{"id":46462,"date":"2025-03-31T13:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T04:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=46462"},"modified":"2025-03-31T13:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T04:25:37","slug":"nier-automata-creator-yoko-taro-says-he-was-ordered-not-to-worry-about-overseas-reviews-by-games-producer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nier-automata-creator-yoko-taro-says-he-was-ordered-not-to-worry-about-overseas-reviews-by-games-producer\/","title":{"rendered":"NieR: Automata creator Yoko Taro says he was \u201cordered not to worry about overseas reviews\u201d by producer when making the game\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a recent interview with AV Watch<\/a>, Sony and PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida talked about the difficulty Japanese games once faced in gaining recognition in the global market, highlighting Square Enix\u2019s NieR: AutomatA<\/strong> as the \u201cgame that changed everything,\u201d reviving Japan\u2019s game industry and inspiring Japanese creators to stop imitating the West. Nier\u2019s director Yoko Taro and producer Yosuke Sato responded to Yoshida\u2019s praise, giving insight into how they approached Nier\u2019s development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the critical and commercial success Japanese games and creators are seeing today, in the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, this was not the case. According to Yoshida, when games in the West started becoming more realistic and \u201cHollywood-style,” there came a time (during the PS3 era) when Japanese creators, wanting to produce global hits, consciously strove to appeal to \u201coverseas tastes.\u201d But with there being no original context to these games, they received poor reception in the Western market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, Yoshida noted, everything changed in 2017, with the release of Nier: Automata on PS4. “I think Yoko Taro created it without paying any mind at all to making it sell overseas, but it was a tremendous success.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Nier: Automata, more and more titles came to prove that if Japanese creators made Japanese-style games, they would sell overseas. \u201cWith Nier, everyone realized this. That it wasn\u2019t just something they could do, but something they had to do.\u201d\u00a0In this way, Yoshida explained, Japanese creators moved away from the tendency of imitating what overseas studios were doing and strove to \u201ccreate based on their own culture and what they knew,\u201d realizing that gamers overseas understood their work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that the Japanese game industry revived after Nier, so much so that you could talk about pre-Nier and post-Nier eras. Simply put, I think that was the title that made everyone want to pursue Japanese-style games,\u201d Yoshida commented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over on X, Yoko Taro thanked Yoshida for the praise<\/a>, however, he noted that it was Nier: Automata\u2019s producer Yosuke Saito who \u201cordered\u201d him to make a game \u201cthat targets the Japanese market, without worrying about overseas reviews.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOr, to put it more precisely,\u201d Yoko Taro adds, \u201cI remember being told something like \u2018Yoko, you can\u2019t make games for overseas, so (at least) try to make it for Japan.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u306a\u3093\u304b\u98db\u3093\u3067\u304d\u305f\u306e\u3067\u3002\u30aa\u30fc\u30c8\u30de\u30bf\u3092\u8a55\u4fa1\u3057\u3066\u3044\u305f\u3060\u3044\u3066\u3044\u308b\u306e\u306f\u5149\u6804\u3067\u3059\u304c\u3001\u300c\u6d77\u5916\u8a55\u4fa1\u3092\u6c17\u306b\u305b\u305a\u65e5\u672c\u5411\u3051\u306b\u4f5c\u308c\u300d\u3068\u547d\u4ee4\u3057\u305f\u306e\u306f\u9f4a\u85e4\uff30\u3067\u3059\u3002

\u3082\u3046\u3061\u3087\u3063\u3068\u6b63\u78ba\u306b\u8a00\u3046\u306a\u3089\u300c\u30e8\u30b3\u30aa\u3055\u3093\u306f\u6d77\u5916\u5411\u3051\u306b\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u4f5c\u308b\u306e\u306f\u7121\u7406\u3060\u304b\u3089\uff08\u305b\u3081\u3066\uff09\u65e5\u672c\u5411\u3051\u306b\u9811\u5f35\u3063\u3066\u304f\u308c\u300d\u7684\u306a\u3053\u3068\u3092\u8a00\u308f\u308c\u305f\u3088\u3046\u306a\u8a18\u61b6\u3002 https:\/\/t.co\/kOr2BwjFSs<\/a><\/p>— yokotaro (@yokotaro) March 29, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>