teol

i will make sure to talk about mh experience when i play them!

no worries!
i still have to play xenogears lol… someday i will

Sources: my own knowledge from completing the game, the Youtube video shared at the beginning of the thread as well as the timeline from the book “NieR Reincarnation Official Document Collection -The Story Of The Cage And Prayers” translated by I AM CAIM (@ThreeEyedGemini on X) and Cabbage Channel.

NieR Re[in] Guide A NieR Re[in]carnation database, guides, tierlists and tools.

Thank you for reading!
Thanks to oomfs for willing to help with the thread (their @ on X):
@koriandie @Volo_X_N @fluctuating0 @salvaged_data @AbstractSavior @DrakeNieRClears @Mii_O_Nine
The full intel from the game is still accessible on the NieR Re[in] Guide right here nierrein.guide

Fio's awakening on Earth officialises the rebirth of humanity. Her data is now completely absent from The Cage. In April 12024, the lunar server is cryopreserved along with humanity's genetic data. Incidentally, in our world, April 2024, NieR Re[in]carnation ends its service.

Vainquished, She tries to flee to another branch but Fio reaches out to Her before she manages to do so. March 12024: the Birdhouse collapses and both Machines and Androids on Earth regain consciousness. Fio and Her both wake up in the ruins.

The three follow Her inside the Network and Fio tries to convince her to become friends and heal Earth. She traps Fio in chains, making Levania angry. He attacks Her, backed-up by the rest of the chaaracters: this is the final boss of the game.

Once on Earth, Pod 006 learns more about what happened between the Red Girl and Her, as well as why Earth looks like this now. They reach the Birdhouse and enter its virtual space. Inside of it, Pod 006 is in her Mama form and followed by Fio and Levania.

Pod 006, carrying all the characters as well as Hina and Yuzuki, manages to leave the Network and get transferred to Earth. 10H stays behind to fight a horde of monsters (followed by an army of flying babies).

It is revealed to the siblings that in this branch (the main NieR timeline), they were fighting Legion for the Hamelin Organization. At the end of the timeline, they learn that the Machines have been building their kingdom on Earth.

a video game is being played with a 10h timer on the bottom ALT: a video game is being played with a 10h timer on the bottom

Inside the network, 10H summons Hina and Yuzuki in order to progress. The two discover more about the chronology of events in the NieR universe, which serves as recap to the player as well, starting with the fight between the Giant and the Dragon in Tokyo, 2003.

At the lunar base, Pod 006 explains to the characters that they need to strike back against Earth in order to reclaim it. 10H (quickly fixed by 006) briefs everyone on the situation and connects to the Network linking the Moon to Earth in order to find a way to Earth.

As they finish off the Mourning Mother, Mama manages to gather all the characters and takes them out of The Cage. They end up inside Pod 006, on the lunar base, and they find an unconscious 10H outside of the facility.

As a few characters manage to find their way back to where they were summoned, they are attacked by a white giant, the Mourning Mother, reminiscent of the Queen Beast from Drakengard. The fight against her ends with a rhythm game :)

However one fun fact I will mention is that this part shows the ruins of the Library from SINoALICE inside The Cage. Not only was this a commemoration of SINoALICE's end of service, but it also served as a confirmation that it is part of the same canon as Drakengard and NieR.

This is the third arc of the game: it follows the characters trying to find their way out of The Cage while helping Mama fix it. I will skip the details as it is mostly character development for characters I haven't mentioned here. (Never too late to watch the full thing on YT!)

As The Cage starts breaking inside, Mama summons the entire playable cast of NieR Re[in]carnation from their own branches. They are attacked by Mother Earth and separated.

Because of this, the Sun and the Moon inside the cage provoke an eclipse, opening a security breach in the lunar server: it is finally time for Her to start Her invasion.

Here, the player's decision makes the story branch: Hina can kill Yuzuki or Yuzuki can kill Hina. However, there is a third secret branch that leads to the third arc: the player refuses to kill any of them and they reconcile.

This is the second arc of the game, The Sun and the Moon. At the end, Hina and Yuzuki confront each other for revenge, as irl, Hina killed their mother and Yuzuki killed their father.

in 12023, Papa and Mama summon Hina and Yuzuki to The Cage, two siblings from our universe's Tokyo (a Tokyo without the 6/12 events). Papa asks Hina to fix the Sun inside the Cage, and Mama asks Yuzuki to fix the moon.

In 12021, Pod 006 (Mama) helps Levania fix everything, in order to restore the damaged server. Levania finds Fio and switches their bodies back. Everything ends well, and both their Weapon Stories are stored in The Cage.

Back to the events inside The Cage, turns out Pod 012 was on Her side and tried to open a security hole in the server. Levania ate all of Fio's dreams and switched bodies with her: scared of her new monstrous appearance, she runs away. Levania kills Pod 012.

Fio comes from Earth, but from another branch completely separate from the main chronology, so I'll skip her very tragic background story as well.

Inside the cage, these events translate to the second part of the first story arc, The Girl and the Monster. Levania and Carrier travel The Cage with Fio, a girl in white, so that Levania can eat her dreams and become human.

The Monster World is a parallel world separate from all the branches, the home world of Dream Eaters, a species Levania is part of. There is more to Dream Eaters, but they're not really related to the main NieR chronology so I'll skip for now.

in 12020, Pod 012 (Carrier in The Cage) accesses the Monster world and summons Levania, a black monster, to The Cage to help with restauration of the lunar server.

In 11988, the Lunar server management program tests start. The management programs are Mama and Papa, and they were actually sent by Her to open a breach in the server.

Pod 006 learns thanks to Accord that in other branches, the Moon server is completely destroyed: using the shared data, she starts a project to defend The Cage. Pod 006 is Mama: Pods take the form of little ghosts in The Cage.

In 11947, She sends attacks to the Moon server and tries to infiltrate it.
The virtual space inside the Moon server is The Cage. It takes the shape of Earth, explaining why it looks like this currently, mirroring the Alien's home planet.