“Sakurai is more like a Warrior of Light,” Yoko said. “I’m more like a necromancer. So we’re certainly different.” When I asked him to elaborate, he said he was “probably rotten from the core.”
“Do you really feel that way?” I asked.
“I was never really asked this, so I’ve never thought of it, but I do just have a negative outlook on things,” Yoko said. “I do have low self-confidence. I’ve always thought of myself as being old, chubby, bald, and I drink a lot, and I don’t have any girls. But this past year, my Twitter account passed 100,000 followers, and the game I directed exceeded 2.5 million sales, so when I look at those numbers, I think I could be considered a person who’s succeeded in life. But I still see myself as someone that hasn’t succeeded in life. When I thought of that, I thought I might be broken in some way.”
He continued, talking about the writing and directing work required on massive projects like Nier: Automata. “Director is a job you really need a lot of energy to do, and a lot of other great directors in the world live a very powerful life. They’re very confident in what they do, so they pursue what they want to do. But I don’t think any of my scenarios are good. I still believe that way. But I think that kind of negativity was good for me, because I keep constantly changing the scenario because I don’t think it’s good. I think that might have helped me to get through it. So that kind of dark power I think was something that was necessary for me, which other directors don’t have.”