I’m learning the lore for a very old and strange video game. Which video game? I’m glad you asked. I’ll give you the short answer. There’s a game I’ve been wanting to play which came out in 2017 called Nier: Automata that supposedly has one of the best stories in any media ever. The problem is that Nier: Automata is a sequel to which came out in 2010. Now, the two have very little connection aside from brief references to the predecessor, but since I’m me I can’t just jump into Nier: Automata without the full context. So easy solution right? Just play Nier and THEN play Nier: Automata. Well no, if only it were that simple. You see Nier is a spin-off of a game called Drakengard that came out in 2003. Drakengard has multiple endings and one of the endings leads to the world that Nier takes place in. I don’t have a PlayStation 2 so I can’t play Drakengard, but even if I could, I couldn’t start there because Drakengard is actually a sequel to Drakengard 3 which came out in 2013z now if you’re paying attention (which of course you are, why would you skim such an important text) you’ll notice that they released Drakengard 3 after they released Nier but before the released Nier: Automata but also Drakengard 3 takes place before Drakengard 1 which takes place before Nier which takes place before Nier: Automata. Still following? Good. Now, you may be saying, “There’s a Drakengard and a Drakengard 3 but you haven’t mentioned Drakengard 2. Where does that fit into all this?” Well, I’m glad you asked. It does not. Drakengard 2 takes place in a completely separate universe from the other four games and has absolutely zero connection to any of them. Except that’s not true because in Drakengard 3 one of the characters references one of the characters from Drakengard 2. How does this happen if Drakengard 3 takes place thousands of years before Drakengard 2? Good question! That said, Drakengard 2 is also a shit game so I’m not studying any of the lore from that one. So yeah, I’m finishing up reading about Drakengard 1 right now so that I can start Nier tomorrow. Since that was a pretty concise answer to your question I can give you the longer version later.