Two minutes and forty two seconds is all it takes.
/!\ The following discusses Nier:Automata extensively, including the endings and thus contains spoilers.
I tried to keep them to a minimum throughout, sometimes limiting how specific I could go in what I wrote. If that’s what you want, finding a video of the final ending of Nier:A should be easy enough and may help you make sense of some points I raised. Honestly though, doing so without playing the game first would ruin one of the best gaming moment you could experience. Even if you are pretty confident you would never play Nier:A, I would still advise you against doing it. Also, you should play Nier:A anyway :-) /!\
When the music kicks in, they all hold their breath for a moment… The song is definitely new, yet familiar. It sounds like something pulled straight of the game, but it is new… yes it is definitely new. As the music goes on, it starts to feel a bit more than this other game, especially when the brass come in.
So far so good. This is good…
The two different themes go back and forth for a bit and it feels awesome, like going from one game to the other. Clearly the the developer team did a good job with that song…
But then, there’s this tune, woven in between the other two. Before they realize it they suddenly feel emotional. Did they really heard that ? It was but a flicker of something else, the first theme is slowing changing. It is changing to something else…
When the chorus comes they collectively lose it. It’s an emotional breakdown for a moment, and everything comes back, the deaths, the drama, the revelation, the suffering, and that last boss fight…
At this point, nothing could spoil this moment, not even the stream’s host talking over the music…
They barely had time to come to their senses when a fourth theme starts, this time it is the one from the login screen…
It goes on for a while, alternating from one theme to the other. Finally, the song ends, leaving them baffled…
If you are following the news about Final Fantasy XIV, and have enjoyed Nier:Automata, this probably describes what you experienced a few days ago during the last FFXIV Live letter stream. For sure it describes my experience and the reaction of the streamer couple I was watching at the time.
ShadowBringers is the latest expansion of Square Enix’s star MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. And since its release a few month ago reviews have been unanimous. This is one of the best Final Fantasy story you could experience. Not that I know anything about it. I always kept myself away from the series until now.
I did play Nier:Automata though. Actually, Nier:A is one of the few “special” games that left a lasting impression on my person in the last five years. It is right there next to Witcher 3, Life Is Strange, and Hellblade. While discussing my relationship to those game is beyond the scope of this article, let’s just say that I adore Nier:Automata.
When Square Enix announced that they were working on a collaboration with Nier:A for the next content updates of FFXIV, and that they were bringing Yoko Taro (director), Yosuke Saito (producer) and Keiichi Okabe (composer) on board, with nearly full creative freedom… well… I got very excited. Suddenly, ShadowBringers went from a very good expansion to potentially something far beyond that. Taro’s involvement basically means that ShadowBringers will feature the first piece of new, official, content for Nier:A available to western audience since the release of the game.
This is an exciting thing in itself, but it was hardly new by the time the FFXIV’s Live Letter happened. It only explains the hype up to that point. What they decided to share as the first piece of new content though; that’s the very reason why I am writing this article.
Before discussing this though, a bit of context. We need to discuss Nier:A’s music. Nier:A is a great game, for many reasons, and its soundtrack being one of its stronger suits. In fact, as with many things, Nier:A goes beyond and above what you could expect from a game.
Nier:A has many themes and tells many stories; some are painted in broad strokes, and some are more subtle. One such theme throughout the game is the endless repetition of events, Ad nauseam. The game remixes itself perpetually. Events are mirrored, endings are repeated, and it all start over again, the same yet ever so slightly different. To that end, the game masterfully re-use its music, building on variation of a same throughout the course of a game. “This cannot continue” — a powerful cry for peace from a hopeless machine tribe — at the beginning of the game morphs into “become as god” by the end of it; the machine tribe having turned into a religious cult.
