Yoko Taro is not a real person. The mask and role are passed among the studio heads and sometimes even paid actors for marketing events so that every project has the "superstar developer"'s clout, even if the original dev has long since left the company.
This practice of "the masked developer" began after Konami's superstar marketing project Hideo Kojima left their company, taking all their marketing of him over the years with him.
The studio responsible for Deltarune is preparing to do something similar with the "Toby Fox" role if he moves on to new projects, hence why he has worn a mask in public appearances recently.
Classic marketing event to build up the character. Do you think the real developer Yoko Taro's valuable time would be spent on such activities instead of working to ensure their next big project succeeds?
Much easier for the mask to go where it is needed rather than the developer. Japanese have experience with the importance of public personas thanks to the idol industry.
This is just traditional Japanese stagecraft, they consider it a team effort for the studio to provide a good performance in public and not misleading or dishonest.
Everyone here knows Toby's face simply because Any Forums spams the same 3 images of him when discussing Undertale/Deltarune or saying "why aren't you making your dream game... etc"
The mask only became a thing with Nier... dude has been an actual person making games for quite awhile now.
Thomas Nguyen
he literally spent his time at nier automata in the bar this guy never lifted a finger after nier
Christian Torres
when they prefer the joke dad nier than your shota nier
Asher Allen
Wow, Toby had a beard! And his lips are so weird! Man, he looks so different than what I imagined.
Jace Russell
It's funny because Toby made yet another pixelshit indie game with plagiarized music but people praise his success as if it weren't mostly driven by luck and circumstance. Not to say I hate him, since I respect the fact that he managed to make so much money for a mediocre project, but that's all it was. Mediocre.
Andrew Bennett
So are you saying that nobody knew who he was before he put on the mask?
