Rules Do Not Exist to Bind Us | NieR Replicant (2021) Part 3

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- The tedium of Facade broke my brain. What is the significance of the name? What is the purpose of this unbearably slow segment? How do I feel about it? Fyra run faster oh my goooooOOOOOOD

- I survived the slowest boat tour in history and made it to the Barren Temple. The game pivots from non-existent gameplay to the most gamey of gameplay. Here is your reward for sitting through all that, it says with a smirk. This temple is a place for prospective kings of Facade to earn their title, completing a sequence of rules-based trials to earn the king's mask. By that logic, shouldn't young Moog be king? We did all the work, while the prince just needed rescuing.

- However, I can't really blame the prince for acting like a dumb kid when he is one. Here is yet another child with the weight of the world unfairly placed on his shoulders. Both young Moog and the prince have watched a loved one suffer from the Black Scrawl--but while we still have hope to save Yonah, the king of Facade is already gone.

- What was up with the Masked People and their endless rules? Weiss sums up my best explanation for the weird boat tour: "You could speak a thousand tongues and still fail if you lack knowledge of another's culture." The process of learning another people's way of life with respect and humility is neither quick nor easy. The game forces us to engage with Facade on its own terms, rather than relying on main character energy to burst in and make demands.

- "Rules do not exist to bind you. They exist so you know your freedoms." The temple's trials are based on rules, banning certain abilities in each one. These limitations require problem solving. Rather than relying on the same tools over and over, I needed to use all of them. After twenty minutes of suffering in the third trial, I will NEVER forget the block button again. Do you know your freedoms now, bitch?!

- Does the temple's lesson hold up as the basis for a society? Fyra and the other Masked People believe so. When Weiss is quick to judge Facade's rules as ridiculous, young Moog gently states the need to respect what is important to other people. And Weiss seems impressed!

- But wasn't young Moog single-handedly introducing democracy to Facade kinda goofy? My gut reaction is that it undermines everything else we explored here.

- Anyway, I am now reading about the philosophy of law. Maybe this rabbit hole will lead to some fun connections.

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