關於 style me pretty living ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

【桃花開在周杰倫】The Peach Blossom named Jay Chou（English writing below)

上星期的Youtube影片中，我談到周杰倫前世如何修到大桃花，以及桃花和個人財富的關係。

2019年9月11日2300H，久未發新歌的周杰倫推出新歌單曲《說好不哭》，兩天內就破一千萬的流量，刷下華語樂壇的新紀錄，而且在超過十個國家，包括美國、澳洲、韓國、德國、新馬港台等，都衝上了Youtube發燒影片第一名。

相比之下，蔡依林去年年尾推出睽違四年的新專輯，打破了傳統歌手唱情歌的套路，其中七首歌都有概念新穎、議論性極高的MV，但影片流量卻不敵這次「周五」的合作。

我不是蔡依林的歌迷，但她這次為專輯的付出真的讓我刮目相看 - 回顧蔡依林出道至今的「黑歷史」MV《怪美》，邀請吳君如一起拍向80、90年代香港電影致敬的MV《腦公》，邀小S拍的MV《紅衣女孩》，以及今年榮獲台灣金曲獎年度歌曲獎的《玫瑰少年》等等。

我個人很喜歡這首《玫瑰少年》。此歌以轟動一時的「葉永鋕事件」為背後故事：葉永鋕，台灣人，國中生，因不同的性別氣質而遭到同學霸凌，不敢在下課時間去上廁所。十五歲那年，葉永鋕在上課時，提前離開教室去上廁所，後來被發現傷重倒臥血泊中，送醫後不治死亡。（取之：维基百科）

而在今年五月，台灣成為第一個將同性婚姻合法化的亞洲國家，讓《玫瑰少年》更具有代表性。

再看看周杰倫這次的新歌《說好不哭》，如果你也覺得「周杰倫是我的青春」，這MV用的許多「情懷梗」，作詞人方文山，神秘來賓五月天阿信，必會讓你驚喜連連。

對我而言，這首歌延續著周氏情歌的曲風，MV拍法沒有突破，並沒有像蔡依林的專輯有那麽強大的創意和正面能量。

可是蔡依林這次別出心裁，影片流量和賺到的錢也不少，卻依然亞於周杰倫。

這一切的現象隱藏著過去世的因果。

據我根本上師聖尊蓮生活佛開示，周杰倫前世修密教的敬愛法，想必他持了天文數字的敬愛咒。他八字寫著，這一世的寫歌本領就是他修來的眾桃花投影。

這桃花非同凡響，改變了華語樂壇對流行歌的審美觀。這次《說好不哭》的MV流量、新歌銷量等，都名列前茅，新歌上線的24小時內，總銷量548.5萬張，售額1645.6萬元人民幣（S$3.2m)。

蔡依林全身都是重桃花相，但就算如此，她和幾個星期前出新歌《對的時間點》的林俊傑，也完全被周杰倫比下去。

一些聰明的Youtuber在《說好不哭》上線24小時內火速推出了自己的翻唱影片，鋼琴彈奏版，歌詞版等。這是很明智的作法，因為不用花錢就能夠沾個邊，借一借周杰倫的桃花來旺自己。如果周杰倫的八字及歌曲旺他們的八字，就會更有效。

網路搜索，加上娛樂新聞頻道的新聞報導，他們的頻道便會迅速增加訂閱和流量。

寫了這麼多，有三點要提醒大家：

1）有幸得到師尊灌頂的敬愛尊咕嚕咕咧佛母和愛染明王法的同門，請勤修此法。

有眾桃花，貴人顯著，做什麼事情真的會比較容易，賺錢也可以比別人快。我個人的修法領悟，如果抱著利益眾生的菩提心來修，效果會更不可思議。

2） 要賺錢，你速度要快。

錢如流水走很快不等人，你要懂得觀察局勢，學學那些Youtubers的掙錢速度及魄力。如果還是不會， 批八字看風水時，可請教你的師父如何迅速為自己增強桃花。

3）往對的方向，用對的方法努力，能改自己和別人的命

無論你八字中有沒有眾生緣，你要有錢，有敬愛的魅力，你都得努力地去結眾生緣，持續地去佈施，慢慢地去積累。因為再多的眾生緣，也會有用完的一天。

以上的歌手都是努力的典範，包括那些Youtubers。因為努力而產生的影響力，能引導他人改自己的運勢，你的功德可加倍。

不要一日一日地這樣荒廢青春，別把時間都給了家人，而吝於給他人。佈施要用心思，要不然，有一天福報見底時，你和你的家人就會出現資糧荒的現況了。

「聰明人將精力用於預防和積累，而蠢蛋則寄望於補救。」

..........................

