Nintendo partially to blame for Nier’s infamous fishing quests

Director explains how they came to be

Nier is a game of extremes. For all its strengths, it has as many weaknesses.

One of the roughest elements of the experience is fishing. The whole thing is poorly implemented and just as badly explained. And one of the fishing quests wasn’t even optional. It was part of the critical path, giving many players fits as they languished during these lengthy games of tug-o’-war.

Naturally, the topic came up when Destructoid interviewed Nier producer Yosuke Saito and director Taro Yoko about the title’s recently announced sequel during E3 this week.

Is fishing set to return in the new game? No, probably not.

“At present, we don’t have any plans to include fishing,” Yoko said (via a translator). “We actually got a lot of negative comments about fishing. It wasn’t considered a great aspect of our previous game. But if we get a lot of feedback from fans clamoring for it, we’ll definitely look at our options.”

Saito then turned to Yoko and asked why it was included in the first game.

“Uh, honestly, it was because I was playing Animal Crossing at the time,” he admitted as everyone in the room burst into laughter. “I play a lot of Animal Crossing and they do a lot of fishing.”

“I decided why not give it a shot and add in fishing.”

So you can blame Nintendo for all those headaches Nier gave you years ago. Also, Obama.