I'm genuinely wondering, especially in the japanese market becuase I think in general there's a bigger trend for creative or author-driven games from japanese developers to the Kojimas to the Danganronpa guys to Shu Takumi or Rika Suzuki etc.

If I were to list my top-5 favorite writers in the industry, based on the games they worked on they would be:

1. Shu Takumi
2. Yoshiaki Koizumi
3. Rika Suzuki
4. Chris Avellone
5. Amy Hennig

I'm still quite sad Koizumi hasn't actively been doing any writing since Super Mario Galaxy. It was probably discouraging for him to constantly be told there was no place for his writing in a Mario game. Stories go that Miyamoto told him to cut down on his writing all the time and the scenes when you go to the library where Rosalina reads stories aloud was stretching it.

The dude wrote some simple yet evocative stories for several Zelda games including Majora's Mask and Link's Awakening and in general I think a lot of the atmosphere in those games come from the Koizumi touch. He has a knack for creating quirky characters and a cute story with dark undertones.

I would say writers ike Rika Suzuki, Amy and Shu excell when it comes to characterization and storytelling especially Amy and Shu are really good at pacing (except in the latest Takumi titles, unfortunately) and mostly their plotting is good as well. I really like them most for the fact that they know how to write characters so they really become alive with memorable personalities and charm and they are super good at pulling you into the respective universes they create. The banter is so darn good in the first 3 Uncharted games with natural quips and silly remarks that create a lot of brevity among a lot of the action. Same goes for the Hotel Dusk characters, though I would say Rika is a more low-key writer. Her stories are always quite calm in pacing but it doesn't feel like it drags because her characters especially in Hotel Dusk are so believable and distinguished from each other and you really recognize their types from real life.

Chris Avellone's plots tend to be quite complex and a good pacing is never quite guaranteed, but holy cow. KOTOR2 remains the best Star Wars plot I have ever played. It makes a lot of the whimsical elements more serious and realistic and addresses those ideas in ways that makes the story of KOTOR2 a kind of deconstruction of the Star Wars IP entirely. The plot itself is really good too with memorable characters and really good dialogue that is full of empathy and tension between the characters. I'd recommend that game to everyone.

Honorable mentions:
- Whoever wrote Wind Waker
- Shigesato Itoi (Mother/Earthbound)
- David Cage (honest!)
- Tomokazu Fukushima (Metal Gear Solid 123)
- The main writer of 999

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