This NieR 12th anniversary art celebrates the series, minus Papa Nier

The young girl is from NieR Reincarnation

Over on Twitter, the NieR Reincarnation account shared a spectacular piece of NieR 12th anniversary art to celebrate over a decade of the series. To be clear, we have Nier from the original (sorta, haha, man, unpacking this would be a spoiler-ridden article), Fio (The Girl of Light) from NieR Reincarnation, and 2B from Automata.

【 #NieR12周年 記念！】

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　祝 NieRシリーズ12周年！
　本当に、本当にありがとうございます！
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感謝とお祝いの気持ちをこめて…！
今後とも、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします！#リィンカネ #NieR #ニーア pic.twitter.com/wy9LBUUb64

— NieR Re［in］carnation (@NieR_Rein) April 21, 2022

NieR has had a fascinating history, starting in 2010 as a spinoff for one of Drakengard‘s endings. This wild turn would help define much of designer Yoko Taro’s career: who started working on innocent games like Namco’s Alpine Racer 2, only to become one of the biggest gaming industry mind-screwers alongside of Hideo Kojima. From there NieR grew as a cult hit, and seven years later his stock would absolutely explode as NieR: Automata made him a global superstar.

Four years later he’d co-direct NieR Reincarnation, a mobile take on the game that is now illustrious enough to be included in this NieR 12th anniversary art piece: including the entire background (which is The Cage, the setting for Reincarnation). I hope we get another project like Automata eventually, with a firm action gameplay foundation in tandem with Yoko Taro’s unique ideology.