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I decided to try writing a summary of my thoughts for people who DON'T feel like reading 2 super long posts and watching several hours of youtube videos. I ended up with...a pretty long post, but I tried.

So! Nier Automata is video game about sexy robots shooting things. It's also a really affecting story about finding meaning and connection in a meaningless, cruel world that traps us all in cycles of life and death.

This is reflected in the looping narrative where you replay the same fights and scenes from a different POV, with more context and understanding each time.

This post summarises the whole game and thus spoils it. I go into more detail about the game, including how to watch it on Youtube, as I did, in my initial post. I link to and discuss some extra materials/analysis in my second post. A lot of my thoughts here draw on other people's, and since I haven't actually played the game there's stuff I've missed.

Here's the trailer.
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So I kept hearing about the game Nier:Automata being full of robot tropes I'm really into, but it also looked kind of ridiculous and sounded like not my sort of combat, so I finally decided to just watch it on Youtube.

As I watched I went back and forth between "THIS IS RIDICULOUS" and "AAAHH ROBOT FEELS", ending up mostly consumed by the latter and sniffling. It really is ridiculous in parts, but also good for what it is. Namely: philosophical meditations on the nature of the self, explored via hot robots shooting things.

I'll avoid spoilers to start with and give some general information and links, then mark when my spoilery thoughts begin.

Here's the trailer.

Note that the backstory plot involves a (ridiculous magical) pandemic, for anyone not up for that right now.
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