Uchikoshi Kotaro's writing style analysis

[bilguun alix]

I’ve realized that I actually experienced a lot of stories written by Uchikoshi. So I thought that I should share my thoughts on his works and analyze  his abilities as a writer. I have played   Never7( 40%), Ever 17 (20 % probably), ZE franchise (100%) and watched Punchline(100%).

Pros       

Good characterization

One of the reasons I think ZE franchise is better than danganronpa is because the characters feel a lot realistic and their personalities are rich. You can never explain the character’s personality with few simple words because they act differently in different situations.  Now of course there are some exceptions to this. But you get the general feeling that most of the characters are human.

Well informed and knowledgeable about scientific theories and facts

Probably one of the biggest reasons why 999 and VLR surprised me immensely when I first played it. Uchikoshi was backing up the supernatural elements with many interesting scientific phenomenon and it was amazing. I have never witnessed these kinds of stories at the time. ZTD and  Punchline doesn’t have them but hey you can’t spam everything you know about science into everything you create.   

Knows about human behavior action/reaction.

Especially in 999 and VLR you could notice that the character’s behaviors fit well with their personality and during a murder investigation and solving puzzles they had the least amount of  out of character moments. The reason I didn’t say he knew very well is because of ZTD’s Yandere Akane. Why oh god why would you do that?

Good at handling mood shifts

Stuffing tons of jokes in a horrible death game that toys with human life without breaking the immersion  and destroying the atmosphere does take skill.  In ZTD you could see that the jokes and funny character interaction happening at the start of the game. However when the game gets series those moments are completely cut down. The same with the other games.     

 

Amazingly good at foreshadowing and misguiding.

His second strongest asset of writing. Things such as 9^th man yelling “he killed me” or Phi shouting “Grandpa” truly did surprised me when I replayed the games. Even in Punchline you could see in the first episode that there was tons of foreshadowing

But sadly  the good parts end here. Now onto the bad parts.

Cons

Fan service and fetishes     

Dancer fetish in 999, Egyption fetish in VLR, Hooker fetish in ZTD and VLR(Clover). Pucnhline is a disgusting ecchi bullshit.  Never 7 and Ever 17 are date simulators. Being a man means being horny but at least respect the players and the characters will ya. And this problem gets bigger when you notice that the fan service characters end up being the least developed. 

Little attention to world building and society

As you all know most of zero escape’s plot revolves around death games. But we need to see what is happening outside of the death games. How did the world react to the kidnapping and death of the Cradle P’s  leaders? What kind of technology they use in 2027? How did the radical 6 tragedy play out? So on and so on. These are important stuff.      

Poor attention to character backstory

Uchikoshi has this weird belief that he has to show the players only what happens in the present. Never show what happened in the past. Only talk what happened in the past. From what I know the three characters that suffered from this the most are Akane, Sigma and Junpei in ZTD. Junpei got a character development off screen! You could even make a series about Junpei and his thug life.

Sigma spent 45 years preparing for ZTD yet he feels so naïve and uninformed. What kind of training was he been through? What type of mindset he had when he created the events of VLR.

Akane is probably the most vaguely written character in the entire series. If Akane is your favorite character then why won’t you show how she became so rich and powerful. Show us what she has been through and what was in her mind during 999. Instead we got ZTD Akane which is June disguised as Akane. BULLSHIT.     

Punchline is even worse. A villain’s backstory is glossed over. Why do you have to do this?  

Shock effect and plot twists over consistency

Uchikoshi is a dreamer. He dreams of making the impossible possible and his stories suffer a lot because of it. You can’t excuse a person not being able to notice that he is an old man. Nor you can excuse a person being out of screen the whole time. Because that’s impossible to excuse and will only contradict what you have built so far. Plot twists in ZE serve as cheap shock effect. And the shock effect comes with a price of tons of contradictions.        

Addiction to time travel

By far the greatest problem I have with Uchikoshi’s story. All of his works I MEAN all of them are related to time travel. Why oh why would you keep doing this? I know he is a hardcore science fan boy but timetravel is the one thing that can fuck up any story with ease. And all of ZE’s masterminds have motivations that has to do with time travel. I posted a while ago about the biggest plot hole in all 3 zero escape games and this was it. And come on, If you had free will to travel through time you could accomplish anything. It literally ruins the conflict. Besides it’s useless to try changing anything when there are infinite timelines.

On top of all that time travel promotes ESCAPISM. Yeah man just escape to a different  reality leaving your loved ones behind and cheat in life by reseting your mistakes. Cancerous themes… speaking of themes             

Lack of theme exploration     

This is the reason why I never think Uchikoshi highly anymore. I love Hideaki Anno who created Neon genesis Evangelion and Yuasa Masaki who created Tatmi Galaxy( anime). The themes about, anti escapism, self worth, regret, human connection, and  the meaning of life is amazing.  Uchikoshi doesn’t do that. The concept of time travel, 4^th dimension, morphogenetic connection are NOT themes. Those are just cool brainstorming ideas that has nothing to do with our life. 

Themes are like direct but immensely detailed advices. They change the way you percieve  life.  His stories on the other hand are like a puzzle game. Once you finish playing it it loses it’s value. It’s fun and exciting alright but it never changes your mentality. You feel like you changed but that’s because of the emotional roller coaster. Those are just after effect of the shock and will fade away. 

