NieR: Automata Developers On Butts, Funny Bugs, And Hoping Other Games Get Delayed

NieR: Automata is releasing soon and the always-funny director Yoko Taro had some interesting stuff to share in an interview with Famitsu magazine. [Thanks, Hachima.]

Here are some highlights from the interview:

• Yoko Taro (Director): I was hoping either The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Horizon Zero Dawn would get delayed. I’m in despair.

• Takahisa Taura (Game Designer): After looking at player reactions, there was more talk relating to butts instead of action.

• Hito Matsudaira (Character Modeling Artist): Each body part is a masterpiece, so there’s more to it than just the butt.

• The most important thing was to make it something that won’t have people say “Platinum Games ruined it.”

• There were many times where arguments were needed, but the developers were relieved to be able to complete it with the 60fps.

• For sub-quests, you’ll see some that you can accept in the early stages of the game that have enemies that are stronger than normal. You might be able to even clear some of the tougher ones at a lower level with high-end technique.

• When funny bugs appeared, they said “this is funny so lets throw it in there” and left it the way it is.

• There’s an element that lets you find items through high frequency sounds. If you’re able to hear it, you can find some really good items. If you can’t hear it, there’s a Plug-in Chip called Sound Indicator that will help by showing it as well.

• There are various other collaborations aside from the ones that have been announced, but they won’t make it on time for the game’s release. Can’t say much more for the time being, but there’s a collaboration with a smartphone app, and such.

• It’ll have a happy ending!

NieR: Automata releases in Japan on February 23, North America on March 7, and Europe on March 10, 2017 for PlayStation 4. The PC version will be available sometime in 2017.