Top 33 Quotes & Sayings by Yoko Taro

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Japanese director Yoko Taro.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Yoko Taro

Yoko Taro is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer. Starting his career at the now-defunct game company Cavia, his best-known work was on the action role-playing video game series Drakengard, and its spin-offs, Nier and Nier: Automata. Yoko was born in Nagoya, Aichi, and studied at the Kobe Design University in the 1990s. While he did not initially intend to pursue a career in video games, after working at Namco and Sony, he joined Cavia and became the director and scenario writer for the first Drakengard game. He has since worked extensively on every game in the series, and on mobile titles, after becoming a freelancer after Cavia's absorption into AQ Interactive.

After we released 'Drakengard 3', I think everyone was well sick of all the games I made by then, and I really didn't really want to work anymore. I was thinking I'd probably just go and hide in the mountains and live out the rest of my life as a hermit or something.
I constantly want to do something new and surprise the audience.
Actually, multiple playthroughs and deleting save files are things that other games have done, so I don't see myself as a forerunner of those elements in the game. — © Yoko Taro
Actually, multiple playthroughs and deleting save files are things that other games have done, so I don't see myself as a forerunner of those elements in the game.
Speaking seriously, 'Ikaruga' influenced how I synchronize the game sequences with the music. Combining the two in a way that appeals to people's hearts is a task that's quite difficult.
I feel that a world in which you only see what you want to see is incomplete. And as a game creator, I am only here to prepare a game that will expand the breadth of your thinking, and leave the decision between good and evil up to the players.
I have liked games for a very long time but when I saw 'Gradius' at the arcade as a junior high student, I became certain that in the future all forms of entertainment will be taken over by video games.
When you really think about it, it doesn't really matter where a game ends. Ultimately, if the player is satisfied with stopping at a particular point, it doesn't matter if it's where the creator intended things to end or not... and so that's where the idea of having so many endings came about.
If there are 100 people, I don't anticipate all 100 liking my scenario - but I write it so at least one or two of them will love and get really into that particular story.
When I'm able to eat cheap and delicious food, like ramen and beef bowls, I can't stop but to think, 'Ah, what a great era I was born in.'
In any case, 'Nier: Automata' is not a perfect game. But I am proud of everything in it.
Even I have certain depictions that I personally don't like, but I don't believe artists should necessarily follow a particular person's preference. They should focus on the things they like and follow their own desires.
I've always felt that it didn't feel right for me when a protagonist goes through a storyline where they're killing a lot of enemies, and at the very end of the story he ends up kissing the heroine and that's where you end the game.
I felt that just looking at the world in general, there are so many types of people, and some hide who they truly are. And I feel that every person has some kind of warped identity inside them that they decide if they want to show or not.
What I really love about philosophers and psychologists is that they sound smart.
The reason my games are chaotic is that the world is chaotic, not me. I don't aim for bad endings - they just naturally come out.
I get bored very fast, so I would like to do something new. Something like a restaurant is attractive. It does seem to be a very tough job though.
For me, when we're all human beings, it's just interesting that we cannot understand the other person or how they think. That's one part of the human aspect that fascinates me.
To be honest, I think I am making normal games targeted towards normal people. But ultimately when I release those normal games, weird people find them to be weird games and enjoy them. Which probably means there's something wrong with me.
The reason why there are so many characters who suffer in my games is that I want to show reality.
I personally don't feel like I'm really different with the mask on or not, but I don't really like to take interviews or go talk to other people or in front of other people.
For 'Nier: Automata', I wasn't told to target anyone. I just made what I wanted to, and I tried to stay hidden from Square Enix as much as possible.
You can even express movies and poetry using video games. For those reasons, I've decided to create stories through video games.
I don't think that humankind is worthy of trust when we can't let go of war, draw borders between neighboring countries, seek to become richer than others, find joy in defeating others at sports, and choose someone of the opposite gender based on their appearance.
Whenever I write the scenarios for my games, I don't necessarily envision them being liked or being wonderful for everyone.
I really do love psychology and philosophy but I'm no professional at these things. Because I love seeing the true side of humanity, as I've continued that, I have ultimately lent towards philosophy and psychology but it is not something in which I try to study.
I kind of want to continue to fail, because it's easier for me to think of what I want to do next. Whereas if I succeed I might have to follow that path. — © Yoko Taro
I kind of want to continue to fail, because it's easier for me to think of what I want to do next. Whereas if I succeed I might have to follow that path.
So 'Nier Automata' feels like a story about androids but no, the main theme of 'Automata' is human.
My belief is that if there are already games that other developers are putting out that are satisfying to the player, with great action or an excellent story, then I desire to create something different - a different type of experience.
In 'Drakengard', you have magic and non-magic missiles that couldn't shoot each other down.
There are multiple teams within Platinum, but the specific team I worked with, Team Taura, is really young and powerful and they're very talented in going through a lot of volume of work at a really fast pace.
Personally I don't want to be regarded as that one person who's responsible for the title.
As for my favorite games growing up, if I were to mention a game other than 'Gradius', it would have to be 'Xevious'.
In 'Nier Automata', the protagonists are androids, not humans, and that's very common in a Science Fiction story.
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