Update: NieR fans who’ve long argued that Reincarnation, the series’ mobile entry, should be considered the third main title have been somewhat validated following the earlier fervour around a potential NieR 3 tease.
Creator Yoko Taro, clearly having seen the buzz, has simply tweeted the word “r3incarnationan” which, ignoring that extra “an” at the end, sure seems like a cryptic way of confirming that NieR: Reincarnation and NieR 3 are one and the same.
NieR: Reincarnation certainly does have some pretty big ties to the previous games, especially Automata, and is easy to recommend to anyone looking to indulge in more of Taro’s wild world. It’s also being shut down soon on April 30th, so there’s that.
For what it’s worth, Yoko Taro followed up the below tweet with another describing his desire to review home appliances. Do with that information what you will.
r3incarnationan
— yokotaro (@yokotaro) February 27, 2024
Original: Fans who’ve been patiently holding out hope for a third mainline entry in the subversive and captivating NieR series might just have a very loose, new thread to hold onto after director Yoko Taro himself apparently hinted at a sequel during the recent Nier: Orchestra Concert in London.
After the concert’s conclusion, Taro reportedly took to the stage to tell the crowd that the president of Square Enix (Takahashi Kiryu) was also in attendance and encouraged them to clap and cheer as loud as possible to show how much they wanted a NieR sequel.
While this specific account is limited to one users’ description of the event, multiple other stories have come from the concert around the globe which confirm one other detail – dialogue sequences during the show containing the words “REPENT. REPENT. R3PENT,” complete with that numerical 3 in place of an E in the final word. These might mean nothing and aren’t nearly as direct as the game’s director asking fans to cheer for a sequel but it certainly could be a tease of things to come if you want to believe.
Of course, it was only a few months ago that series producer Yosuke Saito told Japanese outlets that he and Taro were working on a completely different project, and the mobile gacha game NieR: Reincarnation is widely considered to the the de facto third NieR game.
Square Enix also recently revealed that NieR: Automata has sold over 8 million copies since it launched seven (!) years ago, so it’s got good reason to want to produce a new major entry.
??2?23?? #???????? ?7??????????????????????????????????800????????????????????????????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/tpO19pj3KQ
— NieR??PR????? (@NieR_JPN) February 22, 2024
The most recent things to come out of the NieR franchise aside from the ongoing mobile game were the 2022 anime adaptation of NieR Automata, along with the Switch port of the same game, which also dropped that year and we scored an 8.5, saying “Auteur designer Yoko Taro successfully blends his oddball knack for storytelling, defying typical video game conventions in doing so. This leads to an unforgettable story, but how it’s told and demands repeat playthroughs is bound to be lost on some part of NieR: Automata’s audience. Regardless, NieR: Automata blends intense action and RPG components into an atmosphere and game that’s well worth experiencing, even on the Nintendo Switch.”
NieR Automata’s 2B also just arrived in the fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising as a playable fighter:
