關於 best shooting games of all time ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

In the blink of an eye, the boy has turned three years old.

I know, wasn't it just yesterday when I did a gender announcement using a volcano and we were looking forward to his arrival? It's really baffling to me on how quickly time flies and when you look back on the years, you realise that your little ones are not so little anymore.

Anyway, he started hanging out at arcades with us last year and showed a keen interest in playing all kinds of games, from bowling and racing cars to gun shooting and ball games. Yes, the arcade became our happy place and we would reward the kids with a trip there during the school holidays. When I was planning for his third birthday party, I knew that it would totally be a blast if Asher could have an arcade themed party to celebrate his special day with his family and friends. Even the parents and grandparents would be able to join in the fun too, doesn't that sound awesome? Thanks to Timezone Singapore, we made it happen and yes, it was such a success that I had kids coming up to tell me "This is the BEST party ever!"

Here's sharing more about our arcade party and all the highlights that took place. You can take a look at the package details, including a special discount code, at the end of the post if you are keen and oh, don't forget to check out our video too!

"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about the game's creation, music, and design philosophies and we are taking this opportunity to combine both until-now unpublished interviews together.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…

Hands up if you think arcade parties are awesome!

The boy celebrated his 3rd birthday in Timezone's flagship outlet in VivoCity Singapore and it was filled with so much fun that all the kids felt sad when it had to end.

It's our first time in this huge store that spans over 12,000sqft ever since it got a revamp at the start of the year and we were blown away by the impressive size and all the different, some never-seen-before games it offered. It's no wonder this is the biggest, and may I add most exciting, arcade in Singapore -which is a big yay for my little arcade lovers because this just means paradise for them.

From new games like bumper car rides and mini bowling (with bowling alleys one, okay) to traditional ones like gun shooting and basketball, the boy loved them all. And so did we. Oh, and the best part was even the grandparents got to join in the fun too!

I love lots more to share about the party on the blog soon but here's a quick look at some of the happenings today.

Thanks to Timezone for a wonderful first experience and for taking my load off in trying to come up with party games. Haha. We had a blast!

P.S. Much thanks to all the family and friends who attended and helped us in one way or another, be it looking after the kids, doing the set up, taking pics and vids, dabao-ing the leftover food, packing up and making sure everything was handled well. We appreciate your presence and all your kindness too, hope everyone had a fun time too!

#ahappymum #timezonesg #arcade #birthdayparty #sp #ashersarcadeparty #partyplanning #partyvenue #turning3 #bestdayever

The NBA scoring champion took his show into the playoffs Sunday and overcame a bad case of pregame jitters.

"You got anything bigger than butterflies?" Allen Iverson asked, searching for the words to describe his anxiety. "I might have had a buzzard in my stomach."

Iverson scored 30 points Sunday in the first NBA playoff game of his career as the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Orlando Magic 104-90 in the opener of their best-of-5, first-round series.

Iverson said he slept poorly and woke up hourly, beginning at 5:30 a.m., in anticipation of the team's 9 a.m. breakfast. He's always nervous before a game, but said realizing a lifelong dream of appearing in the playoffs made Sunday especially gut-wrenching.

"I heard he got 15 minutes of sleep last night. That was 15 more than I expected," Philadelphia coach Larry Brown said, adding that the third-year pro's debut didn't surprise him.

"I think he handles situations like this pretty well," the coach added. "The only thing that I worry about is when he takes an individual challenge too much. I think he realizes now that he can just play."

Iverson, who said he actually got a lot more than 15 minutes of sleep, made 12 of 29 shots and finished with seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and six turnovers in 45 minutes.

When he wasn't the answer for the 76ers, Matt Geiger was. The center scored 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and led an 11-0 run that Philadelphia used to pull away for good.

Geiger also had 10 rebounds, helping the 76ers compile a whopping 57-36 edge on the boards.

Iverson struggled after scoring 18 in the opening half, missing 10 of his first 13 shots in the second half. But he held his composure and provided the basket that gave Philadelphia the lead for good midway through the fourth quarter.

"I'm still excited," said Iverson, who at 6-feet became the smallest player in league history to win a scoring title, averaging 26.8 points. "I feel like I could play another 48 minutes. The crowd was against us, but it was great just playing in that kind of atmosphere."

Penny Hardaway led Orlando with 19 points, but only three came in the second half. Nick Anderson added 18 and rookie Michael Doleac had 11.

The Magic used four different defenders -- Anderson, Hardaway, Darrell Armstrong and Matt Harpring -- on Iverson, and none of them enjoyed much success.

When Orlando tried to double-team the scoring champion, Iverson did a good job of finding Geiger and other teammates. Magic coach Chuck Daly is not sure the Magic can do much different defensively against him in Game 2 Tuesday night.

