NieR Director Yoko Taro Works on New Game as Creative Director

Game producer Yosuke Saito announced on Monday during the first livestream for the NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… that NieR series director Yoko Taro is working as a creative director for a new Square Enix game. The game will be a digital-only title, although Saito teased the possibility of a special physical edition. Saito describes the game as indie-like. More information will be revealed at a later date.

Square Enix also began streaming a new trailer for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., the remastered version of Cavia and Square Enix's NieR Replicant game. The trailer previews the game's extra content, which includes an extra episode titled "Mermaid," extra dungeons from the "15 Nightmares" DLC, costumes, and soundtrack music and guest cast from NieR: Automata.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... will launch for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam on Thursday in Japan and Friday outside of Japan.

Toylogic is developing the game, which will be a higher-quality version using the original game as a base. The company describes the game, which serves as a prequel to NieR:Automata:

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... invites players into a dark, apocalyptic world as they join a brother's captivating quest to cure his sister of a deadly disease - a quest which will in turn make them question everything.

Developed in collaboration with Toylogic, NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... brings together an all-star team including acclaimed director, YOKO TARO (Drakengard / NieR:Automata), composer Keiichi Okabe (TEKKEN / Drakengard / NieR:Automata), and producer Yosuke Saito (DRAGON QUEST X / NieR:Automata).

The new version of the game will be fully voiced, including some re-recorded dialogue.

The now-defunct Japanese game developer Cavia (Drakengard, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles) developed the original NieR game as a spinoff of the Drakengard series in 2010. Square Enix released versions of the game for two different consoles: NieR Gestalt for the Xbox 360, and NieR Replicant for the PlayStation 3. NieR Replicant featured a different character design for the protagonist, and minor differences in the plot. NieR was the last game Cavia developed before being disbanded and absorbed into AQ Interactive Inc. in July 2010.

The first smartphone game in the NieR video game franchise, NieR Re[in]carnation, launched for iOS and Android devices in Japan on February 18.

Sources: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… game's livestream, Square Enix's YouTube channel via Gematsu