Katsura Hashino, the legendary director behind many of the best Person games and JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio He says he avoids delving too deeply into negative feedback for the sake of his mental health.
talking to the side silent hill creator Keiichiro Toyama in a recent interview with Famitsu (translated by Automaton), the lead developer explains how detrimental criticism and social media can be to well-being, a fact I'm sure we can all relate to. Although the online world has made it easier for developers to learn what players think of their games, Katsura “tries not to be so conscious” of the feedback. However, he doesn't completely prevent it, “for example, immediately after launch.”
“It's not that I can adapt [the game] “I go by what I see,” Katsura describes. “When I need to look up something, I do it quickly in one go, because constantly looking at reactions is not good for your mental health.” When Toyama asks the Metaphor director if he never looks at himself, Katsura admits that in fact he doesn't, nor does he interact with social media at all: “I don't, and I don't use social media either.”
Not only is the developer uncomfortable online, but it also states that it is also not comfortable attending in-person promotional events for its games. However, director Toyama, who is working on the upcoming survival horror title, severed headHe says that he prefers to listen more actively to comments from fans to take any feedback into account if he finds it useful.
New metaphor: ReFantazio patch aims to resolve game-breaking progression bugs in the JRPG, with its PC release coming “at a later date”