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I don't know if either of you can speak to this, but the trailers for Nier: Automata were a little misleading. I'm not sure if I'll have an opportunity to disclose that secret, but if I do, I might one day create a game that delves more into why it's Emil and why I continue to wear Emil's mask. Another part of the answer is that Emil actually holds a great secret of the part of the Nier world and it's not all revealed with the games I've created so far. One of the answers I can give is that, and I do have a little more that I want to elaborate on, is that for one Emil in the previous title is just a strong character on its own, so it's more like an iconic image or character for Nier as a series. When you appear in public, you have been wearing a mask of Emil from the first Nier title. With Automata, you started appearing at press conferences and as part of the marketing of the game, whereas previously you never did that. One thing that we really had it easy with in this game is that Yoko-san's scenario and Okabe-san's music, once it's mixed into the battle, makes a really menial and indifferent battle sequence suddenly becomes this dramatic and grandiose battle with everything at stake, so I felt like that really helped elevate our battle sequences as well. For me, the balancing between the difficulty level of stages and bosses versus the levels the player might be was the difficult part in creating this game. So as long as you level up your character, the boss would be easier to defeat, but if you don't, then some of the enemies toward the end of the game would be very difficult. The one major difference was that this was the first game that I've at least worked that had the leveling up element in it.
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Taura: In terms of like a climax or increasing the difficulty level toward the end, it's not that different from our other titles, or at least we didn't feel like it was that different. Is that something you had to work with Yoko-san about, where the escalation and pacing would best fit the gameplay? Nier: Automata kind of messes with that formula a little bit by Ending A being a little bit more subdued and low-key and then goes up again and again until it finishes with endings D and E. One of the usual tropes of PlatinumGames is that, as the game goes on, it tends to escalate more and more to an explosive finale. We always thought of making the game into something that's fun to play for newcomers to the action game field, but also to the more experienced players as well. Saito-san from Square Enix told us when the project started that, since the original Nier has a lot of female fans and a lot of non-action gamer fans, to make the game as fun and accessible as possible to people who aren't accustomed to playing difficult action games. Taura: That's actually exactly the reason why. Was that intentional to keep it closer to the first Nier or perhaps a consequence of trying to make PlatinumGames action more mainstream? PlatinumGames has a reputation for fast, often-challenging action games, but Nier: Automata is a lot easier. When I thought of that, I thought of what part of the Nier storyline might fit in with that Sci-Fi action gaming sequence, I selected the themes for Automata because I felt it just fits in with the PlatinumGames style. When I first heard that we might do a collaboration with PlatinumGames, the image I had of them is that they only create Sci-Fi action games. Yoko: Not at all, I had no ideas for a sequel in mind. When you started working on the Automata, did you know what it was going to be? Did you have an idea in your head of what a Nier sequel would look like after the first game? It just so happened that it was the right time, right place and we met for the first time when we started this project. Taura: I loved the previous Nier title, I was actually went to Square Enix saying "Please let us create a Nier sequel, because you haven't done anything with it for a long time." At the same time, there was coincidentally Saito-san, the producer for Nier: Automata, talking with Yoko-san that they wanted to do something together. How did PlatinumGames and Yoko-san first meet on Nier? Why did you decide on that project versus something like another Drakengard or a new IP as a whole? Yoko: We heard it was a user's choice award where the players themselves select the winners, so I'm just really happy that the players have selected our game for winning the award. With Nier: Automata, you guys won a Game Developer Conference award.