Square Enix Requires Nier & Drakengard Fan Archive to Shut Down
Accord's Library will be taken offline on the last day of this month.
Fan projects are usually at the edge of danger, though they are loved and enjoyed by players - just see how many mods and emulators got to be taken offline after some warnings from the giant company's legal department. And now, this sad list is going to welcome a new member, Accord's Library, a place where nearly all of the famous Japanese video game director and scenario writer Yoko Taro's work was gathered, has to say goodbye very soon.
Yesterday, the admin of Accord's Library announced this news in the Discord channel, saying that after being contacted by the Square Enix Legal Team and conducting some private communication with them, the website has to shut down by the end of this month.
The website, which was created in July 2021 according to the date of its first-year anniversary announcement, has collected almost all the side materials shared by Yoko Taro, who is known for his works on the video game series Drakengard, Nier, and Nier: Automata, all published by Square Enix. These side materials, "in the form of books, novellas, artbooks, stage plays, manga, drama CDs, and comics," have mostly only been released in Japan, some are in limited quantity and are hard to obtain since they stopped printing.
Hence, a group of fans decided to collect and archive as many of them as possible. Their collection was growing, and so did the community, so they decided to turn this hobby into a website, which they hope serves as "notable resources for Drakengard and NieR fans."
Their work did attract attention from people, including Yoko Taro himself. Half a year ago, Yoko Taro visited the site and reached out to the staff of Accord's Library. Besides asking to remove a video with his face showing up, which Yoko Taro personally doesn't like, that's why he always puts on a mask when showing up publicly; Taro had shown much appreciation for the work the team had done. He sincerely said:
"The series of NieR and Drag-On Dragoon (Drakengard) was niche, but thanks to all the fans who supported us, we were able to make it this far."
Yoko Taro
The Library and Gallery will be taken down on the last day of this month; luckily, the Discord channel of Accord's Library can be kept. So if you'd like to revisit the amazing side materials about Yoko Taro's work, don't hesitate to join in.
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