In a shockingly weird twist during today's Nintendo Direct, Kirby is now in the world of NieR Automata (sort of) and NieR Automata developer Yoko Taro is making... a card game?

Yes, this new Yoko-Tarot game is called Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, and Square Enix has been teasing it for a while. Finally, we know what it is... except we also kind of don't.

That's because it's a whole new type of strategy game, which is played with cards and on cards, giving choices to the player about what to do next, as well as turn-based card battles, and some kind of open-world-ish exploration system. In short, it's a game that combines parts of Reigns, parts of Gwent, parts of Final Fantasy, a large dollop of Hand of Fate, and some of Yoko Taro's own secret blend of spices. Also, the art is GORGEOUS:

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'Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars'
Whoever this is, we already love him

Yoko Taro gave a statement to the PlayStation blog about the announcement, but, well, don't expect it to shed any light on the game itself:

Hello. I’m Yoko Taro, the producer of Voice of Cards. That’s a lie. Creative director is my real job title. The job of a creative director is to have younger members create lots of different things and then say things like, “that’s pretty good, isn’t it?”, while sitting back on a cushy sofa, but recently, I don’t really get a chance to sit on that sofa. It’s all because of this work. Work is loathsome, work is loathsome, work is loathsome!!
The fact that I’m in this situation at all is entirely the fault of Kimihiko Fujisaka, who creates the illustrations for this game. No, doing things like talking about members of the dev team is so inside-joke-like, which I really hate, but I just can’t go without sharing this one story, so please hear me out. A few summers ago, I visited the home of Fujisaka-san, who lives overseas. The place? Hawaii. Fancy, upscale apartment, wonderful pool, amazing nature… a mansion worthy of being lived in by someone who’s made it in life. No, I’m usually joking around all the time when I’m writing these, but it’s true. I’m dead serious. The lifestyle of a celebrity, enough to dazzle the eye.
Fujisaka-san and I worked together on a project called Drakengard. We were supposed to be kindred spirits aspiring towards the same dreams… and yet, why? Where was it that the disparity between us grew so wide? I ground my teeth in frustration, so much so that I ended up getting two canker sores as a result.
Six months after leaving my oral health in shambles, I received an email from Fujisaka-san out of the blue. What was written there was… oh, now that I think of it, I’ve just remembered that I was told, “Please provide a comment in about 500-600 characters,” by Square Enix, who is releasing this game. It seems that once again, I’ve worked too much. Please allow me to tell the rest of this story at a different opportunity, somewhere else. Until we meet again.

Erm... thanks, Taro-san.

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars will release on October 28th, with a free demo available today.