NieR: Automata Part #122 - Episode CXVII: Machine Philosophy

Part 122: Episode CXVII: Machine Philosophy

Episode CXVII: Machine Philosophy

If I’m not mistaken, this is the very last A2 exclusive sidequest left in the game. We’re currently at 90% sidequest completion. This will take us to 92%. Leaving four or five more sidequests in 9S’s hands. Though two of those are going to be post-game affairs since they are... rather frikkin’ large time sinks I’ll have to do by my lonesome.

Music: Wretched Weaponry (Quiet)

But that’s a story for another day. Today, we’re venturing back to the Abandoned Factory to pillage some doohickey to fix up a sick machine kid. Hopefully Pod will be able to pick the appropriate robot part out of the scrap heaps A2 leaves in her wake. I don’t think we can count on her using a steady hand to carve the right piece out of an attacking machine.

The Abandoned Factory itself is a bit err... moody given all of the long dead machine cult corpses from that whole shindig. Plus the power never got restored from 9S hacking the place so it’s emergency lights and the glow of smelter pits only illuminating the place.

Speaking of 9S, he never gets a story or even sidequest reason to come back here in Route C. However, we’ll have to drag him over here next time we gain control of him since a number of hack-only chests have appeared throughout the area and they’re all filled with Intel documents for juicy lore.

Getting back on track, we don’t have to venture far into the factory to locate our objective. A mess of machines, mostly Gunner Stubbies and spider-bots, are hanging out between some shipping containers near the first factory smelter pit. A2 just has to trash the lot of ‘em to claim her prize. It’s fine. They’ll become as gods still, even if they’re late to the party... right?

As soon as the last machine is decommissioned, we receive the desired machine part to repair the ailing robot kiddo. That was easy. Pod 042 and A2 have a discussion after the action dies down.

So this is the part Pascal wanted? Can’t believe I’m killing machines to save a machine.

......

Ah, screw it. Better go see Pascal.

Sounds like a solid plan. Back to Pascal and his village we go.

Music: Pascal (Vocal)

I cannot thank you enough. This is meager compared to what you’ve done, but please take it. In all honesty, we could have transferred the child’s core to another body instead of repairing the original. This process allows us to resurrect ourselves as many times as we want. However, it comes at the cost of our memories. So in a way, he would no longer be the same child. Thankfully, this is no longer an issue. Thank you so much.

That’s an interesting bit of how machine lifeforms work. I’m sure it’ll never become relevant in the future. In any case, we get a nice helping of assorted expensive upgrade materials and a decent amount of EXP compared to how briskly that quest was completed. So ends the last available sidequest in Pascal’s Village.

All that is left now is to hit up the main quest which involves venturing to the Resistance Camp and ~~stealing~~ borrowing a philosophy book from Anemone. Sounds simple enough...

Music: Peaceful Sleep (Vocal)

Well, as it happens, I just finished this one the other day. You’re welcome to take it if you like.

Thanks.

Could you give him this gold ore as well? He’s been asking for this for a while, and I finally managed to get my hands on some.

All right.

The book Anemone hands over is Pensées a collection of incomplete theology and philosophy written by Blaise Pascal and published posthumously. That’s a wee bit on the nose, Anemone...

It makes me wonder how much we really know about our enemy...

I wonder.

Makes ya think, doesn’t it? Anyway, let’s just hop on into the nearest Access Point and head on over to Pas—

Music: Voice of No Return

“Where the state ceaseth, there only commenceth the man who is not superfluous.”

Mmmm. I see. It seems this Nietzsche was quite the profound thinker.

<examines book closer> Or perhaps he skipped right past profound and went straight to crazy instead.

Ah, well. Enough of that. I’d best go see the world for myself instead of burying my head in books.

So we’re now playing as Pascal. That is... different. All we can do is leave his house as he’s immediately confronted by a group of machine children.

Yeah! Come on and play!

Well, look at you! Your speaking has improved so much. But I fear you still haven’t finished your studies, have you? You promised to read and memorize that botanical field guide, remember?

But you’ll play with us when you’re done, right?

Yeah, promise us!

Of course I will! You have my word. And Uncle Pascal would never lie and break his word. Because children who lie grow up to be mean, evil machines!

Aaaaah!

Music: ENDS

Alright. Back to A2. That’s more like it. Before we can resume our trip, Pascal decides to phone up ahead of us. Nice timing!

Oh, perfect. I have the materials you asked me to—

Help, A2! The village is in great trouble! The villagers are— Oh, no...! <disconnects>

Pascal? Pascal, are you there!? What the hell is going on!?

Hypothesis: The valuable source of information known as Pascal has encountered difficulty. Proposal: Unit A2 should investigate Pascal’s village immediately.

I’m on my way!

Music: Widespread Illness (Vocal)

OK... Well, I’m sure it’s fine. It’s not like this is even the first time Pascal and his village has run into trouble and gotten cut off mid-communication. Granted, the music wasn’t nearly as ominous then, but... Eh. Well, let’s just pop over there and sort out the trouble.

Oh... the fast travel network is down. That’s a first... OK. Fine. It’s not that far of a walk there. We’ll be over in a jiffy. It’s probably a bunch of jerk machines banging on the gates again like when Eve went berserk.

As we make our way over to Pascal’s Village, A2 receives an email. Man... it’s not really the time to be getting spam but...

Well, we should probably save anyway. You never know what kind of trouble Pascal could have gotten himself into and remember: there is no auto-save. It’s amazing the number of people this game has revealed by be crippled by the assumption the game would automatically checkpoint every five steps and how dare I lose progress due to negligence. It’s not like the era of memory cards that would crap out or manual saving was the name of the game was even that long ago... Or even altogether gone.

Anyway, about that email...

A subterranean lake, huh? You know, it has been a spell since the last time we went fishing. Also I’m now trying to picture how the hell Emil managed to go fishing... You know, we could also take the scenic way around through the Forest Zone to Pascal’s Village. Maybe do a quick bit of angling along the way. If it was a real emergency Pascal could have zoomed his rocket butt over and gotten us, right?