關於 sound choice meaning ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

#UpcyclingDay

A tad different from recycling, the upcycling process does not involve the breaking down of materials. Potential wastes are creatively reused and given a brand new meaning.

One of the most familiar things I see repurposed by friends and family is the egg tray. It is for some music enthusiasts a thrifty acoustic sound treatment choice in reducing echo. Meanwhile mom uses them to grow seedlings.

During the previous mco, eggs were only sold in bulk in our area and we’ve still got some empty trays at home. So it’s a good time to upcycle my echo helpers today and give them some colours!

"橫尾先生你傾向於在你的遊戲中有個悲傷的結局（除了《尼爾 自動人形》），這是為什麼呢？

橫尾：我想啊，玩家在遊戲中的旅程中殺了那麼多的敵人，但自己卻迎來了一個Happy Ending，這很奇怪，所以我之前遊戲的主角都有著不幸的結局，我覺得對他們來說有個Happy Ending是不對的。

不過對《尼爾 自動人形》來說，對2B和9S來說，從被給予生命，他們殺了很多人，但也被自己殺了很多，很多次，有著無數次的輪迴。我認為這已經把他們殺死敵人的罪給贖了，幸福結局對他們兩個來說更合適一些。"

【尼爾：自動人形】是好遊戲，2B很可愛～

Talking To Yoko Taro, PlatinumGames' Takahisa Taura, And Composer Keiichi Okabe About Life, Death, And Opportunity

This interview with《Nier: Automata》director Yoko Taro and PlatinumGames' designer Takahisa Taura was first conducted in March of this year. Square Enix then offered gameinformer another chance to talk with Taro again, this time with Keiichi Okabe to speak more about the game's creation, music, and design philosophies and we are taking this opportunity to combine both until-now unpublished interviews together.

At the start of the first interview, Taro Yoko, whose pen name is appropriately Yoko Taro, was surprisingly quiet. He took a gulp from a bottle of Diet Pepsi and looked me straight in the eye to say something. I myself looked to the translator, who laughed at whatever Yoko said. She began "Yoko-san wants you to write about how expensive the food and drinks are here, if you can. He says it's way too much."

[The following interview contains some spoilers for Nier: Automata, including the game's final ending.]

With Nier: Automata, you guys won a Game Developer Conference award. How do you feel about that?

Yoko: We heard it was a user's choice award where the players themselves select the winners, so I'm just really happy that the players have selected our game for winning the award.

How did PlatinumGames and Yoko-san first meet on Nier? Why did you decide on that project versus something like another Drakengard or a new IP as a whole?

Taura: I loved the previous Nier title, I was actually went to Square Enix saying "Please let us create a Nier sequel, because you haven't done anything with it for a long time." At the same time, there was coincidentally Saito-san, the producer for Nier: Automata, talking with Yoko-san that they wanted to do something together. It just so happened that it was the right time, right place and we met for the first time when we started this project.

When you started working on the Automata, did you know what it was going to be? Did you have an idea in your head of what a Nier sequel would look like after the first game?

Yoko: Not at all, I had no ideas for a sequel in mind. When I first heard that we might do a collaboration with PlatinumGames, the image I had of them is that they only create Sci-Fi action games. When I thought of that, I thought of what part of the Nier storyline might fit in with that Sci-Fi action gaming sequence, I selected the themes for Automata because I felt it just fits in with the PlatinumGames style.

PlatinumGames has a reputation for fast, often-challenging action games, but Nier: Automata is a lot easier. Was that intentional to keep it closer to the first Nier or perhaps a consequence of trying to make PlatinumGames action more mainstream?

Taura: That's actually exactly the reason why. Saito-san from Square Enix told us when the project started that, since the original Nier has a lot of female fans and a lot of non-action gamer fans, to make the game as fun and accessible as possible to people who aren't accustomed to playing difficult action games. We always thought of making the game into something that's fun to play for newcomers to the action game field, but also to the more experienced players as well.

One of the usual tropes of PlatinumGames is that, as the game goes on, it tends to escalate more and more to an explosive finale. Nier: Automata kind of messes with that formula a little bit by Ending A being a little bit more subdued and low-key and then goes up again and again until it finishes with endings D and E. Is that something you had to work with Yoko-san about, where the escalation and pacing would best fit the gameplay?

Taura: In terms of like a climax or increasing the difficulty level toward the end, it's not that different from our other titles, or at least we didn't feel like it was that different. The one major difference was that this was the first game that I've at least worked that had the leveling up element in it. So as long as you level up your character, the boss would be easier to defeat, but if you don't, then some of the enemies toward the end of the game would be very difficult. For me, the balancing between the difficulty level of stages and bosses versus the levels the player might be was the difficult part in creating this game.

One thing that we really had it easy with in this game is that Yoko-san's scenario and Okabe-san's music, once it's mixed into the battle, makes a really menial and indifferent battle sequence suddenly becomes this dramatic and grandiose battle with everything at stake, so I felt like that really helped elevate our battle sequences as well. We did have an easy time thanks to that!

With Automata, you started appearing at press conferences and as part of the marketing of the game, whereas previously you never did that. When you appear in public, you have been wearing a mask of Emil from the first Nier title. Why Emil specifically?

