Before I present my understanding of the game, please know that I wholeheartedly recommend this game. The gameplay is very satisfying as most of it is hack-and-slash combat. However, there is a heavy bullet hell aspect to the game that can be frustrating. Still, the story and gameplay make every frustrating moment worth it to me. Also, there is a lot of game and you can choose how much of it you actually want to tackle. Go and play the game but if you do not want to, please allow me to adequately explain the game.
I’m just going to declare SPOILERS here.
The Androids
The androids are sophisticated machines built to serve the human race. Long ago the humans left Earth and settled on the Moon after aliens destroyed the planet. They androids to mine the Earth to send resources to the Moon. There are two groups of androids in the game. There are the YoRHa forces which are elite androids meant for elite military service. The other group of androids are the Resistance who stay planetside to mine and collect resources. The Resistance also has ongoing salvaging operations of old world weapons of war for use in the constant ground war on Earth. YoRHa and the Resistance work together both providing support for each other. Oh, and YoRHa memories are stored in their swords.
The following are the playable characters of the game. You get a new one each time you beat the game. Basically, the game has three routes. Route A as 2B, Route B as 9S taking place at the same time as Route A, and Route C/D where you play as 9S and A2 after the events of the A and B.
Unit 2B (Battle) - This is the first playable character of the game. 2B presents as a hot female combat unit in a goth dress. She often tries to act emotionless but that is because she cannot get close to others because of her real designation. She is Unit 2E (Execution) and is tasked with eliminating any YoRHa android who gets too close to figuring out YoRHa’s secret. She spends much of her time fighting hand-to-hand with anime-style swordplay. She and 9S eventually become more than partners.
Unit 9S (Scanner) - This is the second playable character of the game. 9S presents as a hot anime boy who is built more for reconnaissance and backup. He is more naive and acts like an excited puppy through much of the game. 9S (who likes friends to call him Nines) is not as good at melee combat but instead uses hacking skills to damage or take over enemies.
Unit A2 (Automata) - This is the third playable character. A2 presents as a disheveled yet hot anime woman. She was one of the predecessor units that led to the design of both the B and S series. She has severed ties with YoRHa after learning their secret which earns her a destroy-on-sight order. In the latter part of the story, a dying 2B begs her to be a hero and she inherits 2B’s sword and memories which push her into being more heroic than her apathetic self.
The Machines
The Machine lifeforms are a constantly evolving threat put on the planet by aliens seeking to destroy humans. Early in the game, 2B and 9S state that the machines have no emotions and are just repeating random data they learned from human records. However, this is very quickly disproven as the player meets many machines who think and feel just like androids. The only real difference is that machines are generally more clunky in appearance and movement. However, there are some truly deadly machines still in the world.
The Truth
There is no real difference between the androids and machines other than who created them. This is illustrated when the machines give birth to Adam (and then Eve). It is also proven when the machines develop a logic virus that is able to infect androids as well. Machines and androids have equivalent memory core systems that allow them to be rebuilt if this “black box” survives combat. Machines are aggressive toward androids because they are all networked together and instructed to fight androids. The machines that have disconnected from that network are practically pacifists and actually cooperate with androids. Also, there are no humans alive on the Moon. Humans went extinct and a server was established in an abandoned moonbase to fake humanity’s survival. The aliens are also long dead and never even met any humans. The machines turned on their alien masters and slaughtered them all.
I will not explain the entire plot (which feels like an allegory for racism and the futility of war) but here are a few moments that really got to me.
Simone
2B and 9S are tasked by The Resistance to check out a disturbance at the ruins of a nearby amusement park. The two androids are confused when they find that the machine denizens of the park are all peaceful and are more interested in partying and entertaining guests than fighting. However, typically aggressive androids are coming from the opera house on the grounds. When 9S and 2B arrive, they are confronted by a giant machine named Simone who is patterned after an opera singer. During the second cycle of gameplay, we learn that Simone was a normal machine until she became obsessed with a machine named Jean-Paul.
