In an interview with GameReactor, Yoko Taro, the creator of the Drakengard and NieR series confirmed that a sequel to NieR Automata could be something that could happen, assuming Square Enix wanted it to happen enough that they funded one for him.
“If Square-Enix gives me money I will create anything”, he said. “So I think let Square-Enix know and I think if Square-Enix wants it I’ll do it.”
He also discussed the multiple playthrough design of NieR Automata—some argue that it is a stroke of genius storytelling, leveraging the interactivity of gaming as a medium to great effect. Others found it to be a significant detriment to their enjoyment. According to Taro, however, the reason for it existing at all wasn’t a creative one—it was just a budgetary one. Speaking to GameReactor, he confirmed that he had envisioned the game being of a certain density and length, and to hit that with the budget that he had, they resorted to the multiple playthroughs technique.
“When thinking that we wanted players to play a long time with our game, play many times, we were limited to the number of levels we could create cost-wise and budget-wise and so we devised this multiple playthroughs [design], so that we can create an environment where you want to play multiple times but limit the amount of places we had to create. So it actually was based on monetary issues,” he said.
“It would have probably been completely different [with a bigger budget]. When we first talked about constructing the game I think it would have been something that is really different than what NieR: Automata ended up being.”
Given NieR Automata’s incredible success—it was a critical triumph, as well as a commercial one, selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide—it seems like their decisions ended up being well received. The game is available now on PS4 and PC.