Part 6: Episode V: Black Box
Episode V: Black BoxNew Music: The Sound of the End (Vocal)
Alright, you lousy GoBot. Lets do this thing!
The kiddie-gloves are coming off. What was 9S even doing when he was firing at this machine? He was only doing damage equal to our Pod early. Look at all of those 6 HPs of damage he could have been dealing out if he really put some effort into it. Tch.
Also Engels now has a laser pelvis. Its best to evade that. Its probably a bad scene. I mean, would YOU want to be involved with a laser pelvis? I thought not... The red laser bit is just a helpful hazard warning for where its going to fire. The massive circular explosion afterwards is the bothersome bit.
Now that 2B is in control of the flight unit, Engels is suddenly interested in swatting at the thing outside of cutscenes. And frankly, Im gonna be real here. I think the part where 9S got owned was entirely a fluke while it was flailing from the earlier hit.
We havent fought in head on camera mode in the flight unit. 2B is permanently locked onto the bootleg Transformers position. We can rotate her 360 degrees around Engels perimeter. We can sort of nudge her upwards and downwards. But the camera will gradually shift her back to mid-range. Theres no approaching closer to the enemy unit.
So our only means of attack are the chain gun fire and the rather useless Heavy Attacks sonic boom projectile. That only does like 50-60 HP of damage and will briefly halt 2Bs ability to move. Considering the turrets are doing 6 HP x A Billion Shots at all times, its not worth it.
Also related to head on movement, 2Bs evade is less of an invincible speed boost and more of just giving her i-frames briefly. Which is all we really need.
.....
It... talks? I didnt know the machines had that kind of intelligence.
<radio ring> 2B... I found a weakness in the target... H-Hacking in... to provide support.
Huh. 9S is still in the fight. You know, in retrospect maybe we should have... I dunno... tied him down to something up top there? He cannot be having a fun time trying to hack this machine one-armed while desperately hanging onto a railing by his leg or whatever is happening up there.
Engels still has access to its missile pods. Which... all kind of seem like theyre firing from up where we left 9S. Now Im just imaging that poor android kid as rolling out of the way of opening missile tubes while hanging onto a railing by his foot and cracking a Unix system with his remaining arm. Dude is having a rough day...
<radio ring> 2B... The control... on the enemys upper arm... Use your Pod... Sh-should be able to... take it over...
I told you to shut up!
I dunno, 2B. I know you dont want him moving around too much since hes really banged up and now stubby bots have shown up are throwing wrenches at him on top of everything else. But... I kind of want to know what control of the enemys arm entails.
Or you could just get punched 3-kilometers away. I suppose that works too...
Marking weak point...
Got it.
We dont know a whole lot about this Android vs. Machine war yet. But, Im definitely rooting for the androids based on their Macross-esque mecha tech. Im down with any robot that can also turn into a jet at will. Limited use case be damned.
2B switches back to all-range mode but maintains ramming speed. I like where all of this is going.
Affirmative.
Behavior table adjusted. Balance controls overridden.
Enemy unit subjugation complete.
Yo, guess whats happening here. Yep. Its exactly what it sounds like...
WE STOLE THAT ROBOTS FUCKING ARM!
Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! declares 2B in early foreshadowing that androids are actually just the mean older siblings of the machine lifeforms. Engels is telling mom when she gets home from her shift at the rhythm battle conference.
As it turns out, smacking about a giant robot with its own bucket-wheel excavator mercilessly for a minute is FAR more effective than pelting it with small-arms fire.
Satisfied with her work, 2B discards the Marxist arm. Probably time to go back and make sure we didnt accidentally squish 9S dur
Huh?!
Oh... Its still truckin, huh? I guess Im starting to see why they sent out a whole squad of androids just to deal with this single bot. Just a shame they only sent 1.5 competent ones and a mess of red shirts.
Out of options, 2B is just going for it with a head-on assault. I mean we *are* within the realm of cutscenes. All weapons' firepower is massively compromised and in flux depending on how radical the situation gets...
I made a bunch of Metal Gear jokes about Engels for obvious reasons. But really, it reminds me way more of a Transformer. Right down to the most glaring design issues of Transformers: none of them EVER seem to transform themselves a proper helmet or headgear. Even if my face was plated with iron, Id still want a little bit of protection in key structural areas. Like, I dunno... At least some googles?
Engels straight up stops attacking at this point. The machines seem to have limited intelligence. That said, it still totally wants to see where shes going with this move.
Ouch. Okay... Yeah. Big guy, you definitely should have seen that one coming...
These androids really need to work on their lands. This is getting embarrassing. Papa Nier could take falls better than this and he was just the soulless clone shell of a magic Gary Busey.
Music: ENDS
In any case, Special Machine Unit Engels is at least decommissioned. Job
Oh... Huh. Right... Maybe were jumping the gun here on congratulations.
Well, at LEAST we didnt accidentally squish 9S in our rather zealous pounding Engels to death with his own arm approach. I would not look past Yoko Taro to make you accidentally murder the shit out of a character due to performing sick finishing moves at an inappropriate time.
9S helps 2B up...
Heheh... Talk about... bringing the battle to them... huh, 2B?
Contact Command. Request assistance.
No... It doesnt look like thats... going to be necessary...
Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill...
WELP!
Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill...
I dont imagine that *cough* ...this is going to end well.
New Music: Widespread Illness
Its ready.
...Right.
So these cubes are kind of important. These are the androids black boxes. If you dont know what a black box is, its a system in which you can put junk into it. You can see what junk comes out of it. But you dunno whats going on under the hood in the middle process. In sci-fi story terms, its usually a handwave for look science is happening, shut up and dont worry about it!
Usually... it err... isnt LITERALLY a black cube...
Requesting... destruction of enemy hostiles via black-box reaction.
.....
Request accepted.
The honor was mine.
Alright... 2B... 9S... Lets go ahead and form that Pact. And by that, I mean...
Blow the FUCK up in a nuclear explosion.
Thus concludes the first part of the Prologue of NieR: Automata. Buckle up. That was probably the most straightforward part of the game.
Video: Engels Battle Part 2 and Factory Prologue Ending (Watch this.)