"We've done about everything. And I think that regardless of what you do, he's going to get 25 points ... He's really a genius with the basketball," Daly said.

George Lynch had 15 points and 12 rebounds for the 76ers, who won two of three regular-season meetings against Orlando, which at 21-4 had the best home record in the Eastern Conference this year.

The Magic shot only 34 percent from the field in the first two quarters, yet trailed just 50-47 at the half because they outscored the 76ers 23-6 from the foul line while attempting 31 free throws to Philadelphia's 13.

In three regular-season games against Orlando, Iverson averaged nearly 23 points a game. The Magic held him to 16 points in one game and 14 in another, although cold shooting probably was as much of a factor as Orlando's defense.

The 76ers star set the tone early with 11 first-quarter points and two assists, including a lob to Larry Hughes that the Philadelphia rookie caught up to on the baseline for a highlight-reel dunk and a 31-22 lead.

The Magic stayed close by living on the foul line, particularly in the last 6:10 of the second quarter when they trimmed four points off Philadelphia's lead despite going scoreless from the field.

Anderson's 3-pointer tied the game early in the third quarter, and the Magic went ahead briefly before the 76ers settled down to lead 70-69 going into the final period.

"They just outhustled us, plain and simple, in our own building," said Hardaway, the Magic's four-time All-Star guard. "They came in and were more aggressive on the backboards than we were, and it showed."

Notes: Once one of the toughest places in the NBA to get a ticket, Orlando Arena was not filled for Sunday's game. Attendance was announced as 15,267 -- 1,981 shy of capacity. About 3,000 tickets were available 90 minutes before tipoff ... Although the 76ers are in the playoffs for the first time since 1991, eight of the 15 players on the team had postseason experience before Sunday. Rick Mahorn, who's in his 16th season, led the way with 101 games. The other seven -- Tyrone Hill, Eric Snow, Harvey Grant, Aaron McKie, George Lynch, Matt Geiger and Theo Ratliff -- had a combined 94 games of playoff experience ... Iverson won the scoring title despite shooting just .412 from the field -- the lowest mark by a scoring champion since George Mikan shot 40.7 percent in 1949-50.

Allen Iverson calmly sank two free throws, and the magic number flashed on the scoreboard: 50 points.

The last time he did it, people had a problem with it.

This time, it was a milestone that showed how much things have changed.

Iverson tied his career high and made a mockery of his showdown with Sacramento's Jason Williams as the 76ers beat the Kings 119-108.

Iverson's performance was reminiscent of the one in Cleveland three years ago when he put up 50 in the city where he was booed during the rookie game at All-Star weekend.

Now, his team is in position to make the playoffs for the second straight season after an eight-year drought, and Iverson is finally shedding his reputation as a selfish showman who cares only about stats.

He was roundly criticized for his string of 40-point games as a rookie, accused of padding his stats in a push for the Rookie of the Year award--which he won.

Iverson's response this time: "I don't mind taking 40 shots. That's what I do."

"I played that game like it was my last when I was a rookie and scored 50," said Iverson, who equaled the most points scored in the NBA this season. "I did the same thing tonight, just like I do every night. And we won."

Iverson, approaching his first All-Star game, had a slew of incredible numbers: A career-high 20 field goals and 40 attempts, nine rebounds and six assists.

He favorite stat was the one that goes in the standings. Unlike his other 50-point game, the Sixers won.

"Regardless of whether I score 50 points or five points, I'm going to play as hard as I can," Iverson said. "I'm going to play every game like it's my last. I've been saying it since I got here. Regardless if the shots go in or not, I'm going to play hard."

Williams, the Kings' flashy point guard, had 14 points on 5-for-16 shooting and was not a factor in the outcome or the highlight reel.

Both realms belonged to Iverson, who scored 50 for the first time since he became the first rookie since Wilt Chamberlain to have four straight 40-point games. He had 50 on April 12, 1997, in a 125-118 loss to Cleveland.

Iverson scored 12 in the first quarter, 15 in the second, 12 in the third and 11 in the fourth. The Sixers improved to 3-10 in his career when he scores 40 or more.

"He took 40 shots?" said an incredulous Chris Webber, who led Sacramento with 32 points and 15 rebounds. "He made a lot of them, though."

Sixers coach Larry Brown didn't mind the 40 shots, either.

"I played with Rick Barry, and a lot of guys would mumble about the number of shots he takes," Brown said. "And his remark was, 'Half you guys can't get 40 shots.' And I think it's justified. I think it's a remarkable thing that Allen can do that most nights and not look like he lost anything."

It was quite a show witnessed by Philadelphia's fourth sellout crowd this season--including comedian Bill Cosby--and a national TV audience.

