The Nier Automata anime’s first episode finally aired over the weekend. Along with faithfully adapting the game’s opening, NieR:Automata Ver1.1a introduced the game’s multiple endings to new viewers in a hilarious fashion.
With the game’s story and multiple endings being unusual even for video game standards, many wondered how the new anime series will work this into its story.
Episode 1 finally revealed that the show will acknowledge the game’s different endings, and it gave viewers an idea of how it will do so.
NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Multiple Endings Explained
Games having different endings isn’t too uncommon, but Nier Automata takes this a step further as it features a whopping 26 endings – one for each letter of the alphabet.
However, only endings A to E are considered the proper endings. Specifically, players must play through the game’s first half twice to get endings A and B before they can proceed with the rest of the story to unlock endings C to E.
Meanwhile, the rest of the endings are known as minor endings. Most of these 21 other endings are just silly jokes that serve as funny bonuses for players.
For instance, players can eat the Mackerel Item, resulting in 9S’ death in Ending K: aji wo [K]utta.
There’s also Ending U: deb[U]nked which is unlocked by self-destructing inside the Bunker, resulting in its destruction and the game’s premature end.
But perhaps the funniest one is Ending T: fa[T]al error. In the game, players have the option of removing 2B’s OS chip, though they are warned that doing so is fatal. If a player does it anyway, 2B dies and the game ends.
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Bonus Theater: 2B and 9S Puppet Show
The first episode’s events featured a faithful adaptation of the game’s opening level.
While this possibly means the anime will be a fully faithful adaptation, it remains to be seen if it will add anime-only material.
What we do know is that it acknowledges the game’s multiple endings via a funny Bonus Theater that was shown at the end of the episode featuring 2B and 9S.
You may check it out here:
In this scene, 9S and 2B explain the game’s different endings. Near the end of the scene, 2B suddenly touches her black box with 9S’, resulting in an explosion and a quick credit roll.
As fans noted on Reddit, this is a loose adaptation of Ending U as it also resulted in the destruction of a Bunker because of an explosion. Though it’s brought about by black boxes instead of the self-destruct feature.
Given this hilarious bonus scene, it seems that NieR:Automata Ver1.1a will loosely adapt the other joke endings at the end of every new episode.
Because of this, you’ll want to watch out for Episode 2 and its possible bonus ending scene when it releases this coming weekend.
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