In my Youtube video last week, I talked about how Jay Chou cultivated his great Peach Blossoms in his past life and the correlation between your personal wealth and your Peach Blossoms.

On 11 September 2019 2300H, Jay Chou released his much-awaited new song "Won't Cry". His MV crossed 10 millions views within 48 hours on Youtube, setting a new record for Chinese music entertainment scene, and was the #1 trending MV in over 10 countries, including USA, Australia, Korea, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. His latest single also crashed Chinese music streaming site QQ music in less than a hour after its release.

In comparison, Jolin Tsai launched her new concept album end of last year, after a hiatus of 4 years. The album broke out of the conventional love ballads typical of Mandopop. 7 songs in this album were launched on Youtube with very creative and artsy music videos, which attracted much online discussion.

Yet the views on her MV cannot be compared with Jay Chou's latest MV.

While I am not a fan of Jolin Tsai, I applaud her effort for this album. The Ugly Beauty MV talks about the criticisms that Jolin Tsai had received since her debut. The Hubby MV was a salute to Hong Kong movies in the 80s & 90s, with Sandra Wu guest starring. Xiao S was also invited for her Lady in Red MV. The song Womxnly won the Song of the Year in this year's Golden Melody Awards, while this album won Album of the Year.

My personal favourite is the song Womxnly, which was inspired by the sensational story of Yeh Yung-chih, a secondary school Taiwanese student who had been long bullied for his perceived effeminate behaviour and thus, never dared to go to the school toilet at break times. One day, just five minutes before school ended, he was found dead in the school’s restroom in a pool of blood at the age of 15.

In May this year, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage and Womxnly became even more symbolic.

Let's now take a look at Jay Chou's new single Won't Cry. If you also think that "Jay Chou is my youth", the many punchlines in this MV, the lyricist Vincent Fang and the mystery guest Ashin of Mayday will have you grinning in surprise.

To me, while this song is not bad and a continuation of Jay Chou's love ballad style, it does not carry as much creativity and positive energy as Jolin Tsai's Ugly Beauty album. Jay Chou's MV was also pretty similar to many of his past MVs. There was no breakthrough.

Yet, beneath all that we have seen till now, is the karma from many past lives.

My Root Guru, His Holiness Living Buddha expounded that in Jay Chou's past life, he practiced the Magnetization Sadhana of Varjayana, and had recited an astronomical number of the mantra of Love and Respect. As stated in his Bazi, his songwriting talent this lifetime is a reflection of his cultivated Peach Blossoms of Mass Appeal.

This is an extraordinary Peach Blossom, as it rewrote the judgment standard of Mandopop. The viewership of Jay Chou's Won't Cry MV and sales volume of the single are just as astounding. Within 24 hours of release, his new song sold 5.485 million copies online and raked in S$3.2million.

The entire physical appearance of Jolin Tsai spells of heavy Peach Blossom of mass appeal. However, with Jay Chou in the picture, both she and JJ Lin Junjie who released a new single The Right Time 3 weeks ago paled in comparison.

Some clever Youtubers quickly uploaded their own covers, in less than 24 hours of Jay Chou's new song release. There were cover songs, piano versions, and lyric version. This is a very smart way of leveraging on Jay Chou's Peach Blossom luck for FREE. Works best if the song and Jay Chou’s Bazi are compatible with their Bazi.

Through online searches and online entertainment channels who report about the covers, the Youtubers get to boost their subscriber volumes and viewership at a much faster rate.

These are the 3 points I wish to highlight to everyone after writing so much:

1) To my fellow Dharma brothers and sisters who are fortunate enough to receive our Root Guru's Dharma empowerment of Kurukullā and Rāgarāja, please cultivate this Sadhana diligently.

When you have Peach Blossom of Mass Appeal, your benefactors are prominent and everything that you do in life gets easily done, even earning money is faster for you. My personal experience is that if you practice this Sadhana with the Bodhicitta heart to benefit sentient beings, the effects will be incredible.

2) If you make money, you must be speedy.

Money waits for no man. You have to know how to observe the situations and learn the money-making speed and drive of those Youtubers. If you do not know how, seek the advise of your Chinese Metaphysics practitioner, when getting your Bazi analysed or Feng Shui audit done.

3）Move in the right direction with the right method, and you can change your life and others' too.

Regardless your Bazi has mass appeal affinity or not, to have money, to have charisma of Love and Respect, you must be diligent in forming mass positive affinities. Learn to give and accumulate your way through. For no matter how many mass affinities you have, they get expedited over time.

