‘NieR Creator Yoko Taro Is Still Making New Games – They Just Keep Getting “Cancelled” During Development
With almost three years having passed since he served as the creative director for SEGA’s short-lived 404 Game Re:Set mobile gacha title, NieR series creator Yoko Taro knows it’s been a while since he last released a proper game – and according to the Nier series creator, this has not been for lack of effort.
The ever eccentric Japanese video game developer spoke to his unintended absence during a recent discussion with Clovers studio founder Hideki Kamiya (who in a bit of fun trivia also founded Nier: Automata dev studio PlatinumGames) on the topic of their own personal “Creative Philsophy”, as held during the recent G-CON 2025 industry convention in Seoul, South Korea.
As recapped by the Japanese news outlet 4Gamer and machine translated by DeepL, the panel opened with the pair giving their general thoughts on the topic at hand, as prompted by their moderator, Famitsu Group Representative Katsuhiko Hayashi, asking them as to “What kind of thinking do you start with when launching a game project?”
Taking the lead, Taro began, “I don’t necessarily have ‘dreams’. The size of that ‘dream’ changes depending on how much time and resources are available as a premise for making the game.”
As detailed by 4Gamer, “He further asserted that what needs to be considered is the right person for the right job among the staff and the publisher’s requests, and that he has almost never started something from scratch simply because he wanted to do it himself. In other words, it’s deliberation based on practical realities, not creative impulse.”
Adding to his insight, Taro further noted, “When I was young, I had lots of ideas, but I never managed to make what I wanted, so I despaired. That’s why now I focus on making what I can make. I take the ingredients laid out before me and cook up what I think will give customers the most enjoyment.”
To this end, the moon-masked developer explained that rather than simply focusing on a game’s ‘novelty’, whether that be in story or mechanics, he preferred to “create a reason for people to buy the game.”
“I want to give games a reason to be bought, even if they aren’t necessarily interesting. For example, the belief that you buy it because your favorite idol appears in it is one approach. Depending on the method, games can achieve much broader things. Interestingness alone isn’t the only gravitational pull that attracts people.”
Offering his take, Kamiya asserted, “In the sense of ‘lacking dreams’, I’m similar to Yoko-san.”
However, as noted by 4Gamer, the “meaning” of ‘dreams’ “differs slightly [from Taro’s], because while Taro’s career has primarily involved freelance outsourced work, Kamiyan’s career has mainly been working for game companies. Starting at Capcom, then moving to Clover Studio and PlatinumGames, he fundamentally received orders like ‘We want you to make a game that is ‘xyz’ and crafted his answers to those requests.'”
“Capcom’s Devil May Cry, often cited as his signature work, also originated from the mission: ‘Make a sequel to Resident Evil for the PS2.’ Clover Studio’s Okami also came from being told, ‘Make a game that will be the flagship title for the new studio,’ leading him to prioritize uniqueness. These kinds of foundational requests serve as the starting point. Therefore, he mentions that if he were told to create something with no specific direction, just ‘make anything,’ it might actually be difficult.”
Jumping off of Taro’s previous note about a given game’s “gravitational pull”, Kamiya summarized his philosophy as, “When you see a thumbnail for an article on a game site, we want the game content to make you want to click.”
From there offering their own personal takes on a number of hypothetical ‘creative challenges’ prospective devs may encounter, the pair’s talk ultimately culminated with them being pressed as to what they’re currently up to.
Unsurprisingly, Kamiya replied that he was still hard at work on both growing his newly founded Clovers studio and developing their previously announced Okami sequel – but Taro, whose most recent credit is a ‘Special Thanks’ in Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI, could only explain that his absence was not his fault, but rather the fault of various studio executives who have axed most of his recent projects.
“People often ask why I don’t make a NieR sequel or say ‘Yoko isn’t working,’ but lately, many projects have been cancelled in the middle of development. So, I was working, but nothing came out. I get paid, so personally it’s not a problem, but since the output isn’t out in the world, it looks like I’m not working.”
“But I think it’s better not to release something strange than to release something strange, so I don’t have any negative feelings about that.”
And though well aware of the situation, Taro was unfortunately unable to provide any information, concrete or otherwise, as to when players could expect another one of his games.