The hacking mini-game is another example of this. Midway through the game, the player unlock the ability to hack they way through previously unavailable content (which leads to some big revelations further down the road). Those hacking sequences often come with an 8-bit remix of some of the more iconic tracks of the game; but this only happens on your second play-through of the game, that is around the 10 hours marks. By then most areas in the game feel familiar and your are long past the point where you expect anything new to happen. This is but one of the many occurrences of this game holding on the good stuff for so long that it blows your mind when it happens. This is also the game telling you that although things repeat themselves, they are never quite the same. On a side note, this is also one of the many references Nier:A does to Western philosophy — in this case, Nietzsche — which is another underlying theme of the game.
Speaking of multiple playthroughs and endless loops. Nier:A doesn’t end at the first credit roll. You have to go through this four more times before seeing the end of the story. By the time you see the credits for the first time, you probably have only experienced between 20% and 30% of what the game has to offer.
Each credits sequence is technically a different “ending”. In reality, the story follows from one ending to the other. Each one of them in a very emotionnal climax as they are all tied to very meaningful events. Some of which you will have to play through more than once, from different points of view. None are really hopeful though, except maybe for the very last one. But for this less bad outcome, you’ll have to pay the ultimate price a game can ask from you. And when I say ultimate, I mean it. Actually, for that ending alone, Nier:A deserves a spot in any video game’s Hall of Fame.
With each “main” ending (there is 21 other “minor” endings) the same song plays during the credit, but each time it is slightly different. The first time, the lyrics of the song are in English. They basically mirror what has happened so far in the game, from the main protagonist point of view. The second ending of the game is a bit more cryptic, thanks to some revelation tied to the hacking mini-game. The lyrics this time are in Japanese, and are overall more cryptic, sometimes referencing (albeit loosely) events that the player have yet to learn about. The next two ending feature the “chaotic” lyrics, which are lyrics in a made-up language created only for the purpose of this game. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that the first two version can be understood as from the point of view of the main character, while by ending 3 and 4, it makes sense to have “chaos” lyrics.
You hear the credit theme for the last time during the fifth ending. And it starts as its 8-bit version. Though this time is special. This is when you are asked to make a sacrifice, for the promise of a good (or rather, less bleak) outcome. Four times, this game made everything you held dear fall apart, and forced you to watch while playing its credit song.
This is (with other things I won’t spoil) the game telling you that, for once, it might be different, that you might “hack your way” out of the bleak ending. This is just enough to make you try something, and as you try, and fail, times and times again, the song revert to its original version. This is when this game come with a bargain: it can give you the mean to get the good ending, to figuratively beat the credit song, but it will cost your dearly.
On many aspects, Yoko Taro plays a sadistic game with the player’s emotion through Nier:A. The last ending is no exception, and by this time your entire experience with Nier:A, everything you felt while playing is crystallized in your brain around one simple credit song. This is a (perfectly executed) stroke of genius that plays on the already strong tendency of the brain to match emotion to music.
You probably have guessed it already, but the credit song is the song they have remixed for the new FFXIV content patch.
I won’t go too deep into the Final Fantasy side of things, since my knowledge on that matter is much more limited. But i still need to point out that the remix does include other song theme from the FF franchise as a whole. Most prominently, the “Prelude” theme, one of the most iconic Final Fantasy song. This is the canonical “title screen” song for a final fantasy game. To intertwine the Prelude theme with Nier:A’s Weight of the world is to tell the player: “It’s time to move from the ending of Nier:A to the login screen of FFXIV”.
Music is a powerful trigger for emotions, and this new song is masterfully crafted in regard to that. It starts seemingly similar to a Nier:A track, with some touch of FFXIV; this first part is but an attention grab. It makes sure you are listening and conditions your brain to access those Nier:A memories from a few years ago. Also, because it sounds new and familiar at the same time, chances are you are already scanning your memories from Nier:A in search of something similar. That’s when Weight of the world kicks in, giving to your brain what it was looking for. As we discussed above, with this song comes everything that you associate with Nier:A, it’s a flood of past emotions and experiences. Then after a while, comes Prelude. Where there was nothing previously (or just more repetition of the same thing) now there’s a promise fulfilled of a different ending within the world of FFXIV.
