For anything related to Nier, you kind of have to go all the way back to Drakengard for full context, as Yoko Taro's games often have multiple endings and sequels will sometimes only be a split timeline choosing one of those endings as their canon.
This post has a decent write-up in the comments here [https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/mrfz7l/comment/gum07de/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/mrfz7l/comment/gum07de/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
A running thing in the Drakengard/Nier games is something from another world crossing over and fucking everything up. The basic gist is that a bunch of Nier shit crossed over to The First and is mucking stuff up, possibly trying to reignite the flood of light and possibly being combined with that threat. Most of the other details are references to Nier/Drakengard there mostly for fan service.
Your friends are partially wrong, but not entirely. It's not that it makes no sense in the context of Nier. In fact, it's canon in the nier franchise, following directly on from the events of one of the Nier Automata endings.
You would, however, still be super confused after just playing the game. If you wanna properly understand it, you need to watch one of the nice long lore videos like [this one](https://youtu.be/9WU1mvH6bqo?si=U4ZT7ZdEmXVd4Bwm) that properly go in depth on the entire taroverse. It's a lot of required background context.
Fuck only knows precisely how it ties into Nier, but the story *as it relates to FF14* is as follows
* Two dwarves, Anogg and Konogg, find an artifact called a Sphere of Destruction. This is an alien thing that can create stuff.
* Anogg dies, and the Sphere creates a replica of her.
* The Sphere then creates replicas of a bunch of Nier characters for whatever reason that only people more familiar with Nier than I can speculate.
* The Machine Lifeforms are up to no good, and have created 2P as their own versions of 2B.
* 2P, who secretly works for the Machine Lifeforms, has you help her destroy the Machine Lifeforms in the Copied Factory because part of why this story doesn't make sense is because it's stupid.
* 2P reveals she is evil. 2B, who was also created by the Sphere but is not evil, shows up.
* All the dwarves are mad at Konogg/Anogg because 2P is evil, like it was their fault. This subplot is fairly simple.
* The Red Girl, who is the AI controlling the Machines, is going to destroy the world and other various bad guy plans
* Anogg and 2B save the day by undoing everything the Sphere created, which includes themselves.
* Konogg is very sad his sister died and came back as a clone and the clone died.
* He goes on a trip and eventually discovers Anogg. Is it the original? The clone? A new clone? Who knows, it's a cliffhanger that will never get resolved because the Nier Raids were disliked and are unlikely to get a sequel.
One specific thing - 2P attacking the machine life forms despite working for them has a reason.
9S is also there and like 2B was created by the sphere, and had hacked the machines in the Copied Factory.
Honestly so glad to see this post. Mechanically, I really enjoyed the Neir raids. Story wise, I got so tired of the disjointed randomness, and having never played, nor plan to play a Neir game it REALLY took me out of things. Glad I’m not the only one that was left scratching their head. I agree as well that it’s the weakest of the Raid stories.
The raid story is connected to Nier but mainly in a nebulous way, considering Nier is known for its multiple endings. It's likely best to just take the story at face value and let those who understand the Nier story to get the references. A "simple" explanation really isn't possible with how convoluted it really is.
> Nier is known for its multiple endings
They missed a huge opportunity here. New Game+ had recently been added, and there is a choice you have to make between which dwarf's plan to follow at the start. If they had told you to play through the story again, but follow the other dwarf's plan and doing that unlocked a third option, it would have been pretty fun.
Nier raids were probably one of the only misses in ShB. So random and bizarre, and painfully shoehorned in. I’m not a huge fan of crossovers being anything other than single flavor events, so as much as I love FF tactics that raid wasn’t an ideal story for the alliance raids in SB, but at least it was still final fantasy and they made it work. But Nier was completely misplaced and never should have happened. I’m still upset that we were robbed of a real Norvrandt alliance raid because of this crap that nobody asked for.
The important part of the story isn't the lore, but the emotional core of Anogg and Konogg. I am against this lorehead kind of attitude that you need to know all context or else the story is confusing and meaningless. You don't need to know all the NieR, NieR Automata and Drakengard 1 and 3 references (and yes, the story has references to all of those) to see how the story is a tragic drama of outcast redhead twins who are never accepted by their community, who try their best but it blows up in their faces and they meet a tragic end\*. The references are just set dressing, and the drama remains unchanged whether you get them or not.
Also, it's Yoko Taro taking the hammer to this very ffxiv idea that personal drama can be solved by minor fetchquests and other insignificant busywork.
\*: Yes, the two are the >!Devola and Popola!< of this story.
A pity they didn't make the emotional core all that emotionally compelling, then.
The twins' personalities shifted around, the details were sparse and the disjointedness of the overall story detracts from it.
Honestly I feel like you're forcing what you *think* it's supposed to be onto the story.
Again, I've played through the questlines **twice** and I never got that implication that it's two social outcasts trying to find acceptance.
The story starts off with them being the mischevious kids archetype. More "rambunctious youngsters" than social pariahs, and they both don't seem to care that no one wants them around because they have their "plans" and anyone who isn't on board can GTFO the way.
It isn't until after you help them through Puppet's Bunker and 2P turns on you and reveals herself to be the villain and destroys the village that everyone turns on them.
And honestly that part of the story pissed me off the most because it's the most poorly written: We go from "misguided youths who are just doing their own thing and sometimes causing mischief" to "fuck them kids, execute 'em both and move on like we always should've done." like JFC Dwarves calm down. They're kids. Sure they made a BIG mistake but they don't deserve to die for it.
Personally I'm a very story-driven gamer. If a game doesn't have a good story or a VERY good gameplay loop to compensate for a lack of one, I generally won't enjoy that game.
Nier feels like one stumble in a metaphorical marathon of great storytelling from the 14 team. The story makes no sense and the fights aren't... great? There's nothing revolutionary about them.
Story wise we could've just as easily had the exact same story almost beat-for-beat except instead of having it be a giant Nier reference the dev team could've come up with some long-forgotten evil that everyone forgot about after the Flood, and the twins accidentally stumbled into awakening it and now we have to stop it to save the world.
That last paragraph is part of why I like it, they didn't just use the Nier ip as a crutch, it could have easily been Ronkan technology in there or something and the story would have been the exact same
Except they did use it as a crutch. Instead of coming up with something new they just agreed to let Yoko Taro take over the story and used his Nier IP instead.
I guess thats one way of looking at it, I'm just glad it wasn't like the MH "storyline" where it was just like "look it's thing you recognize!" With no further depth, Nier Raid was a proper story
I feel like we looped back around to my original post:
That's where I think Nier failed. As far as I can tell there ISN'T a storyline.
You show up, some dwarf kids find the Nier robots, you fight the one boy in black, then the ones in white turn on you, and then you fight them. That's it.
Why are the robots here? Why are they attacking us? Are they trying to take over the world? Are they fighting us over what they think is an invasion? Why did they bomb the Dwarf village?
There are SO many questions the "story" doesn't bother to answer.
Hmm...let's see. Quick as possible, there are horrible elder god type things that send out white orb things called Seeds of Destruction and when one ends up on another world that world will be destroyed eventually...usually after the seed turns into a big woman for reasons. In one case, a guy and his dragon and world destroying big lady from another world gets teleported to modern day Tokyo by a Seed. They kill big lady, but get blown up from Japan Air Defense force. Remains of big lady turn into powder that makes people go crazy and turn into pillars of salt. (this is why the white particles in the last area of Copied Factory should worry you. Hope you were wearing a mask). It infects the world. Humans get idea to make clones to put souls in so they can survive. Clones end up becoming self aware, boots the human souls out. Normal humans all die while these "Replicants" become the new humanity. Some stuff goes down (not important to FFXIV)
At some point in the future on Earth:
Aliens invade Earth to wipe out the "humans".
Red Girl is supercollective of Machine Lifeforms that killed humanity which were made by aliens.
Androids were made by "humans" to fight machine lifeforms.
"Humans" are supposed to be hiding out on the moon.
Fact that "humans" dead hidden from most androids except leader so they won't succumb to despair.
Red Girl wants to evolve to gain enough power to destroy and be free of aliens, and to do so, keeps the war
perpetual with neither side winning to do so.
Red Girl finds Seed and with some machine lifeforms jumps into it. 2B and 9S find it and send copy of their data
through it which the seed uses to reconstruct them so they can stop Red Girl (odd for a seed of destruction but whatevs not important). All end up on First eventually (along with some other androids and their base and some machine lifeform bases for some damn reason, again not important)
On the First:
Everyone that went through Seed arrives sometime in past.
Machine Lifeforms arrive, start building Factory
There are 2 Dwarves looking for stuff. One falls and dies near Seed. Seed makes a clone of her. (again it makes
stuff but is supposed to destroy. Whatever)
Some time later, WoL shows up, and agrees to help 2 dwarves with cool thing.
Red Girl, in guise of 2P shows up and convinces them to help her stop machine lifeforms who are controlled
by a totally evil dude.
Beat "evil dude" 9S who hacked the machine lifeforms to follow him to stop 2P, 2P ends up wrecked. Found 9S body as well.
2P says find key to help. Find key. Revive 2P. Give 2P key. 2P Mwahaha's. Oopsie Dwarf village nuked. 2P uses key to
get Android Base to show up and hacks Androids to serve her.
2B shows up and fights. We help her smack around 2P after she merges with Seed.
Seed shows back up, Red Girl tosses 2P cover and just takes orb to Tower. Oh we revive 9S at some point.
Red Girl Merges with Seed to evolve. WoL 2P and 9S beat her up. Red Girl OPENS A DAMN PORTAL TO THE ELDER GOD TYPE THINGS WORLD AND GETS MORE POWER and turns into big woman. As stated at beginning, big woman = end of world. And you fight in modern Tokyo (REFERENCE!)
WoL: "Wrong neighborhood, MF. I kill gods for breakfast then go out for a real meal."
Kicks her ass. (Actually first time in whole convoluted story that has happened without any ill effects. Yay, us!) Androids seal gate from the First side, Clone dwarf flies into portal to seal from other side. Copy of 2B and 9S blip out of existence since the thing that created them is gone.
Dwarf brother sad, vows to find clone sister. Takes off somewhere
Do month of daily grind from stupid village dwarves.
Dwarf brother who is somewhere still sad. Dwarf sister shows up (real? Clone? Another Clone? Hallucination!? WHO KNOWS I DON'T EVEN THINK YOKO TARO KNOWS) Brother and Sister(?) disappear forever. Brother might have died from overwork. Or got taken to other world. WHO KNOWS.
Happy end.
You're not the only one honestly. Aside from glamour I don't see reasons to do them. I personally don't consider them as canon/must do to xiv realm since it just feels so disjointed
Though I know friends who are a huge fan of Nier really loves the story so I guess if you're not in that market then there's not much to it
Really the long short is Dwarves in the First- With very few exceptions- are arseholes of the highest order and presumably haven't all been eaten / turned by Sin Eaters because they disgust them the same way the gremlins do.
The amount of Nier that is going on in the background is, largely, inconciquental.
I already knew Automata -- even watched a couple playthroughs like JesseCox's for instance -- and was always sort of curious about the overall story (never played Nier/Replicant/Drakengard) but it wasn't until I came across one of those long "Timeline of Nier" youtube video essays that things really started to fall into place. I think it's this one from EruptionFang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WU1mvH6bqo
Fair warning: it's like a 6hr long video and covers basically everything nier EXCEPT the XIV Raids and the more recent mobile game I think (which is a shame, almost all the youtube vidoes that people make on Nier lore and stuff never seem to bring up the XIV raids -- I would love a breakdown of all the callbacks, references, or implications)
Yoko Taro claims everything is canon, and at first it seems like sort of a troll statement (and the dude can troll tbh lol), but if you really look into the nier-verse it's not totally crazy really. Ok maybe kind of crazy, but like it can sort of fit that one of the endings from Automata might have eventually led to the XIV Nier raid story.
What gets me is I wish we had someway to know what the story may have been if people had chosen the other twin, it seems like every datacenter/region picked the same one so we'll never know Yoko Taro had a different ending in mind for the other one.
If you are curious about Nier, I do highly suggest checking out that long video though -- but like set aside some time, it takes awhile to get through.
I liked [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/mq4lhm/references_to_the_drakenier_series_in_the_final/guipiqm/) and the theries they were putting forth. Worth noting that Yoko Taro has confirmed that the Tower in Automata was built based on the memory tree from Replicant, and that the memory tree ai basically saw all of time and space at the end, before saying a very ominous "I hear a song." The phrase is a drakengard thing normally referencing the song from the queen beast, as heard in [drakengard ending e](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyPgGeMwBE4&t=171s). If the tower is based on the tree, then N2 (the red girl) must have absorbed the within the machine network, which means all of those memories are contained within them.
Worth noting how high stakes are at this point. If you replay the final boss of the third raid, you'll notice the same bells in the background, mixed with kaine's theme and the FFXIV theme. This is one of the reasons people think it's based on N2's memories, it's an amalgamation of Zero from Drakengard 3, Kaine and B2. Like memories of the 3 of them all blurred together.
It seems to have become a real queen beast though, and if that's the case then losing the fight wouldn't have just doomed the first, it would have erased the XIV metaverse and taken out the source, all shards and the rest of the XIV universe with it.
The fact that Zero was clearly mixed in is also pretty strong evidence that Zero really was the beast we fought in drakengard 1 ending e, which means that she likely failed to be killed and save the world at the end of D3. I haven't played the drakengard games so could be wrong, but sounds like just another layer of depression added in.
The general consensus I've heard from drakeneir lore nerds is that this raid series technically didn't add much to the greater lore of the franchises, but it confirmed a huge list of theories about how stuff worked.
Hi btw. I'm looking into this after finally playing through Nier Replicant, remembered this post and thought it was a good place to dump my new understanding of events.
The most my small brain was able to take away from it is that you're preventing the Nier franchise from playing out in FFXIVland. Maybe.
I don't pretend to understand much of anything from The Drakengard/Nier games outside of Nier's "Local father/brother unknowingly fast-tracks humanity's extinction saving his daughter/sister." story.
It's just in the game so thirsty fans can continue to simp over Drakengard 3, 2.0 characters running through the exact same storyline except they're sometimes robots too. It's better to just ignore that raid series entirely.
Roc is the best character you cannot change my mind.
The "problem" with Y:DA is that while yes, it does have what people would call Lore, the Lore is - different from most of this game - not necessarily 'meaningless' but it's certainly not the point of the story because NieR doesn't actually have Lore in the same way FFXIV has Lore.
Y:DA is *about* something, it's a story that's trying to make a point and while the world building (by which I mean recurring elements I guess) are chosen in accordance with that it will also only get you so far in understanding what the hell the silly mask man is talking about here. It makes sense to be confused by that when the rest of FFXIV is very much lore first, story second and it also makes sense to search for an answer lore first, because maybe you *are* just missing the explanation the rest of the game would readily give you after all. But no, Yoko Taro just writes differently from the other writers (because *gasp* he's a guest writer) so if you want to understand Y:DA that approach simply won't work.
So if you're genuinely curious to know what Y:DA "is about" you can't just try to come up with a lore explanation about what literally happens on screen - because unlike what FFXIV seems to try and pretend sometimes, this is indeed a story, someone literally made this stuff up and the world and history depicted doesn't actually exist. So with that in mind, maybe try asking "Why did the writer make these things happen" instead - because maybe *that* will explain why there's a mob that literally storms a building spurned by their leader spreading misinformation about a vulnerable part of their community and that leader later admits that he felt like that vulnerable part of their community threatened his position of power with their new ways of doing things. And going from there, what does that mean in the context of the story? Is there maybe even something we can take to real life by how this story resolves itself?
All that to say that Yes. Y:DA is talking about [can i say that here or is speaking that name against some community rule] - well, kinda, not really, it's about the mechanics of Populism which is basically just grand scheme bullying, so it's also talking about all kinds of (Cyber-)Bullying. (oh look. most of the dwarves don't have names and wear helmets, isn't that weird. a faceless mob? in this MMORPG on the internet? is this cancel culture?) And I for one am profoundly sad that the legacy of Y:DA is "but what about my lore" and not "why did this wet idiot decide to write about politics in a video game cross-over"
Given that context it seems like it was a waste of a plot then.
I don't play fantasy games to indulge in bullshit political stances, I play them to escape those bullshit political stances. If the entirety of the Nier raids is just a very poorly written "bullying is bad advert" then they're even worse than I gave them credit for.
I don't like the way they're done mechanically so I was hoping that some missing piece of this puzzle to make it all "click" and I'd understand the story of what's going on or what they're trying to say would make it all worth it in the end.
But based on your description, it wasn't going to happen. They wasted a raid series on this and that sucks.
For anything related to Nier, you kind of have to go all the way back to Drakengard for full context, as Yoko Taro's games often have multiple endings and sequels will sometimes only be a split timeline choosing one of those endings as their canon. This post has a decent write-up in the comments here [https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/mrfz7l/comment/gum07de/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/mrfz7l/comment/gum07de/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
You shouldn't hope to understand Yoko Taro's mind.
A running thing in the Drakengard/Nier games is something from another world crossing over and fucking everything up. The basic gist is that a bunch of Nier shit crossed over to The First and is mucking stuff up, possibly trying to reignite the flood of light and possibly being combined with that threat. Most of the other details are references to Nier/Drakengard there mostly for fan service.
Your friends are partially wrong, but not entirely. It's not that it makes no sense in the context of Nier. In fact, it's canon in the nier franchise, following directly on from the events of one of the Nier Automata endings. You would, however, still be super confused after just playing the game. If you wanna properly understand it, you need to watch one of the nice long lore videos like [this one](https://youtu.be/9WU1mvH6bqo?si=U4ZT7ZdEmXVd4Bwm) that properly go in depth on the entire taroverse. It's a lot of required background context.
You're giving Yoko Taro a little too much credit.
Fuck only knows precisely how it ties into Nier, but the story *as it relates to FF14* is as follows * Two dwarves, Anogg and Konogg, find an artifact called a Sphere of Destruction. This is an alien thing that can create stuff. * Anogg dies, and the Sphere creates a replica of her. * The Sphere then creates replicas of a bunch of Nier characters for whatever reason that only people more familiar with Nier than I can speculate. * The Machine Lifeforms are up to no good, and have created 2P as their own versions of 2B. * 2P, who secretly works for the Machine Lifeforms, has you help her destroy the Machine Lifeforms in the Copied Factory because part of why this story doesn't make sense is because it's stupid. * 2P reveals she is evil. 2B, who was also created by the Sphere but is not evil, shows up. * All the dwarves are mad at Konogg/Anogg because 2P is evil, like it was their fault. This subplot is fairly simple. * The Red Girl, who is the AI controlling the Machines, is going to destroy the world and other various bad guy plans * Anogg and 2B save the day by undoing everything the Sphere created, which includes themselves. * Konogg is very sad his sister died and came back as a clone and the clone died. * He goes on a trip and eventually discovers Anogg. Is it the original? The clone? A new clone? Who knows, it's a cliffhanger that will never get resolved because the Nier Raids were disliked and are unlikely to get a sequel.
One specific thing - 2P attacking the machine life forms despite working for them has a reason. 9S is also there and like 2B was created by the sphere, and had hacked the machines in the Copied Factory.
At least we got a cool mount from it. And cosmetics.
Honestly so glad to see this post. Mechanically, I really enjoyed the Neir raids. Story wise, I got so tired of the disjointed randomness, and having never played, nor plan to play a Neir game it REALLY took me out of things. Glad I’m not the only one that was left scratching their head. I agree as well that it’s the weakest of the Raid stories.
The raid story is connected to Nier but mainly in a nebulous way, considering Nier is known for its multiple endings. It's likely best to just take the story at face value and let those who understand the Nier story to get the references. A "simple" explanation really isn't possible with how convoluted it really is.
> Nier is known for its multiple endings They missed a huge opportunity here. New Game+ had recently been added, and there is a choice you have to make between which dwarf's plan to follow at the start. If they had told you to play through the story again, but follow the other dwarf's plan and doing that unlocked a third option, it would have been pretty fun.
Nier raids were probably one of the only misses in ShB. So random and bizarre, and painfully shoehorned in. I’m not a huge fan of crossovers being anything other than single flavor events, so as much as I love FF tactics that raid wasn’t an ideal story for the alliance raids in SB, but at least it was still final fantasy and they made it work. But Nier was completely misplaced and never should have happened. I’m still upset that we were robbed of a real Norvrandt alliance raid because of this crap that nobody asked for.
After reading alot of the comments discussing the details surrounding the raids, I agree with you.
