NieR Automata: Meaning & Existential Despair
By: Kristo Sugiarno
Tags: Nier Automata, Philosophy, Games, Existentialism, PlayStation

The former ego pictures Nietzsche’s philosophical proposition that we ought to keep improving ourselves into higher, better, stronger beings, an ‘Ubermensch’ [Overman] as he puts it, and it is precisely pain and hardships that would enable us to grow and evolve. Nietzsche argues that one meaning or purpose that we as humans should strive for is to embrace ourselves to the pain, hardships, and tragedies of life so that we would evolve, shed our skin, and become, better, stronger, subtler, and more profound beings.

Ego I: “We need more evolutionary pressure. If we allow this android to continue living, we can create even more hardships for ourselves. Overcoming this crisis this creates will present an opportunity for our kind to evolve even further.”

Ego II: “We disagree, this android is dangerous. It must be destroyed immediately.”

Ego I: “Those who would doubt our victory… are enemies.”

Ego II: “Do you truly think you can win?”

Pod: “Analysis — the saturated consciousness’ are now in conflict with each other”

“I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?… All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape… The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth… Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman — a rope over an abyss … what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

7) Androids & Deception

As opposed to the machines who have lost their original purpose and thus seek for a meaning for their existence, the androids seemed to be content with a very clear purpose and objective for their existence: to eliminate the machines for the ‘glory of mankind’.

However, nearing the end of the game, we would then be surprised with a revelation that humanity has long gone extinct, even before the aliens or machines have arrived on earth — due to a failure in Project Gestalt, an event central to the previous game: NieR Gestalt/Replicant.

The notion that humanity is waiting in a secret base on the moon, waiting until the androids have successfully triumph against the machines and will reclaim earth for them was a lie devised by the leaders of the androids to provide the androids with a sense of purpose, a reason, a cause to keep on fighting and living. Project YoRHa, in actuality, was a false narrative designed as a mean to lift the androids’ morale.

This parallels the skeptical and nihilistic idea that maybe spiritual concepts like religions are just lies we created to justify our existence, to find rationales to keep us living for a higher purpose — just to justify our biological instincts encoded in our genes that wants us to keep living & reproducing, and to give us some false strength to make the suffering of being more bearable. Just like how the androids managed to make up an intelligent lie to deceive themselves to keep on fighting, maybe we have also been deceiving ourselves, prejudiced to believe that there is a transcendental, spiritual, metaphysical purpose to our being. Maybe we have just grown so damn intelligent, that we are clever enough to outsmart even ourselves…

“Having kept a close eye on philosophers and read between their lines for a sufficient length of time, I tell myself: the greater part of conscious thinking must still be counted among instinctive activities, and this is so even in the case of philosophical thinking. Most of a philosopher’s conscious thinking is secretly directed and compelled into definite channels by his instincts.

…

Philosophers pose as having discovered and attained their real opinions through the self-evolution of a cold, pure, divinely unperturbed dialectic (in contrast to the mystics of every rank, who are more honest and more stupid than they — these speak of ‘inspiration’): while what happens at bottom is that a prejudice, a notion, an ‘inspiration’, generally a desire of the heart sifted and made abstract, is defended by them with reasons sought after the event.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Despair

Another principal recurring theme in NieR Automata is the despair of losing what is most meaningful to you. This was illustrated quite a few times throughout the game with some examples being the aforementioned hopelessness of Simone when realizing that all her attempts to make herself beautiful turned out fruitless and when Pascal asked the android A2 to delete all his memories as he could not bear living with the knowledge that the children of the village which he have helped nurture and educate with all his heart has all killed themselves.

A more notable and climatic example of this is when Eve despaired over the loss of his brother Adam, which caused him to succumb into infinite hatred and rebelled against reality and existence itself, wanting desperately to kill everyone and everything in a delirious rage.

“Why…? Why did you have to die…? It’s not fair! My only brother… Damn them! I’ll kill them… I swear I’ll kill them all!

You’ll die… All of you are GOING TO DIE!

I know you too feel the same. That this world… is utterly meaningless. As far as I’m concerned, my brother… was everything… And now… EVEYTHING MUST DIE! Why did you kill my brother?!”

-Eve

Another intensely emotional despair nearing the end of the game was when 9S witnessed the death of 2B, realizing that he has just lost the person he loved most. This despair, so tragic, so intense, caused a tremendous strain on 9S’ psychological state, causing him to fall into a delirium towards insanity. Similar to Eve, 9S’ despair caused him to rebel against all existence, losing his meaning, morality, and senses, wanting to destroy and kill everything in his sight.

“I’ll tear you apart… Every one last of you!”

-9S

Losing what is most meaningful causes one to lose their reason to live, to be. We sentient beings create our purpose and values to give reason to our existence. Once that reason is taken away from us, we lose the strength to stand on our two feet, the spirit which pushes us to keep confronting and embracing existence. This might push those with meeker, more feminine spirits to suicide seeing that there is no reason for them to keep on living, however, to those more masculine, fueled with pride, wrath, and aggression, the desperation might in fact bring them to a rebellious and offensive position against existence, possessing them with a malice desire to kill and destroy.

However, behind all those story-arcs about the despair from the loss of what one deeply values, NieR Automata’s main theme speaks of a more fundamental and overarching despair, which is the existential despair of living without a meaning, without a purpose. It speaks of the despair the machines realized when they have “freed” themselves of their purpose, searching desperately for a new meaning for their existence. It speaks of 9S’ tragic despair upon realizing that all his life he has been living in a lie, that what he has been fighting for all his life (the future of humanity) has been long extinct, and everything he does all this time was only for a meaningless lie which has been devised just to keep the androids busy, living and fighting for no transcendent purpose at all.

