Mt. Rushmore of Game Directors

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CartesianMan said:
2. Hideo Kojima - Pioneer of Cinematic Storytelling (like it or not Neil just build upon Uncharted 2 ideas.)
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Not sure this is true at all...

I remember cinematic storytelling as far back as Ninja Gaiden... and many things before Metal Gear Solid (or his earlier work on things like Snatchers).

I'm not sure if I'd even call him the father of modern cinematic storytelling.

He made A popular cinematic gaming and the follow ups to many of those have been pretty off the wall. His best bits are stuff he took from other media and when he's more original, he's not at his best.
 
A lot of producers suggested in the thread

Actual directors :

Swen Vincke - Divinity Original sin I & II + Baldur's Gate 3
Hidetaka Miyazaki - I mean fucking hell, do I need to say more?
Fumito Ueda - Ico, Shadow of the colossus, The last guardian
Hideki Kamiya - RE 2, DMC, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Bayonetta, Wonderful 101
 
I'm sorry. Gabe Newell what?! Game director? At best a producer...

The man was always the manager, the CEO.

The only westerners worthy of the game creator title for Mt.Rushmore is either Sid Meier or Will Wright.
 
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Arsic said:
Let's get one thing out of the way first: Why no Miyamoto!? He hasn't actually directed many games, and the best thing he truly directed is Mario 64.

With that out of the way then who are the 4 all time greatest directors and why?

For me it's :

Kojima (Self explanatory. He's THE director and a visionary at the craft)

Miyazaki (The modern man Kojima. Everything he touches and directs is gold)

Howard (Hate him or love him, Todd has been pushing open world narrative RPGs for us for a long time. Much of what he has done has paved the road for others to layer on.)

Mikami (Started resident evil. Loved evil within. He understands survival horror better than anyone. )

The 4th spot is a tough one. Inafune, Mikami, Sakaguchi, etc can go here but the issue is when you look at lists of actual directed games these visionaries aren't responsible for much compared to the top 3 on my list.
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Producer and director is somewhat different under Nintendo, a lot of the producer roles Miyamoto has had on games would be considered more like a director in the west.

When Nintendo directors get to a certain status, they become producers that oversea a certain francise. Like Aonuma. He is not directing games as we think of it, but is controlling and guiding the Zelda franchise. In the West, he would have been considered a director.

Producers under Nintendo are often managing creative while in the west its more project management.

One thing Miyamoto has over most other directors, is the different sort of games hes worked on. Most directors stick to certain genres. Miyamoto has done tons of different stuff.
 
Shinji Mikami

Hidetaka Miyazaki

Yoshinori Kitase

Yoko Taro

Shout outs to Takashi Tezuka, Cory Barlog, Hideki Kamiya, Fumito Ueda, Hideaki Itsuno and Yui Tanimura.
 
Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert are the most important to me: their games made me fall in love with gaming. The rest, no matter how influential, are not nearly as important.
 
Agree on Kojima, regardless of his stories being mostly gibberish they're always entertaining and unique experiences that no other studios can replicate.

Miyazaki is also a beast.

Miyamoto for obvious reasons.

Dan Houser and co have been upping their game with every Rockstar Games entry and RDR2 absolutely gets them a spot IMO.

And I love Todd Howard's games but I think I'll pick Fumito Ueda over him.
 
Tetsuya Takahashi is my #1.

Just look at his legendary resume:

Xenogears > Xenosaga > Xenosaga II > Xenosaga III > Xenoblade 1 > Xenoblade 2 > Xenoblade X > Xenoblade 3

*phew*

That's a lot of Xeno.
 
Arsic said:
Let's get one thing out of the way first: Why no Miyamoto!? He hasn't actually directed many games, and the best thing he truly directed is Mario 64.
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Miyamoto headed a team of directors that each handled different parts of Ocarina of Time. But when it progressed too slowly, Miyamoto got his hands dirty and assisted the development team himself to complete the game.

You should feel bad.
 
Sebastian1295 said:
I was doing some research and yoshinori kitase who's not well known has a case on the mount rushmore as well. He was a director on all these GOAT classics back in the day. Insanely impressive track record and then he kinda did the miyamoto thing and stopped directing games.

