Selfless, cold, and composed -
November 6, 2000 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot. Winter finally showed up, kinda. It's about damn time.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
Don't have much to talk about, game wise, so here's an
interesting philosophical conundrum: I wear contacts most of the
time, and glasses the rest of the time, because I have really,
really bad eyesight. (In the neighborhood of 20/800, although
strangely enough with contacts that jumps to 15/20, better than
normal.)
But my question is, if I go through life with pieces of plastic over my
eyes all the time, am I ever really seeing anything but those
pieces of plastic? Do I ever really see the world at all, or is everything
just an illusion? What if the real world is actually different than what
gets bent and twisted through my lenses, such that green is red and tall
is short? How bored am I that I'd even consider asking these questions,
and is there any hope at all for me now that I have? Will the estate of
Rene Descartes and various Eastern philosophies sue me for stealing their
bit? Who knows?
Onward.
| A rant by Zen... and
the promise of another! |
| Well, the N64 weenies down the hall agreed to lend me their
PSX indefinitely, so I've been catching up on a few of the old greats
(although my copy of Chrono Cross isn't working, confound it!). I've
been playing through Metal Gear Solid a few times, and I must say that
its music is mentioned remarkably infrequently.
And the reason for this is simple: it really only has a
handful of tracks, and those tracks aren't anything you're going to
listen to intently. But they do something that more music in video
games ought to. Just like Dancing Mad from FF6 (a piece that goes on
the boss battle music short list, and deserves its own performance
with real instruments), the choral and piano themes from MGS manage to
fit whatever is happening on screen. They're repeated ad nauseam
throughout the game, yet the player never grows weary of them.
And since someone mentioned Terranigma, I have to put in my
ten cents there as well. That game had few good tunes in it: the map
themes for the underworld and overworld, the resurrection theme, the
dock theme, and the carnival theme are probably a complete list. The
incredibly boring boss battle music was NOT helped by the fact that
the boss battles took about a day each to complete. Oh, man... Bloody
Mary... I'll rant about THAT business some other time.
Until then,
- Zen |
I'm definitely amazed that this topic's lasted as long as it has,
and a little overwhelmed too since I was running out of things to say
about game music on Friday and things haven't improved since. But in
the interests of putting some kind of response here, I'll
say...
Well, ok then.
| I think it's about a
jewel that cannot be stolen, or something... |
| Hello.
I recently bought the Chrono Cross OST. It took me half a year to save up
for the thing (it cost $55.95 in Singaporean dollars, and my parents don't
generally approve of CDs), but I think it was worth it anyway.
The only thing is, the little booklet that comes with it is completely in
Japanese.
I happen to be, also completely, Japanese-illiterate. The only characters I
can read are those that coincide with the Chinese language.
I've searched all over the place for a translation for the contents of that
booklet, and have so far drawn a blank. I suppose asking for a translation
of everything in it is going a bit too far, but what I really want is the
translated lyrics of Radical Dreamers - The Jewel That Cannot be
Stolen.
Okay. Can anyone tell me what the song means, or where I can find an
English version of the lyrics? I think not to know what the song's about
doesn't do it justice -- it's really a beautiful song.
Thanks.
- WindSprite |
All I can say is, welcome to the club. Most of the OSTs I own have
some sort of interview with the composer on the inside, but I don't
know nearly enough Japanese to even get the track names most of the
time. So with the lone exception of the FF8 OST transcription that
someone pointed me to, I've missed out on that entire aspect of the
collection. Frankly I don't even think it's that big a deal, since I really
can't see getting a game OST unless the music was good enough to stand
out on its own.
However, it's also worth asking around for. Anybody out there that
can help this guy with a link or a quick back-of-the-envelope
transcription?
It was so sad when that
thing happened to that possibly important character...
*MGS and FF7 spoilers* |
| Dear Sir,
Derek's letter reminded me of something. Ninjas death in MGS almost made me
cry, whereas Aeriths death just made me say 'eh.. too bad'. Maybe because I
saw Aeriths from a mile away.
Gilbert |
I'm pleased to say that Aeris's death was not spoiled for me prior
to playing the game, but though I honestly didn't see it coming, it
didn't hit me as hard as it's apparently hit others either, mainly
because while I liked Aeris as a character I wasn't madly in love
with her either.
As for Ninja, I always felt like I missed out on too much by not
playing the real Metal Gear 2 to get seriously involved in his death.
Still a pretty cool character, however, and he made Naomi's plot that much
more interesting.
| One more music letter,
just for the heck of it |
| I was going to leave this topic alone, but I saw no representation of
Square's best composer at all. Plainly, I'm not referring to Mitsuda.
I'm talking about Kenji Ito, who I don't think even works there anymore
(or at least, hasn't done much for them in awhile). If you don't know
what he did, Ito was responsible for, at the very least, Romancing SaGa
1-3 and SaGa Frontier. I think, though not positive, that he also did
SaGa 1-3 and Final Fantasy Adventure (okay okay... Seiken Densetsu).
I can't say that the compositions are as "complex" or "layered" or any
other musical terms like that, as some of the other composers are. For
me, the quality of the music has nothing to do with the complexity of
composition and everything to do with my own personal taste. I'm sure
many people don't like Ito's stuff, but I sure do. I love the swelling
trumpet chords and dancing stringlines. Hearing the brass he uses gives
me goosebumps. I enjoy SaGa Frontier very much, not because it's a good
game (it's horrid), but because the music makes up for it and draws me
in. And it's all in a way unique to myself. I won't pretend to
understand or analyze the depths of the tune because in the end none of
that matters. You listen with your ear and I don't think your brain
gives you much choice about what you like and what you don't. My
mother, a music major in university, refuses to believe that one can
like music for no particular reason. I just can't agree with that view.
For what it's worth, the other two games that leap to mind in terms of
musical quality are Valkyrie Profile which has the best regular battle
theme ever tracked, and Dance Dance Revolution (all mixes) which just
has music totally appropriate to the activity.
~gaspump |
I've completely forgotten about the original SF's soundtrack, so can't
comment here. On the other hand, the more I listen to the Saga Frontier 2's
OST the more I like it, and I liked it enough in the original game to
blow $40 bucks on the soundtrack. Take that for what it's worth.
| RFC... er, I mean,
RFZ... |
|
Chris,
Yeah, I know you probably won't read this until Monday, but all the better.
I was wondering... since it's been a good week and a half since Zelda came
out, that can only mean one thing: those of us with light course loads have
already beaten it. The last thing I want to do is spoil the ending for everyone,
so what say you let us know when you get around to beating the game, so
we can share our opinions? Something along the lines of the Chrono Cross columns.
Take your time, though. I'm still trying to max out my heart containers :)
------
Ed Ruane, only 20 containers left. Oh boy... |
Right now I'm done with the Swamp temple and working my way through
Snowhead (gotta love that name) so I assume it'll be at least another
week before I'm done... although I do hope to be through by the time
FF9 comes out. Still, it is, as always, up to you guys when you want
to discuss things like this. So if you have any strong opinions on if
and when you'd like to see MM discusssion, send 'em this way.
Closing Comments:
You know, I think it's about time we had a week off from topics,
mostly because I'm to hyped up about the election tomorrow to think of
something now. So we'll have a whole week of write-what-thou-wilt,
with the exception of a reader suggested topic for Thursday.
Meanwhile, I'm gonna go home and plug into CNN. Later.
-Chris Jones, smiling like a
bank teller |
