Yoko Taro, the creator of Nier and Drakenguard, has been awfully peaceful lately. Although he has worked on several smaller projects (writing scripts for Voice of Cards and several mobile games), the lack of a proper sequel to Nier or another fresh major game from him has been bothering fans. But according to Taro, he has worked on projects. They just keep getting canceled.
This is due to his remarks at the Korean gaming convention G-Con 2025, which was reported by 4gamer AND translated by Automaton. During a panel with Taro and Bayonetta and Okami director Hideki Kamiya, the pair were asked for an update on their latest projects. Kamiya mentioned the upcoming Okami sequel, while Taro said that he is very busy with fresh projects that just keep getting canceled halfway through.
“I often hear things like, ‘Why don’t you make a new NieR sequel,’ or ‘Yoko Taro isn’t doing anything,’ but that’s because lately a lot of projects I’ve been involved in have been stopped mid-development,” he said.
“I actually worked on some stuff, it’s just that it never saw the light of day. I was paid to do it, so I personally don’t have a problem with it, but people seem to think I haven’t been doing anything just because none of my work has been published.”
However, Taro seems not to be discouraged by this. He continued by saying that he would rather fail repeatedly and ultimately create something good than release many mediocre works. “I believe that if I’m going to release something weird, it’s better if I don’t release anything at all.”
So this is potentially not *great* news for Nier fans who were hoping another Nier game was just around the corner. Especially since Nier: Reincarnation, which was actually a sequel to Nier: Automata, is still completely unplayable due to it being a mobile gacha game that has since been taken offline with seemingly no plans to re-release it.
So good luck to Taro and hopefully we’ll see his fresh project get released sooner rather than later.
Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Her posts can be found on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
