Multi-route ABCDE structure
Nier: Automata's marketing line was "26 endings." That's misleading. There are 5 main endings (A through E) plus 21 joke endings triggered by deliberately failing. The five main endings form a single intended sequence — and only one of them, E, is the ending of the game.
The structure is the load-bearing trick of Nier: Automata's design.
The route sequence
| Route | Protagonist | Time | What's actually different |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 2B (combat android) | ~12h | First playthrough. Open world, main story arc. Credits roll. |
| B | 9S (scanner android) | ~10h | Same content as Route A, but from 9S's POV. Adds: hacking minigame replaces some combat encounters; cutscenes you didn't see in A; new dialogue; the same world feels different because 9S can read things 2B couldn't. |
| C / D | 2B → A2 (rogue android) / 9S | ~6h each branch | New content. Branches at a critical decision; one path produces Ending C, the other Ending D. Both are required to unlock E. |
| E | 2B + 9S + A2 (the meta-protagonist: you) | ~30 min | Bullet-hell credits sequence. Network-supported. Save-deletion prompt. The ending. |
So the canonical "complete" experience is A → B → C → D → E, in that order, ~25–30h total.
Route B is the load-bearing trick
If routes B/C/D were just unlock cutscenes after Ending A, the game would be a normal action-RPG. It's not. Route B re-runs Route A's story — but the game trusts you've seen it. Specifically:
- Cutscenes you've already seen are skippable with a button hold (a feature added because Yoko Taro knew the structure required it).
- Encounters are remixed for 9S's verbs. 9S has weaker melee but a hacking ability that turns some enemies into one-shot puzzles. The same boss is differently shaped.
- Information you didn't have in Route A is revealed. A pivotal cutscene that played as one character's tragedy in A becomes a duet in B with 9S's reaction.
This is not a New Game+. It is the second half of Act 1, designed and budgeted as a separate playthrough with shared assets. Yoko Taro's Drakengard 1 used the same structure; he describes it as a way to get more story out of a fixed budget.
"The route system was, well, that was a product of our budget from Square Enix. We couldn't really make all that much content … we ended up trying to make those route shifts and try to use the same content as much as possible."
— Yoko Taro, 2023 interview
The constraint became the design.
Routes C/D split — and why both are required
After 9S's run ends, the game proceeds into new content. At a structural climax, the player is asked to commit to one of two protagonists for a final confrontation: 2B or 9S (the prompt is in-fiction, framed as A2's choice). One leads to Ending C, the other to Ending D.
Picking C does not lock out D. After Ending C, the game prompts the player to start route D from the same decision point. The endings are branching, not exclusive. Both must be seen for Ending E to unlock.
This is late-introduced-mechanics operating at the route-structure layer: Automata teaches the player that an ending is just a chapter break by re-using the credits sequence as a chapter header five times.
What the player learns about their relationship to the game
The structural argument made by ABCDE is something like:
- After route A, you think you understand the story.
- Route B reveals that your interpretation was incomplete in important ways. A cutscene you read as "2B betrays a comrade out of duty" reads as "2B is forced to repeatedly do this" once you see 9S's data logs.
- Routes C/D destabilise the cast — your favourite character's perspective may not be available, and you have to play someone else.
- Ending E asks: now that you've done all that work, will you give it up?
This works because the game enforces the rereading. If routes B/C/D were optional epilogue DLC, the structural trick collapses. The reread is mandatory. So is the new perspective.
What this teaches
- Replay can be required, not optional, if you budget it as content. Most games treat replay as bonus mode. Yoko Taro budgets it as Act 2.
- A structural twist must be enforced by the systems, not just promised by the writing. Ending A reads as a complete story unless you keep playing. The game's "Continue" prompt is the entire device.
- Reusing assets is not cheap if you re-author them. Route B uses Route A's environments, encounter layouts, and many cutscenes — but every encounter is re-paced, every cutscene is re-edited, and 9S's hacking turns combat into something else. Reuse-as-frame; new-as-content.
- Skip features earn their keep when route structure is non-linear. Yoko Taro's team explicitly added cutscene-skip with full voice-acting context-aware skipping because the structure required it. If you're going to make players watch the same scene from multiple angles, give them the skip button — and don't take it personally when they use it.
Patterns this exemplifies
multi-route-replay— the game requires replay to reach the canonical ending. Uncurated; Yoko Taro's other works (Drakengard, the 2010 Nier) follow the same template, but they aren't yet in this knowledge base.late-introduced-mechanics— 9S's hacking, A2's berserk mode, and most of the philosophical reveals all arrive after Ending A. The first 12 hours are the tutorial.