Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio director “tries not to be that conscious” of feedback, as “looking at reactions isn’t good for your mental health”
Katsura Hashino, the legendary director behind many of the best Persona games and JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio says he avoids delving too deep into negative feedback for the sake of his mental health.
Speaking alongside 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 wellbeing – a fact I’m certain we can all relate to. Although the online world has made it easier for devs to learn what players think of their games, Katsura “tries not to be that conscious” of feedback. He doesn’t avoid it altogether, however, “such as right after launch.”
“It’s not like I can adjust [the game] based on what I see,” describes Katsura. “When I need to look something up, I do it quickly in one go, because constantly looking at reactions isn’t good for your mental health.” When Toyama asks the Metaphor director whether he ever looks himself up, Katsura admits that he indeed doesn’t – nor does he engage with social media at all: “I don’t, and I don’t use social media either.”
Not only does the dev feel uncomfortable online, he also states that he doesn’t feel comfortable while attending in-person promotional events for his games, either. However, fellow director Toyama, who’s working on upcoming survival horror title Slitterhead, says that he prefers to more actively listen to fan feedback so as to take any comments on board if he finds them useful.