Selling autographed merchandise has become so lucrative that celebrities and athletes are told not to sign anything with blue ink because it’s believed that this makes their John Hancock easier to scan and forge. It’s true that if you don’t actually see someone sign something in front of you, it’s pretty difficult to verify if a signature is legitimate, so it’s good to be cautious when buying signed merchandise from a third party. Luckily some public figures, like Nier director Yoko Taro, are willing to call out phonies peddling fake autographs for profit.
A Nier fan on X sent Taro a screenshot of a now-deleted auction of an autographed Nier soundtrack CD that the director had seemingly signed. At a glance, you wouldn’t know that it was forged. It even has a little sketch of Emil, a character from the Nier series whose mask Taro wears during public appearances and that he often includes in his signatures. However, Taro himself replied that “nearly half” of the items for sale that are ostensibly bearing his signature are forged, including the one the fan had originally sent. After Taro put it on blast, the original auction listing was taken down.
This autograph is a fake. I include small unknown features in my real autographs to prevent reselling, so I can tell when one isn’t genuine. I've confirmed that nearly half of the autographs being resold are actually fake, so please don't buy them.
（◎血◎） https://t.co/yQVeoYQcfo— yokotaro (@yokotaro) October 20, 2025
Taro says he includes “small, unknown features” in his signature to identify forgeries. A fan posted an image of Taro’s real signature as seen at a Square Enix event, and the differences are subtle but noticeable upon comparison. The R is longer, and the Y is kind of squiggly.
heres a real signature to compare everyone from the square enix cafe pic.twitter.com/Heahqg06bI
— la reina (rena) 🌽🐓🐟💀🐅😊 (@ashykitten_) October 20, 2025
Well, that’s another scammer’s day ruined, at least. Hopefully, now that Nier fans have been made aware of this, they won’t buy any fake Yoko Taro autographs. It’s also possible that forgeries get better now that those looking to make a quick buck know what to look for. So be careful out there, y’all.
Normally, this is where I’d talk about what Taro is working on right now, but we don’t really know, actually. I just finished a replay of Nier: Automata, and as much as I know people want more of those games, I’m pretty content with where it all ended. Hopefully Square Enix is considering giving Nier Reincarnation the Octopath Traveler 0 treatment to bring it to consoles, given that the gacha game is no longer playable but contains a lot of major story revelations.
