One of the first steps to game development is completing a plan proposal (企画書) that contains all the details about the game to pitch the idea.
Additionally, one of the first times we ever saw anything from the original NieR proposal was listed in Grimoire NieR from 2010, and again in the DOD 10th Anniversary -World Inside- book from 2013. The pages from the original release of Grimoire NieR also appear in the Revised Edition, which was released in 2021 (English edition in 2023).
▲ Some pages of the plan proposal were on display at the NieR Music Concert & Talk Show from 2016. (Photo by Rekka Alexiel)
If you zoom in as much as you can, you can sort of read some of the text, so here’s what I can read from the main table of contents on Page 3.
▶︎ Table of Contents
- Page 02 Overview / 概要
- Page 03 Table of Contents / 目次
- Page 04 Story / 物語
- Page 08 Characters / 登場人物
- Page 10 World Setting / 世界設定
- Page 12 Beasts: Gods of the Ancients / イニシエノカミ
- Page 13 Game System / ゲームシステム
- Page 16 Basic Action / 基本アクション
- Page 18 Word System / ワードシステム
- Page 20 Counter Action / カウンターアクション
- Page 22 13 Grimoires / 十三冊の本
- Page 24 Items / アイテム
- Page 25 Other / その他
- Page 28 World Map / ワールドマップ
- Page 30 Other Settings / その他の設定
The recent issue of Famitsu magazine also had 2 pages worth to show the every page of the plan proposal, but the images are unfortunately too small to read any of the text.
On the Overview page, these are the general specs that they had outlined for the game:
- Title: NieR
- Genre: Battle Action RPG
- Platform: PS3, Xbox360
- Age: 12+
- Region: Japan, North America, Europe
- Projected Release: June 2009
What’s interesting to note here is that they were aiming for a early summer 2009 release. As you all know, the game wasn’t actually released until April 22, 2010, so it seems like there may have been some delays or adjustments made throughout the development stage.
The following is an assortment of information that I’m able to read from the Revised Edition of Grimoire NieR. It’s incredibly disjointed, but I’ll try to organize it in a way that makes sense.
▶︎ Locations
For the most part, the names of various locations remain in the released game, but some places originally had a slightly different title, as you can see below, with the main difference given to the Facade, which was dubbed the “City of Stairs”. Pretty interesting.
- ニーアの村 Nier’s Village
- 丘の上の洋館 Emil’s Manor (Lit. Western-style Mansion on the Hill)
- 人魚の海岸 Seafront (Lit. Mermaid’s Coast)
- 階段の街 Facade (Lit. City of Stairs)
- 神話の森 Forest of Myth
- 崖の村 The Aerie
- 石の神殿 Barren Temple
▶︎ The 13 Grimoires
- 剣の書 Grimoire of Swords
- 弓の書 Grimoire of Bows
- 斧の書 Grimoire of Axes
- 飛の書 Grimoire of Flight
- 杖の書 Grimoire of Staves
- 槍の書 Grimoire of Spears
- 幻の書 Grimoire of Illusion
- 白の書 Grimoire Weiss *The idea of “Weiss” existed very early on.
- 姿の書 Grimoire of Shapes
- 癒の書 Grimoire of Healing
- 能の書 Grimoire of Abilities
- 術の書 Grimoire of Skills
- 魔の書 Grimoire of Magic
▶︎ Assorted Text
Here are just some random lines throughout the displayed images that I could read:
- What’s more precious to you than even your own life?
- “Even if I must sacrifice the world, I will save my sister.”
- The Book of Death・終末の書（Reference to Noir?)
The accursed Grimoire exists. - This is the shape of the future, a world at its end.
- Connected worlds / Expanding destruction
▶︎ Kingdom of Night?
Some people were also wondering if this might be an early depiction of the Kingdom of Night, which is supposed to be located somewhere in the Americas due to the planet being tidally locked to the sun sometime in 26XX. Yoko has yet to tell us this particular part of the timeline so we don’t know the details, but the reason behind the planet becoming tidally locked to the sun could be related to whatever incident that “broke” the moon.