During PAX East, GameReactor had a chance to chat with Yoko Taro, the director of
NieR: Automata and the
Drakengard franchise, and composer Keiichi Okabe. Their last game was not only critically acclaimed, but also highly successfully, with more than 2,5 million copies sold worldwide, and I would like to remind you that the game launched exclusively on PlayStation 4 and PC in March last year.
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When thinking that we wanted players to play a long time with our game, play many times, we were limited to the number of levels we could create cost-wise and budget-wise and so we devised this multiple playthroughs [design], so that we can create an environment where you want to play multiple times but limit the amount of places we had to create," Taro said. "
So it actually was based on monetary issues." It sounds like Square is still unsure about greenlighting a sequel to the game.
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It would have probably been completely different [with a bigger budget]. When we first talked about constructing the game I think it would have been something that is really different than what Nier: Automata ended up being. If Square-Enix gives me money I will create anything", says Taro
. "So I think let Square-Enix know and I think if Square-Enix wants it I'll do it," the director concluded.
Be sure to check out the full interview with extravagant Yoko Taro down below: