Get ready to read, book nerds. Square Enix has announced a new book set in the world of NieR: Automata. Titled Nier: Automata – YoRHa Boys, the book will serve as a prequel to the events of the game. Written by Jun Eishima, who has also written various books set in the world of Final Fantasy, Drakengard, and even NieR itself, the book is also supervised by Yoko Taro. YoRHa Boys will tell the story of the YoRHa Experimental Unit M, which was made up of all male YoRHa models that were made to collect behavioral data. In addition to the story, YoRHa Boys will also contain some NieR artwork by Final Fantasy illustrator Toshiyuki Itahana. The book will be 288 pages long and currently has a release window of October 2020.
This isn’t the first novel set in the world of NieR. NieR: Automata – Long Story Short serves as a book adaption of the game, letting you read about the events that you played (or skip the game altogether, if you so choose). However, it includes some new stuff as well and gives you a look into the characters’ heads that wasn’t really available in gameplay form. Even if you’ve completed the game and its various endings, there’s still some value to be had from the book. The other book is the similarly named NieR: Automata – Short Story Long, which is a collection of short stories set in the game world. It included five already released stories along with a pair of completely new ones collected into a single volume.
These aren’t the only books that Square Enix is publishing either. They also have the upcoming Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future, set to come out on June 23rd, 2020. It serves as a way to tell the stories players would have experienced in the canceled Season 2 of planned DLC; originally set to devote episodes of content to Ardyn, Aranea, Lunafreya, and Noctis. Ultimately, only Episode Ardyn ever managed to get released.