Yoko: Hmm. One of the answers I can give is that, and I do have a little more that I want to elaborate on, is that for one Emil in the previous title is just a strong character on its own, so it's more like an iconic image or character for Nier as a series. Another part of the answer is that Emil actually holds a great secret of the part of the Nier world and it's not all revealed with the games I've created so far. I'm not sure if I'll have an opportunity to disclose that secret, but if I do, I might one day create a game that delves more into why it's Emil and why I continue to wear Emil's mask.

I don't know if either of you can speak to this, but the trailers for Nier: Automata were a little misleading. They showed A2, who you play as late in the game, but with short hair, so she looked like 2B. Was that something you decided, to show those scenes but not make it clear who it was?

Yoko: There were trailers like that?

There was one specifically showing A2 fighting Hegel like that.

Yoko: Ahh, yeah. There's no reason! We weren't trying to hide A2 or mislead anyone, it just happened to work out that way.

Taura: We made so many trailers at some point we kind of didn't care what we showed.

Oh, wow, that's going to shock a lot of fans in the Nier community. People really believed in the theory that you were hiding A2 in plain sight the marketing.

Yoko: Haha, but it might not be the correct answer. Like Taura-san said, we made so many trailers that we can't remember them all, so I'm definitely happy to take the credit without remembering why.

Taura: Yeah, let's say we intentionally did that. For the fans. It might be true.

Yoko: But I can say, in one of the trailers is A2 fighting one of the Engels, one of the big robots. She actually has long hair in the trailer, but in the actual game, it's after she cut her, so she would have had shorter hair. That one was actually intentional, because we did not reveal before the game that A2 would cut her hair, so we actually made a scene specifically with long-haired A2 to take that trailer. So that's that shot was kind of a lie.

In the Automata DLC, the CEO of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda, as well as PlatinumGames boss Kenichi Sato, are boss fights. Where did that idea come from and how did you get them to approve it? How did they react when you asked them?

Yoko: Haha, oh yeah.

Taura: The development team went to Square Enix and said "Please let us use him in our game!" Their reaction was initially saying "Uhm, are you sure you want to?"

We were thinking for a while of what we could do with the DLC, because we didn't have a lot of time to develop it, so we wanted to do something fun with it. When we were thinking about it, we saw that Final Fantasy XV used a character model of president Matsuda in one of their marketing assets. When Yoko-san saw that, he reached out and asked if maybe we could use that in the game at Platinum. We said that, if we get the character models, we could definitely use them for something in the game. We reached out to Square Enix and they gave us the model and we were able to use that character model for a boss fight.

If it was just that you were able to fight the CEO of Square Enix, then it would have just been the same as what Final Fantasy XV did, so we had to think of ways to spice that up even more. So we had PlatinumGames' CEO Sato-san appear in the fight as well. We also included background music that arranged their voices, we included their voices in the music, just to add a little bit more and beat out Final Fantasy XV. That BGM track is Matsuda-san and Sato-san's debut single. We didn't even get permission from them, so it's an unofficial debut single, and those are much rarer.

Speaking of crossovers, did you know that Nier fans have been trying get Katsuhiro Harada of Bandai Namco to put 2B in Tekken? Is that something you guys would want to do? [Note: This interview was conducted before 2B was announced as a Soulcalibur guest character.]

Yoko: For us, if we were asked, we would gladly say yes to anything for money. We're open to any kind of opportunities for anything, ever. Even if it's Candy Crush, if they want to use 2B, we will say yes, please go ahead and use her.

Actually, speaking of doing anything for money, you've never created a direct story sequel before, they've all been loosely tied together and many years apart. Saito-san has already said there will be another Nier game, if the characters are popular enough, would you create a direct sequel to Automata or would you change the characters and location again?

Yoko: I haven't thought about it once! Taura-san, where would you want to create a new game?

Taura: Actually, when I brought my concept document to Square Enix about a Nier sequel, I wanted to write a story about that prologue portion in the first Nier game. You know the beginning of the game, where you're kind of in Tokyo, in an area that's more modern? I kind of want to delve into that storyline a little bit more. So if I'm allowed to create a new Nier title, that's what I want to create. But that's just me speaking as a fan of the series, so I don't think that will actually happen officially.

Yoko: When I actually heard about that idea from Taura-san when we first started this project, I felt that it would be very difficult to make a modern recreation of Tokyo because it's the city that we constantly see every day. You just notice differences in the lies that we put in there, so I felt it would be very difficult to do to recreate a city that we know and see so much. But now that I know that PlatinumGames is such a good studio that they most likely will have that power and talent to be able to create that kind of video game world, I think that might be an option. Whether or not we'll do that is a different question, but it is a viable option.

One of the things you said before the release of Drakengard 3 was that you wanted to call it Drakengard 4 and just let people figure out what the theoretical Drakengard 3 was supposed to be. That's similar to what you did with Automata where the game takes place 10,000 years after Nier and people who played the first game were more confused than new players. Was that an intentional idea or something you've wanted to do for a while?

Yoko: It's not that I brought over that idea to Nier: Automata, the greatest reasoning why I did this is because I wanted players who haven't played the original title to enjoy Nier: Automata so you can enjoy the game without knowing anything about the previous game. That's the biggest reason why we took a storyline that's so far in the future that it really didn't have anything to do with the previous title.

