Announced at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Paris, it was just announced that there will be a new NieR:Automata themed alliance raid penned by Yoko Taro.
According to PC Gamer, it is planned for the new Shadowbringers expansion of FFXIV! It is a raid that will encompass three teams of 24 members and is said to take place after the events of NieR:Automata.
The new FFXIV expansion will be helmed by SQEX Producer Saito Yosuke, who is affectionately nicknamed “Yosu-P,” and, of course, Yoko Taro. Very little about their individual roles has been stated at this time, but I believe Yoko will be penning the scenario for the YoRHa collaboration. This does not necessarily make him the director, which I believe will still remain in the hands of Yoshida Naoki (Yoshi-P), the FFXIV director and producer. More about their specific roles for this collaboration should become known in the coming weeks.
Yoko Taro has also been quoted from this pre-recorded video of him talking with Yosu-P.
Saito: What was the last Final Fantasy you played?
Yoko: The last Final Fantasy I played… FFXII.
Saito: Ah, you played FFXII?
Yoko: Yes, I did.
Saito: That’s pretty recent. I was thinking maybe it’d be around FFVI or so.
Yoko: But the Final Fantasy I played before XII was II.
Saito: (haha) So, I guess you don’t really like the series.
Yoko: I play it!
Saito: Sounds like you don’t really like it.
Yoko: I love Final Fantasy!
Yoko Taro is notorious for his chronic tongue-in-cheek comments, and him saying that the FF game he played before FFXII was II… just screams Yoko cheekiness to me. I don’t believe those are the only FF titles he’s played, so it might be better not to entirely take everything he says as 100% truth.
Very little of this is currently known, so additional details should become known later this year. The presenter suggested that they only have five more months to work on it, so they may be thinking of a release around July or August (I’m not sure if this would be released along with Shadowbringers or not, though). He also made the comment that just the look of this promotional illustration by Koda Kazuma makes it seem like a straight-up NieR:Automata sequel…
Lastly, the next Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival will be in Tokyo on the weekend of March 23-24. I would bet that we will hear much more details on this topic then.
Source: Twitch | Twitter | PC Gamer | FFXIV Fan Festival Tokyo