Fans of odd games with multiple endings and themes of identity and oppression, rejoice! Or, maybe, not rejoice. Time will tell. In the latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Yosuke Saito, the series producer for Nier, teased that he might be working on something new with Yoko Taro and Keiichi Okabe, the director and composer for the Nier series, respectively.
Via Gematsu and PCGamer, Saito said, “I’ve been talking about wanting to do something with Yoko and Okabe for some time now. I’ll have something a bit more put-together to say in the not-too-distant future, so please stay tuned. It might be NieR, it might not be NieR. (Laughs.) That’s about all I can say for now.” Thanks for the clarity, Saito.
Saito is at GPTRACK50 now, a new-ish studio under NetEase working on something new (last year Gematsu reported it’s a 3D action RPG). It seems unlikely that rights holders Square Enix will release the Nier series – the most recent being 2017’s Nier: Automata, an action RPG about the many ways robots can die – and Taro has said in the past that any questions about Nier should be addressed to Squeenix. So my first instict would be to say that Saito is being a coy little flirt and they aren’t really working on Nier. Earlier today, Taro re-Xeeted the interview with the comment, “Something new…”, so the needle is currently pointing at Who Knows?
Nier: Automata was a huge success and remains beloved, so any potential sequel news will be gratefully recieved by its many fans. Yoko Taro, meanwhile, remains one of my most favourite goofs to be allowed to be in charge of making huge games. I still think fondly of his promo for pre-ordering Nier: Automota to get a t-shirt, in which he rolls around on the floor saying, “Nier: Automata t-shirt!” and, “Shit Square Enix!”, and which was somehow released on official Squeenix channels. He’s currently a director on the Voice Of Cards RPG series, though Katharine was sadly not so keen on the first one.