The Hot Topic Returns

[radiofloyd]

I’ve backed a few kickstarters. Really going from memory here, but to name a few:

 

Shroud of the Avatar - I was really have a miserable time in my life at the time and for some reason the videos these guys were putting out every day lifted my spirits, so I pretty much supported them for that alone. Also, I like Ultima VII.

 

Asylum - it still hasn’t come out but, it will eventually, and I loved Scratches, their previous game.

 

Shenmue 3 - I played quite a lot of this, and I liked it. Unfortunately I went to Australia for two weeks in the middle of playing it and that stopped me in my tracks. But I will go back and finish it. Worth it for the beautiful music alone, in my opinion.

 

Dreamfall Chapters - The Longest Journey is one of my favourite games, Dreamfall, less so. Shamefully I still haven’t played Dreamfall Chapters but I will.

[Craymen Edge]

I backed Double Fine Adventure, Pillars Of Eternity, Grim Dawn, Banner Saga, Hyper Light Drifter and Torment: Tides Of Numanera, which all turned out pretty good.  There some failures, too (Godus).

 

 

[Metroid66]

On 07/05/2023 at 11:53, bellow said:

Zelda is the only game I will preload this year. 

 

I'm glad bellow is gone. The doddery old sod hasn't a clue what he's on about. I know for a fact he's already pre ordered Street fighter 6.

[Nag]

 

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Readers discuss their choices for the greatest individual video game tunes, from the magic of Zelda to the grit of Max Payne 3.

 

This week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Kyrt, who asked how much your enjoyment is due to the music’s inherent quality and how much because of how it’s used in the game. And do you like it enough to have bought the soundtrack or listened to it outside of the game?

 

We had many different suggestions, from every era of video game, with almost everyone knowing exactly what the track was called and having listened to it often on YouTube and elsewhere.

 

[shinymcshine]

I've got a couple of the GTA Vice City CDs (Wave 103 and Espantoso).

 

As for standout (non commercial) tracks on games - I really like "Silent Hill" (Christmas song) on the Dance Dance Revolution game, and from Um Jamma Lammy it's "Baby Baby (Put these kids to sleep)".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

I don't pay that much attention to game soundtracks, but undoubtedly when they hit they can be a real boost to a game. There's stuff like Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk that are perfect use of licensed music, and from there Rock Band /Guitar Hero where the track list is key. 

 

There's no doubt games like Sonic (say what you want about the series but it has great music) and Streets of Rage 2 having great soundtracks helps them be remembered more fondly, I'm not sure if another soundtrack would have hindered them at all though 

 

In terms of soundtracks I've owned, not many. I did listen to the Dear Esther one a bit, D2 I listened to a couple of tracks from that a lot, and I think the Pixel Junk Eden soundtrack. As a kid I used to put the sound test on of Streets of Rage 2 and listen to that, I bought that soundtrack during lockdown for some reason, we all did strange things back them 

[spatular]

Yeah i think the music can have a big impact, these are great: katamari damacy (the picture in the question), mr driller drill land, jet set radio, persona games (especially the music ones). I listen to those outside the games. Soundtracks are often expensive to get hold of unfortunately, like the xenoblade 2 one id like to get but its £40 so havent. Do have some soundtrack cds, some that came with the games (persona 4, persona 3/4/5 dancing, persona 1? or 2?), some free? From nintendo points iirc, and some bought ( persona 5, jet set radio).
 

some nintendo games have great music, like splatoon, mario, zelda, and some cave games do too, like deathsmiles and dodonpachi doj, halo music is great too but i dont tend to listen to those much outside the games. Have quite a lot of cave soundtracks on cd as i sort of collect cave stuff, they often come with the special editions of the games, and the first print of the cave collection on 360 came with a big case of 10 or so cd’s.

 

And yeah music games the music is important, stuff like rock band, amplitude, beat saber etc, games like those have got me into some bands. Dj hero, as shown by HansomeDead in the music thread, has amazing mashups of songs, id buy a cd of that but dont think that exists.

 

 

[Sly Reflex]

I listen to a lot of game music. In many ways it's the perfect way to experience older games since music is music, it's doesn't get weathered as much as old games do.

 

I have a little bit of everything in my Spotify, chip tunes from back in the day right up to current day themes.

 

I'm not going to count licensed music, as good as it is and as nice as it is to find bands through games, I don't think it's applicable here.

