Writing Lessons from Video Games: NieR: Automata

The first time I’d heard of this game was at a convention when I saw a lot of people where getting an actress’s autographs for 2B. I wasn’t extremely interested in it, but recently I was looking for a new game to play on my PS4 and this one caught my eye, so I decided to give it a whirl and though it took me a bit to get the hang of the gameplay I ended up liking it. It’s not my favorite PS4 game ever, but it’s pretty good and had some really interesting writing aspects. But the music is gorgeous, so I highly recommend that.

NieR: Automata is set far in the future when aliens have attacked earth and humanity had to flee to the moon for safety. YorHa androids fight to retake earth from the aliens and their deadly machines, but 2B, 9S, and A2 discover the situation is far more complicated than what they were told.

Warning: Spoilers in points four and five. 

1.) A Cost for Immortals

The YorHa androids are immortal in the way that their consciousnesses can simply be transferred to a new body if they die but there is a cost. The androids have to frequently upload their data to the YorHa server otherwise if they die they lose all of their recent memories that haven’t been backed up. A part of their life is gone forever. And if that server goes and they die then their immortality is gone.

How this applies to writing: Immortal characters can be fun to write but if they’re too invincible then a reader can stop caring about them. Because why worry about a person if no matter what they’re going to be fine? Memories are one way of doing that. When Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is shot in the head by an adamantium bullet he loses his memories. As Ashildr from Doctor Who lives she loses her old memories. Immortality needs a cost or you risk losing your reader’s sympathies.

2.) Fighting Doesn’t Always Mean Fighting with Weapons

9S can hold his own with a sword, but his specialty is hacking and in many instances, without his hacking, a mission never would have succeeded.

How this applies to writing: Your character doesn’t have to be a kickbutt fighter to be brave and strong and fight back in a story. In The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Bod uses his wits to defeat his bullies and the Jacks of All Trades. Kuroo Hazama in Young Black Jack uses his medical skills to save people in multiple situations. Bobbie from The Railway Children stood in front of a train to get it to stop from colliding into a landslide. Bravery takes many shapes and forms.

3.) Innocence and Naivete Can Be Creepy

One of the key aspects of the NieR: Automata vibe is the creepy robots. A main plotline is 2B realizing that after centuries the robots are beginning to have human-like emotions, but because they’re robots and not human beings many can’t handle these emotions. They react in extreme ways like becoming hostile and even insane. One especially disturbing backstory was that for Simone. This robot wanted to gain the affection of another robot so she learned humans used clothing and accessories to make themselves look beautiful, so she began gathering such things but quickly took this to a disturbing extreme in her naivete.

How this applies to writing: This is also what adds an extra level of creepy in Bladerunner when the villain is a robot who looks like an adult but is only in truth four-years-old and doesn’t have the maturity to handle these advanced emotions because he just doesn’t have the experience. It’s another reason why kids in horror movies are especially unsettling. The creepy plus innocent mix is a scary combination.

4.) Fighting Against Your Own

In the third part of the game, a logic virus infects most of the YorHa units turning them against 2B and 9S. Friends and comrades become irreparably damaged and the two spared androids have to kill them to survive because there’s no longer any hope for their unit.

How this applies to writing: The situation becomes way direr when the enemy was once your friends such as when SHIELD agents were revealed to be HYDRA in the Winter Soldier or when in Attack on Titan (Skip this sentence if you’re in the middle of this show) it turns out the titans were once allies.

5.) Multiple Endings

One of the most unique aspects of this game is that you play it multiple times to get different endings. This reminds me a lot of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep in that you play the game multiple times to see different POVs. Each playthrough is different but you reveal more of the story and in some cases, a decision will determine which way the story goes and only by playing them all do you find the true ending to the story.

How this applies to writing: A great writing exercise is writing out different endings. If one different decision was made, if one character did or didn’t die, if one character took a situation differently, how would your story’s ending change?

Conclusion

If need awesome writing music highly recommend this and its writing aspects. 😉

Have you played NieR: Automata!? Have you noticed these writing aspects? What video games have you noticed have good writing? Let’s geek out together!