The Tragic Fall of Simone - NieR Automata

I have some more to talk about regarding the differences between 9S' combat and 2B's, but first, lemme explain the deal with that text log you saw. Being that 9S is a scanner and a pretty heavy thinker, he often comes across more information than 2B. One thing you notice is that he can actually see the names of the bosses. If you look back to my Amusement Park video as 2B, and beyond, the bosses' names are written in "Angelic" language. But 9S can actually see and analyze them.

It's how he knew that Adam's brother was called "Eve". Adam only introduced himself. Neither he nor Eve himself ever said Eve's name. 9S was able to see it.

Also, due to his hacking, 9S comes across other archived information within the enemies he hacks. Here he experiences what Simone went through to get to the point where she was when she attacked 2B and himself. When 9S said about her saying "pretty weird things" and it seeming like "she had actual emotion", he was referring to that long archive he uncovered while hacking her.

And yes, the machine that Simone was pining after was in-fact Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul treated all his admirers like... well any letters or gifts they sent him, he told 2B and 9S that they weren't worthy of even a response from him. When 2B and 9S told all those female machines that Jean-Paul literally didn't care about them, they didn't seem to notice and just swooned even more over his "mysterious allure".

But not Simone.

She loved him so much, and his indifference hurt her. It hurt her enough to turn herself into a monster in pursuit of his love and attention. It's safe to say she too originated from Pascal's village. If you look closely, you can even see her original machine head, which is protruding from her chest just underneath her neck.

Anyway, 9S' combat feels just a TINY bit off from 2B's. For a Perfect Evade, you're kinda required to do your dodge a bit later, because his Evade has a faster startup, but doesn't seem to go as far.

Also 9S' actual Perfect Evade is a bit slower than 2B's. When there's an attack that has a longer duration, where you can chain Perfect Evades (like against the Goliath Bipeds when they do their continuous arm spin attack), 9S' Perfect Evades chain at a noticeably slower rate.

This also affects counterattacks. Just like 2B, he can counterattack after a Perfect Evade. He can even hack out of a Perfect Evade. But it's a bit delayed. If you try to counterattack out of a Perfect Evade with the same input timing as 2B, 9S won't do anything. You either have to delay the input a bit, or just mash it. Some of 9S' counterattacks have long animations (like the one with Large Swords), and you cannot Evade out of them. So if you do a counterattack that has a long animation to it, you have to commit to it, because you can't dodge out of it if there's another attack coming at you.

Also, unlike 2B, 9S doesn't actually have any i-frames while doing the pod counterattack. Or at least he has SIGNIFICANTLY less i-frames. He also has some pretty useful ranged melee that he'll use if you do an attack while dashing or sprinting.

While 9S doesn't attack as fast or have nearly as flashy combos as 2B, his melee is both really good at a range and passable in close quarters. The fact that Scanner models aren't supposed to be able to fight (as in, they're not made to be able to wield weapons, and 9S actually hacked himself to be able to use weapons) is pretty f***ing amazing & hardcore.