Your Game Music is Bland and You Should Feel Bad

[elvor0]

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.

Though I've played FF9, The Place I'll Return To Someday really didn't hit me as THAT memorable. Sure, it was catchy and all, and sure I could hum the melody from memory, but it wasn't really iconic (to me, at least) as a Final Fantasy song. However, that all changed when I heard this:


Now, as I remember both this and the old song, I can say with absolution that it is an iconic song. I needed that perspective shift that the original song didn't quite give before. Perhaps it's that it didn't suit my personal taste before, but I can see now how the original inspired that kind of memorability.

Also, Persona songs should not go without mention. Very memorable. (Again, to me at least)

Spoiler: Go go Persona!

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]WORLD, Y U NO NAOTO?[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

Wow, they're pretty kick ass, just been checking em out, their Master of Puppets/Dancing Mad fusion was very nice indeed

 

[General Vagueness]

Boooo, shame on you Yahtzee, the Halo Games have excellent soundtracks! I mean we all remember this right?


Du du du dunnn, du du du dunnn, du du du duuun de do de

But on topic, yeah we don't get too much great stuff these days, some of it's alright, some of it sorta good, but nothing iconic, aside from the aforementioned Halo theme, I mean where's our new Nobuno Uenmatso for the new generation?

exactly, except with Halo 4 they left out the old theme and all of the previous Halo music except for a few seconds at the very beginning and one song over the credits, and possibly reusing some notes in a minimalist piece that I appreciate but find hard to fully like
anyway, Yahtzee, and whoever else, there's this Chrome extension called YouTube Options that lets you hide various parts of the page, on YouTube and several other video-heavy sites-- I've been using it to get rid of comments and one or two other things for about a month now and it's good

 

[RedDeadFred]

So basically Yahtzee prefers 80's music over Original Soundtracks. If it fits, then by all means use it. However, I prefer more creativity in my games than just having random rock songs pasted into it. If that's really what you want, just have your own tunes playing at the same time...

Also, games with great OS:
Mass Effect series
Elder Scrolls Series
Bastion!!!!!!!!!!(best ever IMO)
Borderlands 2 (love the music that plays when you're on top of the Bloodshot Ramparts)
Halo Series
MW2 (Hans Zimmer ftw)
Portal 2

And there's many more. Honestly, given how sound quality has gotten better in games over the years, I think gaming music has gotten better. It allows for much more complex music.

 

[Xdeser2]

You're kidding me, right?

Most games with OS's use them incredibly well. And saying that Halo has a bad soundtrack? You can accuse Halo of alot of shit, but saying its, I dont know, dumbed down music in games, thats defiantly not it.

Having a "hummable" track dosent mean jack shit for the quality of the music, really. It just seems like your playing to the "Gaming sucks because its not exactly like what it used to be" crowd -_-

 

[Starik20X6]

Here are a couple of songs from recent games that I really like:

I'll admit it to you, simple peasant wearing short pants, [http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Rather_Dashing] that this song gets me infinitely more psyched than, say, Eye of the Tiger.

 

[talideon]

"...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.

Keep in mind though that we're not just talking about any old 8-bit machine, but the C-64, whose sound chip was designed by synthesiser design legend, Bob Yannes.

Take Wizball, for example:


Though that clip sounds as if it's synthesised SidPlay--the filters are off for a start--nothing was able to approach that level of quality in audio synthesis until the 16-bit era. And sticking with Martin Galway, here's Parallax:


Matt Grey's Desert theme from Tusker:


Jeroen Tel and Reyn Ouwehand's work on Dutch Breeze:



Markus Siebold's excellent work on Turrican II:


There was something very, very special about that little machine.

 

[Darken12]

I get what you're saying, Yahtzee, but orchestra musicians needs jobs too. This is a good thing for them.

Also, I like bombastic orchestras. I can hum the Halo theme just fine.

 

[Niccolo]

Of all the modern Triple-A games I've played recently (Admittedly, not too many), I'd have to say Skyrim has the most non-bland music... Especially the pieces that play when a dragon drops out of the sky on you.

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.

I bought Bastion the day it came out on Steam, all because Yahtzee gushed unashamedly about it. I played it for half an hour, thought 'fuck it' and went back to Steam and bought the soundtrack. Of all things, it was the title music which sold me on the idea.

I'd say the two songs that really stick out for me are "In Case of Trouble" and "Slinger's Song". Really, though, the music that comes with each new weapon is fantastic; its tone subconsciously adds to the history of the group that used it.

 

[Altered Nova]

Claiming that licensed tunes are the answer, as if every game is Resevoir Dogs or GTA San Andreas, is a case of incredibly narrow vision. How would a licensed tune fit into Skyrim? How would Final Fantasy benefit from it? How would Halo benefit from having a Rolling Stones number?

While I agree with the rest of your post, I found the last sentence of this paragraph kind of funny because the Halo games have had licensed music. Halo 2 had songs by Breaking Benjamin and Incubus. In fact the fight where the instrumental version of "Blow Me Away" started playing was one of many favorite moments from the entire franchise.

 

[Whispering Death]

Bioshock Infinite doesn't get enough credit for a great soundtrack.

