Nier: Automata and prequel Nier: Replicant ver.1.22474487139 are now revered by players worldwide as action RPG gems, but they only came to fruition after producer Yosuke Saito took a chance on director Yoko Taro.
The producer admits as much while recalling Nier's beginnings during a recent interview with Famitsu (as reported by Automaton). As Taro remembers how the game's creators didn't at first expect much to come of Nier, the now-iconic series the director describes as initially being an "experimental project," Saito says he saw potential in him – but opting to go with Taro's ideas wasn't a simple decision, as he had another option to consider.
According to the producer, his two options were Taro or "a very famous title that everyone knows." While Saito doesn't reveal what this title was, the interviewer ponders what an alternate timeline in which the producer chose this "famous" game over Taro's ideas would be like – but it isn't important, because, as Saito exclaims, "I chose Yoko Taro!" Considering Nier: Automata's sales reaching nearly 10 million, it certainly wasn't a bad choice.
Nier has proven so popular, in fact, that former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida himself credited the series for having "revived" the Japanese games industry. Nier wasn't the only idea Taro had in mind years back, however – apparently, the beloved director has also pitched another, very different, game that never ended up coming to light to Saito: "a side-scrolling action puzzle game similar to 'Solomon's Key.'"
All Taro remembers about the mysterious side-scroller is that he had titled it "Echo" at the time, with Saito saying he "asked him to reconsider." As a massive fan of Nier myself, I'd personally wager the two made the right choice in abandoning Echo and pursuing Taro's Drakengard spin-off with Square Enix, but who knows what the future holds – perhaps we might even see Saito pick back up on that "very famous title" one day.
