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NieR:Automata Gets New Stage Play With All-Female Cast in December
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Square Enix announced during the Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online event on Thursday that the NieR:Automata game is inspiring a new stage play titled Butai Shōjo YoRHa Ver1.1a that will run at Tokyo Tatemono Brillia HALL from December 3 to 6. The play's story will be based on the first play but include new arrangements.
The play will feature an all-female cast, and the its string quartet members will also all be women. Ichidai Matsuda (Cutie Honey, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen stage plays) is returning to direct the play, and the original game's director Yokō Tarō is credited with the script. Keiichi Okabe (Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, Hourou Musuko) is again composing the music.
The franchise's first stage play, Butai Shōnen YoRHa Ver.1.0, debuted in Tokyo in January 2018. The stage musical Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 ran in Tokyo that February. The Butai Shōnen YoRHa Ver.1.3a play then ran in Tokyo and Osaka in July 2019. The Butai YoRHa Ver.1.3aa stage play was scheduled to run in Tokyo this March, but it was canceled due to COVID-19. Instead, the play was recorded without an audience, and a Blu-ray Disc release will ship on October 9.
The now-defunct Japanese game developer Cavia (Drakengard, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles) developed the original NieR game as a spinoff of the Drakengard series in 2010. Square Enix released versions of the game for two different consoles: NieR Gestalt for the Xbox 360, and NieR Replicant for the PlayStation 3. NieR Replicant featured a different character design for the protagonist, and minor differences in the plot. NieR was the last game Cavia developed before being disbanded and absorbed into AQ Interactive Inc. in July 2010.
NieR Replicant is getting a remastered edition for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and will also have a release in English. Square Enix announced during the Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online event on Thursday that the game will launch on April 22.
The NieR:Automata sequel shipped for the PS4 in Japan in February 2017, followed by North America and Europe in March 2017. Square Enix also released the game on PC via Steam in March 2017, and on Xbox One in June 2018. The game has a combined shipments and digital download sales number of 4.5 million.
NieR Re[in]carnation, the first a smartphone game in the NieR video game franchise, will get a release both in Japan and the West.
Sources: We Have a Decent Amount of New Info livestream, YoRHa stage plays' website, PR Times, Stage Natalie
