The biggest problem Nier: Automata will have to contend with for the upcoming anime is finding a way to make its style translate into a new medium. Nier: Automata has a highly enriching story, and part of what makes it work is how the game takes advantage of the video game medium to present a less than straightforward narrative. As such, trying to make the story work in something outside of a video game could easily fall flat if not handled properly.
Nier: Automata is the 2017 sequel to Yoko Taro’s Nier and the latest game in the Drakengard series. The game was a critical and commercial success thanks to its stellar gameplay and writing, and during the celebration of its fifth anniversary, an anime adaptation was officially announced. No details on the video game adaptation have been revealed at this time, but the announcement does make it the first game in the Drakengard series to receive an anime.
A potential problem with the Nier: Automata anime, however, comes from the troubling task of translating the game into a different medium. The player can only truly complete the game by going through multiple playthroughs, and each one not only puts the player in the perspective of a new character, but also deconstructs story elements of the playthrough that came before it. For example, the second playthrough a person would have to do shifts the story from the character 2B’s perspective to 9S’, and not only does his perspective help reveal that the mindless machine lifeforms are actually more complicated than they first appeared, but many more pieces of story and worldbuilding are revealed that weren’t given in 2B’s story. A video game adaptation would either have to show them both at once, which could ruin the impact of various scenes, or adapt the stories one after another, which could make the overall show drag, as a result.
Another complication comes from the game having multiple endings. Of those endings, three of them are highly vital to how the story ultimately plays out, especially the true ending, Ending E. In Ending E, the player must play an extended minigame where they have to destroy the end credits to save the main characters, only getting the power to do so with the help from other people around the world who have played the game. The true ending not only takes full advantage of the medium, but it does so in a way that works with the game’s themes of humanity and perseverance, and that could only work so well in a TV show adaptation.
Video game adaptations have a long history of ending up bad for one reason or another, and the hurdle Nier: Automata has to clear to avoid in regards to its various storylines and endings makes it a more complicated adaptation than most. As previously stated, details on the anime have yet to be revealed, so it’s unknown what the plan is for handling those elements in the new medium. At the very least, the anime should try and find its own unique way of handling things in order to properly tell the story.