27 Facts About Yoko Taro

Yoko Taro is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer.

Yoko Taro 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.

Yoko Taro's writing technique, described as "backwards scriptwriting", involves outlining the ending of the story first and building the narrative backward from that point.

Yoko Taro was born in Nagoya, Aichi, on June 6,1970.

Yoko Taro's parents were often absent from home due to their jobs, so he was mostly raised by his grandmother, who left a strong impression on him.

The scene as Yoko Taro heard it was initially "horrifying", but included a humorous element as well.

Yoko Taro studied at Kobe Design University and graduated in March 1994.

Yoko Taro is married to Yukiko Yoko, an illustrator who worked on Taiko no Tatsujin series and did work on Drakengard 3.

Yoko Taro helped create the scenario and characters, as well as co-writing the script with Sawako Natori.

Yoko Taro was later involved in the production of Drakengard 2, being credited as a video editor while remaining as one of the game's creative staff.

Many years later, Yoko Taro teamed back up with multiple staff from the production of Drakengard and Nier to create a true second sequel to Drakengard, determining through questionnaires that the main appeal to the fanbase was the dark stories.

In 2015, Yoko Taro announced that he had started his own company called Bukkoro, staffed by Yoko Taro, his wife Yukiko, and Hana Kikuchi, novelist and scenario writer for Nier and Drakengard 3.

Yoko Taro's reason, according to his Famitsu column, was that he feels video game developers are not entertainers or commentators on their work and that he thinks the subjects they talk about in interviews would be overly boring to those reading or listening.

Yoko Taro has stated that he likes to be blunt when stating his opinions, as he feels that video game fans deserve truth and honesty.

Yoko Taro is noted for creating games with a dark, disturbing or unusual atmosphere.

Yoko Taro's writing method, which he has not seen in other works of fiction, is called "backwards scriptwriting".

Yoko Taro described it as starting with the ending first, then working backwards from there.

Yoko Taro then creates central plot points that form emotional peaks in the narrative, adds details, then scatters them through the narrative so the player can build a suitable emotional connection.

Yoko Taro uses a secondary method called "photo thinking" in conjunction with his scriptwriting method.

Yoko Taro describes it as a method of visualizing and keeping in order events and emotional peaks throughout the story.

Yoko Taro cited his inspiration for this method as The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan Spence.

Yoko Taro is keen in experimenting with the video game format, feeling that many conventions of the video game market inhibit developers' creative freedom.

Yoko Taro considers food an important tool in creating a game, stating that he thinks that types of food from across the world can help him get a feel for the people the game is being aimed at.

Yoko Taro was influenced in his style for the Drakengard series by many games of the day: a commonality he noted was that the player got gradings for their performance after killing dozens or hundreds of enemy units in a "gloating" manner.

Yoko Taro wished to explore what drove people to kill each other.

Later, for Nier and Drakengard 3, Yoko Taro explored the idea of a terrible event where both sides believed they were doing the right thing.

Yoko Taro has stated his dislike for the "plain and forgettable" type of female video game character: he demonstrated his dislike for this and the stereotypical role-playing video game romance in Furiae, an important character in Drakengard.