Yoko Taro | |
|---|---|
横尾 太郎 | |
 Yoko wearing his familiar mask in 2018 | |
| Born | June 6, 1970 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Alma mater | Kobe Design University |
| Occupation(s) | Video game director, writer |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Notable work | |
| Title | President and CEO of Bukkoro |
| Spouse | Yoko Yukiko[1] |
| Website | bukkoro.com |
Yoko Taro (横尾 太郎, Yokoo Tarō, born June 6, 1970) is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer. Starting his career at the now defunct game developer Cavia, his best-known work is on the action role-playing video game series Drakengard, and its spin-offs, Nier and Nier: Automata. Yoko was born in Nagoya, Aichi, and studied at the Kobe Design University in the 1990s. While he did not initially intend 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 extensively on every game in the series (except Drakengard 2), and on mobile titles after becoming a freelancer following Cavia's absorption into AQ Interactive.
Critics have noted Yoko's unconventional game design and writing style. One of the main aspects of his work is exploring the darker aspects of humanity, such as why they are motivated to kill each other, although he typically does not share a 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 backward from that point. Due to his disdain for being photographed, he generally wears a mask when giving interviews or presenting games.