History YMMV / TaroYoko

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A common complaint of his works. That being said though, [[TropesAreTools the sheer bleakness and darkness of Drakengard and NieR is what made them cult classics]].

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: His games are celebrated for their unusually dark, oppressive storylines and characters, but the games themselves usually suffer from technical problems and gameplay that ranges from tediously boring and broken at worst to serviceable at best. This is partly due to having a pretty poor budget for most of his games, as well as the lack of experience or talent of the staff working under him. Part of the reason that Platinum Games was brought on for ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' was to finally avert this, considering the developers' expertise in crafting action games.

* NIER AUTOMATA-SHIRT! NIER AUTOMATA T-SHIRT! NIER AUTOMATA T-SHIRT! [[BitingTheHandHumor S*HT SQUARE-ENIX!!!]] [[labelnote:Explanation]][[https://youtu.be/hhDL3Q86ofY A promotional video for the pre-order bonus t-shirt]] for Automata, where Yoko very suddenly pries the t-shirt from game designer Yasuhisa Taura's body and rolls on the floor holding it, while shouting the aforementioned.[[/labelnote]]

* MoneyDearBoy: Discussed. It's less that he'll do something he doesn't want to, as much as he doesn't mind editorial change and doing what his superiors tell him to. He's stated that if they ''don't'' tell him what to do however [[DoingItForTheArt he will experiment and do things they might not want him to, because they didn't ask.]]

** [[ItsWhatIDo Cause Yoko Taro]] [[labelnote:Explanation]]A usual response when talking about works where Yoko has been involved due to their often bizarre, tragic and often unpredictable nature.[[/labelnote]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: A common complaint of his works.

* MemeticMutation: The image of Yoko wearing the No. 6 mask during the 2015 Square-Enix press conference (during which the New Nier Project was announced) went viral, due to the majority of people (such as LetsPlay/ProJared) not being familiar with his ReclusiveArtist persona and finding it ''incredibly'' bizarre.

* GrowingTheBeard: Though the original Drakengard won its fanbase on the merits of its nihilistic, pitch black story and characters, many in the game's fanbase consider NieR to be an improvement writing-wise because it keeps things dark, oppressive and weird but has much more sympathetic (if still heavily flawed) characters and a RousseauWasRight view of humanity where most of the characters are fundamentally good or at least trying to do the right thing, but misunderstandings and tragic circumstances beyond their control force them to come into conflict.

* GrowingTheBeard: Though the original Drakengard won its fanbase on the merits of its nihilistic, pitch black story and characters, many in the game's fanbase consider NieR to be an improvement writing-wise because it keeps things dark, oppressive and weird but has much more sympathetic (if still heavily flawed) characters and a RosseauWasRight view of humanity where most people are fundamentally good but are forced to do terrible things due to misunderstandings or unfortunate circumstances.

* MemeticMutation: The image of Yoko wearing the No. 6 mask during the 2015 Square-Enix press conference (during which the New Nier Project was announced) went viral, due to the majority of people not being familiar with his ReclusiveArtist persona and finding it incredibly bizarre.
* PlayerPunch: Many of his games have subversive elements that are intended to make players uncomfortable and question the violent nature of video games that is often taken for granted, which frequently involves this. Most notable at ''Nier'' during several points, including [[spoiler:Fyra's death, the deaths of your entire party and every single important NPC in the game during the raid on the Shadowlord's Castle, and the reveal that you're a mass murderer and doomed humanity.]]

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: His games are celebrated for their unusually dark, oppressive storylines and characters (with ''Nier'' considered to be extremely well-written for a JRPG), but the games themselves usually suffer from technical problems and gameplay that ranges from tediously boring and broken at worst to serviceable at best. This is partly due to having a pretty poor budget for most of his games, as well as the lack of experience or talent of the staff working under him. Part of the reason that Platinum Games was brought on for ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' was to finally avert this, considering the developers' expertise in crafting action games.

* CreatorBacklash: He doesn't seem to hold the first ''Drakengard'' in very high regard. He's stated that the game turned out poorly because of cavia's inexperience with action games, combined with ExecutiveMeddling from Square-Enix forcing them to rush the game's release.

* TrollingCreator: In several ways, though in particular his games seem to loath completionists as many of the sidequests seem designed to make 100% completion as tedious and infuriating as possible. Not to mention the ending of ''Drakengard 1'' being one of the most infamous Joke Endings in video games.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: His games are celebrated for their unusually dark, oppressive storylines and characters (with ''Nier'' considered to be extremely well-written for a JRPG), but the games themselves usually suffer from technical problems and gameplay that ranges from tediously boring and broken at worst to serviceable at best. This is partly due to having a pretty poor budget for most of his games, as well as the lack of experience or talent of the staff working under him. Part of the reason that Platinum Games was brought on for VideoGame/NieRAutomata was to finally avert this, considering the developers' expertise in crafting action games.

* MagnumOpus: ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' is almost universally agreed to be the best thing he's worked on so far.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: His games are celebrated for their unusually dark, oppressive storylines and characters (with ''Nier'' considered to be extremely well-written for a JRPG), but the games themselves usually suffer from technical problems and gameplay that ranges from tediously boring and broken at worst to serviceable at best. This is partly due to having a pretty poor budget for most of his games, as well as the lack of experience or talent of the staff working under him.

* PlayerPunch: Many of his games have subversive elements that are intended to make players uncomfortable and question the violent nature of video games that is often taken for granted, which frequently involves this. Most notable at NieR during several points, including [[spoiler:Fyra's death, the deaths of your entire party and every single important NPC in the game during the raid on the Shadowlord's Castle, and the reveal that you're a mass murderer and doomed humanity.]]

* {{Applicability}}: [[http://gematsu.com/2015/06/nier-new-project-producer-director-talk-happy-coincidences-happy-endings In an interview about the sequel to Nier]], he states that he thinks the interpretations of what NieR's themes and messages are awesome, but that he personally wasn't working on the game with any particular themes in mind.

* PlayerPunch: Many of his games have subversive elements that are intended to make players uncomfortable and question the violent nature of video games that is often taken for granted, which frequently involves this. Most notable at NieR during several points, including [[spoiler: Fyra's death, the deaths of your entire party and every single important NPC in the game during the raid on the Shadowlord's Castle, and the reveal that you're a mass murderer and doomed humanity.]]

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: His games are celebrated for their unusually dark, oppressive storylines and characters (with Nier considered to be extremely well-written for a JRPG), but the games themselves usually suffer from technical problems and gameplay that ranges from tediously boring and broken at worst to serviceable at best. This is partly due to having a pretty poor budget for most of his games, as well as the lack of experience or talent of the staff working under him.
* MagnumOpus: NieR is almost universally agreed to be the best thing he's worked on so far.

MagnumOpus: NieR is almost universally agreed to be the best thing he's worked on so far.