Your Game Music is Bland and You Should Feel Bad

[ImSkeletor]

Problem is most good game music seems to come from Japan. You mentioned Dragon's Dogma's opening, but also the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear fighting games and the Disgaea series has amazing music as well.

Must be an American thing to put one song in by Hans Zimmer and maybe Two Steps From Hell if you want to secure that 10 score in sound on metacritic and call it a day.

I think you missed the fact that he was calling the Dragons Dogma song memorably aweful

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

I really liked the moment in SR3 when that song starts playing, and the first scene in Blood Dragon. There's too few games that uses good music. San Andreas is probably the game I think does it best, and it has several radio channels with great songs. Beyond Good and Evil has some catchy tunes, like propaganda and the space battle. VtM: Bloodlines had some good goth music, especially the last song.

 

[Breywood]

"...the loss of limitation has led to in-game music becoming generic, unmemorable, and unwilling to stand out."

Couldn't be said better, Yahtzee. I can remember old games like The Last Ninja [www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExftoivJ_EU] and in spite of them running on an 8-bit system with 64k RAM everything about it was memorable, especially the music. Now that damn near every title has a full orchestra, it doesn't do much more than just provide some distraction to gunfire, and ironically, these publishers paid a lot of money to provide an experience that's just plain mediocre. I can pick out a more recent title or two like Black and White [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2T0pAEF4aA]* and Emperor: Battle for Dune [www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPGav8_HQbA] whose music had every bit as much to add to the game as the visuals and gameplay, but I could pick out twenty titles published before the year 2000. Damn, those two titles I mentioned are over 10 years old. And for some odd reason, I think it's saying exactly what I want it to.


*Warning: You may be singing the "sailor song" for days after you've heard it, so click at your own risk.

 

[Harlemura]

I noticed this earlier actually, when I was thinking about getting Injustice: Gods Among Us.
While I was watching some gameplay, I happened to catch a little bit of the music;

Spoiler: The Gotham City stage

The fact that today was the first time I'd even acknowledged the music throughout the various videos I've been watching since the game came out was the first sign that this music might be a little dull. But actually listening to it now, it just confirms that this kind of music really doesn't seem that great.
But then if the music weren't like this, it'd run the risk of being unfitting. You got Green Lantern and Sinestro fighting for their lives, the mood's going to be ruined if you have music like the Sonic 2 theme going on in the background.

Also I still haven't decided if I want the game.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

I have the soundtracks to almost all of these:

Halo
Every Metal Gear Solid game to ever have an orchestra
Valkyria Chronicles
Mass Effect
Sonic Adventure and Adventure 2
Shadow of the Colossus
Persona 3-4
Ar Tonelico, all of them
Lots of recent Final Fantasy games*
Xenosaga 1-3
Star Ocean 3
Bastion

And probably more.


Also, I will point out that turning chiptunes into full orchestral remixes can be utterly glorious. For any Touhou fans out there, go listen to Morrigan's and Tutti Sound's full film-score-style remasterings of most of the boss themes. It turns the music from catchy into freaking *legendary.*

I think I know why Yahtzee doesn't think game music is amazing: he doesn't watch enough cinematic games. He hates JRPGs, and he doesn't seem to go for anything Western where your gameplay is interrupted by cutscenes, ever. These often have really stellar music because cool movie-like scenes tend to do that.

Also, as someone posted earlier, Yahtzee has clearly never played Metal Gear Solid 3. Oh gosh that ending sequence with the song.

 

[tangoprime]

I think this is one of the reasons I got so attached to the PS2 era Dynasty Warriors games- having stuff like this blasting in the background was phenomenal.
...plus now I know what kind of music Yahtzee likes, and it makes me happy because we have yet another shared taste, lol.

 

[UncleAsriel]

While there are individual game soundtracks which stand out, I find Yahtzee's criticism of Triple-A titles is a legitimate one. Like many projects of that kind of budget, the need for financers to have creative control over the creators means a lot of stuff is going to conform to a checklist rather than a creator's desires.

Still, some gems do get through. Anything Valve does tends to be memorable.

As well, someone mentioned fighting games having a tendency to be memorable. I found myself still humming this jaunty number, despite myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xarzFrDsc1I

 

[warmachine]

I specifically buy game soundtracks, such as Deus Ex Human Revolution, Command and Conquer 3, Portal 2 and Black Mesa. Admittedly, I don't play the games he denigrates. If AAA means big budget games, the first three I mentioned are big budget games and they have great soundtracks. Perhaps Yahtzee means big budget first person shooters.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Your Game Music is Bland and You Should Feel Bad

Staying with Saint's Row, near the end of Saint's Row 3 you're given a mission to run off and rescue someone, whereupon "I Need A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler starts playing, independent of any car stereo. And I found that the moment stood out in my mind so much that a few days later I found myself looking up the song on Youtube. And when I did so, I couldn't help noticing that the first comment - and incidentally I loathe that one often accidentally sees the top comment on a Youtube video and in almost every case it spoils the best part of the fucking thing - was someone asking "Hey, did anyone else come here because of Saint's Row 3?
Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/10340-Your-Game-Music-is-Bland-and-You-Should-Feel-Bad.2#ye9fqsvoj7mdV4pt.99

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Exactly that! I even upvoted that comment!
Are you sure you didn't pop up in my head as a psychotic imagination around the time of your Guitar Hero 3 review and stayed there?
Hey, I found a game where the music is really good and important for you there!!!

