No, there isn't going to be a new lovecraftian Nier game with a caked-up tentacle robot, despite cope to the contrary
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:
【NieR 新プロジェクト 制作血定】虚無に生まれるは、希望か。それとも、救済という名の絶望か。━━━Coming Soon...... pic.twitter.com/nBdtqQEF12March 31, 2026
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.
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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