General Discussion > Music: The Universal Language?
Video Game Scores
Starman!:
Since there was a feud about scores for video games in the film scores thread, I am pleased to introduce the Video Game Scores thread! Talk about the music that makes the games even better (or worse) here!
I'll start with an obvious one: Halo's score is amazing!
Doctor Who?:
yeah it's pretty good. i think the first game score i ever noticed was the score to Final Fantasy 8. i used to have it in MP3 format but i lost it when my laptop crashed :'(
Scribblesense:
I own the scores to FF7, Kingdom Hearts I & II, and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King (not to mention about a billion songs from OC Remix, but I'll save that for another thread). I'm by no means a connoisseur, I just tend to pick up what I like.
Squaresoft/Enix's music is definitely love-it-or-hate-it, and listening to the FF7 soundtrack right now hits me with waves of nostalgia. I won't claim it's the greatest music in any video game ever (though I know plenty of people who have made that claim) but it does have a few tracks that stand out to me. I feel that Red XIII's theme completely hits the mark, and its associated score for Valley of the Fallen Star really sets the theme (love the heavy drums). The Turks's theme is always fun to listen to, as is Cid's and Jenova's. The rest, however, just feel too forced. They all fall into some sort of tone, as if Square has a theme generator tucked away in their basement and they just turn a dial to whatever they need for that particular scene: "goofy", "upbeat", "Aeris is dead", "epic", or "FIGHT!". It feels like the music was developed separately from the rest of the game, like on a separate planet, at times. What ends up happening is your emotional reaction becomes cliche, as if the composer is standing in your den, whispering in your ear: "alright, feel sad now," or "time for a fast-paced battle! Feel pumped up!," or "feel intimidated by all the mystery and evil that is mysteriously being evil". It doesn't feel organic or creative, it feels formulaic. I suppose I can't get away without talking about One-Winged Angel or Aerith's Theme, so here goes: One-Winged Angel is pretty damn awesome when performed by a full orchestra, but then so is the Power Rangers's theme; and the fake latin was cool when I was thirteen but now it just feels played out, probably because I've heard it elsewhere too often. Aerith's theme still hits me pretty hard, but I think that's because I'm a sucker for slow piano arrangements and brass and really has nothing to do with the game itself; it just suits my personal tastes.
Kingdom Hearts is just too "boingy" and all the arrangements end up sounding exactly the same. Then, all the serious, dark bits of score all have that annoying fake Latin chanting in the background. I certainly enjoyed it while I was playing the game and it fit the theme of KH very well, plus it was easy to tune out after a couple hours - except the Little Mermaid level. I would rather swallow broken glass than listen to that bullshit again. The only music I really like is the score for the Tron level, Space Paranoids. The orchestral arrangements are top notch and great to listen to, as are the pop songs created for the game: Simple and Clean, and Passion, if you're into that sort of thing. I feel a special awfulness award should go out to whoever decided to adapt the Pirates of the Caribbean theme for Kingdom Hearts, and that award should be in the form of some sort of lava pit filled with swords and alligators. It defies terrible - it's the muzak playing in the elevator to the ninth circle of Hell.
As for World of Warcraft's music, almost all of their stuff is fully orchestrated and they attempt to capture the feeling of every zone as best as they can. The Burning Crusade, their first expansion pack, wasn't phenomenal, as the theme for every new zone seemed to follow the same pattern but they did manage to create a track for a low-level zone (Azuremyst Isle) that instantly turned it into my favorite zone in the game: Spoiler (click to show/hide)http://www.youtube.com/v/Go0uhWqHqoU?fs=1And then, of course, there's Karazhan, an entry level raid (and probably the greatest raid they've ever made, in terms of pure character and ambiance). The music perfectly captures the feel of a great haunted castle abandoned by a mad wizard, and this bit with the harpsichord always sends chills up my spine: Spoiler (click to show/hide)http://www.youtube.com/v/5jUZfofhhV0?fs=1 Note that the score for Karazhan isn't actually on the official soundtrack because the score was patched into the game months later, but damn does it bring back memories.
They really picked up their game with the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, with nearly every zone having an incredible score, but my top three would be Sholazar Basin, Grizzly Hills, and Storm Peaks:
Spoiler: Sholazar Basin (click to show/hide)http://www.youtube.com/v/6bFof6GeW1Q?fs=1Spoiler: Grizzly Hills (click to show/hide)http://www.youtube.com/v/mpyInx0ldfo?fs=1 That fiddle is fucking epic.Spoiler: Storm Peaks (click to show/hide)http://www.youtube.com/v/38TA-X0dXr4?fs=1 My like of this particular track may be pure nostalgia, as playing through Storm Peaks was a blast. In terms of storytelling and epic scope, it's the greatest zone in the game. It closely follows Norse myths (specifically, the relationship between Thor, Loki, and Thor's wife Sif) combined with robotic dwarves and gnomes created by a race of super-advanced world-shaping cosmic beings and their continued battle with Lovecraftian god-like alien parasites. It's... well, it's ridiculous, but it's WarCraft.
I didn't really get a chance to soak in the new music released with the latest expansion Cataclysm (because I quit not too long ago), but from what I've heard people talk about it's as good as ever and fits the theme of the storyline very well. World of Warcraft has some of the most varied and highest quality music I've heard in any game.
Welp, like all my posts this one took way too long to write but I think I nailed just about everything I wanted to say: that I really appreciate well-arranged, classical-inspired music and a great deal of variety in my video game music.
TTYT:
My list of videogame scores to check out:
-Lair by John Debney
-Dead Space and Dead Space 2 by Jason Graves
-Bioshock and Bioshock 2 by Garry Schyman
-Lego Universe by Brian Tyler
-The God of War trilogy scores by Gerard Marino, Jeff Rona, Ron Fish, Mike Reagan and Cris Velasco
-Shadow of the Colossus by Ko Otani
-Bayonetta by multiple composers
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix videogame score by James Hannigan
-Soul of the Ultimate Nation by Howard Shore
-Front Mission Evolved by Garry Schyman
-Gears of War and the rejected Gears of War 2 by Kevin Riepl (the rejected score is on his website)
-Michael Giacchino and Christopher Lennertz's multiple Medal of Honor scores
-Castlevania: Lords of Shadow by Oscar Araujo
-Total Annihilation by Jeremy Soule
-Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole videogame score by Winifred Phillips
-Dante's Inferno by Garry Schyman and Paul Gorman
-Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and Portal by Kelly Bailey
-Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead games by Mike Morasky
-The Mass Effect games and DLC scores by Jack Wall and others
-Sanitarium by Stephen Bennett & James C. McMenamy
-Psychonauts by Peter McConnell
-Beyond Good and Evil by Christophe Héral
-Dark Void by Bear McCreary[/i]
-Tomb Raider Underworld by Colin O'Malley
-Viking: Battle For Asgard by Richard Beddow, Simon Ravn & Walter Mair
-The music for the F.E.A.R. games by Nathan Grigg
-The Killzone trilogy by Joris de Man
-The music for the Penumbra games and Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Mikko Tarmia
-Age of Conan and Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer by Knut Avenstroup Haugen
-James Bond 007: Blood Stone by Richard Jacques
Doctor Who?:
Hey after he showed his grasp of 60s style music in The Incredibles does anyone else what to see Michael Giacchino score the next Bond game?
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