Category Archives: NieR:Automata

Notes from the NieR 15th Anniversary Roundtable Discussion by Famitsu

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The last issue of Famitsu magazine, which featured 18 pages worth of content for the NieR 15th Anniversary, ends with a 6-page roundtable discussion with the creators (at an izakaya) as they fondly looked back on their experiences working on the series.

Although I can’t offer a 1:1 direct translation, I will pick up some of the main points and paraphrase important segments here and there in a simple bullet-point style.

※ Editor’s Note: Although both NieR Gestalt and NieR Replicant were originally known collectively as “Gestalt & Replicant”, in this order (such as on the original soundtrack), this article reverses the order to refer to both as NieR Replicant/Gestalt.

▶︎ The Members

▶︎ The Location

  • Sumibi Sakaya Manma
    (Receive 1 drink free if you mention you came after reading this article in Famitsu!)

▶︎ The Huge Presence of NieR Music

  • Several pages from the early NieR project proposal (on pages 72-73) were from the actual game documents that were created internally at SQEX to pitch the game, but it was hurriedly thrown together and many things changed once development started.
  • The theme like “protecting a loved one even at the cost of the world” was already present from the outset.
  • Originally, Seafront was called “Mermaid’s Coast” because the story of Louise was meant to be included in the original release of the game, but it had to be cut due to unfortunate delays on the development side when game engine they were using stalled things for roughly a year and a half…
  • Okabe joined the team during the pre-production phase of development. At the time, MONACA was mostly making soundtracks for anime titles such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, and the Monogatari series, but after working on NieR Replicant/Gestalt, he began thinking more on the business side of the company.
  • Since then, Okabe has won “Best Score/Music” at The Game Awards, one of the biggest gaming awards shows in the worldーtwice! …to which Yoko responds, “Unforgivable…!” Okabe replies, “Life is unpredictable that way, I guess.”
  • Okabe was shocked when “Song of the Ancients” was used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic opening ceremony.
  • Saito heard some rumors that a song from one of his games might be used, and he was satisfied enough when they played the overture from Dragon Quest, but then when “Song of the Ancients” began to play, he got rather emotional, especially since they used the vocal version that he specifically requested.
  • During the 2024 World Tour, Saito mention that, no matter what country they were in, the crowds always went wild whenever Okabe’s name was announced.
  • Yoko originally asked Okabe to create music pieces with voices, but he didn’t mean actually sung lyrics but rather voices in the sense of mimicking percussion sounds and such. He was surprised when they went ahead and mixed in tracks without voices, some were even quite short.
  • This is where Okabe speaks up to mention that NieR Replicant/Gestalt was going to utilize an experimental structure that includes two melodies in each track which would be played in real-time throughout the game to adjust the length. The two melodies would connect to form a complete track, but they ended up not using the real-time style very much, thus some tracks turned out shorter than originally planned.
  • Although it was Yoko’s idea to use this real-time system, he eventually regretted using it and complained about it later.

▶︎ A timeline in which NieR wasn’t released and instead another ultra-famous title was

  • Yoko looks back at NieR Replicant/Gestalt as a huge experiment for everyone involved and never expected it to succeed.
  • Saito believed that Yoko had genuine talent and wanted to give him a second chance after Drakengard. At the time he had two choices: let Yoko work on a new project or greenlight a new title in an ultra-famous series (the exact title remains ambiguous). Taura jokingly says that Saito should have picked the other game, but alas, he went with Yoko instead. Saito also jokingly wonders if he should have gone with the other title, and Yoko agrees. Saito jokes that the other title might have been a bigger success.
  • The original plan proposal Yoko submitted was for a side-scrolling action puzzle game similiar to Solomon’s Key.
  • This original game was called “Echo”. Saito mentions that it wasn’t at all what he had in mind and asked Yoko to reconsider it. Yoko had several other plans that also got rejected.
  • However, since Saito believed in Yoko, the NieR series has now surpassed 10 million copies worldwide, with NieR:Automata selling nearly 10 million copies on its own.*
    * This statement doesn’t quite make much sense to me, so I’m wondering if it might be a mistake. If NieR:Automata sold nearly 10 million copies, then the entire NieR series should be over 10 million, no?
  • Saito mentions that, as a game creator, it feels like entering the Hall of Fame, but on the other hand, he felt rather dejected when Monster Hunter: World exceeded this mark in just a month…

▶︎ Do the “Okabe Children” dominate the creator scene?

