A BEAUTIFUL SONG from NIER Hit Me WAY HARDER Than I Anticipated

I've been having a blast diving into Nier music lately. I now have a little playlist with all the videos I've done on Nier music. You might have missed one of them so check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvbgZSmapa4&list=PLOVEmfXEEAUDB09sJe11djNx5YIt5TxaE

The person singing in the second half of the track is indeed a woman - her name is J'nique Nicole :)

"Why so heartbreaking?" Yoko Taro. That's why. And he says it's not on purpose too.

"You are not sure what emotions you are supposed to feel". Yep, pretty much sums up Nier Automata.

All the pain came from a man who ignored her despite how much she tried to impress him :c

The second voice is in fact a woman; J'Nique Nicole! I recently had the honor of hearing her and Emi Evans, the first vocalist, perform this live with orchestra and man. Beautiful Song is a strong understatement. It's so much more intense and emotional in person. Loving these NieR videos!

So, before the game came out, Square Enix released a gameplay trailer of this fight with this song playing in the background. That trailer and music alone convinced me to buy Nier: Automata and I never regretted it. This fight is still my favorite part in the whole game.

1am was gonna sleep but now I gotta stay up, thank you Davi

I'll explain the context around the character and the song, but before I do that: I very much recommend doing Shadowlord from NieR Replicant. Now: This song plays in the battle against a bot named Simone. Its full name is Simone De'Bouvoire, named literally after the French Feminist Philosopher. The bot's character is a half-corruption of the actual person. In love with another bot, who is taking after Jean Paul Sartre, Simone De'Bourvoire's real world lover, she's trying to be noticed to gain his affection. This is because, like the real life version, Sartre had many, many girlfriends. So, in order to gain his affection she starts consuming the bodies of Yorha androids and using them to rebuild and remodel herself. This is the corruption of the identity, as the real-life Simone instead fell further and further into misandry, projecting out all the flaws she saw in Sartre onto men in general. In both cases, Simone is an incredibly miserable character. It is important to note: most characters in NieR Automata take directly from some aspect of philosophy, but, the game itself doesn't make a commentary on it. Rather, the plot is a commentary on the human condition and how people search for meaning in their lives. The different tracks fall into these categories of meaning or, in one's case, the lack thereof. That track is helpfully given the subtitle of "despair".

The machine's name is Beauvoir. As in Simone Beauvoir, famous french philosopher. They lament the lack of affection from their beloved, another robot by the name of Jean Paul. As in Jean Paul Sartre, famous french philosopher. The real Jean Paul and Beauvoir were in a relationship, of sorts, and appear to have ghost-written for many of each other's works (so hearing her take on a male voice in the mix is no accident), but it seemed Sartre had a different idea of what their relationship meant than Simone. This is reflected with their machines.

About happiness and sadness: it runs deep in Nier. Weight of the World – the conclusive piece to the game that I'd recommend reacting to last – is one of the saddest songs I've heard, and it's purely, exclusively in major.

Without getting too much into the plot, the main characters are all machines trying to find their version of happiness. It explicitly says happiness can be sadness and vice versa - and violence can be expressing joy etc, because the characters have no basis for identity that a human would. So yeah, the music is all very back and forth in intent and feeling, just like the characters can't find what true happiness or sadness is. Edit: The singer is a woman. I'd also recommend "Possessed by a Disease" for more of her great vocals.

Always gotta drop everything when Davi posts a new song analysis

So glad you reviewed this. This is by FAR my favorite soundtrack in Nier Automata and I had the pleasure of watching this live and the orchestra absolutely killed it, props to Emi Evans and J'nique Nicole for going so well together!

Staleness and repetition is the perfect way to describe this boss. When you said that it makes so much sense given the boss’s lore!

I still remember this from E3 2016 showing the boss battle. The combat, the music, the mechanics, all happening in real time in the game. Reminded me of metroid prime.

What I've always felt about the opera boss and her theme is all about obsession, she is chasing after her former glory and recognition, never ending suffering from loss of who she was, who she though she was, and something she'll never be the thing she wants again. So she finds joy in the agony of others, it feels like she's the doll playing with the agony of others, absolutely dreadful. It's her decadence that makes her a monster, the themes about her and how she became what she is when you fight her, how utterly terrifying she is for 2B and 9S to face her and hurt the androids, you can't help but feel pity and despair to free them from her, angry and helpless that the only thing you can do now is destroy the opera singer and end their suffering. I always break when I hear this song, it's so powerful ! And it's an optional boss if I remember correctly !

wow that second solo legitimately made me cry, it conveyed so much raw emotion it was overwhelming. that singer is so incredibly talented.

I was also lucky enough to see them perform this in the Nier concert this year. As soon as this started up, the entire audience lost their minds. EVERYONE was waiting for it!

Holy shit I've been watching you for a while and I never realized you never reacted to more NieR music. Automata and Replicant are my favorite games, and the whole OST is godly. I hope you react to Shadowlord from NieR Replicant or NieR Gestalt one day (each game has a different version of that song that are both superb) and Fleeting Words from Replicant, you'd love them Cheers lad