It’s been just over seven years since the release of action RPG Nier: Automata took the world by storm and familiarized a wider audience with series creator Yoko Taro. Since its 2017 launch, Nier: Automata has remained a constant presence, from its 2022 anime adaptation, to a 2019 crossover with Final Fantasy XIV, and even a 2021 mobile game called Nier Reincarnation. But despite all of this, there hasn’t been any sign of a sequel—until now, sort of. Fans of the series are once again boarding the hype train after Taro seemingly teased a sequel during a London stop on the Nier: Orchestra Concert tour.
The latest frenzy over a potential Nier 3 comes from anecdotes of Taro’s appearance during the Nier concert in London on February 14. While there, Taro reportedly told the audience that the president of Square Enix was in the crowd and that if fans “wanted an Automata sequel to give the loudest applause of the night,” recounts one ResetEra user, “The room immediately erupted into claps, cheers and yells.” The post continues by saying the word Repent was shown repeatedly during the show and in its final instance was stylized as R3PENT.
While news of a Nier sequel would be amazing, this “tease” isn’t much to get excited about. Taro has a reputation of constantly poking fun at Square Enix, fans, and himself, this is likely nothing more than a joke. As for the repetition of “repent,” Taro is known for adding things to new pieces of Nier, such as rewriting parts of Automata’s story in the anime adaptation, as a treat for fans of the series. The concert itself includes new story beats throughout, as reported by fans who have attended. This also isn’t the first time Taro’s off-hand or jocular comments have turned into fans believing that he’s “teasing” a sequel. During the G-STAR 2023 event in South Korea last November, Drakengard and Nier producer Yosuke Saito appeared alongside Taro and said that the two will continue to release new entries in the Nier series while Taro is still alive. Like the Nier concert “tease,” much of this is just talk and hope, rather than a sign that Square Enix has greenlit a sequel.
If you are itching for a sequel to Nier: Automata then good news—Nier Reincarnation exists and it’s what you are looking for (yes, even if it’s a gacha game). Go play it before it shuts down forever on April 29.
