Yes, you read that right folks, the new Rainbow Six Siege Iana skin isn’t 2B from Nier Automata. The new Elite set was finally announced on November 21, and it perfectly blends the tactical FPS game with Square Enix’s cult classic anime saga.
In the skin’s official trailer, we see the Dutch attacker standing amidst a swirling set of floating runes, decked out in a Nier-inspired black dress and eye mask. Short silver hair sweeps down across her forehead as she obliterates a collection of different targets, as well as an unfortunate Emil motif.
As “A Beautiful Song” echoes in the background, we see a snazzy snapshot of the full skin, which reads “Iana Elite Set: Unit designation Iana.”
While I personally had to pick my jaw up off of the floor following the announcement, some fans have criticised the skin for being too ‘buff’ to truly represent nimble anime character, 2B. ” I respect you, but I am extremely disappointed with this collaboration. THIS IS NOT 2B, let’s not kid ourselves. It’s all so wrong.”
Gaming titan and Neir icon Yoko Taro has addressed fan concerns, however, writing that this YoRHa is not, in fact, 2B. Instead, it is G2, an all new YoRHa class. “I had a costume collaboration with Rainbow Six. I think you can play G2 instead of 2B,” he writes. This begs the question: why not 2G, like 2B?
“YoRHa’s Gunner type exists only in the prototype model, and the prototype model is named in the same order as A2, in the order of ‘type name and number,’ so if number two has a Gunner type, the model number will be ‘G2,'” he replies, and given he’s the brainchild behind all things Neir, I’ll take his word on it. This also means that the Iana skin is now canon in the Nier universe, which is pretty damn cool.
I have relied on Twitter’s internal translation function here (sorry folks, no Japanese here), so the tweet‘s actual wording may be slightly different.
While I can understand that some players may be a little disappointed by the skin’s design, I for one love the idea of having a completely unique cosmetic that’s simply inspired by 2B, and doesn’t replicate her entirely. There’s something pretty cool about playing as a prototype YoRHa that we’ve never seen before – especially because Iana looks absolutely amazing.
There’s a lot more than just this skin coming with Rainbow Six Operation Solar Raid, though – we have new Rainbow Six operator Solis, too. Where she’ll fit on the best Rainbow Six operators tier list remains unseen; either way, we expect to be seeing a lot more Iana.