NieR: Automata

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Ruka Endo as No2. Screen cap from the initial DVD release of the play.

This just in! News has broken that the subtitle to the new Nier title is “Automata” aka “Automaton” or “Android”.

The so-called “enemy” of the game is called the “kikai seimei-tai” or the “Living Machines”, the very enemies which bore down upon humanity in Yoko Taro’s stage play “YoRHa“. There seems to be more and more similarities between the two, so I suggest you take a look at my notes on the matter here.

As it appears now, the main character will be “No.2 Ver.B”, taking place after the events of the YoRHa play! She is able to use both a katana and large-sized swords.

According to the Character Designer Yoshida’s storyboards, this character will have a long-range attack ability called “Pod”.

This is a short summary that I wrote for Siliconera:

During the during the 14th Machine Armament War in the year 11,939AD, humans are near extinction. With the invasion of the “Living Machines”, humanity had no choice but to abandon the planet, taking refuge upon the Moon. Their only hope lie in an armada of specially configured androids called “YoRHa”. Programmed with human emotions and feelings, they descend upon the surface of the planet to combat the ceaseless onslaught of the Machines.

With the destruction of No.1 in the decent to the planet, No.2 assumes command over all units… however reluctant and unsure of her own abilities. She remains this way throughout the entity of the play; she keeps her black “visor” on the longest…only taking it off in the final scene when she faces the machines on her own.

No.2, after witnessing the destruction of her unit and the last of the Resistance, a failed YoRHa expedition hundreds of years before her time, is alone among a cold, unfeeling world ruled by machines.

Source: Game Johou


Other interesting notes:

Definition of “autamata“:

  • noun
    1. a plural of automaton.
    automaton
  • noun, plural automatons, automata
    1. a mechanical figure or contrivance constructed to act as if by its own motive power; robot.
    2. a person or animal that acts in a monotonous, routine manner, without active intelligence.
    3. something capable of acting automatically or without an external motive force.
    “automata.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 28 Oct. 2015. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/automata>.

YoRHa DVD – Review

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At long last, we’ve got the YoRHa DVD! I was looking forward to it ever since I went to see the stage play in person back in October. I’ve talked about the details of what’s included in this release before, so I won’t repeat myself on that again.

Instead, I’d like to share just a few thoughts I had while watching the DVD.

First off… I’m very disappointed. The video quality is so subpar, I am shocked that such a recording even exists. I haven’t seen video quality this bad since watching ancient .rm videos in the early 2000s. The video quality was also different when I played it on my Blu-ray player as opposed to on my computer. The quality on the Blu-ray player was obviously pixelated. I took the following photos with my iPhone to show the level of pixelation.

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And this is an example of the “zebra” type pixelation that was rampant in almost every frame when I played it on my computer.

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The picture overall looked cleaner when I played it on my computer, but the level of zebra striping was so frequent, it made watching the video at all very difficult.

I don’t understand how such bad quality would have been okayed to go into production. I ended up paying a total of 8,468yen for this DVD set to receive such a subpar item; I am very upset. I don’t have cash to just throw away like this, but that’s pretty much how I feel.

Yes, it was great to be able to see the play again–and I still think the Earth production was the best. The story, characters, music, etc. were really great, anyway.

YoRHa – DVD Release Update

Although the announcement in Vol.03 of ILCA P@pper stated that the stage play “YoRHa” would be released on DVD today, February 28, there had been no information about where or how to purchase it until this tweet from Haruna Arai, the young actress who played Term B in the Earth cast:

But, lucky us! The site is now up and you can order the DVD here: yorha.com/dvd.

2 DVD disc set of Earth and Heaven casts, priced at 6,800yen*. Comes in a tall DVD case with B5 insert booklet. Orders can only be made within Japan as far as I can tell since payment is only accepted upon arrival (about 1 week).

* Total Break-down of Cost:

  • DVD: 6,800yen
  • Tax: 544yen
  • Shipping: 800yen
  • C.O.D. Fee: 324yen
  • TOTAL COST: 8,468yen

YoRHa-DVD-details

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YoRHa on DVD in February!

Thanks to a heads-up by Sakurai Tamaki, I’ve learned that there will be a DVD release of the YoRHa play sometime in February. We will know further details by the end of the year!

I had a feeling there might be a DVD release of the show… The first night I went there was a camera crew set up right to my left. xD I don’t know if they will release both the Earth and Heaven versions of the show, but the first show I went to see was Earth…so maybe that will be the cast on the DVD…?

I was able to find a copy of the ILCA P@pper free magazine in which this announcement was made public. I was also pleasantly surprised to find a two-page interview with Yoko Taro (creator), Matsuda Ichidai (director), and Endo Ruka (No.2). I may attempt a translation of the interview someday, but the most poignant segment of the interview came at the very end where it seemed as though it may be a possibility to see a second run of this play…or even a continuation of the story. <3 I would love to see more of No.2’s story after losing so much (the storyline involving my original character No.34 also fits into this timeframe).

“YoRHa on DVD” announcement in ILCA P@pper Vol.2. Scanned and edited by me.