Square Enix’s NieR: Automata has easily become one of the year’s biggest surprises, a lavish action/adventure game with beautiful visuals and gameplay that feels like some of the best work Platinum Games has done in years. So now the real question is, where does the franchise go from here?
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Apparently onward and upward. While an official sequel to Automata hasn’t been announced yet, it sounds like that’s the direction that the team wants to take.
According to Gematsu, Yosuke Saito, who serves as the producer for the NieR series, recently spoke with Dengeki PlayStation about what’s next. He noted that the studio is already “making preparations for the setting” but didn’t note exactly what the setting was for.
This does, however, coincide with a recent job listing by Square Enix for a scenario planner that could do the following:
- Plots for sub-quests, etc. as well as scenario framing.
- Design instructions such as NPC design specifications to be used in-game.
- Creating text for item descriptions, etc. to appear in-game
Again, not a confirmation of a sequel, but something pretty damn close.
Saito was also asked if game director Yoko Tara would be interested in creating a new game for the series. Saito answered, “He is… I would like to believe (laughs). Yoko says he will do anything as long as he receives money for it, but there is no one who doesn’t move for money as much as that man.” So, it seems that, if the offer is good enough, Tara would return for another round, mysterious moon helmet and all.
Automata has sold surprising well for Square Enix since its release on PlayStation 4 and PC earlier this year, proving the series still has a great deal of interest, even after taking off all those years following the release of the original NieR. This is definitely going to be one of those scenarios where we won’t have to wait several years to see a new entry arrive. Here’s hoping we get details on an Automata follow-up sooner rather than later.
NieR: Automata is available now for PlayStation 4 and PC.
