A brief analysis of Drakengard/NieR Repetition mechanic and its role in the neverending cycle of death of the Taroverse.
(This is a personal analysis so it doesn't mean that anything I say in here is true and that it is Yoko Taro's intentions )
After replaying NieR Replicant and a rewatching a Drakengard LP, something actually striked me in the "Play the game again" mechanic so unique to Yoko Taro's games. Where Drakengard is more of Hack&Slah Ace Combat hybrid devided in chapters, NieR games are a bit closer to Action RPGs. Yet, the games follow a similar narrative construction and a way of doing endings, with multiple endings you can unlock by tedious grinds or hidden secrets, with each offering a new reality.
The mechanic is clearly more accentuated in NieR Replicant's/ Gestalt because this repetition serves as a way to make you question your decisions and right to kill the shades, with run B obliterating all of your expectations and beliefs. Where few games do question the meaning behind the killing, the delusional vision of a right or wrong world, none does it as strongly as NieR. By the repetitiveness of the game, reenacting the killing, you, the players are confronted once again to every life you took throughout the game. Which end up much more impactful than knowing you've killed for wrong reasons but aren't facing truly the consequences. And NieR Automata is reusing that mechanic, in an even smarter way than its predecessor.
Then, why, even confronted to our horrendous actions do we keep going? Do we keep on doing that long and tedious farming? Simply because we want more, we want a better ending, we wish that somehow, someway, the game gives us back some companions lost on the way, we wish to see our hero finally end the cycle. And that's the powerful thing about Yoko Taro's game. The player is the one that keeps the cycle of killing ongoing. And it is a cycle that actually started at the very beginning of Yoko Taro's universe and never stopped.
It starts way back at the very beginning, Drakengard 3. Through the character of Zero, we kill countless enemies, without much an explanation than just that she wants to kill her sisters. And then we learn the truth, we understand Zero's character but Mikhail dies. Then we keep going and more people die at each endings. More people die at every grind. We are never satisfied. We hope that the game finally gives everyone a happy ending but it never does. Finally, the event of Drakengard's 3 final ending put you the player, Zero and Mikhail at rest, yet doom another world: Drakengard's.
In the same way as Zero from Drakengard 3, we kill countless enemies through the bloodlusty Caim. Despite the chaotic nature of Caim, the player understands that there's bigger threats to the world so we fight. At the end of this massacre, our sister and dragon dies. We want a better ending. We want more understanding of the world . So we keep killing, replaying to get all the weapons, upgrading them, replaying missions countless times, achieving endings after endings, until finally, this world is free of the cycle. But it's to another world that we brought the cycle : NieR's.
Unlike Zero and Caim, the protagonist of this world seems definitely more righteous. We willingly kill shades because it's necessary, it's for a good cause. But after all this adventure, we understand that he's just as ruthless and selfish as Caim or Zero. Despite saving your sister, the only reason why you slaughtered all the shades, the player keeps on going. Keeps killing shades for a new ending, for Kainé, for Emil. But then you lose Kainé and then the protagonist itself. But then the game gives you a final hope. You replay the first part of the game, back as the innocent boy, hoping that everything you've gone through could be changed. And the game rewards you, it gives you the so hoped-happy ending; not knowing that this happy ending is gained at the loss of the entire humanity.
And the cycles continues to Automata. You could have stopped at Ending A, with that lovely ending but you want more. You keep going and you keep losing. First 2B and then 9S sanity. Pascal and the twins. Adam and Eve. But you keep hoping that they'll finally have the ending desired, just like the ones you've got in every games before. And it happens, but this time, the cycle is no more. Because you, the player, who kept going, decided to sacrifice yourself so the characters you cared so much about finally got free of the cycle you've been perpetuating for so long.
You are most likely the god who was in charge of that cycle all along. You can find evidence across all of Yoko Taro's games. "Is this the land of the Gods?" from ending E of Drakengard is the first hint towards that. "You and I are the same, tools in the hands of a master" from Devola to Nier in NieR Replicant/Gestalt. Then comes the Automata introduction quote "We are perpetually trapped in an never-ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment ? I often think about the God who blessed us this cryptic puzzle and wonder if we'll ever have a chance to kill him". And recently, I ended up with another hint when I pulled for the Replicant characters in Nier Reincarnation :
Yes it echoes to their games but I can't stop but seeing the 4th wall broken in each of these statements and knowing the man, there's a high possibility.
And that's through that last bit of Automata that you see how Yoko Taro's philosophy evolved throughout the games. With each game giving a more hopeful message each time. And Automata ending on your sacrifice for a good ending. You ended that cycle. Because the god of their world made the sacrifice so that they could all be free of the cycle. You lose your data, the meaning through which you kept the cycle ongoing.
The repetitiveness of Yoko Taro's games can be seen as annoying, and tedious (oh lord the grind ). But I can't stop but think it's what makes his games all the more incredible and rich in lessons and meanings.
