Is Mission 2-S inspired by NieR: Automata?

[NYCWallCrawler]

Hey spider-folk!
I'm relatively new to Ultrakill, and have been going through all the secret missions. I beat Mission 2-S and was wondering if it had been inspired by NieR.

(spoilers for mission 2-S and NieR)

It starts off with a black screen with white text, depicting a horror scene with existential undertones; a very similar storytelling strategy is used in sections of NieR Replicant.

Next is the scene with Mirage, featuring a dating-sim like section. I have little to say about this, however I could see there being a connection to how Automata presents itself as a shallow game with hot androids, but has MUCH deeper themes.

Afterwards, Mirage descends into an existential dread, speaking about the inevitability of death and the pointlessness of living our lives in this world. V1 responds by presenting the viewpoint of meaninglessness as a gift, rather than a curse, and how it allows "us" to find meaning in arbitrary things. This is almost the exact message that Automata delivers by the end of the game. Granted, it is a somewhat common viewpoint regarding existentialism, but it delivers the message in a very similar way.

Mirage and V1's conversation shifts into speaking of such a viewpoint as illogical and therefore invalid (from a machine's standpoint), however as a result of "us" assigning meaning to meaningless things, emotions and logic become 'interlinked.' This is strikingly similar to a conversation between Pods 042 and 153 at the end of route E of Automata, as they find embarrassment (or emotions in general) to be pointless, and yet they indulge in it anyway because they find it meaningful. The similarities here are pretty clear, not to mention both conversations take place between machines (a "male" and "female" at that)... arbitrary lifeforms.

Lastly, Mirage says "I feel like I've just shed the weight of the world off my back. Or rather, you've done it for me." "Weight of the World" is the final soundtrack that plays at the very end of Automata, as the credits roll. While this could be a red herring, but it seems to line up almost TOO well. Furthermore, the song, as well as the credits scene in Automata expound upon the message the game delivers, stating that the so-called 'weight of the world' is too much for one person to bear, but can be held up if done together. This connects back to Mirage's incapability of escaping existential dread alone.

NieR is one of my favorite games, so I'd love to know if there's a connection here, or if I'm just crazy. Any responses are appreciated :)

-SM

[john evil, inventor of evil]

i don't believe so

i'm pretty sure hakita just wanted to make a dating sim for the lust layer, and had it go to ♥♥♥♥ like that one dating sim game that i will not name

hakita said in the first dev stream (correct me if im wrong) that it was the struggles he himself went through and the things that helped him get through it

[garry]

it's just ddlc supplemented by real life existential horrors. cool headcanon, though, spider... people(???)