Sometimes one is all it takes
Masato Kato is a legendary influence in the world of video game RPGs, having worked on series like Final Fantasy and Xenogears, and the original Chrono Trigger. The gaming landscape might not be quite the same without his work, but he apparently didn’t always have the same reverence for the medium.
In a new interview, Kato looks back on his early days working in the games industry, and admits that he wasn’t a fan of them at all until Dragon Quest finally came along and changed his mind. In his younger days, he much preferred reading books, and thought playing video games was a waste of time. Fortunately for us, he eventually discovered a love for RPGs when he witnessed his sister playing Dragon Quest for the first time. The rest is history!
You can read some of Kato’s statements on learning to love video games below:
“Not only did I not play games at all, but I actually hated them.”
“From there, console and PC games grew popular. There were quite a few people who played games at my university, but… I basically just hated doing what everyone else was doing. Since people are so different from each other, I found it odd how everyone was suddenly singing praises to the same thing.”
“It was also a matter of productivity for me. As in, if I’m going to spend two hours playing a game, I can’t help but think about how many books I could read in that same amount of time. I was aware that games had their own value, but for me, reading was the top priority.”
“RPGs were completely different. In an RPG, the player becomes the protagonist and can live through the story themselves. Even if it’s technically just a linear path where you trigger events and follow a set route – the player can move around freely, choose to fight, run away, stay at an inn, and experience the story of saving the world. That concept really stunned me.”
[Masato Kato]
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