You might like Fallout 4. You might even love the latest mainline entry in the sci-fi RPG series. But you probably don't enjoy it as much as legendary Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Oshii, the man responsible for 1995's Ghost in the Shell and a laundry list of other movies, who's clocked an incredible 10,000 hours in the wasteland across PC and console.
That's what he revealed during an interview celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ghost in the Shell, as spotted by IGN Japan. In the conversation, when the subject turns to video games, he calls Fallout 4 his favorite, per machine translation, commenting that it ticks all of his boxes for the medium.
The VATS system plays no small role in this, since it slows down shooting, because he doesn't quite have the reflexes for the quickfire pace of shooters generally. That said, he poured 250 hours into prolific battle royale PUBG, eventually scoring himself a chicken dinner. That's difficult even if you've got good trigger-finger dexterity; I think he's underplaying his talents.
The longtime director has discussed his love of Bethesda's nuclear wasteland before, telling The Film Stage he's been playing Fallout 4 for eight years back in December 2025. In that interview, translated by Automaton, he went through his rules for venturing out of Vault 111, and they're very specific.
His only companion is Dogmeat and he will not partake in any exploits or glitches. Those are reasonable - sensible, even. No buffs or stats boosters of any kind. OK, now we're getting into hardcore territory. He does zero base-building, too.
Instead, Oshii essentially plays as an outlaw, wandering what's left of the United States. While he ignores the main objective, if the culprit who took his son and murdered his wife shows up, there's a hail of bullets waiting to greet them. The same fate awaits his child should they return as a baddie.
And he holds no allegiance to any of the factions. That's a pretty stringent way to enjoy the role-playing game, but I'm kind of tempted to try it. Oshii adds he figured he'd roleplay as a bloodthirsty scavenger for around a year before moving on. Instead, the game took almost a decade of his playing time. Bethesda can add this endorsement to the cavalcade of others the studio's trying to live up to for Fallout 5.
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