8 NieR: Automata Moments That Completely Change its Meaning Once You See Every Ending

NieR: Automata is one of my favorite games of all time, and part of the reason is the amazing number of ways the game tricks and deceives you before it reveals all its cards at the finale.

Some moments in the game can come off as comedic or not even have all that much meaning, and then returning to them on a subsequent playthrough can change everything – everything from the meaning within the game to the meaning for you as a player. It's a brilliant experience and one that you don't want to miss.

We're going to check out some moments that change completely when you play them after viewing all the different endings.

8 The Opening Mission

We've Done This Before

The opening mission is a heroic one, with thrilling music, crazy set pieces, and bombastic action. But really, it's all a ruse. While this battle is in fact happening, it's one that has happened for thousands of years. This isn't about a battle; this is about the player viewing what is part of a vicious cycle, of Android versus Alien, in perpetuity. This is hinted at by the end of the mission, 9S and 2B so willing to lose their lives to take out the giant enemies approaching them, but it's not until the ending that it's made clear.

This is something that has happened time and time again, and it's not so much progressing a mission or progressing humankind's return to earth as it is fulfilling a role in a play that has been preordained for thousands of years. It's why you can't save until you finish it for the first time. Because you, the player, are also fulfilling a role. You're the human pushing the puppets into motion. Think about that one and try playing the game again without going into existential crisis mode.

7 Shut Up, 9S

Can't Let Him Know Too Much

9S is one of the most tragic characters really in the history of fiction if you ask me, and while he seems like a curious puppy to start the game, by its ending, he is a rampaging psychopath. But before we reach that conclusion, there are multiple moments throughout the game where he will ask 2B question after question about what is happening and the nature of it all. Now, 2B brushes it off rather coldly most of the time, and it comes off as her being rude or not liking him, but that's not the truth.

The truth is, these questions are important ones, and they are signs that 9S is getting closer and closer to the truth, and when that happens, 2B, who is really 2E (E for Elimination), has to kill 9S and reset his persona again in order to keep going on their mission. It's really just her feeling cold because she doesn't want to have to kill her companion again, and yet it's in her programming, and she has no way to fight against it, so she tries to keep him silent for his own good.

6 The Bunker Isn't Safe

A False Sense of Security

You ever notice how the color in the base is strictly black and white? Did you ever wonder why? Well, once you see all the endings, you know why. It's because you were programmed to see the world just as it is on this base. Black and white. Good and bad. Who are the good? Humans, of course. They're so benevolent, and you are their weapons of choice. The bad? Well, that's clearly the aliens, right? They have created their evil machines to rule the world.

Except we know that's not the case once we've seen the endings. There are no aliens, there are no humans. Just a cycle set up to ensure a never-ending war that has no victor. It's part of the ruse created by the androids themselves, who discovered that humanity died long ago and has been conducting this endless experiment ever since.

5 Machines Mimicking People

Becoming Human

At various points throughout NieR: Automata, you can come across the alien robots mimicking humans. At first, this is seen as something of a comedic moment, as them trying to reproduce and other activities seem utterly pointless. But having witnessed the endings and finding out that everything here is pointless, that changes these scenes.

They aren't comedic at all. Instead, they are the machine lifeforms trying to come up with another reason to live. Trying to find peace without a purpose anymore. For example, Pascal's village. These machines are completely peaceful, and they have even figured out how to create machine children to fill the role of human children. Pascal himself is a testament to what they are capable of, and it's one of the more heartbreaking storylines in the game.

4 The Forest Kingdom

Attempting Society

At a certain point in the story, you're required to investigate a group of machines who have retreated to the forest. When you arrive, you'll find an organized group of what appears to be machine knights. It's a whirlwind experience, because it's one of first times in the game that you really see the enemy machines have any sort of consistent personality. They appear to be protecting something, too, and when you find out that it's a baby, it's a very strange moment indeed.

However, once you've seen the endings, it's clear what is happening here. The baby is their king, and these machines have taken up a medieval sort of mindset, going so far as to create a society in the forest based around a castle. They're experimenting, trying out different societies based on their knowledge of humankind. It makes A2's actions here all the harder to stomach and starts the process of planting the seeds that would grow in the later playthroughs.

3 Devola and Popola

The Watchers

Devola and Popola may seem strange in their appearance compared to the rest of the characters in the game, and once you finish the game, you figure out why. They are androids from long, long ago. And not just that, but they're here because they're watching over the experiment after the failed Project Gestalt, also known as NieR Replicant.

So their appearance in NieR: Automata is strange, and after beating the game, it feels even more bizarre because their attempts to help you come off as weirdly hollow and insincere. They're not actually trying to help you. They're trying to carry the experiment forward. You're just a part of it, and they've been created to monitor it. Anything you do for them is just serving the experiment, and it's only at the very end that they decide to do anything that isn't in service to that experiment.

2 The Resistance on Earth

They Feel Real

The Resistance camp on Earth is one of the more disarming parts of the game the first time through. They actually seem like humans. And you're not exactly told otherwise either, as they seem so different than the androids of YoRHa. That's because after you've finished the game, it's clear what has happened here.

They've broken free from YoRHa. They aren't slaves to the cycle. Sure, they're not human, but they laugh, they have relationships with each other, they talk about life. They're becoming more human, breaking away from the command center and going through their own sort of evolution in the process. It makes the reveal of the humans being dead for so long so confusing the first time, because the Resistance camp feels so human.

1 Adam and Eve

Seekers of Knowledge of Love

Adam and Eve serve as the primary antagonists of the first two playthroughs of the game, but really, they aren't evil at all. In fact, they're the closest thing to getting the humans back that you're so desperately appearing to fight for. Upon seeing the endings, their purpose and fate seems tragic beyond anything else. They were the first reborn humans in over 1000 years, and you killed them.

It's a frightening realization, because it's unknown how they were made or if they can be made again. But due to your actions, at least for the time being, they are no longer a part of this world, and with that, humanity has died a little more. They were the attempt by the machine lifeforms to mimic what came before them, to try and understand what living really is. And they were killed for such ambition. Were we really the bad guys in this game? Well, yes, kind of.