Nier: Automata’s creators explain why games probably won’t let you kill real people

Creative collaborations are mercurial beasts. Unlike marriages or friendships, which can endure hard times and come out stronger on the other side, people trying to make great entertainment and art together don’t always have the luxury of enduring failure. If the audience doesn’t like what you’ve made together, it’s all over. Some collaborations beat the odds and survive, though. The creators of Nier: Automata have been making surreal, soulful action RPGs together for nearly two decades but it was only last year they made a hit.

Nier director Yoko Taro and producer Yosuke Saito have been working together since Drakengard, (technically the first game in the series) went into production in 1999. Keiichi Okabe, the composer behind Automata’s haunting, idiosyncratic score, has been working with them since the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game Nier Gestalt/Replicant, and he’s been friends with Taro since their college years.