 

Really there's too many games to list. Nintendo and Sega had great composing given the limitations. C64 had bangers. Everything from indie darlings like Super Hexagon, Undertale, FTL and Full Metal Furies, oddities like Katamari, critical darlings such as Rocket League and Deep Rock Galactic, AA games like PAYDAY2 and huge blockbusters like Bully, Command and Conquer, Borderlands, The Elder Scrolls and Witcher.

 

Not even scratching the surface there. Music is great, but game music is something else, especially when it's done right.

[Nag]

I lived for this theme when I was younger.... absolutely adored the game.

 

 

Still brings a smile to my face hearing it now.

[mfnick]

Basically everything @DANGERMANsaid.

 

Except I’ve not owned any soundtracks (except if they came with the special edition) and I never listen to Game music on its own. Just got zero interest outside of the games. 
 

Got to say the 8 and 16bit tunes are by far the most recognisable and memorable though. Maybe an age thing? 

[one-armed dwarf]

I like FFXIV's music

 

A lot of what makes game music work tho is tied up in the way it's used in the game, and associative memory with that. I personally can't really listen to soundtracks of games I've not played. At the same time I don't know that any of XIV's stuff hits for people who've not played it. Devoid of context game music loses a lot

 

This trailer for Shadowbringers has a very cool take on the FF3 overworld theme mixed in near the end. The whole expansion is FF3 themed (not FFVI, actual FF3)

 

 

This was hype, again in context

 

 

 

I don't play FFXIV much anymore though, like at all. The game is very stagnant and just does the same content over and over, and the story got kind of boring. Also trying to find people to do high difficulty raids is too stressful, and can get very awkward when it doesn't work out. So I might just have to stick to the soundtrack from now on, or look forward to XVI's OST which is also by Soken

[OCH]

The only game OST I've owned was the Demon's Souls one, that came with the deluxe edition. I didn't buy it specifically for that. I'm really not a music guy. My interest in the DE was the artbook. I listened to it a fair bit in the moment and copied it onto my PC before trading it in, back in the day. Not that I've really listened to it since. 

 

These days, I tend to keep the volume low on my TV. So I haven't really noticed much in-game music for ..a while. I prefer the kind of ambient soundtrack you get from games like Metroid. 

[Metroid66]

Since I mainly play open world RPG type games I actually prefer to turn the music off if that's an option.

 

I prefer to hear the natural sound effects as I feel that gives a better sense of immersion.

 

Of course it also means that you often get jumped by enemies because you never heard the battle music kicking in😟

[HandsomeDead]

When I think of most of my favourite games they tend to have great music I'm happy to listen to outside of the games.  A thought I had years ago that I didn't follow through with much is as much as games often do tend to look enviably at film and TV, the games with higher budgets at least, I had wondered if they are better suited pulling from the music video.

 

I say this because they are less restrictive in what you can achieve visually.  Like they can be abstract, hyper realistic, dreamlike and in these contexts you can get away with going big with the music.  There's that idea in film where a good soundtrack is one you don't notice and I get the argument in that it's so intertwined with the drama and the visuals it just all hits you at once and in the moment it's all hard to discern.  But I always like it more when it's just getting in your face with the music.

 

I'm thinking of those times in Persona 5 or Metal Gear Rising where the music is very good and very prominent and the the vocals are layered in at key moments of a boss fight, it's great.  And I guess like a music video, games have the space to do that and I really enjoy it when they use that space.  I'm not saying all games should do that, God of War isn't going for a style that would suit a Bayonetta jazz fusion needle drop but I dunno it's cool when it does do that.

 

I'm gonna disagree with @DANGERMAN with regards to Sonic and SoR still being as big as they are without the OST.  I'm of the opinion they'd be also rans without it.  Not saying they're only good because of the music, I just think they're a key pillar.

 

I guess I find myself going down game music rabbit holes fairly often.  More often older stuff because of the way they made it.  They knew it was going to loop every 60 - 90 seconds and they had limited sound tech so you got some finely crafted compositions that are just some inventive bops.  And there's also a ton of mixes out there that are really good and aren't limited by a 30 y/o soundchip but still keep an essence of it.  A bunch show up at Overclock Remix.  

