Nier Automata’s Yoko Taro speaks out on crises in Gaza and Ukraine: “Looking back at 2023, the world was too cruel”

News
By published

In a sincere year-end letter

Nier Automata director Yoko Taro
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Nier Automata is a game about existential despair and searching for a reason to live in a meaningless world. But in the end, it’s also about finding that meaning and that humanity in each other. And in line with that message, director Yoko Taro has shared a sincere end-of-year letter to call for change in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s escalating attacks in Gaza. 

“Looking back at 2023, the world was too cruel, wasn’t it? The war in Ukraine hasn’t even ended, and a new war is starting in Gaza,” Taro writes in a statement published on 4Gamer, translated using machine learning. “According to UNICEF, more than 5,300 children died in 46 days.”

According to Gosokkyu’s more complete translation on co-host, the famed director mentioned feeling utterly useless when thinking back on these statistics, but in those dreary moments, he recalls a story from his youth when his friend would share advice about wooing girls. Essentially, his friend would say it’s a numbers game. If the success rate of asking someone out is 1% - you simply need to do it 100 times. 

In a pragmatic turn, Taro then tries to reframe those feelings of powerlessness into a similar probability game, calling on all readers to think about ways to address the ongoing crises - at least for a minute. Should thousands of people all commit some effort to ending the senseless violence, then Taro hopes these conflicts could come to an end. “If there are 100 people, that’s 100 minutes. If there are 1,000 people, that’s 1,000 minutes,” Taro says. “Someone might come up with an idea. That’s what I was thinking about today.”

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.