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. Fine, yes, "All your base are belong to us" has escaped into the mainstream. Good riddance. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Something I didn't get a chance to mention yesterday: the FF Movie portraits. I'm quite certain they don't do the actual animation justice, but at the same time I was surprised at how completely boring everyone looked. When all's said and done, these people have the same complete lack of personality as the make-a-face of a Might and Magic hero. Even the generic soldier head shots in FFT had far more humanity and warmth to them. But for now, I'm just gonna hope that having decent voice actors step into the rolls will turn these dead-eyed shells in to real people.

Onward.

That's really more thought given to the issue than any sane person should have given to it.. but I gotta say, there are some damn cool ideas there, and some combinations I would have never thought of (or wanted to).

Come On Pilgrim, I think you're making a Gigantic mistake to think that any of us Doolittle enough not ever to have heard of the Bossanova Trompe Le Monde of the Pixies.

Ok, that was lame, but it was all I could think of, and I really wanted to get a Pixies letter in. Sue me.

One of the bonus side effects of having this topic is seeing how many people sent in letters suggesting their favorite band, quite certain that no one else in the world knows about them, when in reality every other letter was about that band. Ok, so I didn't get that many letters about Failure, but they're hardly that unknown... heck, I seem to have done the best job of anybody of having obscure tastes in music, since nobody else at all mentioned Dire Straits, despite the fact that Romeo & Juliet's just about the greatest love song ever.

And good grief, yes, of course I've read The Gunslinger series. I like a lot of King's work: I've read through The Stand more times than I care to admit. It's not Watership Down, but it's close. At the same time, I can't look at the guy and say he's a good writer, but I will say that a lot of the stiff he does write is compelling enough so that you don't care.

Hmm... the thing is, I don't remember anybody in any of the Kain games dancing... and Raziel isn't really dead, he's sort of dead dead. Still, could work.

Nick raises an excellent point, and one that I won't argue with, although I will say it's incomplete. A lot of game music is superb, and as the above letter points out, does a great job of conveying a specific mood. However, just about any game music collection breaks down because it's done by one composer (or a tightly knit team) and even as it strives for range, it can't quite pull it off.

The CC OST's probably the greatest soundtrack I've ever heard, but it can't escape the fact that it's Mitsuda's brain child. The delicate village pieces sound like Mitsuda delicate village pieces, the vibrant intro sounds like a Mitsuda vibrant intro, and the rock opera sounds like a Mitsuda rock opera. in some ways this is good, but there are times in a game where a drastic change of pace and perspective is needed, where the game stops being about a kid searching for a trivial relic and starts being about a man fighting for everything good in his life. And at that point, completely different music would do wonders to help illustrate situation. Shelve the Mitsuda, crank up the Garbage, in other words.

Tch tch... JP, you're projecting your own bishounen fixation at me again. And I'm flattered, really, but I'm just not interested. Sorry.

I do like Ozric because of their more laid back sound. For heavy duty techno to move me, it has to really move me - it has to be very fast, and very dense, and very loud, and make me feel like the entire universe just jumped to light speed. Most game music fails miserably at this, which shouldn't be surprising, since, let's face it, if those composers could make that kind of music, they wouldn't bother tying it to a game to begin with. Ozric Tentacles have a sense of fun that you don't often see, and while I can't really imagine what it'd be like to put them in a shooter, I'd like to see them try.

And for all of those people who wrote in about how great Enya would be in an RPG, it's JP that trashed her, not me. Go firebomb his house, ok?

Good call. Not a lot more to say. Next!

I'd actually love to see some serious music in games. Not that I have anything against pop/rock/electronica/etc., but I'm not enough of a philistine to suggest that, from a pure music standpoint, it can really hold a candle to many of the people above.

And I'd love to say more, but my mind can't quite get past the insanely brilliant mismatch of Philip Glass and Resident Evil. Lady, what on earth have you been smoking?

Rushkoff's pretty good, but media criticism for me is like a heavy sushi meal - excellent every once in a while, but not something you want too much of.

And your mention of FF Pray, or any FF remix album, is interesting. I've thought for a while that one thing that'd strengthen game music is to have fewer, but better, tracks. A remix track is often far more powerful than the original, and in many cases I'd probably be a lot happier to have just background noise for most of the game, and a really killer piece of music just when the story demands it. If RPG battles were real, all the fighters would likely hear is the sound of weapons colliding and the occasional gust of wind, so why should a game be any different?

I don't much care for anything the DMB's done recently, but I do think the idea of having a more Western spin on cheesy love songs is an intriguing one. Of course, since the games are made in Japan it's unlikely ever to happen, but one can dream... in this column, at least.

Judging by your musical tastes, you must be in your mid-50's, which makes you pretty much the oldest person I've ever received a letter from. So thank you for that, sir. And now I'll have someone help you out to your car, since I know your eyesight isn't what it used to be.

Closing Comments:

Good col today. For tomorrow, I do believe we'll turn our attention to the GBA. Between the new Castlevania and the return of some old favorites (the real F-Zero) the GBA's feeling like a palm-sized SNES... and that makes me very happy, for some reason. So send me your thoughts on the matter, and I'll see you tomorrow. Later.

-Chris Jones, still thinks Alison Krauss has the best voice anywhere. Anywhere.