  • This next section focuses on the younger guys on the team, Takahisa Taura, Kazuma Koda, Saki Ito, and Daichi Matsukawa, and what they were doing 15 years ago.
  • Taura had just entered PlatinumGames. He heard within the company that they were going to be making a game similar to Bayonetta, which was released the year prior in 2009. He first became interested in the project through the music. It was the “Okabe Children” not “Yoko Children” that intrigued him, a statement which Yoko said was the first he was hearing about it… Taura went on to say that a lot of other people in the company got interested in the project because of the NieR soundtrack. Yoko seemed a bit vexed at this, saying, “I can’t even!” but then agreed that he pretty much heard the same thing.
  • Kazuma Koda likewise heard about it from a fellow sound designer at PlatinumGames who told him about some game that had great music, to which Saito mentioned that Koda is also an “Okabe Child”. Koda was still a student 15 years ago and had just started drawing, so he didn’t know anything about NieR Replicant/Gestalt back then.
  • Koda first started drawing when he had to repeat a year of high school to get into a university. He was reluctant to study and ended up sketching at his desk instead. What’s absolutely amazing is that Koda never really drew before this, not as a child or anything.
  • Comparatively, he was more into music than anything else. So, it’s very possible that if he didn’t have to repeat a year in high school that he might have been led down a very different path that may not have included the world of art.
  • Matsukawa asks if this is when he started using the pen name “Ronin” (浪人 / rounin; but he romanizes it as “lownine“), and Koda replies, “Yes, exactly!”
  • Ito suggests that if Koda had pursued a career in music, maybe he could have ended up at MONACA, to which Koda disagrees, although he was a fan of the music from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, so was, of course, aware of MONACA’s work.
  • At this point, Yoko’s getting bored and mentions how this discussion isn’t very interesting…
  • The interviewer ignores Yoko and asks Matsukawa what he was doing back then, to which he replies that he was 18 and just starting university… and simply “living it up!”
  • Saito confirms that Matsukawa never had the intention to enter the game industry, but by some random chance, he ended up doing it anyway, working with Applibot.
  • As for Saki Ito, he was a 20-year-old student and the complete opposite of Matsukawa with a slightly dark youth. Whenever he’d go to a nomikai drinking party, he’d always be off on his own, playing Pokémon and he’d always skip out if there was a nijikai or second round and go to the arcade instead.
  • Apparently, Saki Ito was a huge gamer and actually played the original NieR when it first came out in 2010. Prior to the release, his attention was first grasped by an image of Kaine in her underwear in a game magazine. Although, after playing the game, he was absolutely hooked on the soundtrack, so in a way, he’s also an “Okabe Child”.
  • At this point, Yoko suggests that they’re all just “Taura Children” since NieR:Automata has sold the most and NieR Replicant ver.1.22… and NieR Re[in]carnation really only reference NieR:Automata… So, they’re mere pawns under Taura’s regime. But Taura reiterates that he is an “Okabe Child”.
  • Okabe mentions that it always comes back around to him in the end, to which Yoko mentions how uninteresting this is before going into his usual spiel: “Why are all you young people so well-groomed and good-looking!? I hate good-looking guys, but I always end up choosing them anyway…” The next moment, he orders another highball.

▶︎ NieR:Automata was supposed to be a slow-life game cultivating Lunar Tears?

  • The NieR series fell into a bit of a drought with little forward momentum after the release of NieR Replicant/Gestalt until around 2012.
  • Yoko wanted to make a sequel and consulted with Yuki Yokoyama (producer of NieR Re[in]carnation) who was the assistant producer at the time. But, unfortunately, the plan fell through and Yoko ended up working on Drakengard 3 (originally released on December 19, 2013).
  • The first YoRHa stage play, which depicts the events that lead up to NieR:Automata, was held in October 2014. Yoko mentions that this play was not originally connected to the NieR world at all. As it was stated in the manga “The True Theory Game Creators Story: Yoko Taro’s Arc“, Yoko again confirms that it was Saito who came up with a good story (narrative) and suggested they could do something with PlatinumGames.
  • They also had the option to remake NieR Replicant/Gestalt for the PS Vita, but also thought it might be better to make something brand new instead. So, Saito asked Yoko to come up with an idea which… ended up being a farming game, like all the other popular smartphone games at the time. Yoko’s idea was something like where you’d grow and cultivate Lunar Tears… and idea that wasn’t even seriously considered, Saito said. Yoko’s reprieve was that similar games were super popular at the time, and since Saito liked money, it could work…
  • Generally speaking, the first idea doesn’t matter nearly as much as actually getting the project off the ground, from which point you can figure out the various details later, Yoko said. After that, he had a look at Taura’s plan proposal, and that’s basically when the idea was born to base NieR:Autoata on the original YoRHa stage play.

▶︎ Yoko Taro’s audacious willingness to extend deadlines

  • Because of the great success of NieR:Automata, NieR Replicant ver.1.22… was released in February 2021 with NieR Re[in]carnation coming the following April, the interviewer asked Taura what it was like working with Yoko again, to which he said that he never knew deadlines could be so easily extended without any adverse repercussions, to which Saito mention that this was true even before NieR:Automata became a great success… So, it appears as though Yoko just really dislikes deadlines. “I was always like this!”
  • Whenever Yoko writes, he always wonders of what he’s doing is really okay and really can’t find the right answer anymore. Saito mentions that this is often how creative people feel, and Taura added that once you create the basic shape, anything can be changed or fixed later. Here, Yoko doesn’t respond and apparently makes an odd face to which Ito responds by saying, “You can’t just make a face like that, like you don’t understand.”
  • Here, the interviewer mentions Yoko’s new column that also began in this issue, and how he hopes Yoko can make his deadlines… Taura & Saito to some degree encourage him to write the script and to not forget to do his own work. All Yoko can do is agree.
  • Since NieR Replicant ver.1.22… wasn’t necessarily a new game and was more of a remake of a game that already exists, the interviewer asked if it was less stressful to work on with Yoko and also make the necessary deadlines. Ito replied to say that it was probably easier than what Taura or Matsukawa had to deal with. Sometime around the midway point of development, Yoko started complaining about things even though they had decided to stay faithful to the original game except for a few new additions. At one point he apparently said, “I don’t like how the grass grows in the Stone Temple!”
  • Saito said that they were in effect recreating the original game that Yoko made, but they ended up totally redoing the backgrounds, and Ito added that the result included a ton of grass and vines everywhere. Yoko agreed that the background team did a really amazing job, especially how they so closely recreated Koda’s concept art in the game. He praised them further by mentioning how quick they were to respond whatever he asked for something. The more he asked for changes, the more the backgrounds needed to be redone.
  • Regarding other changes that were implemented, Ito said that they were thinking about easing up on the monotonous grinding that existed in the original, but they essentially came to the decision that they wouldn’t alter those aspects, although he still wonders if that was the right decision. Saito then came to his aid and agreed that it was the right call.

