No, there isn't going to be a new lovecraftian Nier game with a caked-up tentacle robot, despite cope to the contrary

A mock-up of a fake April Fools joke game called Nier: Cosmic Horror.
(Image credit: @NieR_JPN on X)

The Nier series is deeply beloved and, alas, deeply underserved. The last mainline game in the series was Nier: Automata, which came out in 2017—almost one whole decade ago. I mean, there was also Nier Reincarnation, a mobile gacha from 2021, but I feel spiritually obligated not to count that one.

Hopes were raised when in February of this year, an anniversary stream promised "Neir: Automata to be continued," filling fans with the hope that Nier: Automata would… you know, continue. Which is why plenty of Nier fans were understandably bamboozled by an announcement on X about an upcoming Nier project:

The video boasts a "Coming Soon" title screen for Nier: Cosmic Horror, a game that would apparently be featuring a deeply caked-up robot with a tentacle for a head. Bizarre imagery, sure, but this is Yoko Taro we're talking about, the man who wears a moon for a face. I've no doubt that if a new Nier game came out about tentacle robots with perfectly spherical rumps, it'd spend 50 hours both justifying that and making you cry about it.

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Anyway, turns out it was all an April Fool's bit, per the Nier X account: "The 'Nier: COSMIC HORROR' announced at 0:00 today is an April Fool's project. We received a tremendous response and caused quite a stir. We look forward to your continued support for the Nier series."

Fans aren't taking it great—there's a spray of crying gifs in the post's comments, interspersed with the occasional .png of Wolverine telling Yoko to, er, experience intercourse with himself. And hey, look—it's easy to give a smug little chuckle and say 'you fools, it's April 1st!' but, to take the side of the fooled here:

This is a beloved series without a proper, non-mobile entry in almost a decade, with a brimming fanbase, who just recently got told the series itself would return. Looking at the post, it's obviously a bit low-budget for an announcement, but the robot design being weird is the furthest thing from a clear-cut joke because again, I say, this is Yoko.

In other words this is one of those annoying April Fools jokes that is just believable enough to make you double-take, hence the existence of this article. It is my grim duty to cut off your supply of copium, and for that I am very sorry.

Anyway—there's still likely a Nier project in the works, but it isn't Nier: Cosmic Horror. Maybe the robot design'll pop up in whatever's in progress over at Square Enix, but as for now, those steel cakes were a lie.

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Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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