{"id":30997,"date":"2017-06-10T06:11:10","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T13:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/nier-automata-zig-zags-through-an-expectation-obstacle-course\/"},"modified":"2017-06-10T06:11:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T13:11:10","slug":"nier-automata-zig-zags-through-an-expectation-obstacle-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/nier-automata-zig-zags-through-an-expectation-obstacle-course\/","title":{"rendered":"“Nier: Automata” zig-zags through an expectation obstacle course"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We take stories for\u00a0granted.<\/p>\n

We have heard too many. When someone starts telling us a new story, our brain starts looking for blanks to fill in, tendencies to\u00a0follow.<\/p>\n

Aliens have invaded Earth. You are the last line of\u00a0defense.<\/em><\/p>\n

That gave you some images. You, fighting amidst your fleeing people, trying to hold the menace back with your tragi-comically underpowered weapons, waiting for the designers to grant you godlike access to a\u00a0BFG.<\/p>\n

Aliens have invaded Earth. The remaining humans fled to the moon centuries ago. You are the avenging force, fighting against the remnants from the original invasion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Different images. Cities abandoned long ago, rusted vehicles littering the landscape, a toughened humanity having hundreds of years to adapt, ready to finally push away an enemy that has failed to wipe them\u00a0out.<\/p>\n

We take stories for granted. We hear a synopsis and immediately get expectations. We try to fit them into mental boxes we have, continually engorging yet diminishing in\u00a0numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know all this<\/em>\u201d, our brain is saying, brushing off the things it expects. \u201cNow tell me the part I don\u2019t\u00a0know<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

On a good game, mechanics tell a story too. Mechanics are expectations gone visceral because they are the things you do, the ways you interact with the world. \u201cWhen I do this, that happens; when I do that, I get rewarded in that\u00a0way<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Subverting expectations should be an artist\u2019s job. Going around, kicking boxes, spilling their contents, mixing up the neatly classified colored balls into an engaging spectrum, stacking them up into a shape we could have created ourselves but didn\u2019t think\u00a0of.<\/p>\n

Nier: Automata<\/em> is art. It switches styles a few times in its first few minutes, surprising you, telling you not to get too comfortable. The introduction ends in the exact opposite way of most tutorial levels. The story seems cobbled together of random ideas, hints that the is another narrative than the one the game and its characters are telling you, comes together in ways you could not have seen coming. Its environments mutate. Its throwaway items have a background. Enemies change, characters that you expect will be major antagonists never come back, it has unexplained moments. Entire game mechanics discarded after one use. But it all makes sense, fits as a finely-woven action-game fever dream. It tells us about their compulsory ennui and shows their rich relationships. It\u2019s clear their eyes are wide open below the blindfold, even as it ends too soon, just as you\u2019re getting comfortable with their\u00a0world.<\/p>\n

It nudges you to play it again, stating there are different endings. It creates the expectation that you\u2019ll get outcomes based on a few decision points. If you want to see it all, you\u2019ll need to grind through the same story again, change how you\u00a0act.<\/p>\n

Me? I humor\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

And then I hear the whooshing sound it makes as it dashes past my expectations, turn just in time to see it pointing back at them, a toothy grin on its wide-open face.<\/p>\n

Originally published at <\/em>filmsnark.tumblr.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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We take stories for\u00a0granted. We have heard too many. When someone starts telling us a new story, our brain starts looking for blanks to fill in, tendencies to\u00a0follow. Aliens have invaded Earth. You are the last line of\u00a0defense. That gave you some images. You, fighting amidst your fleeing people, trying to hold the menace back… Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174,377,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-media","category-gaming","category-general-info"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t