It is March 31 as I write this right here within the States, and April 1 already in a variety of different nations. Which means right here within the IGN newsroom, we’re being further cautious about inadvertently falling for information tips – faux tales, foolish goofs from corporations, and so forth. A lot of the ones I’ve seen up to now are all in good enjoyable, however there’s one…possibly trick? In all probability?…that is getting below my pores and skin in the present day. I am referring to this:
【NieR 新プロジェクト 制作血定】
虚無に生まれるは、希望か。
それとも、救済という名の絶望か。━━━Coming Quickly…… pic.twitter.com/nBdtqQEF12
— NieR公式PRアカウント (@NieR_JPN) March 31, 2026
This is a tease for some type of Nier mission referred to as Nier: Cosmic Horror. And as hopeful as one may be that this lastly means one other Nier recreation, Nier followers know that the percentages are usually not of their favor on this one. As a result of we have been right here earlier than.
Square Enix and collection director Yoko Taro are at all times doing this. The Nier collection is deeply beloved by its followers, and the one factor everybody desires most is a model new, AAA, PC and console recreation that picks up the collection the place it left off in Automata, or a minimum of a few millenia later. However for years, Square has been taking part in this bizarre recreation of teasing new Nier mission after new Nier mission, just for every one to be one thing…non-game-like. A live performance tour. A guide. A stage play. An anime. A comic book. A crossover occasion. A bunch of bizarre lore dropped on a web site that went nowhere. And so forth.
Do not get me fallacious, all of this stuff are very cool. It is rad that the Nier universe is sufficiently big to comprise multitudes of multimedia, and that followers can take pleasure in a lot of various flavors of Nier. I have been to a Nier orchestra live performance, and it guidelines. I additionally deeply liked Nier: Reincarnation, a cellular recreation that is a very direct sequel to Automata, which was shut down in April 2024. However none of this stuff are the core recreation Nier that followers have been requesting for almost a decade now.
So what’s Cosmic Horror? I do not know, man. It could possibly be any one of many issues I listed above, or another new, bizarre artwork mission within the universe. We already know there’s one other orchestra tour coming round this yr, which is able to embody some new episodic story content material within the Nier universe. Heck, it might have one thing to do with this publish by The Weeknd, who was video chatting with Yoko Taro for some cause:
It additionally could possibly be an April Fool’s joke! Most corporations have gotten away from correct fake-outs lately, ever since a number of studios discovered that individuals have been getting genuinely excited concerning the joke video games and have been unhappy after they did not get made (or, in a single case, thrilled when it did). Nonetheless, Square Enix and Nier particularly aren’t above taunting their followers, so if this seems to be all a low-cost trick on April 2, I would not be shocked. However additionally, as many followers are declaring on the Nier subreddit, asserting one thing huge on April Fools Day is the type of wacky factor creator Yoko Taro would do. Which leaves us proper again the place we began: confused, pissed off, and wanting extra Nier.
Personally, I desperately need extra Nier video video games, however I’ve had my hopes dashed one too many instances to essentially suppose that is something. I do consider that in the future we’ll get a new Nier recreation – Automata bought 10 million copies, they’d be foolish to not make one. And Yoko Taro has stated he retains attempting to begin new tasks, however they hold getting canceled on him, so I am certain he is attempting his finest. However till I see precise gameplay on an official channel on a day that is not April 1, I’ll assume no information isn’t any information. I am simply gonna crank up the amount on Weight of the World and cry a few extra instances about it.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Received a story tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.