NieR Replicant: The Ending E That Was Always There

The original NieR (2010) had four endings. The remaster added a fifth — Ending E — that resolves Kaine’s fate and was reportedly part of Yoko Taro’s original vision but cut from the 2010 release due to development constraints.

Ending E requires completing Ending D, which deletes your save data. The remaster preserves this save deletion mechanic but adds the continuation. Players who deleted their saves in 2010 and moved on never received the closure the story was always meant to have.

The ending involves a sequence where the game’s UI elements — health bars, menus, loading screens — become part of the narrative. The line between game architecture and story collapses in a way that callbacks to the Automata trick without repeating it.

Yoko Taro’s willingness to use save deletion as a narrative tool across two different games speaks to a consistent design philosophy: the cost of seeing the full story should feel real. Not punitive — real. The investment should match what the story is asking of the player emotionally.