Verdict

Overall Uchikoshi does have potential as a writer. But you see, he never takes his job seriously. This is why despite my fondness of his ideas and death games. Despite my love for his iconic scenes and characters I still don’t rate him highly. There is a reason why the world’s most highly claimed writers seldom use time travel and crazy twists in their story. They focus on character mentality, consistency, theme exploration more. And this is why Uchikoshi is inferior to them.         

 

        

[Funyarinpa]

I agree with all of your positive points! Following includes spoilers for all of Zero Escape.

1 hour ago, bilguun alix said:

Fan service and fetishes     

Dancer fetish in 999, Egyption fetish in VLR, Hooker fetish in ZTD and VLR(Clover). Pucnhline is a disgusting ecchi bullshit.  Never 7 and Ever 17 are date simulators. Being a man means being horny but at least respect the players and the characters will ya. And this problem gets bigger when you notice that the fan service characters end up being the least developed. 

For VLR, you have a point. Although for Lotus (she's fucking AWESOME), I would disagree. I'd practically forgotten Punchline existed, it's shit. At least it is never at the point where it's actively pandering (perhaps save for Sigma's drivel in the first half of VLR...). I find it relatively inoffensive but it does suck that those characters are always duds. You're also a bit wrong on the N7 and E17 counts. Hell, between those two games I only recall, like, three kissing scenes and no explicit sex scenes. Romance isn't much beyond the protagonist starting to care about one of the girls more than the other in Uchikoshi's works so I don't think there's much to complain there either.

1 hour ago, bilguun alix said:

Little attention to world building and society

As you all know most of zero escape’s plot revolves around death games. But we need to see what is happening outside of the death games. How did the world react to the kidnapping and death of the Cradle P’s  leaders? What kind of technology they use in 2027? How did the radical 6 tragedy play out? So on and so on. These are important stuff.

I personally don't see much of a problem with this. One of ZE's main draws is the mystery behind the death game, and what exactly the exterior circumstances are. Danganronpa was the same and when it tried to contextualize the outer world everything good about it came crashing down. I personally really liked to see the world only through the eyes of the participants, moreover, Zero Escape games all need a very tight and gripping pacing to succeed and including lengthy pieces of backstory would hurt that. No need for any further fleshing-out of the world is there, in my opinion. As for the next point about short character backstories, I felt that the game making you ponder how they must have felt throughout the years (Akane before 999, Sigma right after VLR or ZTD's D-End 1) was a nice touch, and just seeing the way they act later in the story did enough to convey how their character had changed. 

1 hour ago, bilguun alix said:

Shock effect and plot twists over consistency

 

Uchikoshi is a dreamer. He dreams of making the impossible possible and his stories suffer a lot because of it. You can’t excuse a person not being able to notice that he is an old man. Nor you can excuse a person being out of screen the whole time. Because that’s impossible to excuse and will only contradict what you have built so far. Plot twists in ZE serve as cheap shock effect. And the shock effect comes with a price of tons of contradictions.        

Both of these twists required some suspension of disbelief and I can see how that might have annoyed someone.  But honestly I feel like this was never an issue before ZTD, where the twist you mentioned is fucking pointless and incredibly underwhelming. Not much for me to say here.

1 hour ago, bilguun alix said:

Lack of theme exploration     

This is the reason why I never think Uchikoshi highly anymore. I love Hideaki Anno who created Neon genesis Evangelion and Yuasa Masaki who created Tatmi Galaxy( anime). The themes about, anti escapism, self worth, regret, human connection, and  the meaning of life is amazing.  Uchikoshi doesn’t do that. The concept of time travel, 4^th dimension, morphogenetic connection are NOT themes. Those are just cool brainstorming ideas that has nothing to do with our life. 

Themes are like direct but immensely detailed advices. They change the way you percieve  life.  His stories on the other hand are like a puzzle game. Once you finish playing it it loses it’s value. It’s fun and exciting alright but it never changes your mentality. You feel like you changed but that’s because of the emotional roller coaster. Those are just after effect of the shock and will fade away. 

First, regarding your point about time travel: I feel that that is not a problem. Also, the point you mentioned -while I don't think fully free time travel isn't a thing in ZE, until ZTD at least- was an important theme in the whole series.

I agree that ZE does not do much in terms of having a moral for the story but then again I feel that not all stories need to do that, or should. ZE has quite outlandish circumstances, as you yourself pointed out, which means that trying to project a relatable moral to the player/reader can be very difficult. 

Uchikoshi's works, while not very emotional, do have themes (which are mostly philosophical): How much can you trust a person with your life on the line? What does it take for someone to feel love? And so on.

[Okarin]

VLR is flawless as a product, but it's just an extension of the tropes and concept of Ever 17.

You said that he always does time travel, but more accurately, he loves infinite loops. Whereas Zero Escape plays heavily with the Many Worlds Interpretation timelines, there was mention of Schrödinger's Kitty as back as Never 7. He also loves supernatural mental powers, such as Curé and SHIFT.

As for ZTD's shortcomings, I don't believe Uchikoshi actually provides the whole text. He's director not writer. The cool ideas are all his, but the off characterization is probably due to a change in writers, though I haven't checked.

Just as the Infinity series. He hadn't the whole say over things, since there were a couple of other co-directors. I don't know if he would have pushed up with the datesim concept if he was in charge alone. The fact remains that you have to shove bad routes down your throat like Saki in Never 7. I personally think that half the routes in Ever 17 were weak.

He has delivered some good things (I'd like to try 12 Riven), but with ZTD his credit has come to an end. I feel he's burned out like G R R Martin. No one can keep delivering groundbreaking works time and time again. Not even Urobuchi.