It’s never easy loving an obscure Japanese gaming franchise, and that isn’t helped when much of said franchise’s story is hidden behind untranslated short stories and novellas. Luckily in the case of Yoko Taro’s Nier, the latter changed last year with the surprise success of Nier: Automata, and now the former is being resolved too with manga distributor Viz Media set to publish the short story collection Nier: Automata: Short Story Long in spring 2019.
The short story collection, which released in Japan in October last year, features seven short stories written by Yoko Taro and Eishima Jun. Some of the short stories are ones already well known to hardcore fans, such as The Flame of Prometheus that was featured all the way back in 2013 with the 10th anniversary version of Drakengard 3 (but mentioning Drakengard is opening up a whole new can of worms, so moving on), and the collection also includes new stories, such as Emil’s Recollection and a 130 page novelization of the Yorha Stage Play.
Nier: Automata: Short Story Long is the second Nier Novelization to be translated by the company, with Nier: Automata: Long Story Short being announced earlier in the year, set for a release in October. Here in Europe, you can pre-order by switching to the American Amazon or waiting till November when it releases in Waterstones.
The announcement of official releases is a godsend for a fan base that has been relying on fan translations for the better part of a decade for crucial story details that are not in the games. Though a lot of the stories have long been available to read online, having a physical copy is a nice addition to any hardcore fan’s collection.
View all things Nier: Automata HERE
