Yoshiki Okamoto

, sometimes credited as Kihaji Okamoto, is a Japanese video game designer. He is credited with producing popular titles for Konami, including Gyruss and Time Pilot, and for Capcom, including 1942, Gun.Smoke, Final Fight and Street Fighter II. He later founded the companies Flagship and Game Republic, and then created the hit mobile games Dragon Hunter and Monster Strike for Mixi. He also played a role in the creation of Rockstar's Red Dead franchise. Several franchises he helped create are among the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, including Street Fighter, Monster Strike and Red Dead.

History Early career at Konami His early games Time Pilot (1982) and Gyruss (1983) innovated in the shoot 'em up genre during the golden age of arcade games. The Killer List of Videogames included both Gyruss and Time Pilot in its list of top 100 arcade games of all time. Although these games turned out to be successful titles for Konami, Okamoto's employer was not happy as apparently Okamoto had been told to create a driving game instead. Internal disagreements, financial and credible, caused his termination from Konami.

Career at Capcom Joining Capcom in 1983, Okamoto directed several arcade games such as 1942 (1984), SonSon (1984), and Side Arms (1986). His 1985 shoot 'em up Gun.Smoke later inspired a spiritual successor, Red Dead Revolver, the first installment of the Red Dead series.

The last game he directed was the 1989 CP System game Willow (1989). He would oversee the development of Capcoms subsequent arcade games as a producer and was responsible for recruiting character designer Akira Yasuda for Capcom. Okamoto and Yasuda developed some of Capcom's biggest hits, most notably the beat 'em up game Final Fight (1989) and fighting game Street Fighter II (1991). Street Fighter II is estimated to have grossed as of 2017, making it the third highest-grossing video game of all time, after Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

In 1996, Okamoto became Capcom's head of development and oversaw all their games, starting with Resident Evil. In 1997, he established Flagship, a subsidiary company of Capcom that specialized in creating stories for their games.

Okamoto approached Angel Studios with the idea for an original intellectual property entitled S.W.A.T. It later adopted a Western theme at Okamoto's recommendation, redefining the acronym as "Spaghetti Western Action Team". It was intended to be a spiritual successor to Gun.Smoke. Okamoto then left Capcom, Rockstar Games acquired the rights to Red Dead Revolver in December 2003 and resumed development, releasing it for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in May 2004.

In 2011, Game Republic also shut down due to debt, and a year later, Okamoto announced that he had retired from making console games and started working on mobile games.

Mixi In recent years, he created the mobile games Dragon Hunter and Monster Strike (2013) for Mixi. Dragon Hunter was a moderate success, before Monster Strike became a major hit, competing with Puzzle & Dragons for the top spot on mobile charts. By 2018, Monster Strike had grossed over $7.2 billion, surpassing Puzzle & Dragons to become the highest-grossing mobile app of all time.

Later years Okamoto became the chairman of the Japan Game Culture Foundation in November 2017, an organization which seeks to support young game creators. In 2018 he made the Malaysian game development company Okakichi. In November 2022 he was appointed as "game advisor" for the Whole Earth Foundation, a Japanese organization seeking to raise infrastructure maintenance awareness through a cryptocurrency smartphone game.

Since 2020 he has also made three YouTube channels which he uses to discuss various topics. His "YoshikiOkamotoGameCh" channel in particular looks back at his life as a video game designer for over 40 years, discussing experiences with past games he was involved in, his opinion on other games, and interviews with individuals related to game development. He also used this channel to announce his planned retirement in June 2027.

Influences and style Okamoto has said that he gets ideas from scenery from movies, citing particularly the works of Akira Kurosawa and Chinese ghost stories. He commented that "We don't make games for ourselves - I don't actually play games very much." Street Fighter II Turbo

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs The Punisher Super Street Fighter II

Super Street Fighter II Turbo Eco Fighters Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors Armored Warriors Director X-Men: Children of the Atom Producer

Street Fighter: The Movie Executive producer Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge

Marvel Super Heroes

Star Gladiator General producer Mega Man 8 Executive producer

Street Fighter III: New Generation

Battle Circuit Mega Man: Battle & Chase Executive producer Vampire Savior General producer Mega Man X4

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix Breath of Fire III Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact General producer

Resident Evil 2 Supervisor Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein Mega Man & Bass

Trick'N Snowboarder Power Stone Dino Crisis Supervisor The Misadventures of Tron Bonne Executive producer Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Supervisor Strider 2 General producer

Resident Evil - Code: Veronica Supervisor Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes

Breath of Fire IV Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Mega Man X5

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages One Piece Mansion

Capcom vs. SNK 2 Mega Man X6 Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Advisor

Auto Modellista Executive producer Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter Supervisor

Devil May Cry 2

Chaos Legion Group S Challenge 2005 Genji: Dawn of the Samurai Executive director

Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner Producer Brave Story: New Traveler

Genji: Days of the Blade 2007 Folklore 2008 Dragon Ball: Origins

Dragon Ball: Origins 2 Clash of the Titans

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom 2011 Knights Contract 2013 Monster Strike Game designer