NieR: Automata Part #110 - Episode CVI: Please State Your Intentions

Part 110: Episode CVI: Please State Your Intentions

Episode CVI: Please State Your Intentions

Previously on NieR: Automata, what one would be led to believe was the main character of the game, given she was featured in 95% of promotional material, fucking died. Also eating it were the entire support staff as well as any and all redshirts in YoRHa’s forces along with their space base. Additionally, an alien megastructure popped up over the City Ruins. The only surviving member of YoRHa, 9S, was cast off a cliff after the world’s shortest lived blood rage vengeance attempt. Also A2 decided to participate in the plot after appearing all of eight minutes total beforehand. I think that’s everything...

With that said, let’s begin the rest of NieR: Automata now that we’re finally past the game’s prologue.

Death confirmed.

Data exchange engaged.

YoRHa unit 9S has completed repair and reconstruction of all damaged areas. Unit is ready for reactivation.

YoRHa unit A2 also ready for reactivation.

......

Proposal: Illuminate surrounding area.

No problems detected.

Only one issue remains. We comprise the YoRHa support system. If the A2 and 9S units are operational, we are required to attend and support.

Agreed.

Displaying positions of units A2 and 9S.

So 2B is 100% confirmed dead. 9S got wrecked from falling down that cliff but has been repaired and A2 is alright as well. So here’s something new for Route C. The remainder of Route C is not going to just be A2’s storyline. 9S still has plenty of plot left too. I mean, 9S is the lead protagonist of the game. What did you think 2B was the main character? Pfft. She’s died 2/3rds of the way through the plot and had like a quarter as much dialogue as 9S even when she was alive.

So we now get to pick whose storyline we want to follow next. The game doesn’t make it clear but this is not locking us into just A2 or 9S’s plotline. Each character has two chapters that we’re both eventually going to have to play through. Once a chapter is complete, we’ll get the choice of who to follow again.

I’ll be choosing who we follow. Democracy is a flawed system and I already know what’s best. We’ve already seen an entire second playthrough of the game as 9S and only played as A2 for all of 20 seconds, so we’re going to check up on the new playable character first. Let’s see what’s up with A2...

Number 2, go! I can handle—

No! Number 4!

Huh. Turns out androids can have bad dreams. Good to know. I really question what was going on with the original humans that designed android AI giving them all these not at all helpful traits like being able to get drunk and have nightmares or be able to go into a blood rage. Seems counterproductive to their original task of maintaining weird bio-clones and spectral manifestations of human souls.

Activation of unit A2 confirmed.

Good morning, A2.

......

Music: City Ruins - Shade (Quiet)

Tactical Support Unit Pod 042. This Pod has been tasked with providing firing support for YoRHa unit A2.

Tch. I didn’t ask for help.

Affirmative. No request was received from unit A2. Rather, it was the final order from this Pod’s previous support assignment, unit 2B.

Well, it’s unnecessary.

YoRHa unit A2 lacks the authority to override this order.

Whatever.

So Pod 042 is now supporting A2. It has all the same functionality and Pod Programs equipped from before 2B died. A2 has also inherited all the levels, items and weapons 2B and 9S had access to earlier. Before we can go anywhere, A2 notices a certain change in the area.

Unknown.

You’re pretty useless, you know that?

That superstructure that appeared during the title card is kinda large. It’s visible from all areas in the game. That central spire is located in the crater we explicitly avoided during 2B’s death march. We could go investigate that as A2. But she does not give the first shit about figuring out what the deal is with the ominous alien doom tower. In fact, figuring out what the hell A2 is doing with herself might be a point of contention...

Why the hell would I do that?

In order to provide optimal support, Pods must be supplied with data relating to the activities of supported units.

Not happening.

So you may have noticed the taunt prompt given on the HUD in the last shot. Unlike 2B and 9S, who had the awkward flashing the Pod’s flashlight on and off to taunt enemies, A2 has a dedicated taunt function via holding the light attack button.

Taunting works exactly the same as before. Enemies receive and deal double damage when taunted. A2 has a different animation for all four weapon types as well as about two dozen voice clips being a cocky jerk to machines. So that’s fun.

It seems someone has repaired the bridge connecting the ruined mall to the rest of the City Ruins in the couple weeks since 9S got immediately owned on it in the last chapter. A2 cannot make it too far over it before Pod 042 pipes up again...

Music: City Ruins – Shade (Medium)

What did I just say?

If an attending support unit is not provided with data related to the activities of its target, it is programmed to automatically repeat the request every 30 seconds until such data is made available.

Are you kidding me?

Proposal: Unit A2 should state her intentions. Needlessly repeating conversations on the same topic is a waste of energy resources.

You’re the one who keeps talking!

Another special ability A2 has is a dope turbo dash that has her briefly glow red and glide along the ground in a way that reminds me of Zone of the Enders. Supposedly, attacking during the brief window where A2 is glowing results in a damage boost. But in practice, that’s a huge waste of time and I can’t say I’ve noticed greater damage output from attempting it. It looks cool though!

Also, it’s been about 30 seconds since the last time Pod 042 chimed in, so...

Proposal: Unit A2 should state her intentions.

Damn it, stop! My intention is to beat the hell out of every god damn machine I can find! Is that enough for you!?

