THREAD: Story recap of #NieR Re[in]carnation 
So you know how Yoko Taro writes his stories backwards, starting with the ending? Well I figured most people think Re[in]carnation is irrelevant because it looks like it tells a story in a parallel universe unrelated to NieR. For this thread, I'll start with the plot twists.
The reason why I do this is for people who only played Replicant and Automata to understand that the game actually picks up directly after Automata as a full-fledged sequel (at least story-wise, yes even if it's a gacha that's not playable anymore).
There's a trend in all NieR games: when you start the game, you feel like it's completely unrelated to the previous one until the plot twists hit. Given the episodic format of this one, most people assumed it wasn't important after playing 6 chapters, and stopped playing.
Starting from here, there will obviously be SPOILERS for the game. You still have a chance to just watch a full playthrough video instead for the full experience! If you decide to still read, thank you for your trust. Whatever you end up doing I hope you have a nice time :)
Full playthrough video by BuffMaister, which includes the entire main story of the game:
As humanity faces extinction, they build a quantum server that records all of human history: the tree inside the Forest of Myth (from NieR Replicant). The server records history through all branches.
He was its administrator, tasked to watch all of humanity’s history without being able to intervene. As He reaches the present, He starts watching the future beyond humanity’s extinction. He reaches a time where Earth has changed shape, and finds Himself asleep.
The end of history is now the past: He realises that history repeats itself in an endless loop. He feels alone, scared, sad and angry, and as He wishes to escape, a path opens before Him: diverging branches, endless possibilities.
He discovers history perpetually changes depending on the choices people make, and decides to make a decision of his own. He creates another version of Himself: Her.
They both play together inside the server for eternity. He also teaches Her how to watch humanity’s history. They yearn for a time when humanity is saved from extinction.
Then in the year 3473, Kainé intervenes. The events of Ending E occur and Kainé destroys the server. He disappears, but She doesn’t. She ends up spending an eternity grieving Him.
Centuries later, in 5204, the lunar base and its server are built. Following the destruction of the quantic server, humanity's genetic data was secretly kept in there in hope to resurrect it in the future.
In 11794, for the first time, someone unauthorized accesses the server: It is not specified who.
10H is rolled out in 11942 (like 2B and 9S), and is sent to the Moon with her Pod 006 in 11943 to guard the Moon server. The true nature of the Moon server is hidden to her, to the point she doesn’t even know she’s on the Moon.
Automata ends on September 2nd 11945, 2B reboots on September 5th and 9S reboots on September 19th.
Note: it was revealed yesterday that in the anime’s timeline, the date of their reboots is different from the ones written in the NieR Re[in]carnation book that was released recently. Re[in] follows the game version of Automata.
https://x.com/Inmate7269/status/1874217497735684274
October 11945: The red girl (N2) feels remorse about the War, and wanders around seeking help. N2 meets Her, who is still grieving Him. She absorbs N2 to help her and turns from white to red, the color of hatred.
In 11946, She changes Earth's appearance to make it look like the Alien's home planet. It is now entirely covered in white buildings, and it snows constantly. The old quantum server is now hidden under a building named "the Birdhouse".
In 11947, She sends attacks to the Moon server and tries to infiltrate it.
The virtual space inside the Moon server is The Cage. It takes the shape of Earth, explaining why it looks like this currently, mirroring the Alien's home planet.
The virtual space inside the Moon server is The Cage. It takes the shape of Earth, explaining why it looks like this currently, mirroring the Alien's home planet.
Pod 006 learns thanks to magic that in other branches, the Moon server is completely destroyed: using the shared data, she starts a project to defend The Cage. Pod 006 is Mama: Pods take the form of little ghosts in The Cage.
in 11988, the Lunar server management program tests start. The management programs are Mama and Papa, and they were actually sent by Her to open a breach in the server.
in 12020, Pod 012 (Carrier in The Cage) accesses the Monster world and summons Levania, a black monster, to The Cage to help with restauration of the lunar server.
The Monster World is a parallel world separate from all the branches, the home world of Dream Eaters. Levania is a Dream Eater. There is more to Dream Eaters, but they're not really related to the main NieR chronology so I'll skip for now.
Inside the cage, these events translate to the second part of the first story arc, The Girl and the Monster. Levania and Carrier travel The Cage with Fio, a girl in white, so that Levania can eat her dreams and become human.
Fio comes from Earth, but from another branch completely separate from the main chronology, so I'll skip her background story as well.
Back to the events inside The Cage, turns out Pod 012 was on Her side and tried to open a security hole in the server. Levania ate all of Fio's dreams and switched bodies with her: scared of her new monstrous appearance, she runs away. Levania kills Pod 012.
In 12021, Pod 006 (Mama) helps Levania fix everything, in order to restore the damaged server. Levania finds Fio and switches their bodies back. Everything ends well, and both their Weapon Stories are stored in The Cage.
in 12023, Papa and Mama summon Hina and Yuzuki to The Cage, two siblings from our universe's Tokyo (a Tokyo without the 6/12 events). Papa asks Hina to fix the Sun inside the Cage, and Mama asks Yuzuki to fix the moon.
