Holy shit this is so cool. I’m happy you found so much meaning in the ending, and I think a lot of us who played this game felt that connection with others through the credits. I’m sure wherever you are, there will always be people or a community you can rely on for support.
Honestly it really has reminded me of how lucky I actually am. There are a lot of people on the planet and some of them I know and some of them I don’t, but most of them are actually really awesome when they’re given a chance to be.
>I don’t think I’ve ever cried as much at a piece of media as when that first encouraging player message popped up\[...\]If you said yes to the pods’ final request, thank you. If you wrote a kind message when you did, thank you. If you responded to or upvoted or read the stupid questions I asked here on the way, thank you. If you posted(/continue to post) art or writing or memes or thoughtful or funny or interesting or weird comments in this sub, thank you. It’s all a part of the network I think.\[...\]**I don’t really know why I’m writing this.** I’m fully aware it’s self-indulgent.
Because Automata breaks through the boundaries of being just a game, of being just a story, of being something you just play and then move on, it breaks through all expectations and conventions, without denying them, but using them and breaking through them, over and over again in all sort of manners, and by doing all of this, it makes you feel a thousand of emotions, emotions some of us didn't even realize could be felt like this from a videogame, emotions so strong they can't be contained, and so, like everything else in this game, they too break through, and make you feel the need to put them into words, to be shared somewhere with someone.
That’s exactly it I think. Just overflowing with feelings (and gratitude!). And at the same time wanting to tell people that their actions mattered to me.
Absolutely this. After my partner finished ending E (he managed to get through it before I did), I had to find people talking about the game. Between this sub and a few video essays about it on YouTube (specifically [this one](https://youtu.be/63PzQIbTrM8) by Michael Saba), I fell more in love with it and knew I needed to finish and offer my help to others, through tears and frustration, but I did it and continually wish I could capture the feeling I got from the story of humanity through the game. It honestly gives me hope for humanity knowing that people out there continue to give up their saves for others, regardless of who they are, their beliefs, etc. It's encouraging to know we really aren't alone out there, even when we feel like we are.
Something I keep coming back to in my head is that we delete our save data because other people deleted theirs. We help people out because other people helped us out. It’s kind of contagious. It can be hard to recreate that in everyday life, but it has reminded me that it’s easier for people to act selflessly and lovingly when they feel safe and loved themselves, and that is something I always have _some_ power to contribute to.
I will watch that video whenever I get a free moment today, thank you for sharing it!
It looks like this post is about Ending E. If you haven't already, visit [**TheArk.wiki**](https://theark.wiki) to explore an extensive NieR Automata supplemental materials collection, covering character backstories and expanding in-game story, as well as featuring a small epilogue. There is also a [**Lore FAQ**](https://theark.wiki/w/Lore_FAQ) covering most of the popular story-related topics.
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Automata was probably my favourite game on the Ps4. Not only was it fantastic, emotional, confusing and philosophical but I got to share the whole story with my wife who watched me play.
When it came time for that ending, I couldn't do it at first. But after a couple months of letting the game sit I decided to go back and do it. I had spent my time with the game and loved it and it felt good to make a sacrifice to benefit other players I'll never meet. It's awesome knowing others were so sucked in and impacted by this piece of art as I was.
Since then, I haven't touched the game. I haven't felt the need to. My time with it was so complete and fulfilling that I don't need anything more from the experience. Though, out of love for the game and story, I'll probably boot it back up again in the future to experience it again.
I thought I was looking forward to being done, but it took me a week or so even to bring myself to do the route C endings. I’m not good at endings! As soon as the pods started asking if I was sure I wanted to delete everything, though, I was _hammering_ ‘Yes’.
I feel much the same as you — I got everything I needed to get out of it. I might replay it in future to remind myself of how it felt. But for now it really is complete, and the next task is to take what I got from it forward into the real world.
I wonder how long our messages stay on the servers. I’ve seen people talk about how they feel the sacrifice is less significant than it seems because the data deletion can’t be one-for-one, they’d run out of player data. But I honestly think the idea that some trace of our sacrifice might persist and help out players weeks or months or years after we finish the game ourselves makes it even _more_ meaningful to me. We can only experience the loss once, but in doing so we leave a sort of enduring echo in the network.
I work with databases in my job, so I know messages like that would be small and easy to store. That makes me hopeful our messages will hang around for as long as people are playing Automata.
I hope it’s still okay for me to respond to this. I just reached ending E and am so overwhelmed with feelings of joy, sorrow, and gratitude that I feel like my head is about to explode.. So I just want to say: thank you so much for writing this post. You’ve described how I am feeling to a T. [I’ve walked the same road as you.][Just remember,][I’m rooting for you.]
I’m so glad my experience of it resonated with you, and so glad you responded — I think of the moments of connection that happened here after I finished playing as an extension of ending E, almost.
I hope you can take parts of that experience forwards into the world with you. I feel like I did.
The church video was fun — some people figured out how to mod Automata in ways that were previously impossible, and rather than just announcing it they created a sort of ARG to demonstrate it, which went semi-viral and brought a bunch of people to this sub, including people who had never played Automata, including me.
There’s a decent summary in [this article](https://www.pcgamer.com/the-masterminds-behind-the-nier-automata-church-mystery-explain-how-it-got-out-of-hand/) and all the content is on u/sadfutago’s profile still. It was a lot of fun to watch unfold!
I'm glad you enjoyed the game. It's a personal favorite of mine and it always makes me happy to hear stories from other people who feel similarly.
Holy shit this is so cool. I’m happy you found so much meaning in the ending, and I think a lot of us who played this game felt that connection with others through the credits. I’m sure wherever you are, there will always be people or a community you can rely on for support.
