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Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito, leads of the Nier series, have set the record straight following some mistranslated comments. During a live chat following the PC release of Stellar Blade, Saito's answer to a question on Nier's designs led to a belief Square Enix enforced some form of restrictions, something they’ve now denied.
As this started doing the rounds, Yoko responded to a fan reaching out on Twitter, in a tweet translated by Automaton, "I've never heard of such a thing happening." Meanwhile, Saito has made a statement of his own, saying there's been a mistranslation, and the devs weren't restricted in any way, shape or form during the making of the Nier games.
Furthermore, he says he'd like to clarify further on another livestream, though when that'll happen remains to be seen. The root cause of the misunderstanding is a question on character designs. Yoko Taro began by stating they like to go against the grain wherever possible.
ああ、なんか知らないところで誤解？された上にフォローまでされていた！（誤訳？にもほどがある… つうか、ニーアなんて何ひとつ制限なんてつけてないやろが！！！そんな訳で、オートマトンさん、ありがとうございます！… https://t.co/maBK7TBBNdJune 12, 2025
"If western sci-fi is filled with marine-like soldiers, we might go in the opposite direction and use gothic lolita outfits, for example. We tend to take the contrarian route," he said at the time.
Then, Saito added there are some things they avoid, but Automaton notes this is where the true meaning of his words was lost in translation. The subtitles in question had translated his words as: "There are certain things that are ethically or morally inappropriate – even if they're just aspects of a character. We try to draw a line by establishing rules about what's acceptable and what's not."
Furthermore, he'd seemingly added: "While certain things might be acceptable in Japan, they could become problematic in certain overseas regions. These are the kind of situations we usually try to avoid creating."
As Automaton says, this appears to be where some people got the wrong idea. The idea of acceptability came across as a hint of publisher interference or mandate, especially outside of Japan, rather than being about societal expectations and what's considered gauche. If the subject interests you, it sounds like we’re getting another chance to dive into it very soon.