This is but one way to look at it. And part of why this song has been received in so positively is because it resonate on many levels, with fans from FFXIV and Nier:A both. For instance, FFXIV was first viewed as a terrible game and was considered a big failure. Instead of killing it, Square Enix decided to reboot the game, dubbing it “A Realm Reborn” in the process and in doing so made it the success it is now. What they did though from a story perspective is that they incorporated the reboot into the lore of the game. The premise for FFXIV(ARR) is that the world just got rebooted and need to start over. This is one of the many reasons why a crossover between Nier:A and FFXIV is a match made in heavens.
Finally, from a more general point of view, the fact that they choose to share a song as their first sneak peak of new content is reason enough for excitement. Nier:A and Final Fantasy are both known for their OSTs. In that regards this crossover is a match made in Heaven. To come out of the shadows with an original song specifically made for this is to make a statement. It is to say that they are being serious, that they want to go beyond mere fan service, and instead extend the Nier:A world. This is a way to say that they get it, Nier:A is not about android, or machine, or alien, or huge robot. It is about an aesthetic experience.
If you ask me, Yoko Taro is a mad genius. If someone can pull off such a tour de force it’s him. I can’t even imagine what crazy things he will come up with for FFXIV. Nier (the first one) is a sequel to what was generally considered the “joke” ending of Drakengard 2. Yet this was nonetheless the starting point of his next game. During the Live Letter he mentioned that one of his idea for FFXIV was to shut down an entire cluster server and redirect the electricity cost to save African children. This is obviously a joke, there’s no debating it. The question remain however of how far fetched this is from what he really plans to do for this crossover. Consider this: so far, what we know is that the story will be canon (within Nier and FFXIV universes), authored by him with minimal supervision and that the official art prominently showcases 2P. Already this is going out of control. 2P is, as of today, an alternate skin for 2B (the main protagonist of Nier:A) in Soul-Calibur VI; 2P literally referring to “Player 2” in fighting game lingo. Now you’re telling me she is to become a canon character that will somehow bridge Nier world with FFXIV’s one ? I told you, the guy is mad.
This is why most people having played Nier:A and currently playing FFXIV got blown away when the song was played. Or why I am so hyped, even though I barely scratched the surface of FFXIV. To have Nier:A randomly invading the MMO I currently play, in such a “true to heart” way is beyond my wildest expectation. I was sold on the concept already, mostly because I would have been satisfied with the usual fan-service you get in such crossovers. Honestly, I was barely expecting more. To see them commit to it in such a way, to think that part of the Nier:A story will leak over FFXIV story and potentially intertwine so perfectly with it (if the song they released is any indication), it just blows my mind, over and over again. The good news is, I have but a month to wait. The bad news is, I’ll have to to handle a MMO boss fight and this song at the same time.
At the end of the day, when I sit down and think about how strong of an emotional response a simple 2'42" song has provoked in me, I wonder what actually playing through the content will be like. For me to feel that way two years after my last playthrough of Nier:A is a testimony to how much this game resonated with me. I also can’t help but wonder how powerful music can be when it comes to remembering our past experiences, especially the ones associated with strong emotions. Two minutes, and forty two seconds is all it took to make me spend countless hours revisiting Nier:A fandom, and catching up on everything I missed and/or forgot.
Writing this is my way to cope with both the anticipation of the things to come, and the nostalgia of the game played. I hoped it would end up as a short piece, more of an afterthought, just to get my brain occupied while at the same time having something to write about this week. I was so very wrong. There is no such thing as toe-tipping when it comes to Nier:A, or, at the very least, I am incapable of doing it. I learned one thing though, writing about something you love takes a lot of time, and organizing your thoughts is a constant battle against your overstimulated brain.
