NieR: Automata Designer Wants You To Slide Into His DMs
By Cody Gravelle 11 January 2017
NieR: Automata designer Taro Yoko is well aware of the sudden fixation some fans have with protagonist 2B’s posterior – apparently, it’s one he shares as well.
2016 was a year that featured a lot of memorable moments for video games. In a year that saw some truly breath-taking releases like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Final Fantasy 15, however, one of the most talked about elements of video game design was inexplicably a specific part of the human anatomy – butts. The Overwatch Tracer butt controversy dominated news headlines for weeks, and not too long after Blizzard announced a replacement pose for Tracer, Street Fighter 5 came under fire for something similar with R. Mika’s infamous butt slap.
For those gamers who are beginning to tire of the industry’s sudden fascination with posteriors, 2017 does not appear to hold much promise. We’re barely over a week into the new year and NieR: Automata designer Taro Yoko has already brought butts back into the spotlight after releasing a tweet about protagonist 2B’s behind:
２Ｂのお尻騒動でケシカラン感じの絵とか沢山アップされてるけど集めて回るの面倒だから zip にして毎週届けて欲しい。— yokotaro (@yokotaro) January 8, 2017
Essentially, Yoko’s tweet – translated by Kotaku – acknowledges the many “rude drawings” of 2B that have surfaced since gamers discovered they could view less than tasteful angles of her character model, before Yoko also implores fans to send him a zip file of those lewd images because “going around and collecting them is a pain”. That’s right – NieR: Automata‘s designer wants gamers to slide into his DMs.
If the story ended there, however, it would be an amusing anecdote and a nice bit of humor from a designer attempting to defuse a situation that could escalate into controversy. Instead, however, Yoko got a taste of just how fast the internet can deliver, tweeting that “the internet is amazing” before conceding that he was sent a zip file nearly as fast as he had made the request. Yoko also stated that his mentions were completely flooded with English replies that he sadly couldn’t read – although inevitably some of them likely contained pictures, too.
While the trials and tribulations of Taro Yoko are amusing, there’s a very real possibility that NieR: Automata will redeem the series and liberate it from cult-classic status. The NieR: Automata PS4 demo was incredibly well-received, and many critics are praising the game’s gorgeous art direction – as long as things don’t get too carried away with 2B’s notoriety in some circles, NieR: Automata should produce even more fan artwork, this time praising the title’s steampunk aesthetic and memorable character models.
NieR: Automata will release in North America on March 7, 2017 for PS4, with a PC launch scheduled for sometime in 2017 as well.
