Yoko Taro

“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.”

“You can even express movies and poetry using video games. For those reasons, I've decided to create stories through video games.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.'”

“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.”

“The reason why there are so many characters who suffer in my games is that I want to show reality.”

“Whenever I write the scenarios for my games, I don't necessarily envision them being liked or being wonderful for everyone.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“In 'Drakengard', you have magic and non-magic missiles that couldn't shoot each other down.”

“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.”

“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.”