▶︎ Effort and its hidden toll

  • According to Okabe, he wanted the motion capture data ahead of time to compose the piece that would play during the Dev/Pop battle, where Popola attacks while dancing on the stage, but they were told that the mocap for another song had to be recorded first and to compose the piece to match this data (basically reusing the mocap data rather than having another mocap session specifically for the battle sequence (it’s a resource conserving measure both time and money wise, also may have been a scheduling issue)).
  • So, Okabe had to compose to match the previous mocap data, which is really insane if you think about it. But he worked his magic anyway, although it appears like most players didn’t even notice Popola’s dancing, so he wondered why he put in the effort… To which Saito apparently gives a Steve Jobs quote of sorts: “A good sofa is one that’s sewn well, even in places you can’t see.” (This is a translation of the Japanese translation of the original English quote, so it’s a little difficult to pinpoint the actual quote at this point).
  • Apparently, the first boss in NieR:Automata, Engels, was designed to match the music much like Beauvoir in the Amusement Park, Taura says, although hardly anyone noticed. He guessed that it was because they made it feel so natural that it was difficult to tell it was synched to the music as well. He was frustrated since it took a lot of effort to design it that way.
  • Koda tried to express that maybe it was difficult to tell the motion was synced to the music due to such large movements, but Taura suggested for people to play it again with this in mind. Even the part where 9S comes to help is completely synched with the music.
  • The interviewer asked if there might be anything new that could be revealed at last, and Ito was the first to speak, saying that the fishing bobber texture in NieR Replicant ver.1.22… was adapted from ikura (salmon roe) texture. Additionally, sometimes the main character will seem to draw something on the ground as an idle motion, and there were several different versions of this; one of which was writing “Yoko”. Apparently, this was news to Yoko, but Saito raised the bar exponentially higher when he mentioned, “That’s cute, but nothing compared to what Yoko did in NieR Replicant/Gestalt, when he hid the feature where your save data is deleted.” It seems as though the project manager somehow got wind of this and let Saito know about it, and that’s how it was inevitably discovered…

▶︎ A Sense of Accomplishment Through Art

  • Kazuma Koda was asked which of his many illustrations he felt left the largest impact on him, and he named the illustration he did for the NieR:Automata 5th Anniversary, as it was the piece in which he felt the most fulfilled and received great feedback from social media. Generally speaking, NieR art mainly uses a white color scheme. Koda grew to use subtlety warm or cool tones, especially in shadows, and he felt he mastered this color adjustment process with the 5th-anniversary illustration.
  • Yoko would often give Koda instructions to illustrate a particular scene, but other times the directions were more vague. Even so, he rarely had anything returned for corrections, which he was grateful for. Still, at the same time, he said it was rather disconcerting.
  • When asked about Yoko’s art preferences, Koda mentioned that Yoko often liked more symmetrical designs or compositions with characters that are arranged in an easy-to-understand manner. Koda also likes this sort of composition, so he always kept this in mind whenever he was working on illustrations for NieR. Yoko added that, once a theme had been decided, he often liked to go the simpler route, eliminating any ambiguities or unnecessary elements.
  • Apparently, there was some confusion regarding the saturation of Koda’s artwork, but he didn’t consciously alter this; on the other hand, Taura suggested to lower the saturation of the game’s visuals by about half. Both Ito and Matsukawa were aware of Yoko’s idea that the NieR series uses a subdued saturation color scheme, so they were both acutely aware of this in both NieR Re[in]carnation and NieR Replicant ver.1.22…
  • Matsukawa mentioned that he got so used to this minimal saturation scheme that when he encountered something with higher saturation, it tended to hurt his eyes and thusly started to prefer designs with more subdued saturation or even drawn to whites and grays. “It’s Yoko’s curse,” he said, to which Yoko responded, “That’s good.”
  • Koda often plays more colorful games like Splatoon to sort of reset his metal color image after working on NieR designs for too long.
  • When Saito asked what Koda likes to draw for himself, he mentioned that he likes the backgrounds in NieR but perfers cuter characters. He never felt he was very good at drawing realistic faces, which was why the characters were relatively small and more delicate in the various NieR artwork, but more recently he feels like he’s more capable of drawing realistic characters as well.
  • As far as NieR:Automata goes, they had Akihiko Yoshida doing the main character designs with Yuuya Nagai doing the sub characters as well as Toshiyuki Itahana with the new Dev/Pop designs, so Yoko specifically had Koda focus on the backgrounds. Koda added that since he’s more able to illustrate characters, he’s happy he was able to come up with the key visual for the “NieR:Dinner Show”, held on December 29, 2024. Okabe mentioned that he was filled with surprise and gratitude to see the design, and a poster of it is actually hanging up in the MONACA office.

▶︎ The Influence of NieR

  • Continuing the questions for the younger game developers, the interviewer asked if they may have applied anything they learned by working on NieR to the other works or were maybe influenced by it in some way.
  • Ito mentioned that he started getting angry at the dev team more frequently, and like Yoko or Taura, he was less willing to compromise on quality. If he noticed anything that wasn’t write, he’d point it out and sometimes end up speaking harshly.
  • Comparatively, Matsukawa has taken a different approach and has been speaking more kindly, thinking that it’s not always about raising the quality by being harsh, so he consciously changed the way he approaches and speaks to people. Taura agrees, adding that you can’t necessarily create something good by being mean.
  • That was was when Yoko spoke up, saying that Taura was always rather harsh on the game designers and planners, and Taura’s reasoning was that anyone could full those roles, even if they weren’t particularly skilled at it. Yoko pressed further, saying that he’s being harsh just saying that.
  • Taura goes on to talk about his own experience, how he went to a tech school to become a programmer, but failed. He then wanted to draw, but there were still many other amazingly talented people who were better than him. Then he thought he’d like to work on games, so the only role he could get into was a planner. He put in the effort not to bother the actually talented folks above him, so that’s probably why he’s somewhat triggered by those who don’t necessarily put in the effort.

