As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
The video game
- The way you can bond with Niko. After meeting Prophetbot, Niko starts acknowledging your presence as their 'god', and often talks to you. With nearly every puzzle you solve, Niko shows appreciation for your help.
- In the Glen, one of the NPCs, a young bird girl, says "Daddy says the world is very sick. But [Playername] can make it better again!" You can not get your heart untouched by that.
- Afterwards, the same girl asks Niko if they are you, the god. Niko says no, they are just the "messiah" you sent, but they can talk with you. The child is excited by it (and so is Alula, if she's there), and when she asks Niko what it's like, they admit that it's "really cool" to be able to interact with you... When you read these dialogues, you know this is one of the moments that really hammer into you that you need to save their world for them.
- During the game, you and Niko save a young bird girl named Alula from a small room blocked off by squares. When you reunite her with her worried older brother, Calamus, they thank you and offer you to go to their house (which is actually essential for the story to advance).
- When you visit the courtyard, Alula and Calamus tell you that they are unable to visit their parents, since nobody has a flying machine to give them a ride anymore. However, during the Solstice run, you can summon a boat in the flooded corridor using the Author's journal, and they can finally see their parents' graveyard again.
- The Solstice ending, all of it: With the help of Prototype, Cedric and Rue, Niko is able to reach the heart of the World Machine, and the two have a poignant conversation about the true nature of OneShot. The World Machine explains their prior hostility, and they even apologize for their actions in the original playthrough of Oneshot. Niko asks the World Machine to recreate the lost golden ending that the Author originally created, and while the World Machine is skeptical, the restoration is successful because the World Machine has been tamed. This creates a path that combines the two original endings. After walking through the credits and talking with all of the friends they made on their journey, Niko permanently restores the sun, and all the glitched squares disappear from the world. Appearing in the first room of the game, Niko and the player have one last conversation, and Niko leaves the game through the player's monitor to go back to their own world.
- After the Solstice ending, the World Machine acknowledges that without Niko as your protagonist, you have no way to contact with the in-game world. And even though they note that it won't be the exact same, they still offer you as many chances as you like for you to replay the game using the World Machine's hologram Niko sprite. And how are they able to do that for you? Because Niko still remembers the adventure they had with you.
