The story revolves around Nier, who we’re told isn’t a violent man despite the amount of blood on the art, fighting to find a cure for his daughter. The world has been stricken with a disease that’s corrupting people and turning them into monsters, and it sounds like his daughter has been infected. The art also showcases a mix of modern buildings cr, and se&rsquohs aat aluo show;re told that the story will reveal how these fit together, but again, more specific details were under metaphorical lock and key.

So what we have is an action-adventure game, developed for Western tastes by a Japanese company, that – much like Front Mission Evolved – adds Square’s trademark characters, story, and style to a genre that doesn’t generally feature them. We’re told that we can expect plenty of “added hours” that will take the form of “a lot of other things going on.” RPG-style side quests? Perhaps.

It transpires that the character of Nier came about through a collaboration between a number of sources. Square Enix and cavia, the other company involved in the game, found a Korean illustrator who had created what was described as a “beautiful, amazing work,” and discussions between the illustrator, the directors of the companies, and the US and Europe branches of Square Enix resulted in the finished article. The feedback from the Western offices led Square Enix to the realisation that the typical Square Enix hero, the young, pretty boy, wasn’t the ideal hero in the West, with stronger, powerful heroes taking centre stage. Nier – an older, more muscular character, with a daughter - is Japan’s interpretation of a strong, powerful hero. Personally, I’m just glad they didn’t take the Gears of War route.

Saito’s got a bit of experience with Western games, too. Once again linking this to Front Mission, it transpires that both he and the people he knows at cavia are fans of Call of Duty 4, but more than that, Saito worked as the localisation producer for Tomb Raider 3 of all things. It seems that this what sparked his interest in the differences between the two cultures when it comes to games, with his early conclusions being that Western gamers value a higher difficulty level and better overall game balance than Japanese gamers. He also reckons that we’re potentially more skilled at fast-paced games because of it. (One of the other journalists commented that she found this hard to believe, with Japanese gamers largely forming the hardcore base when it comes to fighting games. “The fighting game is special!” laughed Saito. “That’s something that came out of Japan, like Street Fighter!”)

With Western games becoming more popular in Japan, however  and Saito mentioning FPS games and God of War specifically, he thinks the gap will narrow. This does leave one last question, of course. How does he think Japanese gamers will respond to the Western focus of Nier?

“We haven’t even taken any interviews from Japanese media yet, so we don’t know yet,” Saito laughed, again. “I guess we’ll find out. I’m too scared to look online, so I haven’t done it!”

I suspect that, considering the convergence of the two cultures, this is going to be a very interesting game to watch.

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