With Atlus’s announcement of their new Studio Zero, along with a fantasy RPG that their A-team is currently working on, a group of Japanese developers have come together to offer them their best wishes for the new game. Among that group of developers was Yoko Taro, known for his work on the Drakengard series and, of course, NieR.
However, Taro’s congratulatory video was a little different from the rest of the developers. He first starts off by congratulating Atlus on their announcement, but later presents a short slideshow that depicts the state of his NieR franchise in the realm of RPGs today. In a market dominated by titles like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Danganronpa, and Persona, he feels that NieR has carved a very small niche for itself in the fantasy genre. However, with Atlus’ new project, they would soon move into that same genre as well and effectively kill Taro’s own game. Taro goes on to say that he had considered shifting NieR’s direction, and perhaps give the series a high school setting instead, but Atlus has informed him that they’re still making Persona games, so NieR would be in trouble anyway.
With all of this in mind, Taro then asks Atlus to reconsider working on their new fantasy RPG, and also wonders if it’s at all possible for them to stop work on it. As always, Taro has an impeccable sense of humor, and the lovely piano rendition of Song of the Ancients playing in his video only serves to add to his somber plea.
NieR: Automata is set to be released for the PS4 in March 2017.