The celebrities and Youtubers I mentioned above are examples of diligence.

When your hard work brings you the ability to influence, you will be able to guide others to improve their luck, be it you are conscious of it or not. And that doubles up your merits.

Don't squander your youth by living aimlessly. Don't blindly give all your time to your family and be miserly in giving your time to others.

Constant giving requires thought, otherwise when your good fortune hits rock bottom, you and your family will face a dire drought of life resources.

"The smart one spends his effort in prevention and accumulation, while the fool puts his hope in salvaging. "

[TAIPEI - 旨樂 / Sushi Sensation ☺️]

最近在台北的時間比較少所以現在才踩這新熱點。餐廳定位和裝修像歐美的新潮壽司店風，除了有能坐十幾位的吧枱以外，有更多的獨立桌子，走進去第一感覺讓我想起當年在倫敦住的時候去吃壽司的店一樣(當時還是學生和剛開始工作所以負擔不起不能常去)。餐廳概念簡單，通常都會先點一個套餐之後再加點(可要求把鴨肝和牛肉壽司放到在加點的壽司後)。食材主要都是日本來貨，現點現做的壽司品質不錯價格也非常合理。只是這裡沒有剌身，以前只愛吃壽司的我會非常開心，但對於一般女生或想減肥郤不成功的我來說吃十幾二十貫壽司飯有點吃力和罪惡感，不吃又覺得浪費。另外是我們約七點，到達餐廳才知道它們9點關。雖然是最後走而且吃得快喝得也很快不停乾杯，我們四個人帶的酒到離開時只喝到一半而已，有點趕。如果有時間必定能吃喝更多。
最後也替以前在山花的阿哲師覺得辛苦，一直都很忙直到最後才有空跟我們喝(建議餐廳可以加剌身選擇).

I have not been in Taipei that much recently so only managed to try this popular new joint now. The western style decoration resembles new western style sushi restaurants with more tables than counter seats, it feels like and brings back memories like the sushi places I go to (rarely as those places are too expensive back then as it was during my grad school and early working life) when I was living in London.
The common practice eating here is usually to start with the 10 piece sushi set and order more along the way (can request to have the duck’s liver and beef sushi the last after the additional ones). Most of the ingredients are from Japan and each piece is made to order, overall quality is pretty decent, especially compare to the price.
One of the 2 set backs for me is that they don’t serve sashimi, it’d definitely be a good news for me in the good old days, but for ladies or people like me who constantly attempting to lose weight but fail to do so, having close to 20 pieces of sushi rich is a bit too much and too sinful, but it’d be a waste for not eating the rice. Another oversight is that we didn’t know the restaurant closes at 9pm and only realised when we arrived at 7pm. We brought many bottles and even though we tried to eating faster and bottoms up every glass, we could only manage to finish half of what we brought and have to find another place to finish our drinks. I’m sure we can eat and drink more if we had more time.
I feel tiring for the chef as he was very busy preparing all the sushi and only had time to drink with us at the very end. (Suggest the restaurant to add sashimi which I could reduce the ‘load’ for both chef and customers)

味道人生級別 / TastesInLife (TIL) Index：
😍: 非常好 - 必須再去 / Excellent - Must revisit regularly
😋: 滿意 - 應該要再去 / Satisfactory - Should revisit regularly
☺️: 不錯 - 可以再去 / Not bad - Can revisit once a while
😌: 一般 - 不去也沒損失 / Average - No lost for not going
🤐: 不行 - 不值得去 / Bad - Not worth the visit
😭: 災難 - 噩夢一場 / Disaster - A nightmare

#tastesinlife #味道人生

"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…

Cute Japanese mobile games from Sanrio - none of them with Hello Kitty, but they're all pretty cute - or unusual!

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My Every Dolly Makeup Routine

Hey gummy bears! Finally I decided to wear makeup everyday, well 5 or 6 days a week, this means it's time for my every day makeup video!
I will show you each and every step of my makeup routine, it's just going to be the same steps I take every morning so I'm showing you the same thing I did yesterday morning and the day before and will do tomorrow, just now, on camera. Of course I could do a smexy smoky eye look or something really dramatic and let me tell you I tried but the thing is that my face and mind as well are still kind of young my face a femme fatale look isn't really what works for me, reminder, I tried, more than once! on a daily basis so thsi is why I came up with a quick and cute makeup routine (20 minutes only!) that looks cute and matches to my cute style of clothes and makes me feel more cute and brings me one step closer to surround me with everything cute! ^O^

LET'S GET STARTED.

