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born June 10, 1961, sometimes credited as Kihaji Okamoto, is a Japanese video game designer. He is credited with producing popular titles for Konami, including Gyruss and Time Pilot, and for Capcom, including 1942, Gun.Smoke, Final Fight and Street Fighter II. He later founded the companies Flagship and Game Republic, and then created the hit mobile games Dragon Hunter and Monster Strike for Mixi. He also played a role in the creation of Rockstar Games's Red Dead franchise. Several franchises he helped create are among the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, including Street Fighter, Monster Strike and Red Dead.
The last game he directed was the 1989 CP System game Willow (1989). He would oversee the development of Capcoms subsequent arcade games as a producer and was responsible for recruiting character designer Akira Yasuda for Capcom. Okamoto and Yasuda developed some of Capcom's biggest hits, most notably the beat 'em up game Final Fight (1989) and fighting game Street Fighter II (1991). Street Fighter II is estimated to have grossed as of 2017, making it the third highest-grossing video game of all time, after Space Invaders and Pac-Man.
In 1996, Okamoto became Capcom's head of development and oversaw all their games. In 1997, he established Flagship, a subsidiary company of Capcom that specialized in creating stories for their games.
Okamoto approached Angel Studios with the idea for an original intellectual property entitled S.W.A.T. It later adopted a Western theme at Okamoto's recommendation, redefining the acronym as "Spaghetti Western Action Team". It was intended to be a spiritual successor to Gun.Smoke. Angel Studios began work on the game with Capcom's oversight and funding in 2000, and Capcom announced the game as Red Dead Revolver in March 2002. Okamoto then left Capcom, which canceled the game in August 2003. Rockstar Games acquired the rights to Red Dead Revolver in December 2003 and resumed development, releasing it for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in May 2004.
In 2003, he left Capcom to form another video game company.
Okamoto also developed a typical party game called Every Party, which was a launch title for the Xbox 360 in Japan.
In 2007, Game Republic signed with Brash Entertainment and started working on licensed games like Clash of the Titans. But then in November 2008, Brash Entertainment went out of business, and Game Republic had to turn to Namco Bandai for the release of Clash of the Titans.
In 2011, Game Republic also shut down due to debt, and a year later, Okamoto announced that he had retired from making console games and started working on mobile games.
Since 2020 he has also made three YouTube channels which he uses to discuss various topics. His "YoshikiOkamotoGameCh" channel in particular looks back at his life as a video game designer for over 40 years, discussing experiences with past games he was involved in, his opinion on other games, and interviews with individuals related to game development. He also used this channel to announce his planned retirement in June 2027.
| 1982 | Time Pilot | Game and graphic designer |
| 1983 | Gyruss | |
| 1984 | SonSon | |
| 1942 | ||
| 1985 | Savage Bees | |
| Gun.Smoke | ||
| 1986 | Hyper Dyne Side Arms | Game designer |
| 1987 | Producer | |
| Black Tiger | ||
| 1988 | Forgotten Worlds | Game designer |
| 1989 | Dynasty Wars | Producer |
| Destiny of an Emperor | Game designer | |
| Willow | Director | |
| U.N. Squadron | ||
| Final Fight | Producer | |
| Buster Bros. | Director | |
| 1990 | ||
| Mega Twins | ||
| Magic Sword | Game designer | |
| Nemo | Director | |
| 1991 | Street Fighter II | Producer |
| Three Wonders | ||
| The King of Dragons | ||
| Captain Commando | ||
| Knights of the Round | ||
| 1992 | Director, producer | |
| Warriors of Fate | Producer (2000). 9784839903879, 毎日コミュニケーションズ. ISBN 9784839903879 | |
| Street Fighter II Turbo | ||
| 1993 | Cadillacs and Dinosaurs | |
| The Punisher | ||
| Super Street Fighter II | ||
| 1994 | Super Street Fighter II Turbo | |
| Eco Fighters | ||
| Armored Warriors | Director | |
| Producer | ||
| 1995 | Executive producer | |
| Producer | ||
| Marvel Super Heroes | ||
| 1996 | Star Gladiator | General producer |
| Mega Man 8 | Executive producer | |
| 1997 | General producer | |
| Battle Circuit | ||
| Executive producer | ||
| Vampire Savior | General producer | |
| Mega Man X4 | Executive producer | |
| Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix | ||
| Breath of Fire III | ||
| General producer | ||
| 1998 | Resident Evil 2 | Supervisor |
| Executive producer | ||
| Mega Man & Bass | ||
| 1999 | Trick'N Snowboarder | |
| Power Stone | ||
| Dino Crisis | Supervisor | |
| The Misadventures of Tron Bonne | Executive producer | |
| Supervisor | ||
| Strider 2 | General producer | |
| 2000 | Supervisor | |
| Executive producer | ||
| Breath of Fire IV | ||
| Mega Man X5 | ||
| 2001 | General producer | |
| One Piece Mansion | Executive producer | |
| Capcom vs. SNK 2 | ||
| Mega Man X6 | ||
| Advisor | ||
| 2002 | Auto Modellista | Executive producer |
| Supervisor | ||
| 2003 | Devil May Cry 2 | Executive producer |
| Chaos Legion | ||
| Group S Challenge | ||
| 2005 | Executive director | |
| 2006 | Producer | |
| Executive director | ||
| 2007 | Folklore | |
| 2008 | Executive producer | |
| 2010 | ||
| Clash of the Titans | Executive director | |
| Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom | ||
| 2011 | Knights Contract | |
| 2013 | Monster Strike | Game designer |
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