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Setting and characters
Nier: Automata shares the post-apocalyptic setting of the original Nier, taking place after the game's fourth ending.[6] 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.[6][7][8] 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.[9][10] Lacking both emotions and true names, androids have particular attitudes that distinguish them from their fellows.[9][10][11] 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.[12]
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.[9][10][11] 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.[11] 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.[4][5]
Plot
In the first and second chapters, which shows the events of the first half of the game through 2B and 9S's perspective respectively, the game opens with 2B and 9S opening a route for a future incursion into machine territory. They are then sent to clear out machine threats for the Resistance, led by Anemone, who provides the duo with support. During their missions, 2B and 9S discover an increasing amount of machines wary of fighting, including a group led by pacifist machine Pascal, and encounter and fight Adam and Eve, physical manifestations of the machine network who reveal that their creators were destroyed centuries ago, and A2, a rogue android on the run from YoRHa. Adam is eventually killed by 2B after he captures 9S. In the second chapter, it is revealed that 9S discovered a glitch in YoRHa's servers when performing a server sync after being rescued and that humanity was extinct long before the alien invasion, with only a server on the Moon holding humanity's history and incomplete genome remaining of them, and YoRHa being created to prevent the androids from losing morale. Following Adam's death, Eve goes mad with grief and drives the machines under his command into a frenzy. 2B and 9S kill Eve to end the rampage, but 9S becomes infected with Eve's logic virus, forcing 2B to kill him. However, 9S was able to transfer his own consciousness into a machine, much to 2B's relief.
In the third chapter, the deaths of Adam and Eve throws the machine network into chaos, prompting YoRHa to launch a full-scale invasion, but a logic virus attack, enabled by the "glitch" that 9S previously discovered, turns every YoRHa unit including those in the Bunker hostile except for 2B and 9S. Infected herself, the Commander orders 2B and 9S to the surface before self-destructing the Bunker. 2B and 9S are separated by a rogue YoRHa attack during the descent, and 2B ends up infected with the logic virus. Saved from rogue YoRHa by A2, 2B uploads her memories into her sword and tasks A2 with completing her mission. Unaware of their conversation, 9S witnesses A2 mercy killing 2B and angrily swears revenge against A2. Simultaneously, a tower created by the machines rises above the land.
The chapter then splits between A2 and 9S, with the former continuing 2B's missions. Pascal's village is attacked by berserk machines, and although A2 and Pascal ward off the attack, the "children" of his village commit suicide out of fear of being killed. Pascal begs A2 to either wipe his memory or kill him; A2 can perform either task or leave him. Meanwhile, 9S, tormented and becoming emotionally and mentally unstable due to the loss of YoRHa and 2B, investigates the tower and learns that it is preparing to launch what he presumes is a missile directed at the server on the moon. Both 9S and A2 eventually enter the tower, where it is revealed that A2 was a survivor of a precursor unit to YoRHa that was designed to be destroyed in action and that the logic virus attack on YoRHa was part of the plan to perpetuate the ruse of humanity's survival and to trap both machines and androids in a repeating cycle of war.
At the top of the tower, A2 reveals to 9S that 2B's real designation was "2E", a YoRHa "executioner" unit designed to repeatedly kill 9S whenever he discovered the truth about humanity and YoRHa and suffered immensely from her role. 9S, by now driven insane and infected with the logic virus, challenges A2 to a fight, prompting the player to choose a character. Choosing A2 results an ending where 9S is defeated and cured of the logic virus by A2, and taken to safety by Pod 042 while A2 sacrifices herself to destroy the tower. Choosing 9S results an ending where he and A2 kill each other, and in his final moments, learning that the tower has changed its function to fire an ark containing the essence of machine kind, including Adam and Eve, to find a new world. 9S is given the opportunity to join them.
Once both of these endings are achieved, during the credits, Pods 042 and 153 find that the data for 2B, 9S and A2 are still intact. After, the final ending is triggered where the Pods are able to reassemble the three androids' bodies and memories following a shoot 'em up minigame in which the player destroys the credits with the help of the data of other players who completed the game. Despite the possibility that the three would simply repeat everything, the Pods hold faith that they will forge a new future. The player is then given the option to sacrifice their save data to help other players.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nier:_Automata#Synopsis
