In a new interview with AV Watch (thanks, Automaton), PlayStation vet Shuhei Yoshida went so far as to credit Automata as the "game that changed everything". He said that it effectively reversed the Japanese game industry's fortunes after years of struggle during the late 2000s and early 2010s when it tried too hard to appeal to Western tastes.
Yoshida said "I think Yoko Taro (director) created it without paying any mind at all to making it sell overseas, but it was a tremendous success". Indeed, these words echo the sentiments of Masahiro Sakurai, who recently stated the importance of Japanese developers making games with domestic appeal rather than overseas appeal.
Yoko Taro went one step further, however, and claimed on social media that he was actually ordered by producer Yosuke Saito to ignore what the West would ultimately think of his game.
Saito responded to this statement to soften the message somewhat, saying:
Whatever the task was at the time, we think it's safe to say that the resulting game was an absolute banger, and well-deserving of its enduring praise. When we reviewed it for the Nintendo Switch, we called it a "modern classic" and awarded it a score of 9/10.
Have you played Nier Automata on Switch or elsewhere? What do you make of it? Share your thoughts with a comment down below.
