The title NieR Automata and NieR is not one that isn’t a stranger to anyone that does not live under a rock. Being a game that had been highly praised for it’s story, such a status must be backed up by many elements that contribute to such a recognition, one of the main factors that people would often overlook is the music that projects it’s many aspects in perfect symphony.



The Music of NieR is iconic in the sense that it’s one that finely projects the story, alongside the many emotions that the many characters must had felt as things progress, whether through the thrilling drive of the tracks used for combat, or the emotional vocals presented by Emi Evans to convey a unique emotional turbulence, or even just the melancholic ambience in the title screen.



There are many elements that come together to make the music of NieR truly unique when compared to other video games with a similar musical focus. Detroit Become Human, for example, is a great comparison with the music of NieR, whereas the music from the former isn’t merely focused on expressing emotions through a synthetic vessel, bur rather, a projection of the characters the game studio had created, each with their unique musical quirks, melody, and tone. The latter presents a contemplation of humility as a machine, how the machines must have felt about their duty, when they have no idea how to even react to such a burden when the realization comes.



The Compilation of tracks with a collection of music that features warm sounds, with conventional instruments such as the warm melodics of an acoustic guitar paired by the relaxing beating of a cajo, and further harmonized with amazing and emotional vocals, with a gentle glockenspiel lonely playing in the background. This is a format that would be the most familiar to most people, yet even with a repetitive use of instruments, the emotions and story that is conveyed through the unique compositions are ones that cannot be compared to each other. Memories of Dust and Peaceful Sleep are ones that are similar in instrumentation, yet both tell their own story just as well as each other.



Of course, the Music of NieR has their fair share of standard-cinematic type music, with the expected orchestral hits and instrumentation that brings the story out of all of its glory. Albeit it does make it a tad bit less credible as music that is truly unique, that is to not undermine a certain detail that one might notice or overlook in the tracks - The Vocals.



Vocals in the Music of NieR serve for both harmonic and narrative purposes, even though it may sound like some sort of made up language(chaos language). Song of the Ancients (A track that we’ll go into deep detail into later), is a prominent example of such a musical composition philosophy. Such a feature is one that truly separates NieR from it’s other contemporary counterparts, for their cinematic compositions are either instrument oriented, or uses vocals as a form of narration to only further reinforce their story telling (Or to, of course, harmonize), unlike those of NieRs.



That said, it is these elements that contribute to the distinction for the Music of NieR, and how said elements come together and form a grand narrative that significantly helped with giving the NieR series it’s distinct identity. And such, it is highly recommended for anyone of any musical taste to give them a listen, whether for the background ambience, or for the active orchestral grandeur. You might even find a new gem or two to add to your playlist.



Song Analysis -- Song of the Ancients & Weight of the World



Song of the Ancient

The first appearance of Song of the Ancient is in NieR( NieR or NieR Gestalt depending on which region you are in), it is the first song you will hear after finishing the prologue (Sung by Devola). The Song’s lyrics are a mix of English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Japanese, which was later dubbed as Chaos Language, as you can’t really make out what you are listening to except for a few syllables at most.



There are different iterations of this song, tailored for the overworld theme which suits the soothing and comfy feeling the village in NieR gives off (Devola ver and Hollow Dream ver), one of which (Hollow Dream) is a duet in the tavern. Then there are the ones tailored for combat (Fate ver and atonement ver), contrary to the slow and calm tempo the first two has, the latter two versions are upbeat and unstable, giving a greater sense of insecurity and urgency to the situation as you hear these two versions. The juxtaposition of how all four versions are used is extremely well timed and well thought out, making the impact of the story greater than if it were to use a more generic soundtrack.



---Spoilers Alert---

But, as you dig deeper into what this song is about, the more intriguing it gets. Although the lyrics of this song are in Chaos Language, it is told to you later on in the story that the song is about Grimoire Weiss defeating Grimoire Noir and restoring peace to the world. The way the song was sung (the most common versions of it) Devola ver, the tone points to not a folk song about a savior reemerging once more to save the shade ridden world, but more of a clinging on to false hope, praying for a salvation that will never arrive.



Weight of the World

This song is undoubtedly the most well known song in the whole NieR & Drakengard series. There are four iterations to this song, English, Japanese, Nouveau and the one that lingers most in fans’ minds is the choir version, which is also the one I want to talk about.



In ending E of NieR: Automata, there is a final danmaku sequence, calling it unruly would be an understatement (If you refuse to receive help that is), during which the choir version of Weight of the World is in full blast. To call this scene emotional would not do it any justice, you must play through this yourself to get the full experience.



To some people, this song might be about 2B’s journey throughout the game or A2’s journey or just the whole game itself, depending on how you would look at it. And those are reasonable and justifiable interpretations. For me, I lean towards the interpretation that the song symbolizes the whole game up till this point, everything I’ve experience up to this point might be from the game, fictitious or meaningless; but the emotions that I have/felt during the playthrough are real and they carry meaning at least to me, and if given the question of whether I would go through this conundrum of a game again, my answer would be yes, and all of these is something encapsulated perfectly by the Weight of the World which is being blasted in all of its glory in the homestretch of ending E. It doesn’t stop there, in the danmaku sequence, when you accept help from other players, the song transitions into a choir, reinforcing the sentiment and feeling you have towards the game at this point in this 40hr+ journey. In the song, there is a line which is ‘it’s like, I’m carrying the weight of the world’, this part of the song is beautiful, not only does it embodies what the player is feeling up until this point of the game, it also has you the player, experience its response to that line of lyrics/statement by telling you that you are not alone in this, sending other players’ save data to help you out in the final danmaku sequence, telling you that this weight is not yours to carry alone, it is something that can only be carried with someone else.



Out of every OST that is present in NieR, NieR:Automata, this is the only song that I would insist that you play through the game at least once before going out of your way to listen to it. Otherwise I believe that you won't be able to feel the full impact this song will hit you with.

Tracks Mentioned in this article :
Weight of the World
Song of the Ancients
Memories of Dust
Peaceful Sleep


(I really want to replay Nier automata now)