Have You Played the Original NieR?
By far the best way to know what to expect from Automata, is by playing the original NieR. Obviously the two games have separate stories, but there are still links you’ll find like familiar characters and lore bits. And boy does NieR have a lot of lore. The two games are actually preceded by the Drakengard series for lore, with very loose connections. You can jump into Automata right off the bat, if you want, but you’ll truly be able to appreciate the scope of the world and story by playing both.
Truth be told, the NieR games are very heavy on lore, putting a huge emphasis on having players understand the entire sequence of history and the world. Luckily there are plenty of guides and booklets you can use to catch yourself up on the lore of both NieR and Drakengard. You can use a lore primer, like ours, to helpfully catch you up on everything. However, you might want to give the first NieR a try if you haven’t, it will help immerse you into things more and it’s one darn good experience just on its own.
