The Grand List Of Video Game Writers

[Forsaken Lover]

This is a mild curiosity of mine. I was reading a topic on David Cage and a guy was on a whole rant about how he's one of the worst video game writers ever. The challenge was sort of thrown down to name other VG writers as they aren't typically well-known or discussed.

And here we are - I just want to try and compile a list of video game writers, good or bad, East or West. Any help at all be greatly appreciated. This way I hope video game writers can get more recognition just as they deserve.

Oh and one more important thing - this is not a ranking of quality. People seem to keep making this error... Yes, the writer of LOK being at the top and the writer of FFXIII being near the bottom is very fitting but it's honestly just a coincidence and caused by the fact I'm an LOK fan so she was the first name I contributed to the list.

The ones I've been able to gather so far:

(SPOILER)
1. Amy Hennig - Legacy of Kain, Uncharted

2. Hideo Kojima - Metal Gear

3. Tetsuya Takahashi - Xenogears, Xenosaga

4. Yasumi Matsuno - Final Fantasy Tactics and otehr games

5. Masato Kato - Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Baten Kaitos 1

6. David Cage - Heavy Rain

7. Kazushige Nojima - Final Fantasy VII, VIII & X

8. Shigesato Itoi - Mother Trilogy/Earthbound

9. Erik Wolpaw - Psychonauts, Portal 2

10. Chris Avellone - Knights of the Old Republic II, Planescape: Torment

11. Susan O'Connor - Bioshock 1 & 2

12. Rhianna Pratchett - Mirror's Edge, Heavenly Sword, Tomb Raider (reboot)

13. Neil Druckmann - The Last Of Us

14. David Gaider - Dragon Age Trilogy

15. Jane Jensen - Gabriel Knight, Gray Matter, Moebius

16. Roberta Williams - Phantasmagoria

17. Drew Karpyshyn - Mass Effect 1 and 2

18. R.A. Salvatore - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

19. Sam Lake - Alan Wake, Max Payne

20. Makoto Ikehara - Breath of Fire III & IV, Dragon's Dogma

21. Brian Mitsoda - Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines

22. Tim Schafer - Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle

23. Shu Takumi - Ace Attorney Trilogy, Ghost Trick

24. Enric Álvarez - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

25. Hiroyuki Ōwaku - Silent Hill 2 & 3

26. Lucien Soulban - Far Cry 3

27. Dan Houser - Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3

28. Jeffrey Yohalem -Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Child of Light

29. Corey May - Assassin's Creed series, Prince of Persia series

30. Greg Kasavin - Bastion

31. Hidetaka Suehiro - Deadly Premonition

32. Sean Vanaman - The Walking Dead, Tales of Monkey Island

33. Nick Breckon -The Walking Dead: Season Two

34. Pierre Shorette - The Wolf Among Us

35. Reiko Kodama - Phantasy Star

36. Jonathan Blow - Braid

37. Sohei Niikawa - Disgaea 1, 2 and 3

38. James Ohlen - Baldur's Gate 1 & 2

39. Ken Levine - Bioshock 1 & Infinite, System Shock 2

40. Jordan Thomas - Bioshock 2 & Infinite

41. Walt Williams - Spec Ops: The Line

42. Goichi Suda - No More Heroes, Killer7

43. Marc Laidlaw - Half-Life 1 & 2

44. Greg Kirkpatrick - Marathon Trilogy

45. Takumi Miyajima - Tales of Symphonia 1 & 2, Tales of the Abyss

46. Soraya Saga - Xenogears, Xenosaga, Soma Bringer

47. Yoshitaka Murayama - Suikoden 1, 2 & 3

48. Tadashi Satomi - SMT Persona 1 & 2, Digital Devil Saga

49. Kazuma Kaneko - SMT Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha 1 & 2

50. Yuichiro Tanaka - SMT Persona 3 & 4

51. Jason Jones - Myth 1 & 2

52. Robt Mclees - Myth 1 & 2

53. Doug Zartman - Myth: The Fallen Lords

54. Tuncer Deniz - Myth 2

55. Bob Settles - Myth 2

56. Jennifer Hepler - Dragon Age 2

57. Josh Sawyer - Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol

58. Jun Maeda - Clannad, Little Busters!

59. Daisuke Watanabe - Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy

60. Hiroki Chiba - Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

61. TJ Fixman - Ratchet & Clink

62. Masaki Norimoto - Valkyrie Profile 1 & 2, Star Ocean 1, 2 and 3

63. Matsuzo Itakura - Shadow Hearts

64. Yuji Horii - Dragon Quest series

65. Akihiro Hino - Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, Ni No Kuni

66. Kinoko Nasu - Fate/stay night

67. Katsura Hashino - SMT Persona 3 and 4

68. Noboru Sugimura - Resident Evil 2, 0, Onimusha 1, 2 and 3

69. Jason Scott - FreeSpace 2

70. Mike Breault - FreeSpace 2

71. David J. Williams - Homeworld

72. Ron Gilbert - Tales of Monkey Island

73. Michael Kirkbride - The Elder Scrolls

74. Mary DeMarle - Deus Ex Human Revolution

75. James Swallow: Deus Ex Human Revolution

76. Stan Liu - Fear Effect 1 & 2



Also should you spot any oversights or errors, please let me know. I haven't played most of these games and am dependent on input from others so if I have something wrong, I wouldn't know.

