We Need to Talk About Pascal [True Ending Spoilers]

[HassleDuff]

Gonna talk about Ending E and the fate of Pascal, to keep in mind.

So after all the lies and atrocities that happen in the third act, the game gives a little mercy by having my OTP Pod 153 and Pod 042 take parts and memories of the last few YoRHa Androids so they can be revived. Hurray, the sexy androids are back (assuming they don't kill each other after they wake up)! Except Pascal is still doomed, and that's the most frustrating outcome I'm having with the experience.

He still lost his whole village, all his children either killed themselves or were destroyed by other beings, everything he fought for and his entire belief of a better tomorrow remains irreparably shattered. He still failed. When I met the ever affable Pascal and his tribe, I knew something bad's gonna happen to him. I anticipated him to die, but the actual outcome is even worse than I anticipated. Technically, there's an option to kill him, but I ended up choosing the Memory Wipe option. But by doing that, he'll remain alone with no purpose, avoiding the hopelessness that affected him. I played a lot of games with depressing outcomes, but this...this SUCKS!

This is part of why I think the game's true ending is more of a pyrrhic victory. Sure, the main threat is gone (whether by destroying the machine empire or they go to space), but YoRHa or Council of Humanity or whatever's on the Moon is still there. The lie remains intact, and now the surviving androids have no base to backup their memories, so their bodies and personas are now finite. I get the feeling the next NieR title will have these machines decay over the years, and that there will be a religion forming en masse as a result of the illusion that the All-Mighty Humanity exists. And if 9S has his way, he's gonna preach against that lie, he's gonna have his followers, and thus they'll have a Holy War. Yoko Taro has to have some kind of material for the next downbeat installment.

Why am I reminded of Casshern Sins all of a sudden?

[超高校級のEther]

Pascal is dead, and memorized by the followers. They named a new programming language after him.
Long live Pascal.

[Young Erusean Officer]

It is a happy ending by Yoko Taro's standards. The real feels will come in the next Nier when we found what happened to them after Automata.

As for Pascal, I believe wiping his memory of what happened in the factory is better than let him suffer until he dies.

[AD33L]

Pascal was/is a good dude.

[HassleDuff]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Huemaster:

It is a happy ending by Yoko Taro's standards. The real feels will come in the next Nier when we found what happened to them after Automata.

After reading up on what I think is from the previous game (haven't played the first NieR fully), maybe you're right. Not that I had to play it to expect that Humanity has long been perished; YoRHa didn't do swell job hiding it from this player's perspective.

[M3gadeuce]

Forgive me, I havent gotten ending E yet, but how will there be a sequel to this game? Seems to me so far like everything dies.

[Bombast]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von M3gadeuce:

Forgive me, I havent gotten ending E yet, but how will there be a sequel to this game? Seems to me so far like everything dies.

Well... we'd have to tell you ending E for that.

E Ending Spoilers, Whee!

The Pods bring 2B, A2, and 9S back to life, and the machines all gather themselves up into an Ark and shoot themselves into space to find a planet without war.

That said, I'm really hoping they don't make a direct sequel, and I find everyone's drive to have one ill considered.

[HassleDuff]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Bombast:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von M3gadeuce:

Forgive me, I havent gotten ending E yet, but how will there be a sequel to this game? Seems to me so far like everything dies.

Well... we'd have to tell you ending E for that.

E Endings Spoilers, Whee!

The Pods bring 2B, A2, and 9S back to life, and the machines are gather themselves up into an Ark and shoot themselves into space to find a planet without war.

That said, I'm really hoping they don't make a direct sequel, and I find everyone's drive to have one ill considered.

That last spoiler one is only one of two possible endings, putting aside the ending set for E.

And I don't think Yoko Taro would want to make a direct sequel, and really, what's there to tell immediately? All there is here is leaving impact to what'll happen generations later. That seems to be his plan.

[Trypetide]

The guy just created an entire series of games just by using a "joke" ending:
from "Drag-on Dragoon E ending" came "NieR" and finally "NieR:Automata".

http://nier.wikia.com/wiki/Timelines

So you can REALLY expect anything from Yoko Taro =D

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It could be something akin to NieR:Automata, that takes place in the same universe -with some ties directly liking past games- but that you can still enjoy without extensive knowledges of it.

Depends also on something easily predictable: Squeenix using the "NieR" IP to its fullest~