This is the second arc of the game, The Sun and the Moon. At the end, Hina and Yuzuki confront each other for revenge, as irl, Hina killed their mother and Yuzuki killed their father.
Here, the player's decision makes the story branch: Hina can kill Yuzuki or Yuzuki can kill Hina. However, there is a third secret branch that leads to the third arc: the player refuses to kill any of them and they reconcile.
Because of this, the Sun and the Moon inside the cage provoke an eclipse, opening a security breach in the lunar server: it is finally time for Her to start Her invasion.
As The Cage starts breaking inside, Mama summons the entire playable cast of NieR Re[in]carnation from their own branches. They are attacked by Mother Earth and separated.
This is the third arc of the game: it follows the characters trying to find their way out of The Cage while helping Mama fix it. I will skip the details as it is mostly character development for characters i haven't mentioned here. (Never too late to watch the full thing on YT!)
However one fun fact I will mention is that this part shows the ruins of the Library from SINoALICE inside The Cage. Not only was this a commemoration of SINoALICE's end of service, but it also served as a confirmation that it is part of the same canon as Drakengard and NieR.
As a few characters manage to find their way back to where they were summoned, they are attacked by a white giant, the Mourning Mother, reminiscent of the Queen Beast from Drakengard. The fight against her ends with a rhythm game :)
As they finish off the Mourning Mother, Mama manages to gather all the characters and takes them out of The Cage. They end up inside Pod 006, on the lunar base, and they find an unconscious 10H outside of the facility.
At the lunar base, Pod 006 explains to the characters that they need to strike back against Earth in order to reclaim it. 10H (quickly fixed by 006) briefs everyone on the situation and connects to the Network linking the Moon to Earth in order to find a way to Earth.
Inside the network, 10H summons Hina and Yuzuki in order to progress. The two discover more about the chronology of events in the NieR universe, which serves as recap to the player as well, starting with the fight between the Giant and the Dragon in Tokyo, 2003.
It is revealed to the siblings that in this branch (the main NieR timeline), they were fighting Legion for the Hamelin Organization. At the end of the timeline, they learn that the Machines have been building their kingdom on Earth.
Pod 006, carrying all the characters as well as Hina and Yuzuki, manages to leave the Network and get transferred to Earth. 10H stays behind to fight a horde of monsters (followed by an army of flying babies).
Once on Earth, Pod 006 learns more about what happened between the Red Girl and Her, as well as why Earth looks like this now. They reach the Birdhouse and enter its virtual space. Inside of it, Pod 006 is in her Mama form and followed by Fio and Levania.
The three follow Her inside the Network and Fio tries to convince her to become friends and heal Earth. She traps Fio in chains, making Levania angry. He attacks Her, backed-up by the rest of the chaaracters: this is the final boss of the game.
Vainquished, She tries to flee to another branch but Fio reaches out to Her before she manages to do so. March 12024: the Birdhouse collapses and both Machines and Androids on Earth regain consciousness. Fio and Her both wake up in the ruins.
Fio's awakening on Earth officialises the rebirth of humanity. Her data is now completely absent from The Cage. In April 12024, the lunar server is cryopreserved along with humanity's genetic data. Incidentally, in our world, April 2024, NieR Re[in]carnation ends its service.
Thank you for reading!
Thanks to oomfs for willing to help with the thread:
@koriandie @Volo_X_N @fluctuating0 @salvaged_data @AbstractSavior @DrakeNieRClears @Mii_O_Nine
The full intel from the game is still accessible on the NieR Re[in] Guide right here nierrein.guide
Thanks to oomfs for willing to help with the thread:
@koriandie @Volo_X_N @fluctuating0 @salvaged_data @AbstractSavior @DrakeNieRClears @Mii_O_Nine
The full intel from the game is still accessible on the NieR Re[in] Guide right here nierrein.guide
SHARING IMPORTANT REMARKS OR QUESTIONS AT THE END OF THE THREAD
Yes, the game does explain the NieR multiverse. All the characters I mentioned being "summoned" actually came from different branches mostly unrelated to the main NieR story, recorded by Accord. All these stories are available on the website linked above!
https://x.com/IDYYYYYYYz/status/1874490379086774612
@IDYYYYYYYz one of the characters, Noelle, is actually from the main NieR branch and her story is a build-up to the creation of Dragons in the kingdom of night
@IDYYYYYYYz @Volo_X_N another fun fact from the game is that Yuzuki is Red-Eye
@DexterVex2 basically He didn’t plan for Her to stay there and grieve Him for eternity
He knew Kainé would kill him since He’s lived through all of the timeloops and there’s even a novella where He encounters Kainé without Her existing yet (before the remaster)
He knew Kainé would kill him since He’s lived through all of the timeloops and there’s even a novella where He encounters Kainé without Her existing yet (before the remaster)
@AristosDraco i took it more as “she’ll be on her own” rather than “she’ll be alone” if that makes sense
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