Yokoo Taro: Neil: Age of Mechanism and everything is influenced by Evangelion

2025-04-29 22:00:32|Myriagame |source：minecraft skins

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the "Neil" series, SE officially interviewed the series creative director Taro Yokoo and producer Yosuke Saito, and shared some memories behind creating these unforgettable games.

When asked, “What inspired you to make Neil: Age of Machinery?” Taro Yokoo replied, “That was definitely Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, everything I did was influenced by Evangelion.”

Interview with other questions:

What inspired you to create the first Neil game?

Yosuke Saito (producer of the "Neil" series): "The Cavalry on the Dragon Back" has not received good response after the release, but I thought to myself that it would be a pity if a genius like Taro Yoko was always unknown.

So I talked with Mr. Iwasaki Satoya (who is now at ILCA) of the developer Cavia and we decided to launch Neil as a new project.

One thing I like about this game is its clever use of the genre.For example, it is a third-person action game at a moment, and then it becomes a text adventure game.Why do you use this method?

Yokoo Taro (Creative Director of the Neil Series): I'm tired of the kind of games that I know how I will play for only 20 minutes, so I think it would be nice to incorporate some other types of games.

What are your best memories when creating Neil?

Yokoo Taro: I remember the senior executives of SE's US office kept telling me: "Make the protagonist's torso bigger! I said, bigger!"

Yosuke Saito: Mr. Yokoo has been hiding from me that the game will delete the archive, but other members of the team secretly revealed this matter.My best memory is probably choosing not to think about this."It's okay!" I said, "This may be just a tribute to Dragon Quest!"

Although obviously this is not a tribute to Dragon Quest (laughs).

What was the most challenging thing about creating the first Neil game? How did you overcome this challenge?

Yosuke Saito: It took a long time to develop the game engine.We spent more than a year creating the room of Hansel and Grett in the Lost Shrine, and we had to listen to the songs of the Blue Birds, but on the surface it seemed that the development work was not progressing.

It was a pretty stressful process.I asked myself many times if I should give up on development.

Yokoo Taro: I found the most difficult things are those things that I can’t discuss with others…

Is there a moment or character in the game that you particularly like?

Yokoo Taro: That must be the story of King of Facade and Fyra.

I wrote their stories earlier.I originally wanted to write the story of the protagonist, but Fyra died halfway through the writing, so I remember later changing it to the story of the supporting role.

Yosuke Saito: That must be the story of Devola and Popola.My favorite scene is the heartbreaking cry of gentle Bobola.

The game was an impressive remake in NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...Why re-launch this game?

Yosuke Saito: The main reason is that Neil: Age of Mechanism has been successful, and there are still some people who have never played Neil.

I know there are definitely a lot of people outside of Japan who have never experienced the Brother and Sister version of Neil, so I really hope they can play it.

We can't help but ask - the number 1.22474487139... What does it mean?

Yokoo Taro: If we call it "Ver.2", people would think it was a remake or something like that, so we used a milder number to show that it was just a remake.

My grandma always tells me that being modest is the key to winning others’ likes.(She didn't tell me.)

So, where did the idea of ​​making a game with the theme of "Robots vs. Robots" come from?

Yokoo Taro: When we created Neil, we decided to set it in a world where humans were already extinct, so we were forced to come up with a story that didn’t involve humans.

This made me feel that maybe I shouldn't have eliminated humanity so easily.

How many endings does the game have—where did this idea come from?

Yokoo Taro: This is the idea we learned from "The Cavalry on the Dragon's Back".The reason we did this is because SE told us to "add more!"

What have you learned in this project?

Yosuke Saito: The main thing I learned is that there is a firm vision for the final product from the early stages of development and pre-production, which has a great impact on the formation of the final product.

This seems obvious, but I remembered that games that derailed in the early stages of development would have biased during development and would not be very smooth.

Yokoo Taro: A lot of people quit this project, which made me painfully realize that I was not attractive at all.

What are your biggest challenges in Neil: Age of Mechanics? How did you overcome them?

Yokoo Taro: I encountered some different challenges during the development process, and I have thought about giving up many times.

But the biggest challenge for me is that although I didn’t sign any contracts for specific hours, I was told I needed to get to the office every day at 10am and I was nearly fired because I kept ignoring this instruction.But I never went in at 10 am.

Yosuke Saito: Maybe during the development process, when Mr. Yokoo seemed to be giving up, I stopped him with force (?).I'm very glad I persevered (laughs).

Speaking of Neil: The Mechanical Age, what are you most proud of?

Yokoo Taro: I want to introduce Mr. Takahiro Taura, a senior game designer.

Yosuke Saito: Maybe it's because although the first "Neil" wasn't necessarily a successful work, I was determined to bring the series to the world again and eventually be able to start the project.

I'm glad I finally succeeded.If it didn't work, I might have to leave Square Enix.

Or rather, I would be forced to quit.

When did you realize that Neil: Age of Mechanism has such a passionate fan base?

Yokoo Taro: During the period of "The Cavalry on the Dragon Back", some people can be said to be enthusiastic fans.I'm very grateful to them.

I feel that as Neil: Age of Machinery sales increase, so does its fan base.

Yosuke Saito: I think it was when we were holding concerts around the world that I heard the audience cheering and thought, “Wow, is anyone really so enthusiastic about this?”

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