Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii has played 10,000 hours of Fallout 4 while refusing to do the main quest, build settlements, or travel with anyone but Dogmeat: 'I'd much rather be beaten to death by Deathclaws'

Japan's director Mamoru Oshii poses during the photocall of the movie "The Sky crawlers" at the 65th Venice International Film Festival at Venice Lido on September 3, 2008. "The Sky crawlers" is presented in competition for the Golden Lion Award.

(Image credit: Damien Meyer via Getty Images)

As reported by IGN Japan, prolific Japanese director Mamoru Oshii loves Fallout 4⁠—like, more than anyone I've met or heard of in my entire life. In a new video celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ghost in the Shell, Oshii revealed that he has played 2,000 hours on PlayStation, followed by another 8,000 on Steam.

According to a machine translation of the IGN Japan article, Fallout 4 was Oshii's immediate answer when asked his favorite game, estimating a 10,000 hour playtime across console and PC. He referred to it as "a game that seems to have been made for my own desires," noting that VATS aiming jelled with his relative lack of facility with twitch aiming⁠—though he has, apparently, gotten at least one Chicken Dinner in PUBG.

【攻殻機動隊】押井守監督に30の質問聞いてみた！ - YouTube

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Oshii also had a very trenchant observation about violence in RPGs: He appreciates Fallout's verisimilitude, how its ultra-violence makes sense in its post-apocalyptic setting. He contrasted this with Cyberpunk 2077, where the violence can clash with the relative civility of Night City.

I've often pondered this myself: V's individual body count on a given Tuesday is a statistical anomaly that brings Night City closer to "active warzone" than "lawless berg." Get me an experienced translator and 30 minutes, though, and I might convince Oshii to try a sneaky pacifist run.

But the auteur seems to have a very… particular way of playing Fallout 4 that may not translate to any other game. Oshii gave the skinny to Automaton near the end of 2025: No factions, no glitches, no companions but Dogmeat, no settlement building, and no main quest stuff aside from maybe killing Kellogg. "I will basically ignore the main story and instead carve out my own path through slaughter and looting," said Oshii.

"Players of Fallout 4 will ultimately be guided to the game’s ending by contacting and joining one of the organizations," Oshii explained, but he was dedicated to a fantasy of a lone wolf survivalist. "Whether it’s the Brotherhood of Steel, the Minutemen, or the Railroad, I’d much rather be beaten to death by Deathclaws, repeatedly bludgeoned or shot by Super Mutants, or raid raider hideouts for loot. Living day to day like this is more fun and lets me keep my ideological integrity."

He particularly hates the Brotherhood of Steel, likening them to the Nazis, killing them wherever he finds them, and decorating his home base at the Red Rocket gas station with so many of their empty power armor suits, the game began to chug. Hardcore.

This feels like an alien way of playing the game to me, but is it really that far off from other players' tendency to ignore the main quest, maybe even download an alternate start mod to immerse themselves in the world more? It speaks to Fallout 4's staying power and flexibility that Oshii found such a niche playstyle so engaging.

“I can only marvel at my own passion for pushing past level 100," Oshii concluded, "But well, you could also call me an idiot.”

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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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