Again, if you compare an RPG to an automobile, the Plot is your environment and destination, the Battle System is your engine, and the characters are driving. Now, what’s a car trip without some tunes? Music is another piece of any video game that cannot be overlooked. Music can make or break a game. The only thing more memorable than the music in a game like Tetris is how mad you get when you get 6 or 7 Z pieces in a fucking row. SEVEN.
Everyone knows that music is key, and its almost retarded to even bring it up, but certain games stand out from the crowd in terms of music.
Feel free to add http://www.rainymood.com to each of these tracks, except for Dead Space…Lul.
1. Shadow of the Colossus- Brilliant, critically acclaimed score. This soundtrack ranges from silence to the most epic shit you could ever hear as you stab giant fucking rock monsters with your sword. The scoring is perfect, the music kicks in exactly when it’s supposed to and gets increasingly epic or decreasingly solemn based on the situation the character is in. It’s comparable to the early episode of Family Guy when Peter gets his own theme music. Here’s a battle, watch it if you want to see a cool game and hear an even cooler track.
2. Anything Worked On By Nobuo Uematsu- A pioneer of the VG music industry, Uematsu composed music in every single Final Fantasy game, also adding arrangements to Chrono Trigger, and a number of other games. A particular composition i’m waiting to hear in full is the new game The Last Story, which unfortunately is only being released in Japan at the moment. His knowledge of themes is outstanding, this particular piece is a favorite of mine and takes place when you reach a new planet in Final Fantasy IX, it’s a strange and mystical world, and the music perfectly represents this theme.
3. Earthbound- The strangest musical tracks you will ever hear inhabit this game, but it’s one of the most fitting soundtracks i’ve ever heard. It is original, it’s funky, it’s weird, but overall i think its very enjoyable. There’s a strange brand of humor within this game and it emerges every so slightly even in the music. I’m not sure which track i want to post so i’ll post two of them.
4. Braid- Holy Shit. This is the first game since Earthbound that i actually realized the music was one of the best things about it before i was 5 minutes into playing it. There are 8 tracks in this game which all come from already existing albums, it was more of a compilation, and not really an original soundtrack. The game is only $15 on the Playstation network and xbox live, so get it if you like puzzle-oriented games. Or if you know me just come over and play it on my Playstation 3 ❤ ❤ ❤ The music is boring to some, soothing and awesome to others. Listen if you wish, i’m putting my favorite track up because i don’t give a FUCK. I’m a bamf.
I’m lonely.
5. Dead Space 1 and 2- Dead Space doesn’t even have a soundtrack that i can see, per se, but the music that pops up accomplishes exactly what it is meant for: Establishing mood. It’s shrieking string sections let you know that shit is going down, and a necromorph is about to cut your legs off and then throw you around like a rag doll. The music is sharp and random, and it reminds me of the two murder scenes in Psycho. Each time my hairs stand up on end. Even the pubes! Here’s a scene, P.S. The guy playing is really bad:
Enough examples, you get the idea. The importance of music lies in the establishment of themes, mood, and of course, just having some groovy tunes to rock out on when you’re being awesome. One particular thing I’d like to see is multiple battle music tracks for RPG’s. This isn’t a brand new idea, as Final Fantasy games did have different tracks for boss battles, as well as event battles when the music in the environment was different, and would not change during battle. Example here:
Please ignore the guy talking.
But this isn’t enough for me, there’s a lot of grinding (bumpin’ and grindin’ CHYEA) to be done in RPG’s and the same battle music over and over again gets annoying. I couldn’t even tell you if they fixed this in FFXIII because the game was so bad i blocked it out. I know that Tales of Symphonia had a cool thing where the battle music was different on the ***SPOILER ALERT*** other world that you travel to. Or maybe it was on the 2nd disc, i don’t remember. Either way it’s cool but both themes still get repetitive after a while. They can spend a little time composing multiple music tracks, IMO.
Shout out to Kylie Butler, Amy Morton, and Heather Preyer for retweeting my blog, and thanks to (i don’t think) nobody else. It doesn’t take that much to RT or repost, so thanks if you’re a good internet friend. And if you have a blog you don’t advertise it enough, because i’d repost it often.
Sorry it’s been a while but there’s been moving going on, I had no internet for a while, and there was a death recently i’m sure most of you know about. I’m not going to talk about it because i prefer to leave some things private, i’m just making excuses for being a crappy blogger. Alright, so the next part should be up soon, I think next i’m just going to talk about the appearance of the game, as well as the intangibles of an RPG. Seeya next time 😀
Words I Used to Write on Paper 