Except it's gathering dust in a corner now...

Thanks much for all those years of video and columns and books, mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cidbahamut]

This is something I've known for years and lamented endlessly. When you think back to the games that really stood out in your childhood, more often than not you can identify them entirely by ear. A good soundtrack used intelligently can turn a good game into an excellent game.

Super Metroid wouldn't be half as good as it is without its soundtrack.

 

[nin_ninja]

I think the theme that sticks out most in my mind is the Max Payne 2 theme.

 

[BurningWyvern90]

I have to say, the music to Deadly Premonitions is really memorable. The whole sequence set to the song Amazing Grace is unforgettable. The various character's songs are all good and catchy, particularly the 'around-town-whistling-song'. I honestly can't say enough good things about this game. It'd be pretty cool if Yahtzee reviewed the new Director's Cut of the game.

I agree. The music isn't the best ever, but it's definitely catchy, and if for whatever reason I heard it outside of the game itself I would immediately recognize it for what it is.

I don't know, there are some pieces from modern games that I like. The themes for Skyrim and Portal 2, a lot of the stuff from BioShock Infinite, things like that. But yeah, game scores as a whole have become a lot more movie-soundtrack-ish, and have kind of faded into the background because of it.

 

[Scrubiii]

Couldn't agree more.

I feel the perfect example of this is a game Riot made for April fool's this year. It was a flash game that took around 15 minutes to complete and was only playable on April 1st.

This some of the music from it

It's soo good! If Riot can make music like that for something that's more parts joke than game, then triple-A devs should sure as hell be able to do it for their multi-million dollar products.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Old news, I was bitching about this back in the day when Final Fantasy X came out.

Final Fantasy IX music was basically a MIDI soundtrack brought with a piano, voices, flutes, etc. It was as memorable as a (S)NES-tune, but could be labeled as "actual music" because it wasn't limited to 8/16-bit blips and bloops.

Have a go at Jesters of the Moon, Loss of Me or The Place I'll Return To Someday and tell me that doesn't sound like the stuff that could linger in your head for days to come.

 

[Tenbob]

I had a quick flick through and don't think anyone mentioned Deus Ex HR. Aside from Icarus, the entire soundtrack of the game is outstanding- on their own some are really weak but, for me, the real triumph of the DXHR soundtrack is atmosphere. It really helps build on the atmosphere of the argument. Icarus is an outstanding stand-alone piece (imo) and the opening credits track (Forget its name, sorry!) really struck me as well.

The MGS series has been mentioned several times here and I'd like to echo that, having replayed the HD collection recently. Not only is the music memorable, but there are "center pieces" in the game(s) as well. For example, I played Peacewalker recently and on one of the latter missions the song "Heaven's Divide" played which really cements the game in my memory.

Someone mentioned Skyrim too which I couldn't agree with more, the soundtrack there really made the game stand out to me.

I think that it's important we don't get too hung up on "memorable" tunes, though. They're great, they have their place, but what about music that simply adds to the atmosphere? Gaming is an interactive medium so music should (ideally) add to the atmosphere and be able to impart a.. sense of the game world, of the surroundings. You've got your visuals, you've got the nearby sounds (NPC's coughing or what have you) but what is the baseline? What is in the "silence"?

Games that pull of both, having a hugely memorable soundtrack that completes the game's aesthetics and delivers part of the story with it is truly the best, but being great at one or the other isn't too bad either.

I can think of examples of truly "bad" music such as the recent Sonic 4 Episodes 1 & 2 which I thought sounded terrible, but I don't think that'd leave me to say game music overall is "bad". If anything, I'd say it's way beyond what we had ten, twenty years ago and has made some of the really stand out pieces in modern gaming stand equal to, if not better than the old 16 bit tunes.

 

[Descalon]

One of my favourite background soundtracks I stick on regularly is from Bastion. It's so good (especially Setting Sail, Coming Home). I've never bought a soundtrack from a Triple-A title, however.

Hear, hear! My personal favourite is "Build That Wall". Chills me to the bone every time I hear it.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Anyone who's played Mario Galaxy has got to admit that you remember Good Egg Galaxy and Gusty Garden Galaxy's music. Seriously, those game's scores are the most under-rated scores in existence. I mean, they went from Sunshine's mediocre score to probably one of the best fully orchestrated scores in gaming.

I just find that a lot of music for games nowadays stems a lot from the lack of identity a lot of games have today. Isn't it obvious that the games that know exactly what they want to be to set themselves out from the crowed often-times have the best music? Your Metal Gears, Deus Ex: HRs, Mario Galaxies and Halos. There main themes fit so well because they personify the games they are in. If you listened to Metal Gear Solid's theme song you would probably think about the themes the games are trying to convey, the same if you listened to Halo's theme. It's one thing to look at the game's genre and go "make music that would fit it", but it's another thing to look at the game itself.