Nier: Automata producer Yosuke Saito and director Yoko Taro have denied that any of their character designs had been restricted for Western audiences.
As noticed by Automaton, the builders had been compelled to remark after a mistranslated Japanese-to-English subtitle intimated Nier: Automata had been subjected to censorship from Sq. Enix to fulfill world requirements.
Within the interview above (skip to twenty-eight:12 for the section involved), Sony government Yoshida Shuhei requested the builders about their design course of.
“Our idea is all the time to do one thing that is ‘not like the rest’. What I imply is, if Nier: Replicant had a boy as the primary character, Nier: Automata would have a lady protagonist. If Western sci-fi is crammed with Marine-like troopers, we’d go in the wrong way and use Gothic Lolita outfits, for instance,” Taro mentioned. “We are likely to take the contrarian route.”
“There are, in fact, sure issues which can be ethically or morally inappropriate – even when they’re simply facets of a personality,” Saito added, in keeping with the subtitles. “We strive to attract a line by establishing guidelines about what’s acceptable and what’s not.
“Whereas sure issues is likely to be acceptable in Japan, they may develop into problematic in sure abroad areas, and even characters might develop into problematic as nicely. These are the form of state of affairs[s] we normally attempt to keep away from creating. Because of this, there are literally international locations the place we could not formally launch Nier: Automata.”
This instantly induced consternation with followers however as Automaton factors out, this “may very well be somewhat tough to translate, even for a complicated Japanese speaker”.
When requested straight concerning the declare, Taro denied it, saying on X/Twitter: “I’ve by no means heard of such a factor occurring”. Saito merely mentioned he thought the issues he’d talked about had been mistranslated, and would make clear this in a future livestream.
In the identical interview, former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida known as Nier: Automata the “sport that modified every part”, because it was chargeable for reviving the Japanese video games business on its launch. In a current interview, Yoshida mentioned how throughout the PS3 period, gross sales of Japanese video games had declined, and more and more studios there have been chasing “abroad tastes”.
That modified with NieR: Automata in 2017, launched for the PS4. “I feel Yoko Taro created it with out paying any thoughts in any respect to creating it promote abroad, however it was an incredible success,” Yoshida mentioned.