A common through-line for Yoko-san's games is flowers: the lunar tear in the Nier series, the flower in Zero's eye in Drakengard 3, is that symbolizing anything in your games or is it just visual imagery you like?

Yoko: Well, I do like flowers in general, but yes, there is a greater meaning to it that I have with these flowers. It's the same as Emil like I talked about earlier, I just haven't revealed it anywhere. There is a meaning, which is why they keep on coming back in my games, but I haven't revealed it anywhere yet.

With the last Nier game, you had said that you built the game on the concept of people being okay with murdering people who are different. With Nier: Automata, the games actually became more fun to play and control and touch, do you think there's a danger in giving people that sense of ease in killing enemies in the narrative?

Yoko: In the previous title, I actually feel like I overdid that a bit. I did want to portray that enemies have a reason to live and a reason to fight on their own as well, but I feel like I forced that idea that I had in my mind a little bit too much on the players. So for Nier: Automata, I did not want to focus on it, I didn't want to impose my feelings and thoughts. I actually feel that it's fine if some people feel it's fun to kill in our games. If that's all that they feel from the game, then it's fine, because its their freedom to feel what they want from the game. To answer your question, I think that it's fine to have that happen.

Taura: I actually have the same answer, too. I feel like if it's fun to fight, that's great as a game designer. But if you feel bad to kill these cute little robots, that's fine with me as well. I feel like different people will have different reactions to the game and they will feel differently when they play the game, so I'm actually happy to create a game that creates those kind of differences within the players as well.

Yoko: That's a really good question for us, because if players felt that it was way too fun to kill these enemies that it started making them feel guilty, that's something we didn't really aim to do. Just as we mentioned earlier, I'm really happy that players were able to take it on their own and experience it on their own, then we didn't just provide something for people to take it as-is on face value. I feel like it's great that the players are now taking the game and experiencing it on their own and trying to figure things out on their own.

There was a time after 2B was revealed that people were asking you about her design on Twitter and you answered that you just like sexy ladies. That quote has become pretty famous and attached to you and a lot of people are reading into it. Is that a thing you still believe, would you ever take the quote back, or would you have ever changed 2B's design?

Yoko: [laughs] Don't straight men like cute girls? Isn't that common knowledge? I didn't realize that was a quote.

A lot of people use you as an example as a developer that just says what is on their mind.

Yoko: Before we released the game, on Twitter, because so many people were sending me 2B fan art, I said that "Send me a zip file of all your erotic fan art!" When I tweeted that out, my number of Twitter followers jump from 20,000 to 60,000 just with that one Tweet. I actually think it's because I did something that's more of a taboo in the western world where I talked about sexuality or gender that openly on Twitter, but that's actually...so, I do know that what I said did not just creative positive buzz and there's some negative buzz around it as well, but I feel like it kind of has to do with the Japanese culture where we're not too strict about gender and sexuality and being more open about talking about those things.

I think it's the same thing as reading manga as an adult, it's a little bit different when you think about it because in Japan that's more common, it's not considered something weird or something outlandish. With that kind of feedback that I get from fans, I just feel like it's the difference in culture between Japan and the rest of the world.

That is something you tend to tackle fairly often. Drakengard 3 was partly about sex and sexuality treated casually within the game's universe, is that something you feel doesn't translate across all regions?

Yoko: I actually don't think [translating across regions] has a lot to do with sexuality. I don't think it would have sold more copies of Drakengard 3 if I took away aspects of sexuality or added more in there. I feel that Nier: Automata sold well because we worked with PlatinumGames, so I don't think that has anything to do with a sexual nature.

For the original Nier, there was a lot of information on the periphery of the game like books with background information and short stories that answer questions raised in the game. Automata even had a stage play predating the game. Do you think it's harder for western fans to grasp the whole stories of these games when there's Japanese-exclusive media about it expanding the lore?

Yoko: Of course we can't localize everything because we have limitations in budget, so it's really difficult to do all of that, but I actually think there really isn't a need to know everything, either. The meaning I have behind Emil's mask or the flowers you asked about, like I said it's not revealed in the game at all or anywhere else yet, but no one really needs to know that to enjoy the game or enjoy the world or enjoy the game. More than gaining knowledge, I want players to cherish the experience they have when playing the game. It's more about that instead of the knowledge they could have for every question. Of course the theatrical stage play was more of like a YoRHa spinoff, but you don't need to know that to enjoy the game. Every piece, like the books and the stage play, is made in a way so that you can enjoy it by yourself, so you don't need that extra knowledge to enjoy it.

It may add a little bit depth to the knowledge that you have, but you don't necessarily need to have it. I do understand the otaku mentality that you want to know everything, you want to have everything answered, you want to collect everything, but I don't see the value in knowing everything. For example, just in real life, you might not know everything about the politics that surrounds the world or even in your own country, and there's really no point in knowing everything that happens in the world. Maybe a lot things, but not everything, right? What's more important is how you interact with people around you, immediately around you, and I think that's the same with video games. You don't really need to know everything that happens in the world to enjoy it.

Of course I do respect the freedom that the players feel as well, so if you do get mad that we can't localize everything in America, or America never gets everything, that's also something to be respected and I do understand the frustrations surrounding that as well.

