Home Gaming

Exclusive Interview: Yoko Taro On Machine Empathy And Butts In Nier: Automata

I loved the funny video message you left for Atlus on Project Re Fantasy, begging them not to make the game so it wouldn’t compete with Nier: Automata. Do you actually have a relationship with those developers, and who else (if anyone) do you share a relationship with in the game industry? YT: [Katsura] Hashino from […]

Recommended Videos

I loved the funny video message you left for Atlus on Project Re Fantasy, begging them not to make the game so it wouldn’t compete with Nier: Automata. Do you actually have a relationship with those developers, and who else (if anyone) do you share a relationship with in the game industry?

YT: [Katsura] Hashino from Atlus started up a new studio [to make that game], but I actually haven’t met him even once. It just turned out that a former Square Enix employee who had worked in the marketing department moved onto Atlus, and reached out to me to get a video message or a comment on Atlus’s new game. But since I’ve never met Hashino and didn’t have much to say, I decided to record a message in that fashion instead.

As far as developers I have close relationships with and go out to drink with, I’d say [Keiichiro] Toyama, who directed Gravity Rush, [Fumito] Ueda, who made ICO, and [Hideki] Kamiya from PlatinumGames.

I suspected you might be friends with Kamiya. He seems like a developer with a similar mindset!

YT: Actually, with regards to Kamiya-san, a lot of people think that he’s a little bit “off” or a little bit weird — mostly because of his Twitter feed — but he’s actually a very shy and a very serious-minded person. When you speak to him properly, outside of Twitter, you find out that he’s very straightforward, true to himself and doesn’t really diverge from his beliefs. In that sense, I really like and admire him.

One of the most incredible moments of Nier: Automata is the credits sequence for the true ending, where it becomes a bullet hell shooter and if the player fails enough times, they can get help from others. After completing the stage, they then find out that players sacrificed their completed save data in order to help out a complete stranger. This moment was so powerful that it actually moved our reviewer to tears. How did you come up with this idea?

YT: This is something that I’ve been searching for since the first Drakengard I really believe there are certain things that can only be done in the video game medium. I thought, “What if there were a way for players to support one another?” Rather than have the story conclude within the game itself, I wanted to see if there were other ways we could impact people in their real lives. In searching for that, we came upon the idea for that particular ending sequence. There are people who will probably dislike it, but I thought that rather than have us provide the answers to the player, it would be best if each and every player could kind of discover their own answers for themselves.

I’m glad to hear you mention specifically taking advantage of the video game medium, because you seem like one of the few creators making games that couldn’t easily be translated to film, television, or another medium. Specifically, Nier: Automata has a story that uniquely can only be told in a video game. How important do you think it is that creators take advantage of player interaction going forward and create stories that really can only be done in this specific medium?

YT: Back in my childhood, when I went to the arcades, I can remember experiencing a lot of surprises; I became aware of all the possibilities and the potential that are given to you through the video game medium. You take a black screen and just place a couple of dots in there, and you really feel that space — I remember being really surprised by that feeling.

That gave me a drive and made me want to become a video game creator… I believe that there’s still a lot of potential that’s still hidden and undiscovered, and I want to give players a sense of that potential with my games. In a similar manner, if they become an example to my colleagues in the industry of what we can potentially do, that in itself is meaningful in terms of my work.

There’s a lot of speculation online about the locked rooms in Automata and the apologetic robots that are near them. Is there a greater meaning to their inclusion, and can they actually be entered? 

YT: So, Square Enix mentioned not to say anything about this… but there really isn’t that much meaning to them, so don’t look forward to it. (laughs) Tell your friends that it’s just poop… beyond those doors, it’s just a lot of poop.