The Importance of Music

[sleeve]

Good responses, everyone.

Rygar dropped down my priority list after I heard more about the gameplay, but the fact that it has a fully-orchestrated soundtrack means I'll probably pick it up. And Hitman 2 has fully orchestrated music too, yes? There's a game I really need to get.

Ever catch uncredited phrases of music while playing a game? Rock's stage in Garou: Mark of the Wolves has a snippet of Robert Miles' "Children", and I'm convinced the ending theme of Gradius cops a line from Salt n' Pepa's "Push It."

[MechDeus]

Originally posted by sleeveboy
Rygar dropped down my priority list after I heard more about the gameplay, but the fact that it has a fully-orchestrated soundtrack means I'll probably pick it up.

At least rent it. If music is important to you in a game, you need to hear Rygar.

[J2d]

Yea it plays a big part, Halo for example was a good game but when I came out on one of the bridges at level five and one of those epic songs started to play... well I was in heaven, I loved that part of the game. And the new direction that Takumi took with Giga Wing 2 really sealed the deal for me. And after RS and Vagrant Story I'll just pick up any game with Sakimoto.

[sleeve]

Originally posted by J2dfanboy
And after RS and Vagrant Story I'll just pick up any game with Sakimoto.

Amen, brother.

[Lhadatt]

Speaking of uncredited music...

Parodius 3 (was it 3? Not sure. It was the talking one) has That's The Way I Like It by K.C. and the Sunshine Band in an early stage. Given Japanese copyright law being lax in enforcement (kind of an expanded "fair use" idea), I think they got away with not having to license the tune. The Parodius series also rips tunes from famous classical composers, rearranging them with 16-bit-era synth beats or whatever.

[Teddman]

Chrono Trigger wouldn't be hailed as the classic it was if not for the outstanding soundtrack. I think the music adds SO much to the feel of the game. It's a strong RPG in all areas, but when you have a killer original score, it helps everything seem more epic.

Same goes for movies...

[dog$]

The title of this topic can cover a book's worth of material for a thorough reply.

Of course I think music is vital to any game, at least in terms of how it presents itself and what atomsphere it wants to establish. There are numerous brilliant composers in different countries that have made videogame exclusive music, and I certainly have my favorites. I feel that as long as there are videogame programmers out there that are trying to make a game in an asthetic/artistic sense, they will want to have some unique element of sound for their work, so ultimately there will always be some sort of videogame BGM composer for certain titles.

Which is why I really try not to be as pissed anymore about the nature of custom-soundtracks in games (if I'm ever put in that situation I'll just use some of my OSTs that I have *shrug*). I find it dissapointing that people "need" their music and refuse to listen to what's presented outright, but as they say a change forced is a change fought against. Whatever.

It'd probably help if the nature of videogame BGMs were appreciated culturally a bit more, though. Compare Exhibit A (filter it through this if you need to (and choose the right-option under the text bar)) to Exhibit B, and I think it's clear that there's a bit of discrepancy between Japan and 'North America' here. (By the way, Exhibit A excludes all listings for Tokimeki Memorial, Sakura Taisen, Sentimental Graffiti, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy items (about 600 total))

ps: excluding US NES carts (which I think more than a few people here are like me in that their collection consists of about a quarter of games that they have purchased), I have more soundtracks than games on any platform.

[Changeling]

Music makes the game! What would REZ be without its hypnotic music score? It'd be crap! When you put on headphones, its a whole new world. You can't play it without the music blaring! Same for N20

[Cheebs]

Originally posted by sleeveboy
I was playing War of the Monsters today and out of the many things I enjoy about the game, one of the subtler ones is its fully-orchestrated soundtrack. I'm not talking about some cheap MIDI facsimile but an honest-to-goodness 40-80 piece orchestra, with violins and trumpets and cymbals played by real people.

Hmmm... Are you sure about that? Recording studio quality music on real instruments is freakin' expensive ($250,000 neighborhood on up). If it is an original video game tune, chances are it's high quality midi (like Castlevania SOTN for example). Sounds a heck of a lot like a real orchestra, but isn't. Now, I've never played War of the Monsters so I can't comment there, but I'd be very surprised if the instruments were real. The exception to the fake instrument video game rule is of course licenced songs. That's cheaper than recording new material, so I guess you could license orchestra music.

Man, I do love good tunes in my games though. From Darius Gaiden to Castlevania III.

And as far as Xbox games that alow for custom soundtracks, GREAT idea, HORRIBLE execution. Why not allow for high quality encoding? The default bitrate sounds awful, and you can't change it! C'mon MS, that's one freakin' huge HD in there! At least let me encode at 256 KBPS.

[Ryan]

And after RS and Vagrant Story I'll just pick up any game with Sakimoto.

Hell yes! My favorite game so far though is Ikaruga.. love when the music starts to pick up in Chapter 3, just as your ship blasts off.

OT : Chibi Nappa can you emtpy your PM box or e-mail me?