When Nier: Automata released, it did so in a three-month timeframe that several other big Japanese games came out in the U.S., like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Yakuza 0. A lot of people started heralding those games as a return of Japanese development in the west. What do you think about going from fairly niche games to what some people consider the tip of the spear of modern Japanese development?

Yoko: First and foremost, just to speak about having so many good titles in that timeframe, my thought was "Are you people trying to kill me with this?!" In Japan, Horizon came out first, then it was Nier, then Zelda, and I think in the west, it was Horizon, Zelda, then Nier in North America. So we're literally sandwiched between those two with a two-week window in between each and they were all very similar to us in the futuristic setting. Especially for Zelda, it was one of the titles we copied in the first place, so I really felt like they were trying to kill us at the time.

Personally, not even thinking about Nier: Automata during that time frame, I was running around excited about all the fun-looking games coming as a gamer myself.

Hideki Kamiya [PlatinumGames] has once said that Nier: Automata saved Platinum. Is that something you agree with and how has the relationship been between PlatinumGames and Square Enix?

Yoko: Speaking from my perspective, of course Taura-san will likely know more about it internally at PlatinumGames...Kamiya-san, he's very laid back on Twitter, but when you actually really talk to him, he's a very serious person and very sincere. I guess Nier: Automata did generate sales for them, because I received a direct letter of gratitude from him saying "Thank you very much for creating a great game." I don't even know if we saved them or not in that sense, but just receiving that kind of message from was just very heartwarming and I was just really happy that I was able to provide such a game for them.

Taura: You could make the headline of your article "Yoko Taro Saved PlatinumGames" and that's definitely true.

Yoko: It's a very true headline.

Why do both of you think that Nier: Automata was more successful than Yoko-san's previous games or most other PlatinumGames titles?

Taura: Mainly because PlatinumGames' sensibilities were much better than Yoko Taro's.

Yoko: I actually think it's the Square Enix brand, the name Square Enix gives a more reliable feeling to an otaku type of title. PlatinumGames' strong name being known for making really good action games and I think the combination of the two really helped. This time with Nier: Automata, we sold about 2.5 million copies and the previous title we sold around 500,000. For the last game, we weren't really in the red, but it wasn't exactly a success either. We have these passionate fans that really supported the time from announcement and the series as a whole. Of course for Automata, too, we had a very passionate fan base including the media and including yourself that gave impressions and articles that helped make the game into a success, so I'm just really grateful for the fans and media alike that really supported the title and were passionate about it.

[The remainder of this interview took place a few weeks later with Taro Yoko and Nier: Automata composer Keiichi Okabe. Okabe is also known for his work on both Nier titles, Drakengard 3, Tekken, and contributing some tracks to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Before we started recording, Yoko said it will be okay if I asked Okabe most of the questions and I remarked that I wouldn’t want to make him jealous. He paused for a moment and then said it doesn’t matter because he would get paid either way.]

You two have been working together for a long time, I was curious how much the music composition is tied in with the writing. One of the city themes in Nier: Automata uses similar composition to a track in Nier. Does that come from the writing or the musical identity of the series?

Okabe: Since Yoko-san is I feel the type of person that doesn't want to do the same thing over and over again, even if he did receive praise for what he did previously, I kept that in mind while I was composing music for Nier: Automata. I also wanted to have some kind of connection that you would feel as a player between the previous title and this one, so I used similar tones from previous titles or from the previous game. It might not be exactly the same, but I used some similar types of music lines from the previous title so that you might feel that kind of connection.

But we do have tracks that are arrangements of previous tracks from older titles, but that was mostly for fan service.

I kind of wanted to drill down a little bit this time and get to the core of your philosophy of why and how you make games. If you had to pick a reason to hold up and say "This is why I make video games," what would that be?

Yoko: I feel that video games, amongst all the different entertainment mediums, have the most freedom in what you can do as a creator. For example, in a film, if you are able to control movement, then that's no longer a film in my eyes. In video games, you could have film-like cutscenes and videos, you could have them going on forever as much as you would like as a creator. That kind of freedom to do that is what I really wanted to do and I feel like video games are what provide me that option, even if I never do it.

Is there any kind of message you use games for that you want to convey to your audience or anything you want them to hear from you? Or do you prefer to let them take whatever interpretation they get from your games?

Yoko: It's the latter. I would want our players to freely interpret what I've created just on their own, to grasp something for their own. I feel that's one of the interesting aspects of video games is that you are able to freely interpret what's being shown to you. I also feel like the players make the game whole by playing it. The action of playing the game I feel has meaning in itself and because of that I want the players to find something from the game, feel something from the game, for themselves.

Nier: Automata won a number of awards, Okabe-san you won best music at The Game Awards, Automata won the audience award at GDC. Is there any pressure to appeal a more mainstream audience with your next game?

Okabe: For a popular title that will be played by many, it doesn't really matter what kind of genre you put out musically. I will still be interested to compose music for those if possible. I would have to take a different approaches to those kind of mainline titles, whereas for Nier, I felt that the music can be more geared toward a core audience where only those who would understand the music would play it. But at the same time, once you understand, I want you to be deeply affected by it. That's what I aim for with Nier. If I am to work on a way more mainstream title next time, I will have to change that mindset I have as a composer, but that would be something I'd like to challenge myself more. To answer your question, yes, I'd like to try that, but I'd also do whatever kind of jobs I'm assigned to.

