NieR: Automata's Ending Was Inspired by a Coca-Cola Campaign

NieR: Automata and Coca-Cola have more in common than you think, which is something I never would thought I would ever write. Yet, it's true.

During a panel at Game Developer's Conference this week, the game's director Yoko Taro talked about a variety of things, including how the game took inspiration from the world's most iconic brand of soda. More specifically, its ending.

If you know Yoko Taro, you know if he is drawing inspiration from somewhere, it is likely not conventional. NieR: Automata and its director are both beautifully unconventional, there's no one who will doubt that. And so naturally, so is the Coca-Cola source of inspiration.

In the past, Coca-Cola has installed machines in Lahore, Pakistan and Delhi, India. For those that don't know, the nations of Pakistan and India have historically had a very poor and unfriendly relationship. And so what these coke machines did was connect people using the machine via a live-stream video that was built right in, hoping that the participants could forgo their innate dislike for each other, and enjoy a drink together. As you can see in the video below, the campaign was actually quite heart-warming and touching.

According to Taro, the project left an strong impression on him, so he decided it borrow it. An unusual source of inspiration, but very fitting in hindsight.

SPOILERS FOR NIER: AUTOMATA AHEAD

Taro took this concept and used it towards the game's "real" ending. If you played through NieR: Automata's five main endings, you will know that during Ending E players are flooded with positive messages of encouragement as they fight through a final sequence. These messages are created by real players from around the world, but only after they beat Ending E.

Just like the Coca-Cola machines, Taro wanted the messages to appear only from players in countries in conflict with each other. The hope with this would be to show players that even their enemies are more like them than they may think.

However, Taro decided against this idea, because he didn't want his ideals to feel forced on the player. And so the system in-place today was implemented: random messages from random people.

And that's what Coca-Cola and NieR: Automata are connected. I bet you didn't plan on learning about that today.

NieR: Automata is available on PlayStation 4 and PC, where it has been since last year.

Source: VentureBeat