemy". The machines followed the order, but in the most viciously cold-blooded method possible.
• Ver 1.1a shows the disastrous Pearl Harbor mission in horrifying, animated detail. As countless machines close in on the hopelessly outnumbered Resistance and YoRHa squad. Three of Lily's friends are vaporized by lasers right in front of her, while the rest of the squad decides to stay behind in a Heroic Last Stand to buy No. 2, No. 4, Rose, and Lily time to get into the machine server facility, all with Lily desperately wishing the horrors she had just witnessed were just a bad dream. Then, things go awry in the server, leaving Rose mortally wounded and sending Lily back to the exit. Lily, convinced everybody else dying is her fault, attempts to shoot herself, but is stopped by Rose, who tells her the only way she can save everyone is to never forget what happened and engrave her friends into her memory. Rose then takes Lily's pistol and replaces it with her assault rifle, a callback to Lily being dissatisfied with being armed with such a weak weapon and wishing for a more powerful gun like her friends are armed with. Upon exiting the facility before it explodes, presumably taking the lives of everybody else, Lily can only only promise to never forget her friends as she screams and fires her rifle in the air in despair.
• In Ver 1.1a, 9S hacks into Emil and catches glimpses of his memories, including all of the people he met over 10,000 years ago, further driving home how crushingly lonely Emil has been. The use of Emil's theme song makes this brief scene all the more heart-wrenching.

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In exchange for all of your data,
I will convey your will to this world.