"Do you think it's cool to make people cry?" is what I came to Yoko Taro with when the interview started over our Zoom call. Of course, it was a cheeky way to let him know that the story of the recent reissue of Nier Replicant had me in my feelings. And with Yoko-san on the other end of the call as a virtual Kermit the Frog avatar that animated as he talked and gestured, how could we take things seriously? But he came back with an earnest answer.

"How should I put this...whenever a game comes out, the comments or the feedback that it receives is based not on the creator's perspective, but how the players interpreted it. I don't know if I'm able to say if that's a good thing or not!"

As I got into my next question about building Nier's sorrowful atmosphere, he prefaced by telling me, "Oh, I didn't realize you were kind of joking with that first question. I should have given you a more fun answer to that!"