Part 140: Episode CXXXV: Official Designation

Episode CXXXV: Official Designation


Video: Click to watch update contents.


Music: The Sound of the End (Vocal)



Welcome to the penultimate fight of NieR: Automata’s Route C – the previous two bosses welded together and with creepy giant robot hands bolted on the sides. Sure... Why not? I’ve seen worse.



Despite both Ro-Shi and Ko-Shi both being nearly destroyed in their respective fights, their combo has full HP at its disposal. But that’s not too much of an issue. Especially given this fight’s gimmick. A2 and 9S are both present and aren’t very fond of machine lifeforms. 9S is initially helping out as an AI ally set to all-out attack mode. However...







...we will also swap back and forth between both androids during the fight at regular damage threshold intervals. Which might sound jarring, but in practice it works pretty well since it’s a giant dipshit looking machine the camera is always focused on and the AI is set to be attacking in a similar fashion to what you’re doing (i.e. if you’re at range, it’ll stay at range. If you’re up in its grill, so will it.)





Most of Ko/Ro’s attacks involve spinning around like an idiot. Moving slowly about the arena while doing so is option. Its spinning comes in two flavors. The first is extending a Link-sphere tail out of its robutt to extend the range of its spin attack. It remains in a stationary position for this one.





The second method is slamming its two big ol’ hands into the ground and grinding those down during its twirling. This spin-attack will travel around the arena in 9S and A2’s general direction. Weirdly, that’s one of the only direct attacks the hands are used for in its toolset.





KoRo naturally has a ground pound attack. You cannot have a giant awkwardly constructed spherical boss and not give it a ground pound. That’s just science.





A rather questionable attack in its arsenal is pooping out a bunch of spherical machine lifeforms. Don’t ask me why they gave Ro-Shi and Ko-Shi a birthing hole. There’s no meaning behind anything the machines do...





That’s not true at all, actually. These spherical machines are actually self-destructing units that will begin beeping and roll after our androids in an attempt to detonate in their faces. RoKo just has itself a hoot in the background spinning and shooting energy orbs while quickly trying to queue up a MIDI of Yakety Sax.





At close range the final machine lifeform boss utilizes a lunging attack with its axe arms. It also has a variant of this that creates a shockwave at mid-range. C’mon guys. That has never worked across all four iterations of you spider-mechs.



Finally, it can just start shooting energy orbs. Of course it can. Everything can shoot energy orbs in the NieR version of earth. All the machines and androids could be wiped out today and by next Friday the moose will have evolved to take up the mantle of energy orb shooting duties.



That’s about it for Ko-Shi & Ro-Shi. Let’s be real... the last actually dangers enemy was that garbage with Hegel back in the early part of Route C.



Music: ENDS





Pod!







9S never did care much about danger close even when he didn’t want to actively kill the person in the range of friendly fire.





Speaking of that... That’s it for the machine lifeforms being enemies. Ro-Shi and Ko-Shi was their last line of defense at the top of the Tower. Which means there is only one last conflict left to resolve...



This tower is a giant cannon that’s aimed at the human server on the moon. If we don’t do something, all of humanity’s remaining data will be destroyed.
Ha ha ha... ha ha ha hah!


Music: Widespread Illness



So what? None of it matters. Or didn’t you know? We aren’t required in this world anymore. Humanity is extinct. That moon server you’re so worried about was invented to give us androids something to fight for. And YoRHa was created to perpetuate the lie. But in order to make sure no one ever learned the truth, we were DESIGNED to be killed. They built a back door in the Bunker and programmed it to activate after a certain amount of time. The Commander? Me? 2B? Sacrificial lambs. All of us. Isn’t that HILARIOUS!? Doesn’t it make you LAUGH!?
9S, we—
Shut up!
You killed 2B. That’s all we need to kill each other.
......
2B hated to keep killing you. It caused her so much pain.
......
The 9S type is a high-end model. They knew you’d discover the truth eventually. But the model designation “2B” was just a cover.




......



The official designation... is 2E. Number 2, Type E.



They were a special class of members designated to execute YoRHa units.









These are honestly kind of bad examples of 2B murdering 9S considering circumstances. But I don’t think a comical series of events where 9S keeps looking up some wiki articles about the plot of NieR 1 and going “say... it makes no sense humans are still alive” only to immediately get pushed down a flight of stairs or tossed out an airlock by 2B would be an appropriate sequence at this juncture.



But you knew that... Right, 9S?



Shut up... Shut up!



What do you know? You don’t know anything about us!



Proposal: Cease combat. Fighting her at this point would be irrational and—
Pod 153! I order you to halt all logical thought and speech! This order shall remain in effect until you confirm the death of either myself or unit A2!



<floats away>



Welp... This is going about as well as expected. 9S already used his Hackerman skills on the Logic Virus when he fixed 2B. Remember, you can only do one weird trick to beat the Logic Virus exactly once before it adapts. So here we are!





And so...



Tune in next time for the only actual meaningful choice in the game and the final battle of NieR: Automata! Or one of ‘em, at least... No spoiling which choice leads to Ending C.






Video: Episode 135 Highlight Reel (You should watch this.)





Ro-Shi and Ko-Shi Concept Art – If I never see another spider-mecha ever again it’ll be too soon.