"It's nice to see Allen play well in a TV game," Brown said. "There was a time we were never on it, and the reason we're on it now is because we've won a couple of games and Allen's on the team."

Webber fouled out on a dizzying play that produced the two free throws that gave Iverson 50 points. With Philadelphia leading 107-102 and Iverson sitting on 48 points, he knifed into the lane and got his shot blocked as the clock approached the one-minute mark. Eric Snow clapped for him to give up the ball, but Iverson went back into the lane and drew Webber's sixth foul.

Brown motioned to his star with two hands to settle down. After a timeout, Iverson sank both free throws to hit 50 points, giving the Sixers a 109-102 lead with 1:37 left.

Snow had 11 points, 13 assists and no turnovers in what Brown,a former point guard, called "about the best game a point guard can have."

Iverson also hit 50 at the foul line three years ago in Cleveland, but under very different circumstances. He'd been booed when winning the rookie game MVP trophy in Cleveland, and was booed again on that April night. The Sixers were on their way to a 22-60 season.

Iverson had been so worried about the crowd reaction he'd receive in Cleveland that he called his mother, Ann, and told her not to attend the game. He said those thoughts were far away Sunday.

"I wasn't even paying attention," Iverson said. "I was just playing my game."

Notes: Iverson matched the Kings' total of 12 in the third as Philadelphia led 88-73. He scored 27 in the first half as the Sixers led by as many as 14. ... The Kings' eight-game road trip also matched a franchise high. The Cincinnati Royals were 3-5 in 1968-69, and the Kings were 3-5 in 1986-87.

- It's not often a team misses three alley-oops in one quarter and still wins by 26 points. It's even rarer for the Washington Wizards to start 0-5.

That hasn't happened since they were the Baltimore Bullets.

The Denver Nuggets treated the Verizon Center as their own personal playground Friday night, breaking a three-game losing streak with a 118-92 victory that provided comic relief for the winners and showers of boos for the losers.

"We scored 118; we threw away 20," Denver coach George Karl said. "We play a style where I know we're going to have mistakes, but sometimes we make the mistakes and don't make the defense make the plays. It will be interesting the film we'll put together -- maybe we'll put it to Abbott and Costello."

Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points, including 12 consecutive Denver points in the third quarter. Marcus Camby added 13 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for the Nuggets, who shot 51 percent and rebounded from a 119-93 pounding Wednesday night at Boston.

"We lost three straight -- and this was the game we really needed," Anthony said. "We needed to get our confidence back, get our swagger back."

The Wizards fell to 0-5 for the first time since 1966, when their home was up the road in Baltimore. The third quarter has to rank among the most embarrassing 12 minutes of basketball since the team moved to the nation's capital: Coach Eddie Jordan, who pronounced his team's mind-set as "fine" before the game, watched his team miss 7 of 10 shots, commit 12 turnovers and get outscored 33-11 in the quarter.

"We just weren't disciplined. We didn't stay organized. We didn't rebound. We didn't share the ball. We didn't execute," Jordan said. "It's one of the most disappointing games I've been involved in."

Gilbert Arenas, still laboring on a surgically repaired left knee that was drained for a second time on Wednesday, finished with 18 points on 5-for-13 shooting. He made 2 of 8 3-pointers and is 5-for-32 from 3-point range on the season. He remained in the trainer's room long after the game and was not available for comment, needing treatment after playing 42 minutes on Thursday in New Jersey and 37 minutes on Friday.

"Back-to-back's going to be difficult for him right now," Jordan said.

Caron Butler scored 14 of his 21 points in the first quarter for the Wizards, while Antawn Jamison (6-for-17) and DeShawn Stevenson (0-for-6) continued to struggle from the field. Washington shot 38 percent, only a slight improvement over their NBA-worst 36.4 percent entering the game.

"We need to get our act in order, and we have to find a way to get a win, period," Jamison said. "Not only get a win, but find a way to get this thing rolling because it's not rolling at all. You can see it. When you're out there, you're experiencing it."

The Nuggets had won their first two and lost their next three, but they were in the mood to have fun Friday. They attempted six alley-oops, missing all three in the second quarter but making three others, including a poetry-in-motion twisting reverse slam by J.R. Smith on a feed from Allen Iverson in the fourth quarter.

Smith finished with 16 points and Iverson had 15 points and eight assists, but Anthony had the best run. The Baltimore native's 12 straight points in the third quarter all came on jump shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, as part of a 14-4 spurt that gave the Nuggets an 80-58 lead. Anthony went 3-for-13 against the Celtics, but he was 14-for-24 Friday night.

"'Melo led us tonight. He caught fire," Iverson said. "We just rode his coattails all the way in."