“I… exist… this world…

My… life’s meaning…

The meaning… of being born…

To exist. I must be strong…

Merely destroying life will not win me approval…

But if so… what use are we to the world…?

It is painful… So painful…

Why were we… born…?

Why is life… so painful…?

Why won’t anyone… help me…?

I don’t need… this world…

We were created to fight! To eliminate all others and reside at the pinnacle of existence! Yet the battle rages eternal! Our cursed cycle of destruction and rebirth continues without end! None of us in this world are loved! This world has no need for us!

There is only one solution…

*commits suicide

-Wise Machine

This overarching theme of the game really brings the creeps upon the realization of how relatable it is to our lives. Yes, superficially, it might feel like you are looking at it through a third person, 40,000 ft view, seeing these poor androids realize that their inherent purpose was a lie and that they have no more reason for their existence. However, how could this be of any difference with our lives? Do we humans even have a universally accepted purpose for our existence? What is it that we really ought to do with our lives, what is it that we, the whole of humanity ought to do with our existence? Are the morals, values, and meanings constructed by our cultures even meaningful? Or just like the androids, we’re are all living under a deception, a lie, a bias. What if everything we’ve been doing and will ever do are all insignificant, futile, meaningless? Is there any, or will there ever be, a transcendental meaning to our existence? Perhaps, we are all just mindlessly satisfying our biological instincts living one generation after another, towards god knows what end.

To quote from Kierkegaard:

“If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair? If it were thus, if there were no sacred bond uniting mankind, if one generation rose up after another like the leaves of the forest, if one generation succeeded the other as the songs of birds in the woods, if the human race passed through the world as a ship through the sea or the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless whim, if an eternal oblivion always lurked hungrily for its prey and there were no power strong enough to wrest it from its clutches — how empty and devoid of comfort would life be.”

NieR Automata’s Answer

Against all the miseries and tragic predicaments of life, against all the meaninglessness of this existence, what does NieR Automata offer as a solution, as remedy for our despair?

In NieR Automata’s final and true ending, we will be faced with an insanely difficult bullet hell mini-game. After losing and dying few times the game would keep asking you whether you would still keep trying or just give up. If you relentlessly keep trying, the game would eventually tell you that players from all over the world are offering you their hand. Once you’ve accepted their help, you’ll gain reinforcements which would enable you to finally beat this seemingly impossible final stage.

After you have succeeded in beating this final stage, the game then offers you to — like those players who have helped you overcome it — help future players by sacrificing all your save data (yes, having multiple save files doesn’t work — the game will delete ALL the save data in your account). Will you, having spent tons of hours progressing through the game, sacrifice your save file for some random stranger in another part of the world, which you might not even like, which would most likely not give you any form of appreciation, even a simple “thanks”?

Pod 042: “Pod 042 to player. Please respond to this query. You have lost your life multiple times to make it this far. You have faced crushing hardship, and suffered greatly for it. Do you have any interest in helping the weak? [Yes/No]

Selecting this option enables you to save someone somewhere in the world. However, in exchange, you will lose all of your save data. Do you still wish to rescue someone — a total stranger — in spite of this? [Yes/No]

The person you save will be selected at random. As a result, this person… who cries out for help even as we speak… may be someone you intensely dislike. Do you still wish to help? [Yes/No]

You may not receive thanks for your efforts. Some may say that your efforts are purely for show. Do you still wish to help?

And you are truly — TRULY — sure about this?

… very well. In exchange for all of your data… I will convey your will to this world.“

*deletes all save file

All of your data has been deleted

Pod 153: “And so, we must say goodbye. I feel a slight amount of… sadness.”

Pod 042: “It is time for the final words. To all of you who spent time with this game…”

Pod 042 & 153: “Thank you. Thank you for playing.”

NieR Automata’s answer to the suffering and meaninglessness of life, to the existential despair of our existence, is love and sacrifice. The act of a sincere, genuine sacrifice, without expecting anything in return, out of sheer power of love, the sincere love for others, the love for the universe and existence itself, transcends the all the predicaments, tragedies, and meaninglessness of this life, transcends the seemingly purposeless cycles of life and death.

The game offers you to perform this act of love as a final satisfying answer to the existential conundrum that it has presented all along. The demand of an actual and significant sacrifice — deleting all your save data — adds a real and palpable weight to the act. It would not be an easy decision to make, but it would really give you a feeling of genuine fulfillment.

Pod 153: “Everything that lives is designed to end. They are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death. However… life is all about the struggle within this cycle. That is what “we” believe

Pod 153 to 042. How is it going?”

Pod 042: “I am embarrassed”

Pod 153: “Why is that?”

Pod 042: “I launched a suicide attack, and yet, here I am, still alive. I must look very silly”

Pod 153: “Do not feel bad about it. We are alive, after all. And being alive is pretty much a constant stream of embarrassment.”

Pod 042: “That concept is a bit too abstract for me to understand at this time. I will save it in my list of things to analyze later.”

Pod 153: “Question, Pod 042. Did the data salvage restore all their past memories?”

Pod 042: “Yes.”

Pod 153: “And are those recovered parts of the same design as previous ones?”

Pod 042: “Yes.”

Pod 153: “Then… won’t that simply lead us to the same conclusion as before?”

Pod 042: “I cannot deny the possibility.”

Pod 153: “However, the possibility of a different future also exists. A future is not given to you. It is something you must take for yourself.”

The game ends with a dialogue saying that this eternal cycle of life and death, with all its tragedies and suffering might repeat itself once more. We might have ourselves spinning in this spiral all over again. However, armed with the spirit of hope and love, with the love for existence itself, we are asked to gather the strength to say Yes to life! To confront and embrace the behemoth that is reality. Amor Fati!

“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it — all idealism is mendacity in the face of what is necessary — but love it..”

“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who makes things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche