There is a lot to admire and pick apart in Nier: Automata, it’s a visual feast wrapped in an emotional soundtrack with solid gameplay and a story at its center that's thought-provoking, multi-layered, and a complete gut-punch at times.
It’s a fantastic return to form for Yoko Taro after his previous Nier game and it adds another layer to a long-running story that’s incredibly hard to talk about without running into spoiler territory. Talking about it doesn’t do it justice, and it’s worth playing it if you have the chance. But for those that just want some interesting facts, here’s everything you need to know about the Android organization and how YoRHa was made.
What Is YoRHa?
To start things off small, YoRHa is the name of the collective army of androids that were created by the Council of Humanity to fend off the seemingly unstoppable and infinite machine army of a hostile alien force that invaded Earth thousands of years ago.
YoRHa is comprised of hundreds of elite synthetic soldiers with godlike abilities that are highly trained for specific roles within a wider army. Stationed on the thirteenth orbital base above the planet, their home is known as the Bunker. It is a bastion protecting the last remnants of humanity squirreled away on the Moon, preserved in stasis.
Or so it seems.
Spoiler Warning
How Was YoRHa Made?
YoRHa first went into construction in 11937 at the height of the Machine War, its creation was led by an android named Zinnia, who whilst working aboard the sixth orbital base (a research station by that time) continually improved and perfected the android design. He would eventually create the black box system which preserved android battle data and memories using Machine Cores, though this would make them not true “androids” and often led to those with a black box being ostracized from the other bots in the army.
To counter this, Zinnia came up with a plan to unite this seemingly immortal fighting force. His scheme essentially involved creating a religion, with the idea of putting a “God” above those fighting below, building a faith concept amongst the masses, reinvigorating low morale, and uniting them around a singular cause in which to perform all sorts of questionable acts for the greater good.
After the android base on the moon was established by 5100 as a repository for all knowledge and what barely remained of humanity's genome, things went into full swing. A myth was created that humans were alive and well on the moon and their return depended solely on the victory of their creations.
The Grand Facade
The grand plan of the androids to bring back humanity and wipe the Earth clean of machines to create a new Eden for them were sadly all a lie. Humans were completely wiped out at the climax of the war and with the failure of Project Gestalt in the original Nier, humanity has apparently become extinct. There is no safe haven on the moon and the androids have, completely unbeknownst to them, been fighting a proxy war for corpses for thousands of years. But what’s equally disturbing is, there are no aliens left alive either.
As the story for Nier: Automata plays out over multiple playthroughs, it’s discovered that at one point the alien machines turned on their masters, developing sentience, much like the androids would eventually do (albeit to a lesser extent). But unlike the androids, the machines are very much aware of the demise of their former leaders. As was noted by Adam and Eve who referred to the aliens as “infantile” and only caring about spreading themselves across worlds, growing their influence like weeds amongst the stars.
The Endless Cycle
With these grand revelations uncovered the story of Nier: Automata becomes one of an endless cycle of violence, with neither side willing, nor wanting, to be crowned the victor. The second they do, they lose all purpose.
For the androids, they wish to wipe out machines for “the glory of mankind”, but it’s a pointless endeavor as humans are gone. Though this earth-shattering information is found out from the perspective of the android 9S, we’re also told that it’s not the first time he’s dug this up, with each revelation resulting in him being executed and his memory reset by his partner 2B. And so he plays out his pitiful part in this painful loop, again and again.
Machines are likewise stuck in a similar conundrum as their original programming was for them to just fight and evolve, but if the androids are wiped out they won’t manage that either, As machine evolution on its own can often result in instability. So both sides were essentially stuck in an endless stalemate.
Will The Cycle End?
Though these events played out for thousands of years, by the time Nier: Automata's story rolls around, there are signs that things are starting to fall apart. When Zinnia originally thought up of creating YoRHa, he was assassinated shortly afterward by a prototype No. 9 unit, who then installed a backdoor in the Android code.
This breach would allow the machines in the future to eventually hack their way into the android network using a Logic Virus to compromise it, take control, and shut everything down. But, this was also planned for as it was a failsafe should humanity’s ninjas from space be too good at their job of wiping out the machines. Because once they did they would immediately discover that they had been fighting and dying for a lie.
These events were part of a much grander cycle, as those forces obliterated in the conflict were to be replaced by much stronger and more enhanced soldiers. Endless fighting generates endless amounts of combat data for either YoRHa or the machines, with everything collected up until that point only serving to further fuel the war in perpetuity.
And so both sides remain, stuck in a conflict neither can win because victory creates a paradox.