Yoko: For me, my games I actually think are really niche. How Nier: Automata was so successful was actually just a coincidence. To make a successful game is something that I can't really aim to do, so I think that I'll probably return to my small and dark corner, my niche corner, with my successive titles.

Who would you both consider your inspirations for writing and composing?

Okabe: For me, it's obviously more of a composer than a writer, but I don't really focus on one person. I tend to just try to get music here and there and have a wide net. I am greatly affected by people who I've listened to in my youth, like Japanese composer Ryuchi Sakamoto, Ennio Morricone who creates film music, and also pop music like Michael Jackson and Madonna. I am affected by those as well.

Yoko: I have received inspiration from a lot of things, but I think personally expressions in film or any like visual production is something I'm deeply affected by. For example, Neon Genesis Evangelion by Hideaki Anno, that was really a strong influence on me. Also, the drama series 24, the way that they incorporate speedy and complicated constructions of storylines was something that was very new at the time. Just throughout the timeline of visual production, I think there's a sudden burst of evolution, and I think that "that" moment in a title that does that just greatly affects me and becomes an inspiration for me. But I feel that can be said for the rest of the world.

Lately, anything that Christopher Nolan creates I think is very intriguing where he tries to include deep knowledge and thoughtfulness into what he creates. I'm very interested in this new wave of evolution.

Last year, with the release of Animal Crossing on mobile, you talked on social media about how it was your favorite game of the year because you created a narrative where the characters were all unwillingly imprisoned in the camp. Do you often create your own narratives for games?

Yoko: I do that for some games and I don't for others. Off and on, I guess. It's a lot easier to create my own storyline per se for a more primitive game. For example, in Zelda: Wind Waker, you start off with a grandma and your sister living on an island and it's really happy and joyful and there's really no reason for Link to get out of there and fight Ganondorf because you're already living happily. You don't need to get out of that happiness. As a gamer, I felt the kind of sadness to have to leave that happy island life.

In Dragon Quest [V], you have to choose who you want to wed, and I felt that I couldn't really get into liking either of the characters. I also couldn't find the point of having to decide who I want to marry, so I just at that instant I turned off the game and said "My journey ends here!" My mind narrated "The three of them went on the journey and lived happily ever after, the end." That was my ending for Dragon Quest V.

Around the release of Drakengard 3, you spoke about how it's not possible in this industry to make a six-minute game and sell it for $60, no matter how good those six minutes are. Is this something you still think?

Yoko: That analogy was given to explain that, no matter how much you try to make a game really good, there's a limit to what you can do. If you are to create a six-minute game, because you can't go through a lot of different stages, you would have to create one stage. Which means that you could really refine the quality of that one stage without having to put in a lot of money into it and a lot of manpower into it. Also, because it's only six minutes, you can't really have too many characters in it, so you could focus on one or two characters at max. By doing that, you could refine the quality of those two characters. But because you're time-limited, no matter how much you refine the quality of the world around you or the characters, if you're limited to six minutes there's just so much you could do that the game won't become good at all. That was an example for me to say that there's a limit to what you can do in video games.

Okabe-san, in the music for a lot of Yoko-san's game, you use constructed or uncommon languages, is there a specific reason for that?

Okabe: [laughs] Yeah, for one, because it is Nier: Automata, Replicant, and Gestalt, they all take place in a unique world, even though they're in the timeline of our current world, it's so much in the future that it should feel kind of foreign. That's one of the reasons why I went for language we can't understand, but another is that, in games in the past, game directors actually got mad at many occasions for including vocals into the soundtrack. They were saying that it would become too distracting from the gameplay and would distract the player. It was considered more of a taboo, so for Nier, I included vocals in there without a language you could understand more for the sound that you get from the words. It wasn't to convey any meaning of what was being said, but more for a sound impact.

Yoko-san, you tend to have very sad endings in your games, with the exception of Nier: Automata which is as happy an ending as you can get with most characters dying. Why do you tend to write toward more sad endings and do you feel like Automata's happy ending fit the game better?

Yoko: The reason why I created endings that end on a death is because, until now I was creating games where you would kill a lot of enemies, but I've always felt that it doesn't feel right when the protagonist has a happy after they've killed so many enemies during the course of their journey. That's why in Replicant and Gestalt, or my previous titles, the protagonist pretty much ended up dying because I didn't feel like it was right for them to have a happy ending. But for Nier: Automata, 2B and 9S, from the time that they were given life, they've been killing a lot of enemies, but they've also been killed by them many, many times, and regenerated many times. They've actually been killing each other, which you find out at the very end, many, many times as well. So I felt that kind of cleansed them of their sins for killing so many enemies, which made me feel that a happy ending was more fitting for those two.

Do you feel like that cycle of violence and death and the consequences of that are human nature?

Yoko: I think the reasons why we kill in video games do kind of shine light on what's kind of broken within humanity or humans in general. We want peace in the world, but we also enjoy killing others in video games, like shooting guns in video games. I think that's karma in a sense for humans, the way that video games grasp the true essence of humanity, whether or not that's what they were aiming to do.

Is there a series that you know, like Persona or Yakuza or anything like that, that either of you would want to work on?

