"Nier's Sequel Will Have All the Weirdness of the Original and a Little More Polish." A good read for anyone interested in the game.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ness-of-the-original-and-a-little-more-polish
A few excerpts:
"The first Nier started as a spin-off from the Drakengard series, though as those who have played it will tell you it quickly became much more than that. A genre-splicing, offbeat and frequently touching action RPG, the middling critical reception it received at the time soon gave way to cult status. It's one of those rare games,
Jeffrey recently suggested, that gets better with age.
Taro (director): "I remember at the time thinking modern games, they're really well made and they've got so much love and time put into making them expansive and great, but once you've played most of them for 30 minutes you get an idea what they're like right to the end, and that's a bit boring. You're not going to see anything new after that.
I decided we're going to keep mixing it up and changing the gameplay styles and try to achieve that with Nier.
Nier Automata, of course, will carry on providing those sudden shifts. "The basic framework of the game is similar to the first," explains Taro. "You've got action bits and you've got adventuring and exploration as well. When I first got the request to set the game up from Saito-san, he requested a more action type of game, but
I personally wanted to make something that was closer to Ocarina of Time, where you've got lots of field areas and you travel and do battle. I thought it was a really natural, really nice way for the game to be, so I tried to twist his brief to make it more of the kind of thing I wanted to make, and I think I've got it more of mine than his."
Even within the first ten minutes, the expectations of the audience are going to be radically challenged, and Taro's keen to keep up that pace.
"I really want to keep that turnaround of surprises for the player in Nier 2. I like doing new things, and I'm going try and experiment and add something new and different. It may fail, it may not be received well, but I really want to add that and create that uniqueness."
Taro, as you can probably tell, is a mischievous sort.
When asked what it is that defines Taro's games, Saito suggests, simply, that it's drinking. "It's quite weird," says Taro. "All the stories I write when I'm drunk are the ones that are really popular. It's probably the players rather than me though." It's that same mischievous spirit you can sense in the freewheeling madness of Nier, more of which is promised in Automata.
"
Certainly Platinum Games is renowned for making great games," says Saito, "They've got a very good reputation, and the games they produce people can be very confident that they'll have a good experience. Having them onboard for Nier was very important to this project. The other great thing about Platinum Games is because they're so talented
it really frees up Mr. Taro to do what his best and write the story, and get that weird stuff out of his head. It's really comfortable for him to work with them, because they're just so good."
"It's interesting," Taro chimes in. "All the time I spent on the original getting angry at the development team, obviously Platinum's removed that by working so well, so I spend that time drinking. In the end it hasn't really changed how much work I do. But
when I drink I make better games, so that's okay."