NieR: Automata World Guide Vol. 2 seems to have plagiarised fan translations

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Isaac Todd
January 6, 2021
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NieR: Automata World Guide Vol. 2 was released by Dark Horse last month, bringing even more translated NieR media to the West.

However, as discovered by Twitter user @dadnier, a huge chunk of the book’s weapon stories seem to have been lifted straight from a fan translation of Grimoire NieR.

Grimoire NieR was a Japanese only book containing artwork, info and lore on NieR RepliCant/Gestalt. Most relevantly, it also featured stories for each of the games’ weapons — a feature that was absent from the original NieR games, but made its return from Drakengard 3 onwards.

Sources: Dark Horse Automata world guide p. 00200-00211
Grimoire NieR fantranslation: https://t.co/aZbyvyNfVa

The translator for the official guide is credited as ‘Provided by TransPerfect’. https://t.co/r43xM8dov2 pic.twitter.com/AplW6MYNPT
— DAD TIME (@dadnier) January 6, 2021

From the comparisons shared by @dadnier, it looks like the majority of RepliCant/Gestalt weapon stories in NieR: Automata World Guide Vol. 2 are direct copies of those translated by Defade/Meru. The work of other fans used in the Grimoire NieR fan translation is also seemingly copied, with only a few minor changes made.

According to the book’s credits, the translation was handled by TransPerfect, with all fan translators remaining uncredited.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a book published by Dark Horse has been caught using the work of fans. The Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia ended up using many enemy names taken from an unofficial Mario wiki.

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