LogFAQs > #877471782

The androids don't have it much better; their lives are somehow even more worthless. Everything they do is predestined to either succeed or fail, but never to end. The war is kept eternal by design due to messed up programming in the machine network that requires an enemy, and by the androids needing a meaning in life to keep themselves going. It's only after finishing the game that I appreciated how morose 2B is through the entire game. She's a broken soul that can't see the point in anything anymore but literally doesn't have the option to stop. No one's happy about this whatsoever but the war still goes on. You see so many cycles of revenge happening throughout the course of the game. Violence leads to violence leads to...yeah. The androids and machines have a tendency to default to the baser parts of humanity when their attempts to embrace the happier parts fail. It's just plain depressing.

As far as characters go, A2 is too underdeveloped and doesn't have much time to shine. I really like what was there but more screentime was definitely needed. 2B is an odd case because a lot of her characterization is retroactive. She's a static character, and you can glean some interesting character traits from her if you pay attention (like how she's more okay killing fellow androids than some machines, and how she reacts whenever 9S dies) but it's a little too subtle. It's really only after you learn her status as an Execution robot that things start to fall into place. I thought the reveal was silly at first but when I started to think about how it changed the context of 2B's cutscenes and lines with 9S I liked it way more. Her death scene hit me hard too; I basically couldn't believe it had happened until hours later when I realized 2B probably wasn't coming back anytime soon.

But more than anyone else, the real star of the show is 9S. He drives most of the emotional weight in the game. 9S represents all the worst aspects of the hellish purgatory the androids & robots are in. He's full of anger that only escalates as everything he knows and loved is taken away from him. He knows on a certain level that the machines are sentient and have emotions but he constantly reinforces the opposite to himself because it's easier to hate than to forgive. His whole life has been a lie, a pointless existence with no meaning, and he finds that the only way to fill that void is with violence. The voice actor also nails all of 9S' important lines and puts on one of the best vocal performances I've heard in a long time. Definitely the biggest pleasent surprise of the game.

There's so much I haven't covered. I could talk about this game for hours. I'll be thinking about it for months to come and I kinda want to replay it again even though I have a growing backlog. But god damn, is it fascinating. I love the world and the gameplay and the characters and the music and maaan.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.