▶︎ Reflecting on the Past 15 Years of NieR

  • Shifting over to the topic of everyone’s most memorable moments in the past 15 years, Yoko was the first to mention he became more talkative when Saito among others invited him to attend various livestreams. He feels he’s more able to speak freely now.
  • Taura feels that he’s able to drink alcohol more, which has somewhat helped him to speak and explain things to the team more effectively. (I’m worried if he’s drinking at work… lol)
  • Saito mentioned that during one of their livestreams, he suddenly got sick and had to ask Taura to take over as the MC, so he felt bad for doing that (This might have been during the #4 official livestream, but I’m not sure. Saito was wearing a mask while the other’s weren’t and he only appeared in the beginning and end, so maybe this is what he was referring to). Taura hoped that he did well enough at least, whereas Saito thought it helped Taura “level up” in some way. Taura mentioned how funny it is for turning points in your life seem to come at the most unexpected times.
  • At this point, the interviewer asked Taura regarding the rumors that he since left PlatinumGames, to which Taura said it wasn’t something he was trying to keep under wraps; it’s just he didn’t make a huge announcement about it. Regarding the reason, he said that once he’s able to release a new project with his name on it, he might be able to talk about it freely then.
  • Apparently, Taura has started his own development studio, called Eel Game Studio.
  • Moving on, the interviewer mentioned that the three main guys (Yoko, Okabe, and Taura) were working on a new game and asked if that was still true, and Saito confirmed this as accurate information. ”What a relief!”
  • At this point, Yoko mentioned Takano, the PR rep, and how he said he’s just doing whatever because it’s his job, and didn’t seem remotely interested in NieR, to which Takano replied that neither the company nor the fans really expected it to be a huge hit. He hadn’t played the previous games either, so he didn’t quite understand anything.
  • This was when Saito spoke up to mention an international meeting where they discuss how many copies they expect to sell based on the project proposal, and the numbers they got then were pretty embarrassing. Even so, both Yoko and Okabe were convinced the game would do well overseas, so they got Akihiko Yoshida and PlatinumGames on board, with the goal of reaching at least 1 million copies sold. They basically continued on like this thinking, “If it doesn’t sell, I’ll quit.”
  • Apparently, Takano got swept up in everything and went to E3 2015, thinking “I’m not interested, but I’ll do it since it’s my job.” (This was when NieR:Automata was teased as the “NieR New Project”)
  • According to Takano, this was the first lighting of his interest, which continued on to the 2016 event in Tokyo at the EX THEATER ROPPONGI, the NieR Music Concert & Talk Live – White of the End, Black of Rebirth, at which the performance moved him deeply. He actually regretted not playing the game before this, since the impact of the experience would have been much greater.
  • At this point, Yoko spoke up, saying how he didn’t want to hear such a moving story and thusly ordered something more to drink…
  • Saito mentioned that Takano is also an “Okabe Child!”
  • Taura also spoke up, stating that it’s a rare thing to get interested in something from the music alone. At that, Yoko was like, “In that case, I’ll make a really horrible game just to see how far your musical magic will go. Then we’ll see if people actually say, “Geez, we actually needed Yoko’s story…”” Taura hit back by saying he’ll just buy the soundtrack… lol
  • Here, the interviewer tries to change the subject a little by asking Yoko whether he’s been contemplating Okabe’s music more recently and if he thought his music has been getting better over the years, to which Yoko admits that ever since SINoALICE and NieR Re[in]carnation, Okabe’s music has only gotten better, although Saito pipes up to say that it’s already been good from the start. lol Yoko has a mini conniption, saying, “Everyone says that, but it’s not true!” before admitting that Okabe’s musical skill actually did improve considerably after this period.
  • Regarding what Okabe actually felt himself, he mentioned that he did notice an improvement. Although, since the NieR:Automata soundtrack had more of a sci-fi or Hollywood-style vibe, maybe fans of the previous game were turned off because of it.
  • Apparently, Taura actually wrote a plan proposal for a NieR Replicant/Gestalt sequel and he was shocked to see how different it was when NieR:Automata was actually announced.
  • The interviewer mentioned that because of this massive gap, the soundtracks for NieR Replicant ver.1.22… and NieR Re[in]carnation musically stood out more.
  • Okabe mentioned that this could be accurate. Around the same time, he got similar requests for various themes. Even though the requests were similar, he tried to make each piece unique. But since they were all composed around the same time, there was a natural sense of hierarchy that he had in mind.
  • Slightly confused, the interviewer confirmed that it wasn’t about whether the themes were good or not, but simply that one felt better than the others, to which Okabe agreed, saying that the track that best fit this criteria was Fleeting Words（泡沫ノ言葉）Yoko was rather impressed to hear that Okabe had written 3 similar tracks around the same time and decided which one would go to which game later. It absolutely worked like magic!
  • The way Okabe writes NieR music is by deciding on the melody first then arrange them later to better fit the feeling of whichever game.
  • Yoko asked Saito at Famitsu how or why they decided on putting Automata on the cover in 2016, a full year before the release of the game. He was confused because it wasn’t expected to sell well, both on the Famitsu side and SQEX side.
  • The interviewer (Saito), said it was due to several different reasons, but the hype over a new game by Yoko Taro was likely the main reason. People were also excited that PlatinumGames would be doing the development, and seeing Taura show some of the gameplay at the “NieR Music Concert & Talk Live” also got a lot of people hyped up. Also, Akihiko Yoshida’s character designs were another plus.
  • Yoko wasn’t all that thrilled about it, however, and actually wondered if the people at Famitsu had their heads on right. Typically, weekly magazines release about 50 issues a year, so they felt they could give it a shot.

▶︎ Closing Comments

  • Saito said that in 2027, Automata will celebrate its 10th Anniversary, so he hopes that Yoko, Okabe, and he will still be around (alive) in order to share something related to NieR then. Before that, however, he hopes that worldwide sales and downloads will surpass 10 million copies.
  • Yoko said to look forward to his new YOKO & TARO column in Famitsu because he will gradually be revealing more about the future of NieR!
  • Except, the interviewer stated in the 10 columns Yoko’s already submitted, none have hinted at anything about this yet, so perhaps we should look forward to the future installments.