What about this amazing rendition of Will the Circle be Unbroken. Not just a good song, but what it does to set the theme of Columbia and if you listen to the lyrics what they mean to the entire plot of the game. Extremely well thought out and executed soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAIS-ADK6c8&list=PL3QZUm48uWnsdFakp3A2fI-NzmfH1jyQe&index=3

 

[Annihilist]

Boooo, shame on you Yahtzee, the Halo Games have excellent soundtracks! I mean we all remember this right?


Du du du dunnn, du du du dunnn, du du du duuun de do de

But on topic, yeah we don't get too much great stuff these days, some of it's alright, some of it sorta good, but nothing iconic, aside from the aforementioned Halo theme, I mean where's our new Nobuno Uenmatso for the new generation? I ask mainly because he hasn't done anything since Lost Odessy to my knowledge, and every instrument is his *****.

I suspect the real reason we haven't seen him is because he's actually the devil, and he's busy schooling people in various rock offs.

I came here for this reason. One of the most iconic things about the Halo series is the soundtrack, and probably one of the best things about the games. I even learned to play this particular mix on the guitar once (forgot it now).

I love Marty O'Donnell.

Alan Wake also had some really cool songs in it (Nick Cave, Bowie), despite not being an original soundtrack, and especially hearing that Cave song on a radio in the forest really added to the experience I must say.

 

[Annihilist]

You're kidding me, right?

Most games with OS's use them incredibly well. And saying that Halo has a bad soundtrack? You can accuse Halo of alot of shit, but saying its, I dont know, dumbed down music in games, thats defiantly not it.

Having a "hummable" track dosent mean jack shit for the quality of the music, really. It just seems like your playing to the "Gaming sucks because its not exactly like what it used to be" crowd -_-

Well Halo has actually been dead for quite a while now, so it's not exactly a new AAA release.

 

[Aitamen]

My brain hit a wall trying to sing Emerald Hill's theme, the Super Sonic theme, and the ending theme all at once. I am a happy person.

There are a handful of orchestral songs that fit in my mind... Skyrim's theme is one that my friends and I sing. Not many but a handful.

Katamari on the Rocks deserves some mention... I guess that's a bit old to some, but still certainly worth it to me.

But it's nothing today compared to, say, any given earlier console. That I can't think of a single song from FFXIII and can hum or play every song from FFIX is a good show...

But I'm the guy who has "Live and Learn" as his alarm, so...

 

[MasterProcrastinator]

I knew from the get-go that this was just gonna be a link-fest.

 

[nykirnsu]

You're kidding me, right?

Most games with OS's use them incredibly well. And saying that Halo has a bad soundtrack? You can accuse Halo of alot of shit, but saying its, I dont know, dumbed down music in games, thats defiantly not it.

Having a "hummable" track dosent mean jack shit for the quality of the music, really. It just seems like your playing to the "Gaming sucks because its not exactly like what it used to be" crowd -_-

Well Halo has actually been dead for quite a while now, so it's not exactly a new AAA release.

What? There was a new game less than a year ago.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Gaming has changed and so has it's music. Back in the day, you had to have a catchy melody, because that was the games' primary source of audio. Nowadays, there are other ways to utilize music in a game.

 

[Terramax]

There are a great many video game soundtracks now. Problem is, they mainly stem from Japan. Try listening to the Soul Calibur IV OST, or Sonic Unleashed (as flawed as the game is, the soundtrack is marvelous).

 

[Kingjackl]

Probably wasn't the best idea to criticise triple A games for being bland and start with Halo. Those games are legendary for their soundtracks. That said, I don't quite agree when he says the orchestral/techno-inspired soundtracks of most triple-A games are bland. Taste in music is a subjective thing and I'm personally quite fond of that type of thing. The ones that spring to mind for me are Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 - the dragon fight theme and Leaving Earth are two of my favourite gaming songs, even if neither of them are quite as iconic as Super Mario Bros or the Tetris theme. Rayman: Origins was pretty awesome for a modern game as well.

I am very fond of those moments in games where they'll switch to a licensed song to provide a bit of punch like the "I Need a Hero" moment mentioned (though that reminded me of the climax of Shrek 2 more than anything else). José González in Red Dead Redemption anyone? People mentioned the awesome use of 'Snake Eater' in MGS3, but Peace Walker did something equally sweet with 'Heaven's Divide'.

 

[Annihilist]

You're kidding me, right?

Most games with OS's use them incredibly well. And saying that Halo has a bad soundtrack? You can accuse Halo of alot of shit, but saying its, I dont know, dumbed down music in games, thats defiantly not it.

Having a "hummable" track dosent mean jack shit for the quality of the music, really. It just seems like your playing to the "Gaming sucks because its not exactly like what it used to be" crowd -_-

Well Halo has actually been dead for quite a while now, so it's not exactly a new AAA release.

What? There was a new game less than a year ago.

Bungie respectfully discontinued the franchise. Halo is therefore over - Bungie left it alone because it needn't be milked for cash any more. Microsoft shamelessly resurrected it so they could make more money from it.

It's not a Halo game. It's just another bland AAA title with the world "Halo" stamped on it.

 

[Annihilist]

Can I just add that the eerie music to the stealth sections of Beyond Good and Evil really made the game spectacular for me. It completed the experience.