Affirmative. Scanning and marking of nearby machine lifeforms complete. Goliath-class enemies detected in desert area. Proposal: Goliath-class enemies should be destroyed.

Don’t tell me what to do.

Pods are not authorized to issue commands. Proposals are merely recommendations based on data provided by unit A2. Proposal: Unit A2 should state updated intentions in order to secure more usable data.

SHUT... THE HELL... UP.

Negative. This Pod is engaging in activity based on the final order of unit 2B. YoRHa unit A2 lacks the authority to issue commands.

Look, just stay out of my way.

Affirmative.

OK. We’ve now got an actual goal for A2: Go to the desert and kill some machines. If you were thinking A2 was privy to some secret conspiracy behind YoRHa or withholding key information based on her brief encounter back in Route A/B... Nope! A2 is just a really strong murder hobo that really fucking hates machines and told YoRHa to go eat a dick at some point in the past.

We’ll learn about A2’s past eventually. But she’s mostly just in a really bad mood and likes murdering machine lifeforms. There wasn’t any special reason she killed the Forest King. She just heard the machines had some kind of king and FUCK that guy. Gonna stab him in the face, even if he’s some weird baby machine.

We could just hop into the nearest Access Point and teleport to the Desert Zone. But ehh... let’s walk there. The City Ruins has become a much more dangerous place with more advanced machines all over the place (Stubbies and even standard Small Bipeds are fairly rare now.) Also a few new ones have cropped up. Like those tall boys from the desert have finally gotten some guns and are out for revenge.

There’s also one other point of interest that will always be present in the City Ruins for the remainder of Route C...

Music: Emil's Shop Theme (Vocal)

Proposal: Use Pod fire to force him to stop.

Pod 042, why do you gotta do poor Emil like that? He’s the last living human... kinda. Try to be a bit more respectful. Sheesh.

Music: Emil's Shop Theme (Instrumental)

You could’ve just asked me to stop, you know? Hey... You’re A2, aren’t you? It must be fate that we ran into each other. ...And since you’re here, you might as well buy something!

I’m not sure how Emil knows A2, other than possibly by reputation. I never did it back in Route B, but if we had talked to Emil there apparently he can just brain scan androids remotely and look up who they are immediately. Not going to ask where Emil got that ability or a database of all existing androids. He’s been around for several millennia now. I doubt he’d even remember if we asked.

Emil’s shop (at least this version of it) has the same overpriced and bloated plug-in chips. We’ll need to hit up a specific version of Emil’s store later in order to grab a couple of lingering weapons for our collection. But that can wait for another day.

A noteworthy bit about Route C is that prices for common goods have again inflated a bit. Whatever. We’re pretty well stocked for the remainder of the game at this point. What’s more important is the selling price for rare goods has also ballooned tremendously. Particularly, Machine Cores are now selling for 22,500 G and since I’ve yet to sell a single one of them thus far, we’re now sitting on 742,500 G worth of ‘em for a rainy day. That’s not quite enough funds to keep us set for the rest of the game. But it’s close.

...What was that? You want to know where I live?

No.

Well, I live deep, deep underground. Picture something deep, then go DEEPER! Feel free to visit me anytime you want!

Emil isn’t just rambling about weird shit there. We actually can go find his home. It’s located in a fairly large optional area. We’ll check that out eventually. It might be connected to a sidequest we are in no way prepared to undertake yet.

Music: Memories of Dust (Quiet)

Checking in on the Top Boy aside, let’s continue towards the Desert Zone. Jackass’s desert outpost is still up and running. In fact, Jackass is still hanging out here. Let’s see what she has to say to A2.

......

...Never mind. Just be careful out there, yeah? Don’t really feel like talking.

Alright then. Jackass isn’t feeling very chatty. That’s fine. We’ll see more of her later. The desert supply trader is willing to do business with A2. If you’re wondering what happens if A2 were to travel to the Resistance Camp, everyone there just goes “who the heck are you...?” and won’t do business with her. Anemone is also AWOL at the moment so no YoRHa Stage Play cast reunion yet.

The Desert/City Ruins buffer zone hasn’t changed much other than having far more Facade cosplayer enemies. Sadly, all of the creepy tall boy machines that silently stared angrily at passing androids have vanished from the land.

Music: Memories of Dust (Vocal)

On to the Desert Zone proper. This area is currently all but abandoned. So our only course of action is to head west until we reach the spot designated by Pod 042.

As we approach the area, a sandstorm kicks up along with a trio of Goliath Bipeds erupting from the ground.

These Goliaths are slightly different from the earlier ones we’ve faced in one key way: they can spontaneously flip their configuration to go from powerful arms to powerful legs versions. They’re no longer locked to one or the other. Leg Day non-skipper Goliaths gain innate electrical damage to their powerful robot thighs.

But beyond that, they’re exactly the same as the other three or four dozen Goliath Bipeds we’ve trashed up to this point. Other than the funky dash and the dedicated Taunt command, A2 plays identically to 2B. Y/Triangle is once more a heavy attack with a second equipped weapon in a loadout. A2 does have one other key difference combat wise. But we’ll be given a ~~terribly timed in the worst situation possible to introduce~~ brief tutorial on it soon enough.