I keep all my products for my everyday makeup together in this bag so I can keep the process quick and smooth.
Next I smoothen my complexion with a moisturiser. If I had a real moisturiser I would preferably use that but I don't really bother because it works and if it works I go with it. Now I've got really pale skin which means my purple panda eyes and red blotches make me look like I stepped out of a tim burton movie and since I don't want to give people the creeps I will have to even out my skin tone and for that I use a small, a small amount of pink concealer. Pink concealer is the best when I apply it under my eyes to cover the pruple and it also smoothens out any ruddy areas. Now that my face looks more human and less zombie I get to the main part which is a pearl sized drop of my precious liquid foundation. Since I have pale skin it impossible to find foundation that doesn't make look like like a snowman with an oompa loompa head. So if you have a skin tone that isn't common then 1 congrats you're not mainstream 2 go to a professional theatre store, because that is where I found this foundation. This is going to last me a very long time since I got the biggest bottle but I will only need to use a small pea sized drop, which I'll apply first with a makeup brush and then blend it into my skin with this round makeup spongy here. I used to use my fingers but now I think that a sponge is much softer and enables you to smoothly distribute the foundation. Now I see that there's still some visible redness around my nose and I still got some panda eyes, well, maybe baby panda and that's when my camouflage concealer get's into action. As the name already suggest the camouflage concealer is highly covering so I will only need to dab on a small amount on my problem zones, this is the easiest with a brush. And this is it, now I just need to set my foundation and for that I use a purple pigmented finishing powder . This type of powder is kind of hard to find I also just stumbled upon this for the first time in the that theatre makeup store and found that it goes really well with my skin, but it works with every skin shade trust me so it's quite the magic item I've got here and as you can when I apply it it doesnt look purple, but actually leaves my skin with a matt but bright finish. Magic purple powder!
And from now on things actually go really quick, I've got this huge makeup palette from which I will use light brown on my eyes and dark brown on the outer edge. I've also got my favourite cheek colour here which is shade of dusk rose and I apply it on my cheek apples somewhere close to my eyes. Now I don't need this palette anymore because I'm ready for the dreaded eyeliner part. Since this is an everyday look Im gonna keep the eyeliner low key and just line 2 thirds of my upper eyelid and end it with an existing but small wing which usually ends up looking bigger than supposed but whatever I'll cover it up mascara just there where used eyeliner because overdoing eyeliner and mascara doesn't look neat nor sweet. (phew) Now if I still don't feel exhausted I decide to put on fake eyelashes and circle contact lenses.

Hello you sweaty sweater socks!! Just kidding, you're all my little cream puff munchkins hehe ♥
Subscribble here ➤ http://bit.ly/1tZ3Khi
The song in this video is called "Charm" by Caramerouge. Now, let me show you the sweaters I got from DressLink (http://goo.gl/bQlQsr), yes it happened once again, for this sweater season. Recently my shopping motto has been pretty much "sweaters until you sweat". Yah, wear sweaters until it's too hot too hot to wear them. Make use of sweater weather season. Wear all kinds of sweaters with all the prints available. I personally love cartoon and food prints. Sweaters are awesooome. Maybe I will make a sweater out of (you know who) Alpaca. But hopefully not!
Well, just right now when I'm totes in quantity over quality mood DressLink is having a Thanksgiving sale (http://goo.gl/K6rW9m) and a $0.01 sale (http://goo.gl/63LVF7). OwO

♥ Sweaters♥
Cupcakes http://goo.gl/FUw2uy
Lumpy Space Princess http://goo.gl/DVodUI
Mustard Yellow & Gray Double Trouble http://goo.gl/5fZIOR
Futuristic Skeleton http://goo.gl/ZlMDl9
Daisy http://goo.gl/6dlBTO
Galaxy http://goo.gl/azUvbm
Mr.Monopoly http://goo.gl/edpsm8
Gradient Knit http://goo.gl/4Ym9X3
Bunny Pijyama http://goo.gl/3TBX3i
Heart Pattern Pijyama http://goo.gl/WXvyJK
Sweater with "gloves" http://goo.gl/OcTAQU
Black Hearted http://goo.gl/iccdMq
Cute Doodles http://goo.gl/ikJveu
Elegant Pearls in Creme colour http://goo.gl/cp2Nph

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→ venusp
INSTAGRAM
→ @VENUS_ANGELIC
TWITTER
→ https://twitter.com/vnsnglc

SENPAI’S INSTAGRAM　(๑´ㅂ`๑)
→ @manasenpai