Most people would never consider myself to be a music fan. There's no background music when I write this blog, for instance, nor am I one of those people who constantly have headphones on. Ask me what the top 30 is today and all you would get is a blank stare back. In fact, I remember having to do an assignment back in high school for media studies. It was embarrassing because it totally baffled me what the top 30 songs were back then! I mean, who are these Slackstreet Boys? And who is this Lavish Garden couple?
But the one thing I'm always vulnerable to are gaming tunes. While I was able to tune out Ace of Lace and Poutcast, there was no escaping from Terra's Theme, or Man with the Machine Gun. Not to mention the Zelda main theme, or anything from Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei (and Saga!). Back in the day, those are pretty much the only music in my head (along with some great Andrew Lloyd Webber show tunes).
I really miss the days when a game would be playing something in the background for every thing. Running the plains in Final Fantasy 7? A soothing melody. Shooting up baddies in Contra? A popping, but catchy beat keeps you moving. Busting zombies and skeletons? You can't do without that Castlevania organ piano. Even when you're in the main menu, pursuing your inventory, the music stays with you. Now a days, there's just nothing but background noise. Sure, when you're fighting the Covenant or a Titan you get some rocking tracks but who's noticing? You're busy dodging sticky grenades and giant fists. Plus it's not all that great. Most people can remember the slow Halo choir leading to a thumping finish and maybe you can remember a few bars of the Kratos theme but really... that's ONE song out of... two? Whatever happened to real gaming soundtracks? Where, like a good show tune album, features more than just one hit? Like Final Fantasy's!
It's difficult to pinpoint just when gaming tracks vanished like the dinosaurs, but my bet is that it coincided with the demand for realism. In Grand Theft Auto 3, would it be realistic if background music played when you're robbing a bank? Not really. In Fallout 3, would it make sense to hear a stirring melody while being pounded by supermutants? No, I guess not... The ironic thing is, music plays a big role in both games. In GTA 3's case, it was famous for using real world licensed soundtrack, and for Fallout, the 40's music is just as iconic to the franchise as the supermutant mauling your face. And I think that's the thing... all of a sudden, if you had to have music in your game, it had to be met with realism. You don't actually hear any tunes unless you're in a car with the radio up, or you turned on your portable radio while exploring the wasteland. Even the sounds you hear in other games really only stand out when the gamer enters combat. Usually meaning generic guitar riffs or drum pounds. Honestly, if there's no licensed music, there's usually no variety, and nothing is catchy anymore.
And that brings me to the reason I'm writing this. It is because of a game called Nier. Nier, brought me back to the days when music made the game every bit as graphics did. Nier features a suite of stirring and surprisingly vocal tunes that fit every occasion in the game. And, it plays in the background all.... the... time! How awesome is that! After hearing just a couple of songs, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get the soundtrack. Luckily, it was all there on iTunes, under the Square Enix Music label. It was one of the best 15 dollars ever spent. This game threatens singled handedly to turn me into one of those dudes you see with headphones on the commute, oblivious to that pole he's about to walk into. Okay, so that's never happened to me but you get the idea.
One of my favorite things about soundtracks from the old days (NES to PSOne) is that you can usually find arranged versions of your favorite tunes. Since the sound quality didn't really come into it's own until the DVD generations of consoles, a lot of the older tracks would get the orchestra treatment. The best example would the anything from Final Fantasy 10 and previous. Generally, the arranged version sounds much better quality wise, if not better in general. It is a real treat to hear favorite turns pumped up from 8bit or synthesized to full orchestra.
So imagine my surprise when I found that Nier also had an arranged album. Naturally, I snagged it shortly after getting the original but there's one thing I forgot. While 'arranged' for the older songs mean 'orchestra', the quality for Nier was already so high that 'arranged' apparently meant 'techno'. :/ Luckily, there are some other treats in the arrangement including a medley featuring 8 bit renditions of all the best tracks. LOL! Talk about role reversal.
The 8 bit rendition is very, very good, by the way.
And you know... so is the techno.
I agree. A lot of the realistic games these days have next-to-no music playing in the background. I imagine the reason for that, in addition to the realism, is that background sounds / noises are important to gameplay, at least for some games. Like the shifting of some enemy's footsteps, or something.
ReplyDeleteI find the less "realistic" games (like fantasy games or even 2D games) or games that have a structured format (like a turn-based / grid battle system) still have music playing all the time.
For example, I'm sure Record of Agarest War 2 has music playing all the time. I'll bet that any and every turn-based RPG will have music playing all the time.
Now I want to play Nier... and listen to its soundtrack, lol.