The universe of Nier is strange and wonderful. Born out of what was initially seen as a joke that ended with the 2003 PlayStation 2 title Drakengard, the intricate story of Nier can be pieced together from segments of delightful lore spanning guidebooks, novels, concerts and more. even plays. The Mermaid Chapter, one of the brand new additions to be found in the upgraded version of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is one such lore piece, originally released as a light novel to find in the official game guide original. In this brand new addition to the game, we follow the story of a young girl stranded in a shipwreck, a wonderfully written melancholy segment that culminates in a breathtaking, action-packed boss battle.
Still intrigued by Yoko Taro’s narrative prowess, we had the opportunity to ask the creator a few questions about this chapter and his approach to lore in the NieR series …
The Mermaid chapter is very reminiscent of the short story of The Little Mermaid in Grimoire Nier. Was this story intended for the original game in 2010? Can you tell us a little more about the creation process when the story was originally written?
Yoko Taro: We planned to include it in the original game. But, due to budget constraints, we couldn’t do it. As for the news, I thought to myself, “I spent some time coming up with the idea, so maybe I can put it as a bonus in the concept book… Plus, unlike games, a novel doesn’t get you. don’t have to think about the budget ‘so I wrote it down without giving it too much thought. But, I had no idea it would turn into a game ten years later.
Whether The Little Mermaid story is originally a short story or a segment of the game, how do you go about converting something that was originally short story into gameplay, or vice versa?
Novels and games are media with different characteristics. For example, in a novel it is understood that “anything that is not explicitly written is left to the imagination”, whereas in a game everything is visible, and therefore we should describe things like “When the character A relates to this conversation, what does character B do? ”, Which requires additional resources.
This time around, as it was originally a ‘plot for a game that has been discontinued’ that went from ‘new’ to ‘being implemented in a game’, the transition went relatively smoothly. unrolled. But, in general, it tends to be more complicated to go from “novel to game” compared to “game to novel” …
Or… at least that’s the kind of struggle our young director, Mr. Saki Ito had to go through, while I nibbled on snacks and took a nap.
There is some other short story in Grimoire Nier, why did you choose to specifically include The Little Mermaid story?
This is because the other news is not meant to be included in the original game to begin with.
Now, the other additional episode, “The Lost World” was originally created as a “backup plan if Square Enix rejects my idea of deleting players’ save data”. (But, at that point, it wasn’t rejected, so we didn’t include it in the previous version. And in version 1.22… Producer Yosuke Saito told me ‘this is supposed to be fan service, so put it on. ‘I’m a slave to capitalism, so I didn’t question it and did as I was told.)
From the initial idea to its application throughout the very climatic phases of the boss battle, how did you go about planning the music for this particular segment?
From the early stages of creating Nier, I thought, “I want to make a game in which the music is very important”, so I asked my friend Mr. Keiichi Okabe to create the songs. He is a greedy composer, but at the same time he is a formidable craftsman who would do anything if we paid him enough.
As for how I do my requests, I would send him YouTube URLs and say “please make a song like this”. My apologies, this is nothing fantastic.
For “The Little Mermaid,” I asked a young creator of the Nier Scenario team, Mr. Wada, to select the song on YouTube. I think it went well. By the way, Mr. Wada has the nickname ‘Sweet World’.
Besides the short stories of Grimoire Nier, you have also contributed to several plays, complete crossovers with other games and other forms of lore that can be found in different media, most of which are cannons. . In general, how do you approach and develop the tradition of Denying in other media?
I try not to apply the tradition so strictly. We’ve made public that the world of Nier is a multi-dimensional universe, and I think the story and the characters need to fit into each medium appropriately. What’s important is the player’s experience, not the protection of the story. Oh, I just said something really nice here, so could you mark it in bold type? What is that? Yes, that’s right, where I said: “What is important is the experience of the player.” Thank you kindly.
Much of your inspiration seems to come from old fairy tale stories. Is there something specific to them that prompts you to adapt them?
For NieR Replicant, its initial concept was “a story of (existing) fairy-tale villains”. Perhaps there are vestiges of this. SINoALICE was born when the producer said, “I want Alice to be a theme in this story.”
I’m sorry, for this interview, should I have been more artist and provided more stylish answers? If so, then maybe the author of the blog PS could edit the text with more difficult keywords … like, I don’t know, “the tragedy seen through Shakespeare” or “the addiction to l. ‘existentialism’ – something that would make me look more like a stylish and intelligent designer? Thank you kindly.
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is currently part of the PlayStation Store sale promotion through January 7th. Find out more here.
Editor’s note: Responses to the interview with stylish and intelligent designer Yoko Taro have not been changed.
