Yoko Taro, the mind behind the Nier franchise, is known for creating twisty plots which keep players guessing until the very last moment. Now, the director is getting ready to tell a whole new story - and this time, it will be his own.
The ongoing manga True Legends of Game Creators, but is sometimes rendered in English as the less adventurous Game Creator Biographies, does exactly what its name suggests. Drawn by manga and superhero comic artist Kenji Yoshida, the series covers the lives and histories of real-life industry figures. Taro is the second member of the Nier and Nier: Automata team to appear in the manga after character designer Akihiko Yoshida, who was the star of several chapters in 2019 detailing his work on Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy 12 alongside Yasumi Matsuno and Hiroshi Minagawa.
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The announcement of the upcoming Taro chapters was made on Twitter by Cycomi, the manga reading app and Web site which hosts the series. During a stream discussing the upcoming mobile game Nier: Reincarnation, producer Yosuke Saito confirmed that Taro had been extensively interviewed for the project. Saito was unable to share many details about the yet-unreleased manga, but he did describe it as "fun."
Yoko Taro himself, despite being busy with two new projects, took to Twitter to discuss his appearance in the series. He seemed somewhat nervous, jokingly saying that he was "talking about it like it's someone else's problem." Despite this, he excitedly shared with fans how they could read the series via either their browser or smartphone.
The chapters featuring Taro will begin publishing on February 21, 2021 via Cycomi, the manga site and app owned by Cygames, the company behind the Granblue Fantasy series. As with most series hosted on Cycomi, it is likely that the first few chapters will be available for free, while the later ones will require payment to access.
Previous installments of the series have not received an official English translation, and are only available in Japanese (although the title has had an official English rendering, the rather awkward Game Creators of Biography). It is not currently known whether the Taro chapters will be translated, although English-speaking Nier fans are definitely hopeful.
Fan reaction to the manga biography of Taro has been positive. Nier enthusiasts, fresh from discovering Automata's very last secret, have even resurrected a hash tag for it, which has received nearly as many posts in the past day as it did throughout the entirety of 2019 and 2020. The question at the front of fans' minds is whether Taro's face will be shown in the manga, as the notoriously mysterious director usually appears in public wearing a mask.
In addition to the manga, Taro and his team have many upcoming projects on their slate for 2021. Currently, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., an updated re-release of the original Nier title, is scheduled to debut in April, while Nier: Reincarnation lacks a concrete release date but is currently planned for sometime in the first half of the year.