Nier: Automata is an action role-playing game in which players take the role of combat androids from the YoRHa units across an open world environment. In addition to standard navigation on foot, using a special item allows the player to summon a wild animal to ride, and in some scenarios pilot a flying mech to fight enemies. As with the previous game, during navigation in some environments, the camera shifts from its standard third-person perspective to an overhead or side-scrolling view. Some areas also include platforming elements, requiring the player to navigate by jumping between platforms or over obstacles. The player can complete side quests for non-playable characters found throughout the world. Shops available in hub locations allow the player to purchase items, including consumables that recover health.
Combat is action-based, with the player fighting enemies in real-time in a variety of in-game environments. During battle, the player can use light attacks—which are fast but weak—and heavy attacks—slow and more powerful. The player can evade enemy attacks and, with successfully timed button presses, can gain temporary invulnerability and launch a counterattack that deals heavy damage. The player is also assisted by a Pod, a flying robot assistant that can launch customizable ranged attacks varying from simple gunfire to heavy-hitting hammer attacks. Pods can also shield the player from harm in various ways. The player is able to bring two melee weapons in combat. While attacking, the player can alternate between both weapons and attacks to create combination attacks. There are four different classes of weapons available: short swords, long swords, bracers, and spears. Attacks with different weapon types can also be charged and launched for increased damage. Weapon Stories, a recurring element in both Nier and the Drakengard series, where weapons found throughout the world have unique stories attached to them, are also featured.
As characters progress, they gain experience levels, which increases health, defense, and attack power. Character progression is handled through 'chips', items installed onto the player characters that modify their attributes; these chips provide benefits ranging from altering the HUD to granting status buffs. The number of chips that can be installed at once are limited by how many slots are available. Chips can either be purchased from shops, or picked up from defeated enemies.
Characters who die will respawn at their previous save point. The save points are scattered throughout the game world, and can be found and activated. However, new players who start from scratch are required to complete three boss fights before seeing the very first save point. They can then find their original bodies, and either retrieve their items and experience to gain a bonus, or attempt to repair them. Depending on the player's success, a revived body either becomes a temporary ally, or an enemy the player can defeat for an extra bonus. With online features enabled, the bodies of other players can also be retrieved or revived at the location in which they die.
The game features 26 endings, designated "A" through "Z". However, endings "F" through "Z" are the various "game over" events instead of being the outcome of finishing the game. The game features a system where the player, after completing the game, is given the option to delete their save data in order to help another random player during the final battle.
Synopsis
Setting and characters
Nier: Automata shares the post-apocalyptic setting of the original Nier, taking place after the game's fourth ending. While carrying over the Drakengard series' tradition of a dark atmosphere and branching storylines, no direct narrative connection is shared between Nier: Automata and the rest of the series. Set in the year 11945 AD, the story revolves around a proxy war between the human-made androids and the machine army of invaders from another world. Lacking both emotions and true names, androids have particular attitudes that distinguish them from their fellows. The "YoRHa" android forces are commanded from the Bunker, a reconnaissance base in orbit above Earth. They fight alongside the pre-YoRHa androids on Earth (known as the resistance) to drive back the Machines.
The game is split into three chapters, each with their own endings, each played with a different character. The protagonist of part one is YoRHa No. 2 Type B ("2B" for short), a YoRHa "battle" android whose main traits are being calm and composed. She wields two weapons, and is always accompanied by Pod 042, a floating box-like robot that acts as her ranged weapon. 2B's support officer is the cheery Operator 6O, whose real purpose is to establish 2B's frame of mind. The protagonist of part 2 is "9S", a male "scanner" android who displays more emotion than the other YoRHa units. Always accompanied by Pod 153, 9S wields only one weapon, but instead can hack into other machines. He is supported by the no-nonsense Operator 21O. Eventually another playable character is introduced: "A2", an obsolete attack android with a taciturn personality who often chooses to act alone. The primary antagonists of the game are Adam and Eve, two humanoid machines who have killed the aliens that created them. They have severed themselves from the machine collective but still command a large force.
Other characters include the YoRHa's top officer, "Commander"; the resistance leader, Anemone; Pascal, a machine who dislikes conflict and wishes for peace; Devola and Popola, androids who aid the resistance and are of the same model of similar beings that went berserk during the events of Nier; and the original Nier character Emil, who has lost his memories in the intervening years after the original game.
