Bereft of his signature mask – which he will not be photographed without – and perched awkwardly on a folding chair, video game director Yoko Taro has the air of a dishevelled monk. The famously camera shy developer behind cult hit games like Drakengard 3 and last year’s Nier: Automata listens attentively as questions and answers are rapidly translated.
“To be honest, I think I am making normal games targeted towards normal people,” he says. “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.”
Judging by Nier: Automata’s sales figures, there sure are a lot of weird people in the world. Taro’s games have long been considered obscure classics, but Automata – funded by publishing giant Square Enix and developed by action experts Platinum Games – sold 3m worldwide. Not bad for a philosophical, occasionally obtuse game that ricochets between adrenaline-spiking robotic destruction and sober contemplation of the meaning of existence.
Taro attributes part of Nier’s popularity in the west to the efforts of video game translation firm 8-4, whose vivacious translation brought the game to life in English. “What’s great about them is their company is full of people who are actually otaku (pop culture fans),” he says, “so it was very enjoyable and easy to work with them.”
Taro’s other games have made occasional gestures towards mass appeal, but have not always hit the mark. The previous game in the series, Nier, even had protagonists aimed at different markets: a hulking, older warrior in the western release and a slender youth in the Japanese version. “But it didn’t end in great sales,” explains Taro, “so we stopped overthinking it.”
“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.”
Whatever form they come in, Taro’s works tend towards existential nihilism and pyrrhic victories, with characters often moving tragically and inexorably towards pain and self-destruction. “The reason why there are so many characters who suffer in my games,” says Taro, “is that I want to show reality. That is why people can empathise with the suffering of characters ... 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.”
Nier: Automata, however, ends on a hopeful note. “[Square Enix producer Yosuke] Saito said to me, ‘You’ve gotten soft,’” says Taro. “It might just be age.”
Age is also having an effect on Taro’s publicly stated habit of writing while inebriated. “I love alcohol, but these days I can feel my body breaking apart from it, so I usually drink diet coke,” he deadpans. “I drink around three litres a day. Of course, I still mix a bit of alcohol in here and there.”
What drives Taro’s desire to make things? His answer is immediate: “Because to live, you need money.” After a pause, though, he continues. “My true goal is, I believe, that directors can do more than just make a game. I think we can find new possibilities within games, and I believe that is the core of the job.”