[Psychotic]

I am a huge god damn fanboy of Josh Sawyer, as is Laddy!

[Karifean]

My favorite video game writer is easily Jun Maeda. He's worked on Kanon, Air, Clannad and Little Busters!, the latter two being my favorite video game storylines and casts of characters to date.

[Pike]

Michael Kirkbride for writing all the best Elder Scrolls in-game lore books.

[Depression Moon]

I'm not really attached to any video game writers other than Sakaguchi who wrote FFIX. Kojima's work on MGS3 was great, but unfortunately I don't care for the story of any other games in the series.

I really want to be a writer in the industry as well and have for a long time, but not exactly sure how to get there.

[Wolf Kanno]

Kaori Tanaka a.k.a. Soraya Saga is another great author who penned the scripts for Final Fantasy VI, Xenogears, Xenosaga and Soma Bringer.

Yoshitaka Murayama worked on the scripts for the first three Suikoden games and the two Gaiden side stories starring Nash.

Tadashi Satomi wrote Persona 1 and 2, as well as being the co-author for Avatar Tunrer (Digital Devil Saga)

Kazuma Kaneko helped co-write the Raidou era Devil Summoner games as well.

Yuichiro Tanaka is the scenario writer for Persona 3 and 4.

[Forsaken Lover]

List updated - please feel free to look it over and let me know if you spot any oversight.s For example, I had been attributing the Tomb Raider reboot to Ms. O'Connor when it was really Ms. Pratchett who wrote it.

Thank you all for your help!

[Mirage]

i'm not sure how the writer of p3 and p4 ended up below the writer of tales of symphonia.

also, funny to see terry pratchett's daughter there

[Forsaken Lover]

It's just a list, not a ranking of quality. The fact Ms. Hennig is at the top and Watanabe is at the bottom is just a happy coincidence of me being a huge LOK fan so she was the first name I put down.

Believe me though, if I could rank this list, and just going off the games I actually know about, Roberta Williams would be at the very bottom.
Also if this was actually a ranking, I think a lot of people online would skin me alive for having Chris Avellone lower than Cage or Nojima.

And I heard Tales of Symphonia was really good....

[Slothy]

Believe me though, if I could rank this list, and just going off the games I actually know about, Roberta Williams would be at the very bottom.

Though shalt not speak ill of the designer of King's Quest titles.

[Ayen]

Only video game writer I know from this list is Hideo Kojima.

[Forsaken Lover]

Only video game writer I know from this list is Hideo Kojima.

Well that is kinda the point. Video game writers should be more well known and I'm making this thread on every forum i frequent in hopes of helping that awareness.

[Madame Adequate]

30. Greg Kasavin - Bastion

Huh, I had no idea!

I don't know too many writers beyond those you've listed but;

FreeSpace 2 - Jason Scott & Mike Breault
Homeworld - David J. Williams (Also a contributing writer on Homeworld 2)

[Wolf Kanno]

One thing I will point out about Japanese writers, is that often the story and characters are a collaborative process among the whole team. What this means is that just because the plot may seem terrible to you, it may not be the writer's fault as the part you may not like has to do with some input from the director and other team members. For example:

Daisuke Watanabe is one of the main writers of the Kingdom Heart's franchise, the only game he wasn't one of the main writers for was KH2. He also wrote the plot of FFXII and helped with the plot of FFXIII. In the case of XII, he was helping Matsuno write the plot but after Matsuno left, Watanabe was forced to try to tie up a story that mostly was in the head of Matsuno and also had to deal with a team that had conflicting views about where to take the story and characters. In XIII's case, he was asked to take Toriyama's rough script and make it workable. He allegedly only worked on the first eight chapters of the game and had to do several re-writes due to Toriyama's wishes.

In both cases, Watatnabe is listed as the main scenario writer but background information shows he wasn't necessarily the mastermind behind each script. Masato Kato was one of the writer's for Chrono Trigger but Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest creator and DQ's head writer) wrote out several sections of the game such as the opening with Marle disappearing in 600 A.D. because she accidentally changed history and erased her existence. Hence why time travel rules are a bit inconsistent because Kato wasn't consulted while he was writing out the later parts of the story. Sakaguchi has also had a strong hand in writing or at least putting his own stamp on the plot for the first nine games in the FF series even though he isn't always listed as being part of the writing team.

[Mirage]

It's just a list, not a ranking of quality. The fact Ms. Hennig is at the top and Watanabe is at the bottom is just a happy coincidence of me being a huge LOK fan so she was the first name I put down.

Believe me though, if I could rank this list, and just going off the games I actually know about, Roberta Williams would be at the very bottom.
Also if this was actually a ranking, I think a lot of people online would skin me alive for having Chris Avellone lower than Cage or Nojima.

And I heard Tales of Symphonia was really good....

Uh. it's a fun game, but I wouldn't say its story is its strong point. Although perhaps it's just the presentation of the story that isn't up to par.