 

[OCH]

1 hour ago, Metroid66 said:

Of course it also means that you often get jumped by enemies because you never heard the battle music kicking in😟

Same. I got ambushed by some werewolf/zombies in RE8 on my last play session, because I forgot they had an audio cue.😅

[Maryokutai]

There are obviously a lot of good soundtracks, but one recent example that always springs to mind in this context are both Octopath Traveler games. On surface level they simply have good and enjoyable tunes, but it goes a bit deeper than that. I remember reading (or watching?) and interview with one of the composers who said that their primary focus was to let the music create a feeling of nostalgia by distinctly applying certain composition rhythms and styles that recreate the MIDI tunes from the 16bit era. Which in hindsight is obvious when you look at what HD-2D was created to achieve I suppose.

 

But when you look deeper at that self-imposed mission you realise it goes beyond just "sounding" like music from 16bit RPGs. Because just like those games, Octopath Traveler has little to no means of evoking emotion from the player on a visual level. There are no cutscenes and no character portraits – so the music, in tandem with the dialogue, is doing the heavy lifting in moments where the game wants to get you emotionally involved. I think this is a good counterpoint to what HD mentioned, because these super high-fidelity blockbusters from these days usually lack any kind of poignant music, because they mimic what a movie would do: a close-up to a detailed face, maybe some very subtle, sombre tones, maybe even complete silence. Octopath can't do that, so the music takes matters in its own hands. One of the best examples from the first game is Primrose's theme. A dancer/slave, hinted at also being a prostitute, on a mission to avenge her father's death, and her leitmotiv has an upbeat tempo, but is simultaneously melancholic with just a hint of optimism about it. Not to mention the boss battle themes, which go beyond just sounding "cool and epic" but also underline the monumental milestone you're about to achieve in that character's journey and use a phenomenally well-executed build-up for every encounter.

 

I think in that sense those soundtracks should also work if you haven't played the games, though I can't confirm that for obvious reasons.

 

This was a really insightful video about the creation of the boss themes in particular (includes mild spoilers):

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

I'll tell you what, I'm no music expert or music game expert but I was absolutely blown away by the music in Hogwarts Legacy. It is just absolutely phenomenal. Aping the HP films whilst creating something new in the process, so many of the tracks feel so lavishly produced and in step with similar instruments used in different scenes in the HP films, again, whilst feeling new and not a pastiche in any way.

 

No game in recent memory has a better soundtrack to me.

 

 

[radiofloyd]

Music can be huge when it comes to my appreciation of a game.

 

I’ll always have a soft spot for the FFVIII soundtrack. The Balamb Garden theme music just transports me back to my childhood every time I hear it. I loved how they updated the FFVII music for the Remake too.

 

Moving forward a couple of years, I remember loving the San Andreas soundtrack. I’ve largely forgotten the individual songs but I remember having a blast driving around at top speed listening to the radio in that game.

 

Speaking of music games, like people have said, Guitar Hero 1 and 2 had excellent soundtracks. All of it was great but how inspired were choices like Texas Flood from SRV and Jessica from the Allman Brothers. The bonus tracks were great too.

 

Skipping a whole bunch of games but I remember loving the music in Twilight Princess and Fable 2. And I loved the old timey 40s and 50s music in Fallout 3. I played the whole game from start to finish listening to I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire and all the other great songs and it just elevated the whole experience for me.

 

Mentioning a few more games briefly, The World Ends With You on the DS had a great soundtrack, Fez was one of the first indie games I played that had a soundtrack that really stood out, The Witcher 3 had beautiful music, especially on Skellige, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had beautiful Irish choral music that didn’t appear until 80+ hours in, which blew my mind and made me love the game even more.

 

A recent favourite was Shenmue 3 which I mentioned in last week’s hot topic.

Special mention to the first Fifa game I owned, Fifa 2000, with songs like “Sell Out” by Reel Big Fish. Good times.

 

 

 

[Nag]

2 hours ago, radiofloyd said:

I’ll always have a soft spot for the FFVIII soundtrack. The Balamb Garden theme music just transports me back to my childhood every time I hear it.

 

I might be using some wishful thinking if I said childhood but yeah, that takes me back to simpler times...

[Nag]

No new question again this week... fucking slackers.

 

 

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@DANGERMAN says.... what's your favourite controller?

 

Simple one this week... one that I'm hoping I've not already used.🤣🤣