Summary
- Square Enix producer Yosuke Saito touched upon the possibility of a third game in the Nier series, saying there will be a new entry as long as Nier creator Yoko Taro is alive.
- Despite the massive success of Nier: Automata, Taro and Saito reportedly have doubts that a new Nier game will reach the same commercial heights.
- Fans will likely have to wait for the next Nier installment, as Taro and Saito are believed to be working on a new major title unrelated to Nier.
A producer at Square Enix has floated the possibility of series creator and director Yoko Taro making a third Nier game. A remaster of the 2010 game, Nier Replicant released in 2021, modernizing the original game while bringing it to new audiences who have been brought into the series by Nier: Automata in 2017.
Beginning as a spinoff to the first two Drakengard games, Nier followed one of Drakengard's five endings and introduced a new band of lovable characters in Nier, Kaine, Emil, and Grimoire Weiss. The previously niche series made its mark on the wider gaming zeitgeist when the PlatinumGames-developed Nier: Automata was released in 2017, capturing the hearts and minds of critics, garnering a wider audience of fans, and selling over seven million copies in the process. Nier: Automata went on to be nominated for Best Narrative and Best RPG at The Game Awards 2017, walking away with a much deserved win for Best Score and Music.
Since Nier Replicant in 2021, fans of the series have been wondering when they can expect the next Nier title from Yoko Taro. As reported by IGN, a Square Enix producer named Yosuke Saito made mention of the Nier series at a Korean event named G-STAR 2023, saying that there will be a new entry in the series as long as Nier creator Yoko Taro is alive. After the release of Nier Replicant, Taro has been busy working on other smaller projects, including a collaboration with Sega for a mobile RPG named 404 Game Re:set which was announced, released, and discontinued this year.
One would think that the massive success of Nier: Automata would have encouraged Taro to make the next game sooner, but both he and Saito reportedly have serious doubts that a new Nier game would reach those same commercial heights once again. Nevertheless, with this apparent confirmation by Saito of a new game in the franchise, it'll be interesting to learn what the third Nier installment would look like; whether it would focus on a new set of characters or bring back some fan favorites like Emil or 2B. It would also be interesting to know if PlatinumGames would develop the new game and whether Toylogic, the studio responsible for 2021's Nier Replicant remaster, would be involved as well.
Since it's believed that Saito and Taro are currently working on a new major title that has nothing to do with Nier, fans may have a bit of a long wait to learn about the next Nier installment. In the meantime, it would be cool to see the Drakengard trilogy make its way to current platforms as some sort of remastered collection, as there are surely many newer Nier fans who'd be interested in exploring the origins of the spinoff series, though nothing has been confirmed thus far.
NieR
Nier spans a series of action RPG-centric games, with the initial title being a spin-off of Drakengard. Developed by multiple teams but published by Square Enix, the Nier franchise features unique fantasy worlds and multiple gameplay styles alongside intricate narratives.
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