Yoko Taro | |
---|---|
Born |
Nagoya, Aichi, Japan |
June 6, 1970
Nationality | Japanese |
Occupation | Video game creative director and scenario writer. |
Notable work |
Drakengard Nier |
Spouse(s) | Yukiko Yoko |
Yoko Taro (横尾 太郎 Yokoo Tarō?, born June 6, 1970), alternately written as "ヨコオタロウ" in Japanese and "Taro Yoko" in English, is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer, having worked most notably at now-defunct game company Cavia. He became known for his work on the action role-playing video game series Drakengard and its two spin-offs Nier and sequel, Nier: Automata. Yoko was born in Nagoya, Aichi, and studied at the Kobe Design University in the 1990s. While initially not intending to pursue a career in video games, after working at Namco and Sony, he joined Cavia and became the director and scenario writer for the first Drakengard game. He has since worked on every game in the series, as well as on mobile titles after becoming a freelancer after Cavia's absorption into AQ Interactive.
Yoko has become known for his unconventional style of video games, incorporating odd design choices and dark stories. One of the main aspects of his work is exploring the darker aspects of people, such as why they are driven to kill each other, although he typically does not share common opinion on his story's dark natures. His writing technique, described as "backwards scriptwriting", involves outlining the ending of the story first and building the narrative backwards from that point. Due to his dislike of being photographed, he generally wears a mask when giving interviews or presenting games.
Yoko Taro was born in Nagoya, Aichi on June 6, 1970. Yoko's parents were often absent at their jobs, so he was mostly raised by his grandmother, who left a strong impression on him. During his youth, he experienced an incident that would influence his later work as a scenario writer: while in a shopping street with a group of friends, one of them who was walking along a high building roof slipped and died from the fall. The scene as Yoko remembered it was initially "horrifying", but in hindsight he saw humorous elements as well. He studied at Kobe Design University and graduated in March 1994. He is married to Yukiko Yoko, an illustrator who worked on Taiko no Tatsujin series and also did work on Drakengard 3.