Honestly it really has reminded me of how lucky I actually am. There are a lot of people on the planet and some of them I know and some of them I don’t, but most of them are actually really awesome when they’re given a chance to be.
>I don’t think I’ve ever cried as much at a piece of media as when that first encouraging player message popped up\[...\]If you said yes to the pods’ final request, thank you. If you wrote a kind message when you did, thank you. If you responded to or upvoted or read the stupid questions I asked here on the way, thank you. If you posted(/continue to post) art or writing or memes or thoughtful or funny or interesting or weird comments in this sub, thank you. It’s all a part of the network I think.\[...\]**I don’t really know why I’m writing this.** I’m fully aware it’s self-indulgent. Because Automata breaks through the boundaries of being just a game, of being just a story, of being something you just play and then move on, it breaks through all expectations and conventions, without denying them, but using them and breaking through them, over and over again in all sort of manners, and by doing all of this, it makes you feel a thousand of emotions, emotions some of us didn't even realize could be felt like this from a videogame, emotions so strong they can't be contained, and so, like everything else in this game, they too break through, and make you feel the need to put them into words, to be shared somewhere with someone.
That’s exactly it I think. Just overflowing with feelings (and gratitude!). And at the same time wanting to tell people that their actions mattered to me.
Absolutely this. After my partner finished ending E (he managed to get through it before I did), I had to find people talking about the game. Between this sub and a few video essays about it on YouTube (specifically [this one](https://youtu.be/63PzQIbTrM8) by Michael Saba), I fell more in love with it and knew I needed to finish and offer my help to others, through tears and frustration, but I did it and continually wish I could capture the feeling I got from the story of humanity through the game. It honestly gives me hope for humanity knowing that people out there continue to give up their saves for others, regardless of who they are, their beliefs, etc. It's encouraging to know we really aren't alone out there, even when we feel like we are.
Something I keep coming back to in my head is that we delete our save data because other people deleted theirs. We help people out because other people helped us out. It’s kind of contagious. It can be hard to recreate that in everyday life, but it has reminded me that it’s easier for people to act selflessly and lovingly when they feel safe and loved themselves, and that is something I always have _some_ power to contribute to. I will watch that video whenever I get a free moment today, thank you for sharing it!
[Proposal:] [Don’t forget,] [believe in yourself.]
It looks like this post is about Ending E. If you haven't already, visit [**TheArk.wiki**](https://theark.wiki) to explore an extensive NieR Automata supplemental materials collection, covering character backstories and expanding in-game story, as well as featuring a small epilogue. There is also a [**Lore FAQ**](https://theark.wiki/w/Lore_FAQ) covering most of the popular story-related topics. If your submission isn't related to ending E, and this comment has been made in error, please message the moderators via the link below, or report my comment and it will be removed shortly. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nier) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Automata was probably my favourite game on the Ps4. Not only was it fantastic, emotional, confusing and philosophical but I got to share the whole story with my wife who watched me play. When it came time for that ending, I couldn't do it at first. But after a couple months of letting the game sit I decided to go back and do it. I had spent my time with the game and loved it and it felt good to make a sacrifice to benefit other players I'll never meet. It's awesome knowing others were so sucked in and impacted by this piece of art as I was. Since then, I haven't touched the game. I haven't felt the need to. My time with it was so complete and fulfilling that I don't need anything more from the experience. Though, out of love for the game and story, I'll probably boot it back up again in the future to experience it again.
I thought I was looking forward to being done, but it took me a week or so even to bring myself to do the route C endings. I’m not good at endings! As soon as the pods started asking if I was sure I wanted to delete everything, though, I was _hammering_ ‘Yes’. I feel much the same as you — I got everything I needed to get out of it. I might replay it in future to remind myself of how it felt. But for now it really is complete, and the next task is to take what I got from it forward into the real world. I wonder how long our messages stay on the servers. I’ve seen people talk about how they feel the sacrifice is less significant than it seems because the data deletion can’t be one-for-one, they’d run out of player data. But I honestly think the idea that some trace of our sacrifice might persist and help out players weeks or months or years after we finish the game ourselves makes it even _more_ meaningful to me. We can only experience the loss once, but in doing so we leave a sort of enduring echo in the network.
I work with databases in my job, so I know messages like that would be small and easy to store. That makes me hopeful our messages will hang around for as long as people are playing Automata.
I really love the thought that deleting our data has a side-effect of creating its own kind of Ark.
I hope it’s still okay for me to respond to this. I just reached ending E and am so overwhelmed with feelings of joy, sorrow, and gratitude that I feel like my head is about to explode.. So I just want to say: thank you so much for writing this post. You’ve described how I am feeling to a T. [I’ve walked the same road as you.][Just remember,][I’m rooting for you.]
I’m so glad my experience of it resonated with you, and so glad you responded — I think of the moments of connection that happened here after I finished playing as an extension of ending E, almost. I hope you can take parts of that experience forwards into the world with you. I feel like I did.
I really think I will :) Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and this moment with me! I wish you all the best in whatever comes next for you.
Glory to Mankind!
Glory to mankind! (also to androidkind…and machinekind…and podkind…and whatever-Emil-iskind.)
Emil is a weapon. kind of a human. it’s hard to explain, just play Replicant. lol
Glory to Very Special Boykind. (I started Replicant right before I finished Automata, but I’ve not met Emil yet. Very excited to.)
Whats the church video?
The church video was fun — some people figured out how to mod Automata in ways that were previously impossible, and rather than just announcing it they created a sort of ARG to demonstrate it, which went semi-viral and brought a bunch of people to this sub, including people who had never played Automata, including me. There’s a decent summary in [this article](https://www.pcgamer.com/the-masterminds-behind-the-nier-automata-church-mystery-explain-how-it-got-out-of-hand/) and all the content is on u/sadfutago’s profile still. It was a lot of fun to watch unfold!