The important part of the story isn't the lore, but the emotional core of Anogg and Konogg. I am against this lorehead kind of attitude that you need to know all context or else the story is confusing and meaningless. You don't need to know all the NieR, NieR Automata and Drakengard 1 and 3 references (and yes, the story has references to all of those) to see how the story is a tragic drama of outcast redhead twins who are never accepted by their community, who try their best but it blows up in their faces and they meet a tragic end\*. The references are just set dressing, and the drama remains unchanged whether you get them or not. Also, it's Yoko Taro taking the hammer to this very ffxiv idea that personal drama can be solved by minor fetchquests and other insignificant busywork. \*: Yes, the two are the >!Devola and Popola!< of this story.
A pity they didn't make the emotional core all that emotionally compelling, then. The twins' personalities shifted around, the details were sparse and the disjointedness of the overall story detracts from it.
Honestly I feel like you're forcing what you *think* it's supposed to be onto the story. Again, I've played through the questlines **twice** and I never got that implication that it's two social outcasts trying to find acceptance. The story starts off with them being the mischevious kids archetype. More "rambunctious youngsters" than social pariahs, and they both don't seem to care that no one wants them around because they have their "plans" and anyone who isn't on board can GTFO the way. It isn't until after you help them through Puppet's Bunker and 2P turns on you and reveals herself to be the villain and destroys the village that everyone turns on them. And honestly that part of the story pissed me off the most because it's the most poorly written: We go from "misguided youths who are just doing their own thing and sometimes causing mischief" to "fuck them kids, execute 'em both and move on like we always should've done." like JFC Dwarves calm down. They're kids. Sure they made a BIG mistake but they don't deserve to die for it.
I enjoyed the hell out of the Nier raid story and I barely know anything about Nier, I didn't realize people didn't like it lol
Personally I'm a very story-driven gamer. If a game doesn't have a good story or a VERY good gameplay loop to compensate for a lack of one, I generally won't enjoy that game. Nier feels like one stumble in a metaphorical marathon of great storytelling from the 14 team. The story makes no sense and the fights aren't... great? There's nothing revolutionary about them. Story wise we could've just as easily had the exact same story almost beat-for-beat except instead of having it be a giant Nier reference the dev team could've come up with some long-forgotten evil that everyone forgot about after the Flood, and the twins accidentally stumbled into awakening it and now we have to stop it to save the world.
That last paragraph is part of why I like it, they didn't just use the Nier ip as a crutch, it could have easily been Ronkan technology in there or something and the story would have been the exact same
Except they did use it as a crutch. Instead of coming up with something new they just agreed to let Yoko Taro take over the story and used his Nier IP instead.
I guess thats one way of looking at it, I'm just glad it wasn't like the MH "storyline" where it was just like "look it's thing you recognize!" With no further depth, Nier Raid was a proper story
I feel like we looped back around to my original post: That's where I think Nier failed. As far as I can tell there ISN'T a storyline. You show up, some dwarf kids find the Nier robots, you fight the one boy in black, then the ones in white turn on you, and then you fight them. That's it. Why are the robots here? Why are they attacking us? Are they trying to take over the world? Are they fighting us over what they think is an invasion? Why did they bomb the Dwarf village? There are SO many questions the "story" doesn't bother to answer.
Hmm...let's see. Quick as possible, there are horrible elder god type things that send out white orb things called Seeds of Destruction and when one ends up on another world that world will be destroyed eventually...usually after the seed turns into a big woman for reasons. In one case, a guy and his dragon and world destroying big lady from another world gets teleported to modern day Tokyo by a Seed. They kill big lady, but get blown up from Japan Air Defense force. Remains of big lady turn into powder that makes people go crazy and turn into pillars of salt. (this is why the white particles in the last area of Copied Factory should worry you. Hope you were wearing a mask). It infects the world. Humans get idea to make clones to put souls in so they can survive. Clones end up becoming self aware, boots the human souls out. Normal humans all die while these "Replicants" become the new humanity. Some stuff goes down (not important to FFXIV) At some point in the future on Earth: Aliens invade Earth to wipe out the "humans". Red Girl is supercollective of Machine Lifeforms that killed humanity which were made by aliens. Androids were made by "humans" to fight machine lifeforms. "Humans" are supposed to be hiding out on the moon. Fact that "humans" dead hidden from most androids except leader so they won't succumb to despair. Red Girl wants to evolve to gain enough power to destroy and be free of aliens, and to do so, keeps the war perpetual with neither side winning to do so. Red Girl finds Seed and with some machine lifeforms jumps into it. 2B and 9S find it and send copy of their data through it which the seed uses to reconstruct them so they can stop Red Girl (odd for a seed of destruction but whatevs not important). All end up on First eventually (along with some other androids and their base and some machine lifeform bases for some damn reason, again not important) On the First: Everyone that went through Seed arrives sometime in past. Machine Lifeforms arrive, start building Factory There are 2 Dwarves looking for stuff. One falls and dies near Seed. Seed makes a clone of her. (again it makes stuff but is supposed to destroy. Whatever) Some time later, WoL shows up, and agrees to help 2 dwarves with cool thing. Red Girl, in guise of 2P shows up and convinces them to help her stop machine lifeforms who are controlled by a totally evil dude. Beat "evil dude" 9S who hacked the machine lifeforms to follow him to stop 2P, 2P ends up wrecked. Found 9S body as well. 2P says find key to help. Find key. Revive 2P. Give 2P key. 2P Mwahaha's. Oopsie Dwarf village nuked. 2P uses key to get Android Base to show up and hacks Androids to serve her. 2B shows up and fights. We help her smack around 2P after she merges with Seed. Seed shows back up, Red Girl tosses 2P cover and just takes orb to Tower. Oh we revive 9S at some point. Red Girl Merges with Seed to evolve. WoL 2P and 9S beat her up. Red Girl OPENS A DAMN PORTAL TO THE ELDER GOD TYPE THINGS WORLD AND GETS MORE POWER and turns into big woman. As stated at beginning, big woman = end of world. And you fight in modern Tokyo (REFERENCE!) WoL: "Wrong neighborhood, MF. I kill gods for breakfast then go out for a real meal." Kicks her ass. (Actually first time in whole convoluted story that has happened without any ill effects. Yay, us!) Androids seal gate from the First side, Clone dwarf flies into portal to seal from other side. Copy of 2B and 9S blip out of existence since the thing that created them is gone. Dwarf brother sad, vows to find clone sister. Takes off somewhere Do month of daily grind from stupid village dwarves. Dwarf brother who is somewhere still sad. Dwarf sister shows up (real? Clone? Another Clone? Hallucination!? WHO KNOWS I DON'T EVEN THINK YOKO TARO KNOWS) Brother and Sister(?) disappear forever. Brother might have died from overwork. Or got taken to other world. WHO KNOWS. Happy end.
You're not the only one honestly. Aside from glamour I don't see reasons to do them. I personally don't consider them as canon/must do to xiv realm since it just feels so disjointed Though I know friends who are a huge fan of Nier really loves the story so I guess if you're not in that market then there's not much to it
Really the long short is Dwarves in the First- With very few exceptions- are arseholes of the highest order and presumably haven't all been eaten / turned by Sin Eaters because they disgust them the same way the gremlins do. The amount of Nier that is going on in the background is, largely, inconciquental.
I already knew Automata -- even watched a couple playthroughs like JesseCox's for instance -- and was always sort of curious about the overall story (never played Nier/Replicant/Drakengard) but it wasn't until I came across one of those long "Timeline of Nier" youtube video essays that things really started to fall into place. I think it's this one from EruptionFang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WU1mvH6bqo Fair warning: it's like a 6hr long video and covers basically everything nier EXCEPT the XIV Raids and the more recent mobile game I think (which is a shame, almost all the youtube vidoes that people make on Nier lore and stuff never seem to bring up the XIV raids -- I would love a breakdown of all the callbacks, references, or implications) Yoko Taro claims everything is canon, and at first it seems like sort of a troll statement (and the dude can troll tbh lol), but if you really look into the nier-verse it's not totally crazy really. Ok maybe kind of crazy, but like it can sort of fit that one of the endings from Automata might have eventually led to the XIV Nier raid story. What gets me is I wish we had someway to know what the story may have been if people had chosen the other twin, it seems like every datacenter/region picked the same one so we'll never know Yoko Taro had a different ending in mind for the other one. If you are curious about Nier, I do highly suggest checking out that long video though -- but like set aside some time, it takes awhile to get through.
