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In a Dengeki Online interview, he says that it's a story about "searching" for something. He had to fight to keep a female protagonist and Zero's eye-flower, as he believes it will offer a different flavor to the story. Yoko "aims to do neither" while keeping true to the spirit of the Drakengard series. Yoko said that Drakengard fans frequently request a dark story according to surveys from Square-Enix and Shiba personally wants a story like Nier. Shiba believes that it was refused due to a trend at the time which sought to appeal to light gamers with a lighter atmosphere. When he presented the game to Cavia's parent division, AQ Interactive, it was shut down. Shiba had continued to pitch the idea of creating Drag-On Dragoon 3, and he too met difficulties due to Cavia's termination.
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He was planning to continue expanding the Nier continuity, but his plans were cut short when Cavia disbanded and Yousuke Saito ( Nier's producer) became busy managing Dragon Quest X. In Yoko's eyes, Nier is his personal Drag-On Dragoon 3. Yoko felt that he wasn't up to the task at the time and refused. According to a Famitsu interview, Takamasa Shiba presented the idea of creating a sequel to Drakengard 2 many years ago to Taro Yoko.
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