Yoshiki Okamoto (岡本吉起 Okamoto Yoshiki) (born June 10, 1961 in Ehime Prefecture, Japan), sometimes mistakenly credited as Kihaji Okamoto, is a video game designer credited with producing many of Capcom's popular titles.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Later career 3 Miscellaneous Statements 4 External links

[edit] Early career

Okamoto's early games such as Gyruss and Time Pilot set new and innovative standards in the shoot 'em up genre during the golden age of arcade games. Although these games turned out to be successful titles for Konami, Okamoto's employer was not too happy as apparently Okamoto had been told to create a driving game instead. Internal disagreements, financial and credible, caused his termination from Konami.

Joining Capcom in 1984, Okamoto directed several arcade games such as 1942, SonSon , Gun.Smoke and Side Arms. The last game he directed was the 1988 CP System game Forgotten Worlds. He would oversee the development of Capcom's subsequent games as a producer and was responsible for recruiting character designer Akira Yasuda for Capcom, best known for his work on Final Fight and Street Fighter II.

[edit] Later career

Okamoto continued to develop video games for Capcom through Flagship, including Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan). Additionally, he produced the movie and its sequel. In 2003, he resigned from Capcom to form his own video game company.

In 2005, Okamoto's new independent game company, Game Republic, released its first game Genji: Dawn of the Samurai. Genji is a game set in Feudal Japan with a similar playing style to the Onimusha series. A sequel, Genji: Days of the Blade, was released on the PlayStation 3 in late 2006. A new Game Republic game called Folklore (Folkssoul in Japan) was released in 2007.

Okamoto also developed a typical party game called Every Party, which was a launch title for the Xbox 360 in Japan.

[edit] Miscellaneous Statements

• "It's not because you like games that you can make games. Frankly speaking, none of us four here like games." When Kenji Eno said: "I do like games", Okamoto immediately responded: "That's why you're the only second-class developer [of the four]". (At a roundtable discussion in Tokyo Game Show.)

[edit] External links

• Yoshiki Okamoto personal website
• Yoshiki Okamoto at MobyGames
• Yoshiki Okamoto at IMDB
• Game Republic homepage (Japanese)
• E3 2001: The Yoshiki Okamoto Interview, IGN
• Yoshiki Okamoto: The Clown Prince of Gaming , Gamers Today
• FAQ: Yoshiki Okamoto, EDGE