▲ These black and white characters are known as “Pre” and “Zen” (two halves of the Japanese word for “presentation) were originally created by Yukiko Yokoo, Yoko Taro’s wife, to use during his various presentations. Here, they are depicted with a ヨ for “YOKO” and タ for “TARO”.

  • Saito was surprised that he’s already written 10 columns, yet Taura yelled at him to keep writing the scripts.
  • The roundtable discussion ends with Yoko responding to Taura, “Yeah, I get it~☆”

So, that’s about it! I guess we’ll have to wait to hear more news on the next NieR title when Yoko feels like teasing it in his new column!

Anticipation for NieR in 2025

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Although Saito Yosuke retired his “Santa Yosuke” series of livestreams some years ago, I still feel like a bit of that aesthetic permeates until this very day. Case in point: the most recent 4Gamer End of the Year/New Year statements from folks all across the video game industry. It’s from this article in which many NieR fans have been going wild with talk about the next installment in the NieR series.

Except, I feel like fans and various journalist sites are misrepresenting Saito’s quote, taking it out of context for what was intended. Saito isn’t suggesting that any of these things will absolutely occur in 2025 but rather he’s aware of the fan excitement over the 15th Anniversary and the anticipation that creates hype for news about the next installment in the franchise or other related events.

Simply, this is neither confirmation nor a dismissal for any of the aforementioned topics.

Question 4: What sort of aspirations do you have for 2025, and lastly, do you have a message for 4Gamer readers?

“Well, 2025 marks the 15th Anniversary of the NieR series, so we’d certainly like to do something to commemorate that huge milestone. We’re just thinking about what to do… I’m not quite sure about the next game or how things might unfold at this point, but I’ve certainly heard many expectations from fans, so it makes this an extremely difficult decision. As a producer, I may need to take a step back and be a little less involved, so I hope fans can be a little more patient for what’s to come.” Yosuke Saito, 4Gamer

As you can see, this statement is neither for nor against the idea of a future game being announced next year, but rather he’s simply acknowledging the fan anticipation for such a thing; therefore, it may be premature to definitively state that there will IN FACT be an announcement of a new game in 2025.

Additionally, what is acutely apparent from this statement is that they are keenly aware of fan expectations and are wondering what to do for the 15th Anniversary. It’s not something that can be decided upon easily, although should something occur next year, they’d already be well within the development stages by now (which means he knows but simply isn’t saying).

This is hardly Saito “teasing” the next installment in the series.

I would imagine there will be a Japan “End of Tour” extravaganza for ‘the end of data’ concert world tour, especially since Japan has been left out thus far. I would imagine they’d put on a big even similar to the Fan Festival back in 2022.

So, as always, I would suggest for fans to reign on the side of caution and/or skepticism when it comes to mainstream media interpretations of real quotes from official folks. I just hope that fans are able to take a step back and digest all the information that we’re given in an impartial and unbiased manner, and that includes those who would like to twist the words of those involved to rally the fanbase into a wild frenzy.

Believe me, I get the hype, but it needs to be warranted, and thus far, there’s nothing to entirely rejoice about. It’s all speculation at this point. Let’s hold out a little longer before definitively stating speculation as fact!

Speculation Between A2 and Kaine, Headcanon Getting Out of Wack

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For the longest time, people have been speculating that there’s some sort of deeper connection between No2 (A2) and Kaine. I may have been the culprit for this with my initial speculation after going to the original YoRHa Ver.1.0 stage play in 2014, whether that’s accurate or not, I don’t really know, but there was one line in which the titular character mentions her “false memory” of growing up on a farm with her grandma that stuck in my memory at the time. I initially thought this detail was unusually specific and drew some connections to Kaine, who also grew up with her grandma, although the details were quite different.

Over the years I grew to distance myself from this speculation, but it seemed like the overall fanbase liked this correlation between the characters, so no matter how much I might suggest people only view this as speculation, it seemed to make people believe it all the more. Whether this is actually what happened with the fanbase or not, it doesn’t really matter, but for me, I tend to dislike it when people state this obvious speculation as absolute fact. It’s one thing to have a fun head canon and another to preach to others that it’s the only correct outcome.

Additionally, it seems like some folks are getting a little carried away with this speculation, so allow me to address some silly comments recently made on 4chan, which you’re free to have your own opinions on the medium… But since they mentioned me by name, I felt it was my responsibility to respond, although indirectly with this post.

▶︎ The Comment

“Kaine did not live on a farm with her grandmother.

The original human Kaine lived in a mansion and she was an experimental weapon made from Curly’s genetics and Legion DNA. This is in the Drama CD.

Replicant Kaine lived in that place outside the Aerie and it is most definitely not a farm. Moreover, she is a Replicant so they wouldn’t have used her memories.

A2’s original personality is the one we see in the stage play and in episodes 6 and 17 of the anime. She is an innocent cheerful girl and that is why they named her Freesia. She only became vengeful after the betrayal and loss of her family. Her story arc in Automata is about her regaining her humanity and opening herself up to others (she is the opposite of 9S), so we barely see her vengeful self at all, especially in the anime (though the game localization kind of messed up her personality imo).

This entire theory was created by Rekka because she sloppily thought it matched up. She has since said that it was an incorrect theory and asked people to stop spreading it because it was wrong.” ー4chan

So, first of all I’d like to remind people of the timeline of these events.

  • The first YoRHa stage play debuted in October 2014.
  • I first spoke openly about my speculation here, in December 2015.
  • NieR:Automata released in February 2017.

