One of the surprises of this year’s E3 was the announcement of Nier New Project (temporary name), a sequel to 2010’s Nier. Following the announcement that Platinum Games is developing the upcoming title, Destructoid asked Square Enix’s Yosuke Saito and Taro Yoko how the studio became involved in the game’s development. According to Saito, it’s because Platinum is known for “great gameplay and design” when it comes to gameplay implementation.
So, with the previous game, we got some feedback from our fans, not only in Japan but also from abroad, that for being an action RPG, the controls weren’t great. And that’s one of the things we’ve really learned from the previous game.
When I thought about developers that are really known for great gameplay and design (in terms of gameplay implementation), there aren’t that many. But Platinum is one of them. They’re known for great gameplay and development of gameplay engines and so we brought up this conversation dialogue and decided to make this collaboration project.
Yoko chipped in by saying that he believes that Platinum Games is the “best action game developer in Japan.”
Interestingly, Platinum is known for action games as opposed to RPGs, but Yoko welcomes a “varied approach” to the sequel.
It’s not necessarily going to be the same way as before. I want to keep trying new things. And obviously with Platinum Games, they’re renowned for their action game controls. So, we may do a little re-balancing and redesign in terms of some aspects, but we are considering a varied approach.
Yoko added that the developers intend to strike a balance between action elements and JRPG style combat.
In a separate interview with Destructoid, Yoko and Saito revealed that they’re going for a happy ending in the sequel. Saito said:
Honestly, when Mr. Yoko presented me with his ideas, his draft for the game, I thought there was no way the game could end with a happy ending. I was reading through his basic ideas for the game going there’s no way this could end well, but he insists that he’s going to make a happy ending. So we’ll see how it goes. I guess all we can say is look forward to when the game comes out to see for yourselves.
Nier New Project is still in early development, but we’ll hear more about the title this Fall.
[Source: Destructoid(1)(2)]