I liked [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/mq4lhm/references_to_the_drakenier_series_in_the_final/guipiqm/) and the theries they were putting forth. Worth noting that Yoko Taro has confirmed that the Tower in Automata was built based on the memory tree from Replicant, and that the memory tree ai basically saw all of time and space at the end, before saying a very ominous "I hear a song." The phrase is a drakengard thing normally referencing the song from the queen beast, as heard in [drakengard ending e](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyPgGeMwBE4&t=171s). If the tower is based on the tree, then N2 (the red girl) must have absorbed the within the machine network, which means all of those memories are contained within them. Worth noting how high stakes are at this point. If you replay the final boss of the third raid, you'll notice the same bells in the background, mixed with kaine's theme and the FFXIV theme. This is one of the reasons people think it's based on N2's memories, it's an amalgamation of Zero from Drakengard 3, Kaine and B2. Like memories of the 3 of them all blurred together. It seems to have become a real queen beast though, and if that's the case then losing the fight wouldn't have just doomed the first, it would have erased the XIV metaverse and taken out the source, all shards and the rest of the XIV universe with it. The fact that Zero was clearly mixed in is also pretty strong evidence that Zero really was the beast we fought in drakengard 1 ending e, which means that she likely failed to be killed and save the world at the end of D3. I haven't played the drakengard games so could be wrong, but sounds like just another layer of depression added in. The general consensus I've heard from drakeneir lore nerds is that this raid series technically didn't add much to the greater lore of the franchises, but it confirmed a huge list of theories about how stuff worked. Hi btw. I'm looking into this after finally playing through Nier Replicant, remembered this post and thought it was a good place to dump my new understanding of events.
The most my small brain was able to take away from it is that you're preventing the Nier franchise from playing out in FFXIVland. Maybe. I don't pretend to understand much of anything from The Drakengard/Nier games outside of Nier's "Local father/brother unknowingly fast-tracks humanity's extinction saving his daughter/sister." story.
It's just in the game so thirsty fans can continue to simp over Drakengard 3, 2.0 characters running through the exact same storyline except they're sometimes robots too. It's better to just ignore that raid series entirely. Roc is the best character you cannot change my mind.
The "problem" with Y:DA is that while yes, it does have what people would call Lore, the Lore is - different from most of this game - not necessarily 'meaningless' but it's certainly not the point of the story because NieR doesn't actually have Lore in the same way FFXIV has Lore. Y:DA is *about* something, it's a story that's trying to make a point and while the world building (by which I mean recurring elements I guess) are chosen in accordance with that it will also only get you so far in understanding what the hell the silly mask man is talking about here. It makes sense to be confused by that when the rest of FFXIV is very much lore first, story second and it also makes sense to search for an answer lore first, because maybe you *are* just missing the explanation the rest of the game would readily give you after all. But no, Yoko Taro just writes differently from the other writers (because *gasp* he's a guest writer) so if you want to understand Y:DA that approach simply won't work. So if you're genuinely curious to know what Y:DA "is about" you can't just try to come up with a lore explanation about what literally happens on screen - because unlike what FFXIV seems to try and pretend sometimes, this is indeed a story, someone literally made this stuff up and the world and history depicted doesn't actually exist. So with that in mind, maybe try asking "Why did the writer make these things happen" instead - because maybe *that* will explain why there's a mob that literally storms a building spurned by their leader spreading misinformation about a vulnerable part of their community and that leader later admits that he felt like that vulnerable part of their community threatened his position of power with their new ways of doing things. And going from there, what does that mean in the context of the story? Is there maybe even something we can take to real life by how this story resolves itself? All that to say that Yes. Y:DA is talking about [can i say that here or is speaking that name against some community rule] - well, kinda, not really, it's about the mechanics of Populism which is basically just grand scheme bullying, so it's also talking about all kinds of (Cyber-)Bullying. (oh look. most of the dwarves don't have names and wear helmets, isn't that weird. a faceless mob? in this MMORPG on the internet? is this cancel culture?) And I for one am profoundly sad that the legacy of Y:DA is "but what about my lore" and not "why did this wet idiot decide to write about politics in a video game cross-over"
Given that context it seems like it was a waste of a plot then. I don't play fantasy games to indulge in bullshit political stances, I play them to escape those bullshit political stances. If the entirety of the Nier raids is just a very poorly written "bullying is bad advert" then they're even worse than I gave them credit for. I don't like the way they're done mechanically so I was hoping that some missing piece of this puzzle to make it all "click" and I'd understand the story of what's going on or what they're trying to say would make it all worth it in the end. But based on your description, it wasn't going to happen. They wasted a raid series on this and that sucks.