Nier: Automata director Yoko Taro has a reputation for being weird and esoteric – not that the giant, moon-faced Emil mask he always wears in public has anything to do with it. The idiosyncratic dev’s games have a reputation for dark, twisted narratives that care more for their philosophical underpinnings than offering happy conclusions for their characters.
With the first Nier, released in 2010, the game featured two different protagonists, with a gruff older character on Xbox 360 and a boyish lead on PS3. In the West, both versions used the older protagonist. That approach “didn’t end in great sales,” Yoko told The Guardian in 2018, “so we stopped overthinking it.”
Things changed for the launch of the RPG’s follow-up in 2017. “For Nier: Automata, I wasn’t told to target anyone,” Yoko explains. “I just made what I wanted to, and I tried to stay hidden from Square Enix as much as possible.”
Clearly, that approach worked. Nier: Automata turned out to be a breakout hit, selling over 10 million copies and becoming widely recognized as one of the best RPGs ever made. It blended approachable action with Yoko’s trademark esoteric storytelling, and developed a following that went well beyond the typical cult RPG fans.
“To be honest, I think I am making normal games targeted towards normal people,” Yoko said. “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.”
That kind of self-deprecation also seems to be part of Yoko’s mask – though maybe it’s just as much a part of him as the Emil face he encases himself in. He says it wasn’t any great ambition that led him to become a director, but rather the mere fact that he regularly spoke up. He figures he’s a “warped person” who’s “insufferable at work,” but maybe that’s just the cost of making normal games for weird people.