Yoko: A series or anything?

It can be anything.

Yoko: Personally, it's not a Japanese title. I'd actually love to see how western titles are developed, because I have no insight into how they're made. There was a moment in time where I felt that it might be fun join a western development to see how things run. Of course there's the language barrier that would make it difficult for me to do that, but generally speaking I feel that western storytelling follows kind of a similar route for all the stories that western mediums create. I would feel it fascinating to find out why western games use certain flows and storyline arcs.

Okabe: I'm kind of a fanboy myself, so there is a part of me that wants to work on major titles like Dragon Quest. I feel that if I do work on those titles, the pressure of working such a known title would be just too big and because there is a part of me that really loves that series, I feel like I would try to skew my music in a way that would fit into that series instead of trying to create music that I think is good. I don't feel like I would be able to bring out the best quality in my music if I worked on those big titles, because of that pressure and because of the image I have of those titles in my mind. Currently, my want to work on those major titles and the part of me that's telling me I shouldn't do it are about equal.

Were either of you surprised by Nier: Automata's success?

Yoko: [in English] Oh yes.

Okabe: For me, I live in Tokyo and developer PlatinumGames live in Osaka, so we did have quite a distance in-between, like literal physical distance between us. From the moment that I created the music to when I was able to see it next, there was a big gap in time, so when I was able to my music in the game for the first time, the game was pretty close to finished, they were almost done with development. At that moment, I thought "Maybe this one might sell?" But at the same time, I didn't think it would become this big of a success, I always thought it might do better than the previous titles, but it was like a hunch that I didn't feel until this time in Yoko-san's titles. I did have some kind of a gut feeling that it might do well.

The last song of Automata, Weight of the World, had a chorus with the entire game's development staff at PlatinumGames and Square Enix singing along to encourage the player. Why did you decide on that for the final song of the game?

Okabe: I didn't remember this, I actually forgot about it for a while, but Yoko-san actually came to me telling me that he wanted a chorus at the end of the game pretty early on in the development process. I apparently made disgruntled face at him and did not remember why I even made that face or even that I made that face. After a while, I actually remember why I had such a reaction with the disgruntled face, because there's a couple of different types of choirs, but Yoko-san likes the more classical choir, so when he requested that he wanted a choir, I thought he wanted that classical type of choir at the last part of the game. At that moment, I thought "Well, that doesn't really fit in with the game plan, I don't really want to do that," which is why I had that expression on my face. After we talked about it, Yoko-san mentioned that wasn't really what he was going for, he said that because that last scene is all about all these different people helping you, he wanted everyone to sing, he wanted it to feel like everyone is singing there with you as you play.

When I thought about doing that, and I actually agreed that might be a good idea, because in Nier: Automata all the choir vocals that you hear in the game, it's actually recorded by a small group of singers, I just overlapped their voice so it sounds like a big choir. Because that last part of the game is more about you playing amongst a lot of people, I felt that taking that approach again of overlapping voices again would not really work. So I reached out to the dev teams because they were working on that part and I thought it would be a good idea to have them put themselves in the game as well. I also thought that they don't need to have a good voice, it's just to give that feeling that you're playing with all these developers.

Development teams from Square Enix, PlatinumGames, and also some composers from my company who didn't work on Nier: Automata are singing in it as well. There's also children of PlatinumGames developers and their family actually singing in it as well. That was the reasoning behind why we decided to do that at the end.

Has there ever been, in all your games you've made, an idea you had that you had to be talked out of?

Yoko: For the first Drakengard, I had an idea of [Japanese pop-star] Ayumi Hamasaki, like her character model, wearing all-silver spandex, like a giant version of her descending from the sky and you would fight against her by music. Everyone else on the staff shut it down. It does still leave that kind of music game essence kind of in there, but the part Ayumi Hamasaki comes out in silver spandex has been taken out.

Isn't that kind of similar to Drakengard 3's actual ending?

Yoko: Similar, but I actually wanted to go for something funny, or shockingly stupid. But no one would let me.

Source：
https://www.gameinformer.com/…/talking-to-yoko-taro-platinu…

[美國大學最知名的畢業致詞 This is water]

看了新聞 發現美國高中生80秒對美國教育的批評被傳遍

也被翻譯了

然而這篇也同樣熱門 甚至更有意義的卻被忽視了

所以筆者決定自己把字幕找出來 一句一句翻給大家看

希望能對學弟妹有些幫助 看完能有些想法 順便練英文囉XD

如果對這系列有興趣 喜歡的話 還請幫忙分享出去

花了快一個多小時翻譯= =||| 不過可能翻的也沒有很好

日後筆者會翻譯更多篇好影片過來

-------------

There are these two young fish swimming along
有兩隻年輕的魚正在悠游

And they happen to meet an older fish swimming the otherway
他們碰巧遇到了一隻老魚

Who nods at them and says morning boys how's thewater?
老魚向他們點頭說:早阿 今天的水如何?

And the two young fish swim on for a bit and eventually
One of them looks over at the other and goes
What the hell is water?

這兩隻魚又游了一下 最終其中一隻說 什麼是水?