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Kitase would be my 4th then. I adore every game here to this day.
 
BlackTron said:
Miyamoto headed a team of directors that each handled different parts of Ocarina of Time. But when it progressed too slowly, Miyamoto got his hands dirty and assisted the development team himself to complete the game.

You should feel bad.
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I am not here to discredit the impact Miyamoto has on the industry. If anything he's the single greatest visionary for the industry, but not necessarily a director.

He's created some and most of my favorite characters or franchises. As a creative he's second to none.

But of the official HE full on directed games he has Mario 64 that I resonate with.

If he was in charge of all of ocarina of time from start to finish as the lead director? Then yeah he'd be on my list.
 
Arsic said:
I am not here to discredit the impact Miyamoto has on the industry. If anything he's the single greatest visionary for the industry, but not necessarily a director.

He's created some and most of my favorite characters or franchises. As a creative he's second to none.

But of the official HE full on directed games he has Mario 64 that I resonate with.

If he was in charge of all of ocarina of time from start to finish as the lead director? Then yeah he'd be on my list.
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You don't think that's splitting hairs a little bit? I mean, it's not like he was in charge of one section of OOT while the other directors had equal authority over their own areas.

All of OOTs directors reported to him. It was his game. But if that is your opinion, I won't litigate it lol
 
Hideo Kojima doesn't belong anywhere near this thing, whatever shape it takes. Dude's a hack, with a bizarre fandom hooked on copium.
MGS was good - not because of him, but in spite of him. The flagrant stupidity of everything post MGS1 was the result of unfettered Kojima and his ridiculous ego.
 
Arsic said:
Why no Miyamoto!? He hasn't actually directed many games, and the best thing he truly directed is Mario 64.
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In Japan they have different job titles and meanings around directing and producing. They don't translate directly to the Western counterparts. Miyamoto has certainly had more directoral input on hit games than anyone else on the planet!

Basically Miyamoto is the Statue of Liberty. Otherwise, great thread.
 
Op says no miyamoto he hasn't directed that much and really only MARIO64. That is a clown point of view. He is the greatest video game creator of all time. The Washington of video games. If you don't put him up there. Then why bother.

🤡🤡🤡
 
apple_of_enlightenment said:
In Japan they have different job titles and meanings around directing and producing. They don't translate directly to the Western counterparts. Miyamoto has certainly had more directoral input on hit games than anyone else on the planet!

Basically Miyamoto is the Statue of Liberty. Otherwise, great thread.
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I think I heard about this a long time ago that producer and director are reversed in Japan. Is there somewhere that confirms that?

If so it would rethink my whole list.
 
I can see Miyamoto up there.

I don't enjoy Kojima's game-movies, but I can appreciate his creativity and originality. I wouldn't want him up there personally, but I suppose we're trying to be objective here, so he's a contender - based on fame and adulation if nothing else.

I'd like to put Todd Howard up there, because I really loved Morrowind and Skyrim, but he really seems to have lost the magic over the past decade. Financial success does that to some people - but that counts you out as a great director.

I'm having trouble coming up with 4. Maybe if I'd been more a fan of Japanese games, I could come up with a full slate.

I don't suppose I get into the director-worship that some people do. The creative vision at the top is important, but making a videogame is a huge team endeavor, not the creation of one person. And I wince at a lot of the praise bestowed on some game directors, whose work seems incredibly overrated to me. But that's just my perspective.
 
Absolutely don't care about personalities behind games. Gamers have a strange obsession with idolising random people. From all of the names in the thread I only vaguely heard about that Miyamoto guy who copypasting souls games for the last 15 years.
 
Arsic said:
You high? He's the most involved director and made multiple of the best games ever made.

Metal gear solid 1 alone was insane for just the psycho mantis fight.
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Say the last great shit he ever did

Oh, I say for you: MGS 3, more than 20 years ago
 
Thief1987 said:
Absolutely don't care about personalities behind games. Gamers have a strange obsession with idolising random people. From all of the names in the thread I only vaguely heard about that Miyamoto guy who copypasting souls games for the last 15 years.
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Wait, what? I was with you up until that last sentence. Miyamoto is the guy behind Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda - kind of the opposite of Souls games.
 
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