Writing Yoko Taro

Daitengu

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You mean around an emotional theme? Yes. Song of the Void on RR has an overall theme of loss and had people deal with it.
 

Asami_Shirogane

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As long as you're able to tie symbolism philosophical and psychological concepts into an beautifully written novel. Then I don't see why not.
 
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LostLibrarian

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Can Yoko Taro's way of making stories for games be applied for novels and stuff?
Is there anything special about his way of making stories? I only skimmed through that talk but all I saw are writing techniques that are known for hundreds of years... can you point me towards the special stuff? Sounds interesting...
 

Daitengu

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Is there anything special about his way of making stories? I only skimmed through that talk but all I saw are writing techniques that are known for hundreds of years... can you point me towards the special stuff? Sounds interesting...
He tends to have philosopher references. And a directed effort for all the side stuff to also relate to the main emotion theme of the game in some way. Which is unusual for a game.

Yoko taro has a habit of putting story over hours played. Unlike most rpgs in general.

Basically he's a writer who makes games, instead of getting bogged down by "industry standards".
 

maum.2412

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Drakengard (Nier prequel) already have few novel. Nier:Automata already get stage play. So yes, you just need adaptation skill to cover original media weaknesses.
 

Daitengu

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Yeah, but we are talking about writing not gamedesign...
You asked about what he does that is "special". I answered. You can't accuse me of being off topic when the guy writes the stories for games and not novels.

With some critical thinking, applying what he does to writing is doable. The trick is using the emotion theme with side characters to flesh out the world. Lots of Taro's characters die or grow/change in such a way to thematically fit the overall story. Don't go all "oh shiny" when a new idea pops up. I've seen several authors here just wander around from idea to idea and not link them to a coherent whole.


Neir replicant's theme is hopelessness. If you played the game you would see exactly how he does it. And how everyone, even side mission characters, are dealing with it in different ways.

Compare that to the Dune series. Frank's books have a theme to them. Where as the post mortem books eventually breaks that theme and goes off into an AI tangent.
 

Echimera

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You asked about what he does that is "special". I answered. You can't accuse me of being off topic when the guy writes the stories for games and not novels.

With some critical thinking, applying what he does to writing is doable. The trick is using the emotion theme with side characters to flesh out the world. Lots of Taro's characters die or grow/change in such a way to thematically fit the overall story. Don't go all "oh shiny" when a new idea pops up. I've seen several authors here just wander around from idea to idea and not link them to a coherent whole.


Neir replicant's theme is hopelessness. If you played the game you would see exactly how he does it. And how everyone, even side mission characters, are dealing with it in different ways.

Compare that to the Dune series. Frank's books have a theme to them. Where as the post mortem books eventually breaks that theme and goes off into an AI tangent.
That's the thing. This is uncommon in game design, but nothing you brought up is some new invention for storytelling in general.
People have been telling stories for thousands of years, so hardly anything truly new ever gets added to the toolkit.
 

Daitengu

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That's the thing. This is uncommon in game design, but nothing you brought up is some new invention for storytelling in general.
People have been telling stories for thousands of years, so hardly anything truly new ever gets added to the toolkit.

We're on scribblehub. It's an amateur writing site. Often with people who have English as a second language.

I would not presume everyone knows how to write a story properly. Nor in all the various ways ones could go about it.
 

LostLibrarian

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You asked about what he does that is "special". I answered. You can't accuse me of being off topic when the guy writes the stories for games and not novels.
I asked what is special about him "making stories" not "making games", after the OP asked whether this style of "making stories" can be used for novels. The remaining part of my question was also about "writing techniques" not "game design"... so yeah.

But even then, I don't get why you feel the need to be so defensive. I asked something, you read something different in my question, I just said that this wasn't the answer I was looking for based on the topic. I never questioned your insight into gamedesign, nor the overall quality of the game's stories... the guy is probably a way better writer than I'll ever be.

So yeah, good for you for expanding on the stuff. And those are important points every writer should keep in mind if they write certain kinds of stories. I know these points and try (and often fail) to follow them. But as far as writing techniques for novels overall, I didn't see something new/special in there. Even if he uses it outside the box in a different medium and applies it really well.
 

Daitengu

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I asked what is special about him "making stories" not "making games", after the OP asked whether this style of "making stories" can be used for novels. The remaining part of my question was also about "writing techniques" not "game design"... so yeah.

But even then, I don't get why you feel the need to be so defensive. I asked something, you read something different in my question, I just said that this wasn't the answer I was looking for based on the topic. I never questioned your insight into gamedesign, nor the overall quality of the game's stories... the guy is probably a way better writer than I'll ever be.

So yeah, good for you for expanding on the stuff. And those are important points every writer should keep in mind if they write certain kinds of stories. I know these points and try (and often fail) to follow them. But as far as writing techniques for novels overall, I didn't see something new/special in there. Even if he uses it outside the box in a different medium and applies it really well.
Hmm. I dunno what to tell you. "Special" is so vague. All I can tell you is what he did, and you judge it.

He's unusually bold for his society while also being guarded enough to wear a mask. He picks very human themes while putting them through non human characters. He doesn't stick to heavy trope use that is often seen with pop fic in Japan. Which makes his games "special" compared to others. And the same can be applied to the stories of his games when compared to JP pop fic.

Context really matters to "special" cause technically there is nothing special. Though the fact he was able to go against pop culture and conventional game industry, to have a Greek tragedy instead of a generic pop fic based story is special.

It's like reading a bunch of JP light novels and pop fic like Harry Potter then suddenly getting hit with Moby Dick.

To that train of thought the one special thing he did in his works is wrap up his classical stories in a JP pop culture looking package.
 
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Temple

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I think one thing to keep in mind is that his games are fan servicey. And since we're talking about web novel writing, especially we're in scribblehub, fan service is needed to shine. His stories have deeper meaning than usual (or is needed) in games. Most people won't dig that deep because they're busy looking at 2B's ass. This is just the reality of it, and that also applies to web novel writing. If there is no fan service in his games, it'll be rather a hidden niche, more a cult classic, than enjoy the popularity they have now.

I'm not discounting his writing by the way. Just saying that you have to take into account marketing. Let's take RoyalRoad, you may have written the deepest most meaningful shit ever but it doesn't have the usual tropes, then your story will just be buried. Only a few people will go out of their way to check it. Write litrpg + tropes + deep shit, and people will praise you.

So yeah, this is in answer to the question original question if it's applicable to novels. I take it that you meant web novels specifically.Web novel readers have even less tendency to dig deep into a web novel, so I'm not sure if it'll be worth the effort.
 

Venusaur26

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Can Yoko Taro's way of making stories for games be applied for novels and stuff?
No! The type of writing I’m referring to is what he calls “reverse writing”, where he thinks of an emotion first, then so on
 

SakeVision

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Can Yoko Taro's way of making stories for games be applied for novels and stuff?

anything can work if you're brave enough
Is there anything special about his way of making stories? I only skimmed through that talk but all I saw are writing techniques that are known for hundreds of years... can you point me towards the special stuff? Sounds interesting...

nothing special, it's just a famous name that people flock to. Like "writing advice from Stephen King", no one cares about actual advice, it's only important it's from Stephen King.
 
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