A Modest Rant on Video Game Soundtracks

[NerfedFalcon]

And once again, the indie developers prove their prevalence in another field: music.

I take your 5 (quite excellent) examples, and raise 5 of my own to defend the mainstream games!

I'll see your five (awesome) American examples, and call you with a few from some mainstream Japanese games.

Spoiler: Super Mario Galaxy

Given enough time, I don't doubt that this could become as iconic as the original Mario theme. The rest of the game sounds this awesome too.

Spoiler: Sonic and the Black Knight

Regardless of what you think of the actual game, it's hard to deny that this is a pretty damn awesome track, particularly for a climactic boss like, say, King Arthur.

Spoiler: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

Margaret only wants to be remembered, and playing her song for Travis definitely did that. And everyone else who hears it. Which now includes you.

Spoiler: Twilight Princess

Choirs are always awesome. And most people with enough nostalgia will find this better than those without, not that they'd find it bad either. Sure, the game is kinda brown, but it could look (and sound) a lot worse.

Yeah, I like the Wii, but it's what I have and I like what (I think) it stands for: forgoing modern conventions in favour of what made all those retro games so good. Also, aesthetics over graphical horsepower (both versions of Okami look better than any shooter you can pull off the shelf.)

Spoiler: Speaking of which...

A unique art style, with music to match, and some interesting bits of Japanese lore that doesn't take as many artistic liberties as Touhou or Hell Girl. I dare you to find another game like it. (Okamiden doesn't really count.)

 

[latiasracer]

Well, I hate to draw upon it, but Modern Warfare 2 really did have a fantastic score. Patriotic and what not. I also dug Nier, Bayonetta, etc etc. In those games music was more of a element than 'background' noise, if due to sheer volume.

Hans Zimmer, End of

I Agree, that game had a brilliant score. THe fact that he's not doing MW3 is the reason im not getting it

 

[XMark]

One of my favourite soundtracks in this generation has got to be Call of Duty 4. It's a cinematic-style soundtrack, and sometimes cinematic soundtracks end up kind of disappearing into the background. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the primary purpose of the music is to amplify the mood of whatever's going on. Though I personally prefer soundtracks with catchy and memorable themes, and Call of Duty 4's soundtrack manages to serve both purposes.

Best part is in the opening scene where it's from the point of view of the soon-to-be-ex-president of Unspecifiedistan being driven through the streets during a bloody coup. I love the way the music rises and falls with a mix of layered ethnic and electronic percussion, and some kind of string instrument playing a repeating melody over the top.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Never played Persona, have you? These games have truely unique music, you can hear the production value in the songs. They are just truely beautiful.

Spoiler: Persona songs

Spoiler: Persona 3

 

[repeating integers]

Wha? Really? I mean you wrote your piece well and all, but what I don't understand is how you can think so few video game soundtracks are that good. It makes me think you haven't played any Final Fantasy games, or Beyond Good and Evil, or Chrono Trigger, or Okami, or even the first Gears of War (say what you will about that game, the soundtrack to the first one was incredible).

Also, take an actual listen to the Halo soundtrack outside of the game. It is one of the greatest scores ever written, in my opinion. For that matter, the soundtracks for each game masterfully reflect the atmosphere and ambiance of that particular chapter in the story. The first Halo sticks almost exclusively to strings and vocals, even for the exciting pieces; it lends the game the sense of wonder, excitement, and fear of the unknown that is demanded by its story. Halo 2 takes the same themes, but adds in some horns and electric guitar; this is the battle for Earth, the time to strike back at the Covenant. Halo 3 adds that chilling fanfare and a lot of piano, and generally has a triumphant, climactic feel; I don't think I need to explain why that applies. ODST is generally very somber and chillingly beautiful: a reflection of the ruined city in which the game takes place and the aire of hopelessness that pervades it. Reach is exciting and triumphant, but also sad and tragic; again, I don't think I need to explain how that works. Really, all the games scores are beautifully and fittingly arranged, and besides that, if you just take a listen to them I think you'll see that they're just plain good.

You've basically just said everything I wanted to, but could never find the words to. Thanks very much, that's helpful. I don't think the Halo games would be nearly as good without the score, but it's a score that also wouldn't fit anywhere else. Unique.

I also think there are plenty of other great game soundtracks out there. Homeworld's are typically masterpieces of ambient music (example [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R82FCwl9PmA]), though it can also do great action tracks. I think HL2/Portal also succeed on the first front (though they fail - hard - on the second). I've also been warming to the original Mass Effect's soundtrack recently (I used to think it was a resounding "meh", now I'm beginning to see how fitting and atmospheric it really was). So what if some games have generic soundtracks? So do most films, and most other types of media with soundtracks. It's the resounding successes that stand out.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

Has anybody already said Total War?