If we’re to tackle the localized interpretation of her character, you’re going to run into some issues because there are clear actors who want to equate A2 to Kaine, but there is actually very little connecting the two. The issue is the distance between the original game and the localized English version, which lends to what we see in the localized version of the anime… There are many aspects that are altered or slightly skewed for whatever reason. The fact is that neither version is entirely 1:1 accurate and you sort of need to make your own acceptance with this incongruity.

All that to say that A2 is HARDLY on the same personality level as Kaine. She began as an extremely timid girl and was sharpened into the slick blade that she became due to her harsh experiences of being used as a mere tool that can be discarded and losing her dear friends under her own watch. That alone will change a person, and that is exactly what happens to her. That doesn’t necessarily mean that she becomes a completely violent person with a vile mouth. That’s not A2. That’s Kaine. That is where these two characters differ greatly. Of course, you could draw some similarities if you wanted, but I honestly don’t seen enough that would absolutely solidify this, that A2 and Kaine are essentially the same person, as fact.

What it seems like the main hang up that people have is the difference between speculation and reality. Granted, these ideas that I initially had, no matter when I first posted them, were cultivated from what I learned at the initial YoRHa stage play in 2014. This was when the YoRHa idea and NieR had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with each other.

And yet I still speculated some ideas here and there. One of my ideas was largely based on a singular line by No2 that distantly resembled the past of Kaine from NieR. You can read more about this here.

▶︎ Scene from the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical

No2: Our memories… are pseudo memories.
No4: They’re false memories programmed in order to promote diversity and evolution on the battlefield.
No2: In my memories, I lived in the country with my grandma.
No4: In my memories, I hung out a lot with my friends at school.
No2: Everyday, grandma and I would tend to the farm and knit… The cold of the rain, the ferocity of the storms. The silence of the snow. The gentle warmth of spring…
No4: After school, we’d go eat the most delicious things, have fun dressing up, playing games…
No2: Since we lived in the country, I couldn’t have everything I wanted. But because the other villagers looked out for me, including my grandma… strangely, it wasn’t so hard.
No4: As long as I had my friends, I could endure my studies. We’d laugh day after day; no matter what hardships came our way, we were able to overcome them.
No2: ……My grandma taught me “kindness,” a gentle heart to cares for others.
No4: ……My friends taught me “hope”, a strong heart to laugh even in the face of difficulty.
No4: Holding tightly onto these false memories, we fight.
No2: But they are also our precious memories.
No2 & No4: The time… draws near…
No2 & No4: Our final moments… are about to begin…

Although the above blurb comes from the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical, which debuted in 2018, this setting also existed in the original play penned by Kaoru Asakusa in 2014, so that alone might be an important factor. We don’t necessarily know how far Yoko’s setting extended and where Asakusa created on his own; although it’s more likely that Yoko made this setting from the very beginning.

But whether this speculation is accurate or notー that’s sort of not the point because that’s what speculation is. We merely bring up interesting or odd coincidences and try to make sense of them, drawing from what we already know.. That doesn’t necessarily mean these speculations are accurate or correct in any way.

So, it would be nice if people could separate speculation from 10 years ago from what we currently know as fact… Personally, I think it’s perfectly okay to believe whatever you want as your own headcanon, but it’s also important to acknowledge the facts a little bit and to weigh everything against each other in order to come to a reliable assessment.

In the end, what you want to believe is up to you, and that’s totally okay, but for me personally, I’d greatly appreciate it if people could please leave me out of this situation. 10 years is a long time to have stated a simple bit of speculation for people to still be believing it as fact or blaming me for its inaccuracies. It’s about time to move on… xD

“But, Yoko Said It!” – The issue of manipulating quotes to suit an agenda

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So, this is going to be another editorial type of post, focusing on a recent post on Twitter. We’re going to explore the complexity of quote translations and how some venues like to rework them to suit a specific purpose, which is more likely than not pure clickbait or engagement farming.

Before we get into the details, let’s review the original post that kicked this off:

The first thing to notice with this post is how sensational it is intended to be viewed, but on closer analysis, you’ll see that this statement not only includes several unsightly typos but also several nonfactual statements:

▶︎ TYPOS

  1. The title of the series: Neir → NieR
  2. by the idea → but the idea

▶︎ NONFACTUAL STATEMENTS

  1. “Yoko Taro initially wanted to add an intimate sex scene between 2B and 9S in the Neir Automata anime”
    → Yoko did not absolutely state this. This is purely based on a singular interpretation of a redacted statement.
  2. [but] the idea was rejected by the Aniplex Producer who argued that “9S would not do that”.
    → This statement was not from a producer from Aniplex but rather the original NieR:Automata game designer at Platinum Games, Takahisa Taura.

The most problematic portion of this post is the steadfast, apparently factual statement that any of the Devs confirmed the copulation between two main characters, which… hold on for a bit, they absolutely did not.

A major issue dealing with issues like this involves Japanese to English translation as well as dealing with the plethora of Japanese context/nuance which cannot be translated via Google or any other free-based machine translation tool. You have to know the language to fully understand the overall context, to know when or where people are just shitting you, and to grasp the underlying nuance.

So, first let’s examine the translation that was initially presented here:

Well, first of all, this particular account left no context or source for this sensational headline. This thread, however, includes the link to the original Famitsu article from July 22, 2023, plus a screenshot of a Google translated segment from the original article (See below).

What’s interesting is that it seems the author of this original article left Famitsu and joined Dengeki Online. This article about the NieR anime was his one of his last articles at Famitsu.

Note: My beef isn’t necessarily with this interpretation as much as it is with representing it as absolute fact, which it absolutely is not. It’s another example of folks placing words in people’s mouths, often with a specific motive, whether it be clout, engagement, or whatever else.

Additionally, it’s not necessarily wrong to use Google Translate or other machine aided translation programs, but you need to already have a certain level of proficiency in the target language to understand the remaining linguistic nuance and context.