The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious
Important realities are often the ones that are hardest

魚的故事是在指出一個明確 重要的事實 也同時是最困難的


To see and talk about Stated as an english sentence of course is just a banal platitude

如果只是去探討英文上的句子 顯然只是一個平庸的老生常談

But the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence
Banal platitudes can have a life or death importance

然而事實是 在一天一天如打戰般的成人生活

平庸的老生常談經常有生或死的重要性

The plain fact is that you graduating seniors Do not yet have any clue What day in day out really means

事實是 當妳從高中畢業 你不會知道真正的生活意義是什麼

There happen to be whole large parts of adult
American life That nobody talks about in commencement speeches

這發生在大部分美國成年人的生活中 沒有人開始在演講中談論這個

One such part involves boredom routine and petty frustration

其中很大一部分是無聊 重複的生活 和非常大的挫折

The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I'm talking about

在這裡的父母和比較老的成年人會非常清楚我在講些什麼

By way of example let's say it's an average adult day

舉例而言 讓我們看看現在成年人的生活

And you get up in the morning Go to your challenging white collar college
graduate job

你早上起床 去面對充滿挑戰性的白領生涯

And you work hard for eight or ten hours And at the end of the day you're tired and stressed

你工作非常辛苦 每天八到十小時 到了一天的盡頭 你累癱了 而且充滿了壓力


And all you want is to go home and have good supper And maybe unwind for an hour and then hit the sack early Because of course you have to get up the next25.day and do it all again But then you remember there's no food at home

你唯一想做的就是回家 吃一頓豐盛的晚餐 也許 放鬆個幾個小時

或直接倒到床上

因為 理所當然的 你明天也得重複一遍

但你忽然想起家裡沒有食物了

You haven't had time to shop this week because of your challenging job
And so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket

因為妳充滿挑戰性的工作 這一周你都沒有時間去採買

所以現在 在下班後你必須開車去超級市場

It's the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be very bad

在一天工作的結束 交通通常非常糟糕

So getting to the store takes way longer than it should

所以你去店裡的時間 也比一般需要花的長

And when you finally get there the supermarket is very crowded

當你終於到了超級市場 卻需要面對人潮洶湧

Because of course it's the time of day when all the other people with jobs
Also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping But you can't just get in and quickly out

因為 理所當然的 不只你 其他有工作的人也需要擠出一點時間來採買

所以你不無法迅速的採買就離開

You have to wander all over the huge over lit store's confusing aisles

你需要在巨大令人困惑 琳瑯滿目的商品走到中困惑

To find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart

去找到你真正需要 可以放進你品質很糟的購物車中

Through all these other tired hurried people with carts

還得和別人搶購物車

Et cetera et cetera cutting stuff out because this is a long ceremony

等等等等 這是一個漫長的儀式

And eventually you get all your supper supplies Except now it turns out there aren't enough check-out lanes open

最終你買到你的晚餐 然而卻發現沒有足夠的櫃台是開的

So the checkout line is incredibly long which is stupid and infuriating

所以隊伍排得不可思議的長 這是愚蠢而且氣死人的事情

But you can't take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register

但你無法將你的挫折與怒氣 發洩在結帳小姐身上

Who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness

尤其他們的生活已經是需要過度的工作 整天單調無聊又沒意義

Surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college

勝於任何在座 就讀於名校的學生

But anyway you finally get to the checkout line's front

總之 無論如何 你最終到了隊伍前面

And you pay for your food and you get told to Have a nice day

你為你的食物付了錢 並得到了一句 祝你有個愉快的一天

In a voice that is the absolute voice of death Then you have to take your creepy flimsy plastic bags of groceries

這句話適用無聊死氣沉沉的聲音說出來的

然後你得提者你笨重 脆弱的塑膠袋

And then you have to drive all the way home
through Slow heavy SUV-intensive rush-hour traffic

然後你還得開車回家 在交通尖峰時刻


et cetera et cetera Everyone here has done this of course

等等等等 在座的每一個人 都做過類似的事情

But it hasn't yet been part of you graduates actual life routine
Day after week after month after year But it will be
但這還沒成為你畢業後 每一天 每一周 每一月 真正的生活 但總有一天會


And many more dreary annoying seemingly meaningless routines besides

還有更多無聊 沒意義的生活行程

But that is not the point The point is that petty frustrating crap like
this Is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in

但這不是重點 重點是在這挫折的鳥事 正是選擇來臨的時候

Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines

因為在嚴重的塞車 和壅擠的隊伍中

Give me time to think and if I don't makea conscious decision About how to think and what to pay attention

給了我們時間去思考 如果我們不去做一個有知覺的決定

關於我們要如何去集中注意力去思考

I'm gonna be pissed and miserable every time

我們將會生氣 悲慘的度過每一天

I have to shop Because my natural default setting is the
certainty That situations like this are really all about

我必須要去採買 因為天生設定的的缺陷


me About my hungriness and my fatigue and my
desire to just get home

這關於我的慾望 我的想要 我想要直接回家休息


And it's going to seem for all the world like
everybody else is just in my way And who are all these people in my way?