All games have that peculiar good WAR-DRUMM appropriate battle music I rarely find elsewhere.
It's very fitting, conveys a lot of emotion inside the game and can even been enjoyed outside of the game:

Rome Total War

Medieval II - Total War (This music just makes my skin crawl every single time)

Empire Total War

Shogun II Total War

 

[PessimistOwl]

Mass Effect music to me is the epitome of your rant (at least the first one) anyway, on to my moderate rant response. First and foremost, I am a student in violin. I have played in many orchestras and I guess, somewhere along the way of my life, music in general makes a lot more sense to me. Not in the usual "sense=understanding" but being able to comprehend and isolate multiple tracks of a single song or piece at once and really comprehending what they are doing. It really makes for cool music if you can hear it. Anywhoo, recently I began to agree with you about the entire "music video game soundtracks are becoming backround and nothing else" rant however I did realize something recently hear that makes it not entirely true (basically beyond even the understanding that only certain games have great soundtracks). It was indeed something that "kman123" stated in the fact that mw2's soundtrack was pretty good. Indeed, it was pretty good, the problem was in the fact that you never heard what was being done because of the other noise. Most games, I have found, are just like this. If you take a moment to listen to just the soundtrack and nothing else, you may find you either really like it, or really hate it. Think about this, if Nobuo Uematsu's music was put at a level of three decibals in comparison to the rest of the sound to the older Final Fantasy games then it would pass as "unremarkable". From about the dawn of video games, there have been people hired separately to compose whatever they think sounds best. That's their sole purpose, so unless they really suck at music composition, they should be able to do moderately well at their job. Instead of complaining about backround music being prominent in a lot of the games you play, might I suggest, if you honestly are curious to what the soundtrack sounds like, go to audio options and see if you can turn everything down except for the music.

For example,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cIYeBy0eU4

Anyone who's played through this game has realize that this song, played at the very end of the very last mission, has been some of the most intense and excited songs they've ever heard (myself among them) but what most people don't realize is that the song, in the same mission, played right before is just as fitting for beauty and qualifies as a good song on it's own right as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvukZNJYok

It's not that songs are becoming more backround, it's just that they're being phased out by other noises. It may be very enlightening to you to just turn off all the other sound and listen just to the music

 

[TrevHead]

OK history Lesson here

When it comes to the western and Japanese devide nothing is bigger than VGM imo.

Sinc the start of the 8bit era the Japanese have taken VGM seriously as something on par with popular music. VGM Composers and groups like Zuntata are popular enough to put on live shows and concerts just like rock stars.

[youtube.com/watch?v=icrBdnbZ874&feature=related]

Mirror this with the west especially US devs who tought of game music as an after thought, so much so that the soundchips in many 8bit and 16bit consoles were of a lower quality and cost compared to the Japanese consoles like the Famicon and Master System and SNES. Go listen to the western and Japanese version of Phantasy Star on YT youll be amazed at the difference.

Great western VGM producers from the old 8/16 bit days would have to be European producers like Rob Hubbard, Richard Joseph and David Whittiker who wrote music for home computer games aswell as the megadrive (eg Bitmap Brothers games).

[youtube.com/watch?v=aKKNBjFz9XE&feature=watch_response]

Fast forward today and VGM is the west has caught up in quality but I still prefer Japanese as western composers tend to copy film composers or also work in the movie industry. Japanese write more melodic music which probaby stems from their status as something appoaching popular music.

Anyone with a passion for VGM needs to check out the music by CAVE their games have fantastic tunes with great arrange remixes. Infact check out lots of new & old shmups like Recca and Battle Garegga they all have great music.

[youtube.com/watch?v=SayBSfK3gB0&feature=related]

[youtube.com/watch?v=gjgkTsZzZFk&feature=related]

Fave composers include Manabu Namiki (CAVE, and other genres like Odin Sphere, Tactcs Ogre, Valkyria Chroncle), Noriyuki Iwadare (Check out his Masaya era eg Warsong / Langrisser series), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)

Also Ryu Umemoto (CAVE including Nin2Jump on XBLA, FM synth in visual novels) who passed away recently he was a great talent. Psyvariar the mix on the 2nd vid is my personal fave

[youtube.com/watch?v=ClluchrWNJA]
[youtube.com/watch?v=uRR6rGiUsVo&feature=related]

 

[TrevHead]

OK history Lesson here

When it comes to the western and Japanese devide nothing is bigger than VGM imo.

Sinc the start of the 8bit era the Japanese have taken VGM seriously as something on par with popular music. VGM Composers and groups like Zuntata are popular enough to put on live shows and concerts just like rock stars.


Mirror this with the west especially US devs who tought of game music as an after thought, so much so that the soundchips in many 8bit and 16bit consoles were of a lower quality and cost compared to the Japanese consoles like the Famicon and Master System and SNES. Go listen to the western and Japanese version of Phantasy Star 1 on YT youll be amazed at the difference.

Great western VGM producers from the old 8/16 bit days would have to be European producers like Rob Hubbard, Richard Joseph and David Whittiker who wrote music for home computer games aswell as the megadrive (eg Bitmap Brothers games).


Fast forward today and VGM in the west has caught up in quality but I still prefer Japanese as western composers tend to copy film composers or also work in the movie industry. Japanese write more melodic music which probaby stems from their status as something appoaching popular music.

Anyone with a passion for VGM needs to check out the music by CAVE their games have fantastic tunes with great arrange remixes. Infact check out lots of new & old shmups like Recca and Battle Garegga they all have great music.



Fave composers include Manabu Namiki (CAVE, and other genres like Odin Sphere, Tactcs Ogre, Valkyria Chroncle), Noriyuki Iwadare (Check out his Masaya era eg Warsong / Langrisser series), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)

Also Ryu Umemoto (CAVE including Nin2Jump on XBLA, FM synth in visual novels) who passed away recently he was a great talent. Psyvariar the mix on the 2nd vid is my personal fave


EDIT Its worth pointing out that while Western AAA is cinematic, indies have some cool talent making great melodic VGM. VVVVVV springs to mind (plus the bit tune scene)

Christ this site needs some Std BB code buttons!