Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Japanese video game director and writer Kotaro Uchikoshi discussed with Arab News Japan his inspiration behind creating various video game series, such as ‘Zero Escape’ and ‘Punchline’ as well as career challenges.

Born in 1973, Uchikoshi is known for creating narrative science fiction games with heavy plots. He started his career in the gaming industry in 1998. In 2017, he became one of the founders of the game development company Too Kyo Games.

Uchikoshi told Arab News Japan exclusively that it is difficult to pinpoint the exact thing that got him interested in video games “I felt that (narrative) games had great potential as media for (their) interesting stories. My favorite game is Nier: Automata.”

The video game writer shared that he gained inspiration from the American film director, producer, and writer Stanley Kubrick, who is known for making iconic movies such as ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ “His films violently snatched away the shell of the world that I had been carefully keeping warm and destroyed it by throwing it against the wall,” Uchikoshi shared.

Uchikoshi is known for creating the ‘Zero Escape’ video game series, which follows a group of people as they play a death game to escape from being kidnapped by a group of individuals called Zero.

“Various staff members cried during the development of the series,” he said. “I think that’s how serious everyone was about this work, and they put their whole heart and soul into it.”

Moreover, when Uchikoshi created the adventure video game ‘Punch Line’, he shared that he felt like he was going to get fired from his job since his pervious game ‘Virtue’s Last Reward’ did not perform well. “My daughter was only 4 years old at the time. I couldn’t afford to lose my job so, I decided to make a simple game that even my boss could understand, and I came up with ‘Punch line.’”

Simultaneously, Virtue’s Last Reward achieved great success outside of Japan.

About the challenges that he faced during his career, Uchikoshi said “There is no game that I enjoyed while I was working on it. There is only pain, suffering, despair, and fear during production. When the game is completed, released, and we hear feedback from the players, we feel joy for the first time; therefore, the fans who play our games and tell us that they enjoyed them are like angels to me. They rescue us from the depths of hell. I am truly grateful for that.”

About his recommendations for those who want to work in the video game industry, Uchikoshi said “It’s a constant process of joy and sorrow day after day. It’s not always fun, in fact, it’s more of a pain. We don’t make much money, either. You can’t go to the beach or go to a barbecue on the weekends. If you are okay with that… then you may be good to enter this world. Good luck.”

Uchikoshi is looking forward to visit the Middle East one day as he is very interested in the culture.