所以這讓整個世界看起來 其他人只是在擋我的路

And look at how repulsive most of them are And how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed

看看他們多令人厭惡 又笨有者母牛般的死眼睛

And nonhuman they seem in the checkout line Or at how annoying and rude it is that people

沒有人比排在你前面的人更煩更粗魯的了

Are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line

他們拿者手機講話大聲 完全不顧旁人感受

If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway

如果我選擇在店裡 在高速公路上 這樣去思考

Fine lots of us do Except thinking this way tends to be so easy

當然可以 大部分的我們都是這樣去思考的 因為這樣想很容易

and automatic That it doesn't have to be a choice

這是很自動的 好似我們並沒有選擇

It is my natural default setting It's the automatic way that I experience

這是我們的天生設置缺陷 這是來自我經驗很自動的事情

The boring frustrating crowded parts of adult life

無聊又令人挫折的成人生活

That I am the center of the world And that my immediate needs and feelings
Are what should determine the world�s priorities The thing is that of course there are totally different ways To think about these kinds of situations

我是世界的中心，而我的眼前有需要和感受

應該確定什麼世界上優先考慮的事情

當然也有完全不同的方式來思考這些種情況

In this traffic all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way

在這個交通所有這些車輛停了下來，用我的方式空轉

It's not impossible that some of these people in SUV's

這不是不可能的，有些開者SUV的人

Have been in horrible auto accidents in the past

曾遇過可怕的交通意外

And now find driving so terrifying that their therapist

以至於認為開車事非常恐懼的 只能尋求治療師的協助

Has all but ordered them to get a huge heavy SUV

所以命令他們去開巨大 又笨重的suv休旅車

So they can feel safe enough to drive Or I can choose to force myself to consider
the likelihood That everyone else in the supermarkets checkout
line Is just as bored and frustrated as I am

所以，他們可以感到安全，或者我可以選擇強迫自己考慮
一種的可能性，其他人在超市結帳時也是一樣的無聊和沮喪
我也是那個讓人感到生氣的人


And that some of these people probably have much harder

甚至有些人有更困難的情況

More tedious and painful lives than I do Again please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice Or that I'm saying you are supposed to think

他們可能有更無聊 單調 痛苦的生活

再次提醒 不要我在給你們道德上的建議 或者告訴你們應該怎麼去思考


this way Or that anyone expects you to just automatically
do it Because it's hard

這只是一種對你們能自動去思考ˋ的期待 因為這很難

It takes will and effort and

這需要很大的努力

if you are like me
Some days you won't be able to do it Or you just flat out won't want to

如果妳像我 有些日子你不需要去這樣想 或者單純的你不想要去

But most days if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice

但在大多天 如果你有足夠的意識 給自己一個機會

You can choose to look differently At this fat dead eyed over made up lady
Who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line

你可以選擇在這一個在隊伍中對者他小孩大吼的女胖子 以不同的眼光看待

Maybe she's not usually like this Maybe she's been up three straight nights
holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer

也許他並不常像這樣 也許他已經很多晚上握者他即將死於骨癌丈夫的手


Or maybe this very lady is the low wage clerk At the motor vehicle department who just yesterday Helped your spouse resolve a horrific infuriating Red tape problem through some small act of

或者，也許他是低工資的業務員 在機車部門剛好服務了你的太太解決了問題


Of course none of this is likely but it's
also not impossible It just depends what you what to consider

沒有什麼是不可能的 只是看你如何去思考而已


If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is
And you are operating on your default setting Then you like me probably won't consider possibilities

如果妳都自動的腦補 確定你知道什麼是真實

那麼你只是自動執行你天生的缺陷 你不會去思考其他可能性

if you really learn how to think how to
pay attention Then you will know there are other options

如果你真的學者去思考和注意 你將會知道你有其他選項


It will actually be within your power to experience A crowded hot slow consumer hell type situation
As not only meaningful but sacred On fire with the same force that made the
stars Love fellowship the mystical oneness of all

實際上，它會在你的能力範圍內，遇到擁擠的慢熱消費者地獄的情況

This I submit is the freedom of a real education Of learning how to be well adjusted

這是我提出的建議 一個自由 真實的教育 是要學習如何調整自己

You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't
That is real freedom that is being educated And understanding how to think

你需要有意識的決定 什麼是有意義的 什麼不是

這是由教育給予的真實的自由 並且去了解該如何思考

The alternative is unconsciousness The default setting the rat race
The constant gnawing sense of having had And lost some infinite thing

另一個選項是無意識的 像實驗老鼠般賽局

持續的啃食者你的意識 失去了一些重要可以無限的事情

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy
Or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech

我知道這件事情 可能聽起來不活潑也不有趣
或者是一個鼓舞人心的畢業典禮演講

You are of course free to think of it whatever
you wish But please don't just dismiss it as just some
Finger wagging Doctor Laura sermon None of this stuff is really about morality
or religion or dogma Or big fancy questions of life after death


無論如何 你當然是可以自由思考的

但拜託請不要認為這只是一些花俏 無用的道德或宗教大道理

或者某些死後才需要知道的問題

The capital T Truth is about life before death It is about the real value of a real education

真理是生活在死亡之前 是教育的真正價值

Which has almost nothing to do with knowledge And everything to do with simple awareness

Awareness of what is so real and essential So hidden in plain sight all around us all the time that we have to keep reminding ourselves overand over

這和我們的知識並無相關 這只是很簡單在我們的意識之中

意識什麼是真的並且重要的

並且不斷一遍一變得提醒自己

This is water

這是水

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