Square-Enix recently announced the new DLC content that’s heading to their action game sleeper-hit NieR: Automata, and well, it’s probably some of the cheekiest work that the publisher has signed off on yet.
Titled “3C3C1D119440927”, the downloadable content will include a slew of new costumes, cosmetic mods for the characters and bullets, equipable masks with passive effects, and new foes to challenge in the game’s coliseum. The new costumes pay fan service to 2010’s NieR by giving the protagonist 2B access to an outfit that resembles that of Kaine from the original Nier.
Other costumes include take on Younger Nier from NieR: Replicant on the adolescent 9S, and the more commonly recognized Adult Nier from NieR: Gestalt, and similar to the contrast of Kaine’s look on 2B, the costumes give the cast a more sultry, revealing look to them than their original incarnations.
The references are an endearing effort for long-time fans of the Drakengard spin-offs, and definitely add more fluidity to property that’s infamous for its somewhat disjointed lineage. The rest of the media packed into 3C3C1D119440927 is where the extension gets pretty wacky as you’ll have the option to facedown the president and CEO of Square-Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, complete with optional bullet aesthetics that will model his gunfire after his own, screaming head. I repeat; the same rapid fire bullets are freakish disembodied heads that can be rapidly fired out you, quickly making for some Japanese-flavored nightmare fuel that mixed Kaiju and business cultures that none of us were quite expecting.
Granted, these encounters with the CEO are gated behind a special event sequence that will become available after you’ve completed certain criteria within NieR: Automata’s campaign, but the payoff is definitely worth it as again, these matchups with Matsuda is fleshed out with its own storyline synopsis and everything.
The Square-Enix president isn’t the only Suit that got a ridiculous battle-ready adaption though, as the CEO of Platinum Games, Kenichi Sato throws his name into the ring, and like his Publisher-counterpart, promises to be incredibly challenging. It all sounds neat, but I can’t help but think about the missed opportunity the Studio glossed over with the absence of Hideki Kamiya, could you imagine how cathartic it would be the people he’s blocked on Twitter over some nebulous shit to get even with him tongue-in-cheek throwdown?
The nonsense of it all is admittedly enticing, and a great response to support NieR: Automata’s surprisingly successful sales numbers. The DLC pack is slated for release on May 2nd in Japan at the price of ¥1,500, which roughly converts to just under fourteen dollars stateside. This is a standard fare for premium digital goods on a triple A game — there’s no official word on a North American release date at this time though.
