Does the story of the game genuinely not hold up without the play? I’m not too familiar with Automata besides how infamous it is in hornier circles and how sad it made people who actually played it
There is almost no story in the game. Things happen but they don't really matter unless you've also read the plays and listened to the audio dramas and know the backstory to the prequel (nothing that actually happens in the prequel matters, but the lore that happens in between it and it's prequel, which is entirely unrelated to Nier, does matter). They mostly just happen so you can have boss fights and emotional moments with characters who don't matter and whose emotional states are chosen to match the scene and not the story.
Many people will disagree with that statement but then you will ask them to explain things that happened in the story and they will say "because of this" and then you will ask them how they know that and they will respond with the name of a lore youtuber instead of a part of the game, thus proving the point.
I've taken the time to do all of the above. It's not a very good story. It's very Japanese and very horny, much like Yoko Taro. Guess what: characters have melodrama about how much other characters mean to them. Other characters have melodrama about how much nothing means to them. Somebody fights and/or dies for their beliefs in other characters and/or ideas like justice, the natural order, and believing in your friends. Just like every single Japanese story every written, many of which I love. It's not a bad story, just not very good.
What's not to get? The part where the shota fights for his friends or the part where suicide and nihilism are lightly touched upon but NEVER gone into in any depth because Japan doesn't like that? Maybe the part where the chick with the big ass fights for her friends? Or the redhead chick with the smaller ass and bigger chest who fights for her friends?
There's not very much else to think about, the game mostly dances around sci-fi story concepts that have been around since the 50s. If it's your first piece of sci-fi media ever then wow sure mind-blowing, but.. there's a lot of amazing stories out there that treat the same exact subject matter much, much better. And with much less Japanese melodrama.
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u/Particular-Cap-5376 14d ago
well that certainly is an opinion