Next, I’d like to examine a short passage in a recent interview by Famitsu.

(Please note that the following is my translation, done for editorial purpose for this piece.)

ー No matter what, it takes time for the anime team to fully grasp the original game. By the way, Yoko-san, you were in charge of the series structure, but what exactly did that involve?

Yoko: It started with the script—or rather, the plot—that was presented to me. When I reviewed it, I felt it was a little too similar to the game, so I suggested making some changes.

My first idea was rejected for various reasons, but they began incorporating my ideas from the next one. That’s when they asked if I’d focus on the series structure.

In the early stages, we aimed to stay true to the game, closely following its storyline, but I personally felt there was little merit in simply retelling the same story. Fans would likely expect something new and different in the anime, so we decided on a balancing out the strengths of the game with original elements unique to the anime.

Producer Matsumoto prioritized staying true to the rules of the game, while I tend to break them, preferring to take a step back and approach things differently. That was the sort of balance we came to. The so-called “9S●● incident” caused quite a stir within the team; it was rather something.

ー “The 9S●● incident?!” Could you elaborate on that?

Yoko: At one point, I included a scene in the plot where 9S and 2B do ●●. However, Producer Matsumoto intervened, firmly stating: “9S doesn’t do ●●.” As a result, the scene was cut (laughs).

He was concerned that fans might not react positively to it. I believe that creative works, whether games or anime, ultimately belong to the audience. I understood that Producer Matsumoto, who approached the project with the audience’s perspective in mind, had valid concerns about it, so I decided to scrap the scene.

ー I see. Was there another reason why you chose avoid making the content of the anime identical to the game?

Yoko: I’d actually like to hear Taura-san explain why I didn’t make it the same as the game.

Taura: What?! Why should I answer that? (laughs) Well, it’s like… you know? Even though the way you express things is different between the two mediums, I imagine you wouldn’t want to just recreate something you’ve already made. If you were to do it again, you’d want to change a lot of things, right?

Yoko: That’s true, but I was hoping for something more direct, like, “Yoko-san is just that kind of creator.”

Taura: Yoko was in his 40s when he directed the game and in his 50s when working on the anime. It seems like something changed for him as he entered his 50s.

Back in his 40s, Yoko would never have considered letting 9S do ●●. The fact that he included it this time likely means he’s become better at capturing the essence of ●●● (character) engaging in ●●●●●● (action).

Yoko: I guess I didn’t fully understand what ●● was until I reached my 50s.

Taura: Yoko had a long adolescence—it took him a while, but he finally reached adulthood.

Yoko: Now that you mention it, I haven’t written anything about ●●. Even if I had, it probably would’ve been rejected (laughs). It’s tough to figure out where it fits.

ー Regarding yourself, Taura-san, you were the main planner and designer for the game. What are your thoughts on 2B and 9S’s actions in the anime?

Taura (Yoko): Clearly, it’s not enough.

Taura: Why are you answering for me?! (laughs)

Yoko: Wha, am I wrong?

Taura: Uh, I’m not saying it’s not enough at all.

Taura (Yoko): I really wish there was a ●● scene.

Taura: Knock it off (laughs). 

Seriously speaking, games and anime are quite different mediums. In games, players can explore and enjoy actions from any angle based on how they play, while anime relies on dynamic, stylish scenes to captivate the audience.

When making the game, I had a specific image in mind, but through the anime, I was able to rediscover and highlight the cool elements and ideas that weren’t expressed in the game. I’m truly grateful for that opportunity.

The above passages should demonstrate that, since the specific words were omitted here, no definitive answer was given from the devs themselves. Granted, we can still take meaning from the remaining context, but that is a subjective interpretation; it’s your opinion rather than fact. Whether it’s right or wrong, the devs are not about to say one way or the other; therefore, it’s impossible to state which is absolute fact.

But within this context, you have to understand how Yoko works, how he speaks. He is a major cheeky bastard who likes to fuck around, so it makes it difficult to know his real intentions, what he actually means. But it should at least be clearly evident when he’s hotly in Yokoism-fuckery mode, especially in this passage. It doesn’t necessarily translate very well if you’re not aware or are just using machine translation, and it absolutely matters if you’re making a secondary translation from an already translated piece. It’s like making a photocopy from the copy of a copy; it gradually looses definition and quality.

This is often where context and nuance goes to die often for no other reason than to simply save time (and money). This is also how many game localizations are handledー generally the English translation is made first from which other languages such as Spanish, French, German, etc. use this 1st gen translation to base their own rather than going back to the original Japanese script. This clearly can cause significant problems if you’re not referencing back to the original Japanese.

Additionally, it might be important to see how actual native Japanese read and interpret the article. if you don’t believe the J-E translators, you should be able to believe actual Japanese people understanding the contextual meaning of their own native language, right?

▶︎ About Industry Regulations

What I find a lot of consumers don’t have a great understanding about what regulations actually restrict businesses from expressing certain ideas and/or imagery. You can view this sort of censorship as you may, but it’s not possible to simply ignore it. I am not an expert on every area of these regulations, but I do have direct, professional experience translating within these regulations to be able to effectively speak on it.

What’s interesting to know is that people do not willingly determine what rating a game or anime receives; it’s solely based on the content that exists within the product. Typically speaking, game companies want to release their games to reach the highest number of consumers, so if their product hits too many marks on the mature end, they have no choice but to scale back and self-regulate their own work in order to reach a more desired ranking. Again, you can view this part of the business as you will, but it’s merely a fact that must be dealt with. You wouldn’t get ANY product if creators/developers willy-nilly rejected these regulations and just did whatever they wanted. At the end of the day, this is a BUSINESS, pure and simple. That’s why it may be helpful for consumers to get a better understanding of the business related to their favorite fandom.

