happens in the same universe

Somehow, amazingly, I feel like this needs to be clarified. The creator decided to put in a secret ending to his previous series where the protagonist, who rides a dragon, somehow slips into an alternate reality where you inexplicably suddenly play a rhythm game against an eldritch monstrosity and then get shot out of the sky by a literal fighter jet. And that universe is where Nier takes place.

Yoko Taro is an insane man and I love it. I still won't play Drakengard, but that's just because it's not a great game.

Yeah in reality it's like 2 playthroughs of part 1 then like 2 of part 2 then idk how many of part 3. But you basically switch between the core characters for each playthrough then once you've done both you go to the next main story bit.