The recently released Nier: Automata anime apparently references a famous scene from the desert town known as Facade in the prequel game Nier Replicant. The character from Nier: Automata known as 9S can be seen hacking a robot before entering this familiar setting where the player character and Kaine from Nier Replicant make their first contact with the inhabitants of the Facade, called the Masked People.
“Hello? Hello! Nier Replicant direct reference? 9S hacked a robot and entered this scene from replicant,” said industry insider Aitaikimochi on the social media platform Twitter. Aitaikimochi is widely known for having the inside track on the biggest anime and video game releases in Japan.
Façade is a location that appears in Nier Replicant, in the form of a desert city governed by thousands of mostly obscure and seemingly meaningless rules. This part of the game world is home to the Masked People, ruled by the King of Facade. The location consists of several different levels of buildings connected by a series of walkways that run a river of sand, which can be navigated by a ferry.
The anime premiered in Japan on January 7. According to Square Enix, the show “tells the story of the androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their struggle to reclaim the machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful machines.” The publisher explains that “mankind has been driven away from Earth by mechanical beings from another world. In a last ditch effort to retake the planet, the human resistance sends a force of android soldiers to destroy the invaders. Now a war is raging between machines and androids… a war that may soon reveal a long-forgotten truth about the world.”
This comes in the wake of news that while the first three episodes of the series have already aired, subsequent episodes of the show have been delayed due to the impact the ongoing pandemic has had on the production schedule. The anime will air the first three episodes for the second time starting January 28, with the rest becoming available to viewers at a later and as yet unannounced time.