Additionally, it may be helpful to understand Taura’s role regarding the NieR:Automata Ver.1.1a anime produced by A-1 Pictures via ANIPLEX. Much like games, anime also have certain regulations. I’m not as versed on this end as I am with games, but I can imagine that ANIPLEX and/or A-1 Pictures weren’t looking to produce a show with explicit or even suggested adult content.

A little more detail on the actual regulations manual… and yes, it’s a giant manual that we have to consult regarding the content that we express within the product. Again, this is mostly based on the gaming industry, but I assume other industries like the anime side has something similar.

This manual describes specific content and verbiage for each rating level. If you have more swear words, it’s going to throw it up into a higher rating. If you have certain depictions of violence, that’s also going to add to the overall tally that could throw your ranking up a level. This manual is very detailed, so even flipping through it to see what you can and cannot do is a rather taxing job.

What’s also important to understand here is that… Takahisa Taura has no sway on what is decided on the anime. He was the director if the previously released video game NieR:Automata and his role ended there. He may come on for a little consulting here and there, but that is entirely related to the game design and possibly how to express that within the anime medium. He has absolutely no say on what is or is not put into the anime.

And, I get the feeling that more often than not, folks misinterpret the relationship between Yoko and Taura– they are almost always portraying the traditional TSUKKOMI duo; one plays the dunce and the other plays the straight and narrow, often chastising the dunce. It’s much more complex with a long history than what I’m giving it here, but if you understand a little bit of that, you might understand the dynamic between those two. They’re largely playing off the other in humorous, cheeky tones. A lot of this could be misinterpreted as fact when it was actually said in jest; you entirely need to have a higher level understanding of Japanese context to understand what they’re actually saying, it’s not entirely clear cut or can be translated via machine translation.

So, if you remember anything from this, please let it be that fan interpretations of click-baity translations released by the usual sources (sensational headlines should be a red flag that they’re just farming for views and clicks) may not actually be based in the real world. You’d be amazed how a simple statement can be misconstrued and spread so far that it becomes a collective fact. It’s the Telephone Game in the modern age.

And that’s where my dumb idea of changing this cheeky censored word to “playing hopscotch” comes in because it’s both absurdly ridiculous and funny at the same time, at least in comparison to the general fanbase’s hyper fixation on sex.

So, here. Enjoy a round of hopscotch with 9S & 2B.

Yoko: The so-called “9S hopscotch incident” caused quite a stir within the team; it was rather something.

ー “The 9S hopscotch incident?!”

Yoko: At one point, I included a scene in the plot where 9S and 2B play hopscotch. However, Producer Matsumoto intervened, firmly stating: “9S doesn’t play hopscotch.” As a result, the scene was cut (laughs).

Taura: Back in his 40s, Yoko would never have considered letting 9S play hopscotch.

Yoko: I guess I didn’t fully understand what hopscotch was until I reached my 50s. Now that you mention it, I haven’t written anything about hopscotch. Even if I had, it probably would’ve been rejected (laughs). It’s tough to figure out where it fits.

Taura (Yoko): I really wish there was a hopscotch scene.

Slightly amused perhaps?

Maybe not.

In all honesty, I don’t see that they’re talking about sex necessarily, but could be teasing something similar to what was done in YoRHa Ver.1.3a/aa when Accord shows the crew a rather… interestingly shaped lie detector. I can kinda imagine 9S wondering how to attach this sort of thing to his android frame and how it’s supposed to be used. lol It could be funny rather than raunchy or romantic… and I think that would be more Yoko’s style with these characters.

→ See More: YoRHa Ver.1.3aa Official Report

Also, simply because they called this the “9S ●● incident” and not the “9S & 2B ●● incident” or anything else, I imagine that the focus is more solely focused on 9S rather than the two as a pair, even if they may have been referenced one time in this passage.

That being said, for anyone who was around when NieR:Automata was first released in 2017, people were and still remain super, hyper-fixated on the following…

This bleeped out word has never been officially revealed because they want you to imagine this on your own, to place your own meaning into it, essentially making the story your own.

Yoko: I believe that creative works ultimately belong to the audience.

Therefore, there are no wrong answers here, but the majority of people like to imagine that the word that fits here is “fuck”. Because of course.

Here’s a short list of possibilities that are included but not limited to:

  • Kill
  • Fuck
  • Save
  • Free

However, whether it’s a hint or not, it’s stated in the NieR Re[in]carnation collaboration with NieR:Automata that this could also be “free,” as in to free 2B from this shitty world.

“However, 9S secretly wished to free 2B from this endless cycle of war.”

So, I’ll reiterate this line from Yoko:

Yoko: I believe that creative works ultimately belong to the audience.

He has said similar things multiple times, but what it means is that he’s not going to hold your hand and tell you what he means, or how to “correctly” interpret any particular line, phrase, or scene. That’s your job to imagine and place meaning. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that what one person imagines is wrong while another’s is right. There is no right or wrong, so it’s really pointless to argue the point. However, there are more plausible outcomes than others, so I suppose you could argue that with your fellow NieR peers.

In the end, there is no correct answer, so everyone’s interpretation is valid. This is not to say that fan interpretations are wrong–please, by all means, have at you! I just feel like things get out of hand at times, where the facts get blurred to suit a specific narrative or fan fantasy. If you want to believe this omitted word was of the sexual nature, you’re free to do so, but please don’t state definitively that this was the one and only interpretation, because it’s not. If anything from this article sticks with you, please let it be that.

NieR Dinner Show 12024 – Updates

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There’ve been a couple updates today regarding the band members and various special event merch that will be available at the venue.

This will be a very brief post, but you’ll quickly be able to see what is new!

▶︎ Band Members

▶︎ Exclusive Merchandise

▶︎ General Admission Ticket Sales

Square Enix has also announced that general admission ticket sales will open on November 16th at 10:00am.

▶︎ Related Links