"You're designing Final Fantasy XIV raids and remaking the original Nier now. What's changed for you since Nier: Automata?" That's a question I sent over to Yoko Taro via email through a PR rep and translator, hoping to get some insight on how his career has evolved since directing one of 2017's best games. And provide insight he did.

"I've always been stubborn, but once Automata became a hit, everyone began to say yes to my stubborn demands. Everyone may think that I became arrogant because I made a hit and got carried away--I'm upset because I've always been arrogant!"

For those unfamiliar, Yoko Taro kind of doesn't give a damn about professional norms in how he presents himself. You'll never catch him in the public eye without his Emil helmet on and you'll recognize his wild but inoffensive eccentricity as distinct from pretty much any other developer in the industry. In many ways, it's an attitude that's spilled into games he's worked on, typically designed with unconventional storytelling, melodrama, and sometimes crude irreverence. And if you're hyped up for the next thing from the creator of the Nier and Drakengard series, well, it actually just launched this week in the West.