Just a few days after potentially teasing a new game in the series, Nier Automata's director has followed up with another odd teaser.
Earlier this week, we reported that Nier Automata director Yoko Taro had been at a concert for the game in London over the past weekend. During the concert, Taro told those in attendance to cheer if they wanted a third Nier game, to let Square Enix's president, who was also in attendance, know how they felt.
Understandably, a barrage of cheers erupted during the concert, so if Square Enix's president didn't know how Nier fans felt about a third game before, he sure does now. Elsewhere in the concert, the word "R3pent" flashed up repeatedly on the screen behind the orchestra, leading attendees to believe this was a teaser for a third Nier game.
Now, Taro has followed up the buzz with a little teaser of his own. Just below, you can see the Nier series creative lead tweeting "r3incarnation." If you turn the '3' into an 'e,' you're left with "reincarnation," which was the subtitle of Nier's mobile-exclusive game which launched just over two years ago, and is coincidentally being shut down for good next month in March.
r3incarnationanFebruary 27, 2024
Given the '3' in the tweet just above, this could be Taro indicating that Nier fans should consider the mobile game as the third entry in the series. While Reincarnation doesn't feature existing Neir characters like Kaine, 2B, A2, or 9S, it's true that it's always been considered 'canonical' in the Nier series by fans, especially because Taro and composer Keiichi Okabe worked on the game with developer Applibot.
No matter what the tweet genuinely means, Taro's always one for having a bit of fun with Nier fans. Considering he previously said that the Nier series would continue for as long as he was alive, perhaps a new mainline entry in the action-RPG series really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Head over to our new games 2024 guide for a look ahead at how the year is going to shake out for releases both big and small.