Simone tried to woo Jean-Paul but he remained aloof so Simone researched romance. She came to the conclusion that the problem was that she was just not beautiful enough for Jean-Paul. She began to consume other machines and use their parts to reform her body into something grander and more beautiful. When that did not work, she started to also consume androids. She gained the ability to remotely control dead androids. Her combat encounter is timed to her musical performance as she uses her own body, energy blasts, and also crucified androids as turrets.
What is worse is that the player can later meet Jean-Paul who is a jackass philosopher slacker who treats women like dirt. Other female machines are obsessed with him but he treats them the same as Simone. Of course, the two characters are named after philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
The Birth of Adam and Eve
When 9S and 2B are sent to the ruins of a housing project in the desert, they find a nest of strange machines. These machines are very afraid of the androids. When 2B and 9S find the main nest, they find that the machines are busy performing what looks like a crude and clumsy simulation of human sex. When 2B and 9S attack, the machines declare that “This. Cannot. Continue.” and they spontaneously form into what can only be described as a giant egg/womb. Out of this, the machine Adam is born.
Adam looks just like an android and is the product of the continuously evolving machine lifeforms. As a new form of machine life, he is immediately impetuous and childlike. Still, 2B and 9S are startled by his ability to rapidly evolve in real time to counter the android’s attacks. During this battle, Adam’s twin brother Eve climbs out of one of Adam’s wounds. The newborn Eve goes berserk at his brother’s injuries and 2B and 9S are forced to flee as the terrain starts to crumble from the damage. This moment starts to throw everything established early in the game into the trash.
Apples of Knowledge
As Adam convalesces from their first battle, he tries to better himself and Eve so that they can better fight the androids. They start wearing human clothes and reading human books while getting a lot of the wrong messages from what they are studying. The two androids feel like infants who are trying to figure out how to act without parents available to teach them. Adam and Eve eventually draw in 2B and 9S for more combat. However, Adam is eventually slain in one of these fights.
This causes Eve to become unhinged in his grief and swear revenge. In the aftermath of a hard battle, Eve is able to kidnap 9S and torture him. He draws in 2B for a final showdown which 2B wins so that she can recover 9S. A heavily damaged and even further unhinged Eve causes the machine network to become even more aggressive. 9S decides to forcefully disconnect Eve from the network while 2B keeps him busy. While 9S is successful, this act releases a logic virus which will be a major problem for the rest of the game. Though Adam and Eve were defeated, they managed to ultimately complete their mission.
Become as Gods!
I absolutely loved this sequence as a fan of horror movies. During Route A/B, 2B and 9S meet a friendly machine named Pascal who leads a small village in the forest full of peaceful machines. Pascal comes to trust the androids and quickly becomes a friend. Late in the route, while 9S is recuperating in their space station base, 2B agrees to accompany Pascal to form a trading partnership with another group of peaceful machines who are also no longer connected to the network. These machines have taken residence in the nearby factory after it was cleared out by YoRHa early in the game.
When 2B and Pascal arrive, they find what can only be described as a religious cult with a central figure presiding over it. When Pascal nervously tries to explain his idea, the bishop leader of these machines collapses on his throne. His lifeless head rolls into the center of the room. The machines instantly believe that by dying, their leader has ‘become as god’. They take that logic to its extreme and decide that if they die they will also ‘become as god’. The machines go from zero to sixty in an instant and become both violent and suicidal. They want to die to achieve godhood but anybody who refuses to die must be killed to make them also ‘become as god’.
As the machines constantly chant ‘Become as Gods!”, they attack pacifist machines and try to murder 2B and Pascal. Our two heroes try and flee the factory and are suddenly aided by 9S who is remotely hacking random machines throughout the facility. 2B and Pascal flee while observing some very unsettling images like machines tearing each other apart and machines calmly jumping into vats of molten steel. The two barely escape alive in a long and relentless sequence.