It seems that Toshihiro Nagoshi, one of the creators of the Yakuza series, doesn't like Grand Theft Auto games. This is a perfectly fine position to have - I personally find the GTA games to be rather underwhelming. I must say, however, that the reason why Toshihiro finds the GTA games disagreeable is ridiculous.
"Of course, there are a lot of different tendencies in games. I once publicly stated that I hate Grand Theft Auto and got a lot of backlash from the internet. I still hate it. And if I were asked if I think it's a good game, I would say it's an excellent game."
That is an interesting perspective to have on a game. To say that it is an excellent game and yet still hate it seems contradictory. Unless, of course, this was because he, as a designer, recognizes that the game is well crafted, but he can't come to terms with the kind of rhetoric that the game proports. This seems to be the case. Even though he admires GTA's design, calling it an excellent game that is very well made, Toshihiro said "I just can't bring myself to promote the emotion that killing is fun and committing crimes is fun."
If we take these comments at face value, then that would be the end of the issue. However, Toshihio Nagoshi is the main driving force behind Sega's Yakuza games.
