Kotaro Uchikoshi

Kotaro Uchikoshi
Native name 打越 鋼太郎
Born (1973-11-17) November 17, 1973
Higashimurayama, Tokyo, Japan
Nationality Japanese
Other names Hagane Tsukishio (槻潮 鋼 Tsukishio Hagane)[1] (pseudonym)
Occupation Game director, planner, scenario writer
Years active 1998–present
Employer KID (1998–2001)
Self-employed (2001–2007)
Chunsoft/Spike Chunsoft (2007–)
Notable work Infinity series
Zero Escape series

Kotaro Uchikoshi (Japanese: 打越 鋼太郎 Hepburn: Uchikoshi Kōtarō), born November 17, 1973, is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer. He is known for co-writing the visual novel series Infinity with its director Takumi Nakazawa while working for KID, and directing and writing the visual novel adventure game series Zero Escape at Chunsoft.

Biography

Uchikoshi was born on November 17, 1973, in Higashimurayama, a city in the western part of the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.[1][2] He studied management engineering at university, but dropped out. He spent one year without a job, after which he joined the vocational school Vantan Design Institute, where he studied video game planning, 3D modelling, 2D art, sound, and programming. Vantan had started out as a school for clothes design, and only branched into video game development later; according to Uchikoshi, the level of the teachers wasn't very high because of this, leading to uninteresting courses and many students dropping out. Eventually, only Uchikoshi and a few others attended classes, which resulted in the teachers being able to better focus and taking care of the smaller group of students who still attended; because of this, Uchikoshi says that he and the other remaining students were able to achieve a higher level of proficiency.[2]

Career

Uchikoshi's first job was at the video game developer KID.

Uchikoshi's first job was in 1998 at the video game developer KID. They produced visual novels, as well as video game versions of board games,[2] such as The Game of Life for the PlayStation; he originally wanted to work there because of these board game projects, as he was interested in making simple games that a lot of people would be able to enjoy.[3] His first project at KID was the action game Pepsiman, which he made 3D models for. He was originally supposed to be a planner for KID's video game versions of board games,[2] but at some point, the producer at KID asked him to write a scenario for a game. According to Uchikoshi, he thinks the reason the producer thought he would be a good scenario writer was because he had seen him writing things such as design documents, and because of Uchikoshi's personality; Uchikoshi describes himself as a not very serious kind of person, which he thinks could have been the main reason he was asked to write scenarios.[3] The first visual novel he worked on was Memories Off, followed by Never 7: The End of Infinity, which was the first in the Infinity series, and Memories Off 2nd.[2]

In 2001, he left KID and became a freelance writer and developer;[2][4] he did this because he wanted independence, and the ability to work for other companies besides KID. During this time he wrote the second and third Infinity titles, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity and Remember 11: The Age of Infinity, as well as work for two erotic visual novels, the first being a 2003 game which he was uncredited for and whose title he says he does not remember, and the second being the 2006 game Eve: New Generation.[2] He started doing work for the video game developer Chunsoft in 2004, after they contacted him and asked him to write visual novels for them. According to Chunsoft, they had found success in visual novels, but wanted to "create a new category" that could be received more broadly.[3] He stopped freelancing in 2007, because he had a wife and a daughter at this point and wanted a stable income, and joined Chunsoft.[5][2] There, he planned, wrote, and directed the visual novel-adventure game hybrid series Zero Escape, which consists of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for Nintendo DS, and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.[4] The third game in the series, Zero Time Dilemma, was put on hold indefinitely due to low Japanese sales for the previous two games,[6] but in 2015, the project was announced to have been resumed.[7] In November 2014, it was announced that Uchikoshi was the writer for the TV anime series Punch Line,[8] which premiered on April 9, 2015, on Fuji TV's Noitamina block.[9] He is also working on a video game based on Punch Line, which features different endings from the anime.[10]

Accolades

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward received widespread acclaim, winning Gamespot's "Handheld Game of the Year" award for 2012,[11] and IGN's "Best of 2012 Best 3DS/DS story" award.[12]

Works

Video games

Year Game title Role
1999 Pepsiman 3D modeller[2]
1999 Memories Off Planner, scenario writer[2]
2000 Never 7: The End of Infinity Planner, scenario writer[2]
2000 Memories Off 2nd Planner, scenario writer[2]
2001 Close To: Inori no Oka Scenario writer[13]
2002 Ever 17: The Out of Infinity Planner, scenario writer[2]
2003 Unknown erotic visual novel Scenario writer[2]
2004 Remember 11: The Age of Infinity Planner, scenario writer[2]
2006 Eve: New Generation Planner, scenario writer[2]
2006 Kamaitachi no Yoru Niwango-ban Scenario writer[2]
2008 12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral Planner, scenario writer[2]
2010 Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Planner, director, scenario writer[2]
2012 Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Planner, director, scenario writer[2]
2013 Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram Scenario writer for one scenario[2]
2015 Punch Line[10]
2016 Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma[14] Planner, director, scenario writer

Anime

Manga

References

  1. 1 2 Uchikoshi, Kotaro (May 2, 1998). "プロフィール". Mechb.net. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Szczepaniak, John (August 11, 2014). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers 1. SMG Szczepaniak. pp. 298–313. ISBN 978-0992926007.
  3. 1 2 3 Parish, Jeremy (February 13, 2014). "Inside the Genesis of Virtue's Last Reward and the Challenges of Visual Novels". USgamer. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Nutt, Christian (January 11, 2013). "The Storytelling Secrets of Virtue's Last Reward". Gamasutra. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ Spencer (September 3, 2010). "999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors Interview Gets Philosophical, Then Personal". Siliconera. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ Smith, Carly (February 14, 2014). "Zero Escape Conclusion Put on Hold Indefinitely". The Escapist. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ http://www.polygon.com/2015/7/6/8900867/zero-escape-3-nintendo-3ds-playstation-vita
  8. ↑ "Noitamina announces Punch Line original anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
  9. 1 2 "Crunchyroll to Stream Noitamina's Punch Line Anime". Anime News Network. Anime News Network. 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  10. 1 2 "【先出し週刊ファミ通】ゲーム版『パンチライン』PS Vita、PS4で発売決定！　テレビアニメ版とは異なる結末に！？（2015年6月25日発売号）". Famitsu. June 23, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Gamespot: Handheld Game of the Year: The Winner"
  12. ↑ "IGN: Best 3DS/DS Story - Best of 2012"
  13. ↑ http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20110929_480434.html
  14. ↑ Hannley, Steve (2015-10-30). "Zero Escape 3 Officially Titled ‘Zero Time Dilemma,’ Logo and Concept Art Released". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 2015-10-30. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
  15. ↑ "Punch Line TV Anime Gets Manga This Fall". Anime News Network. August 8, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2015.

External links

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