Double Agent
To mellow for our tastes - June 10, 2001 - Drew Cosner

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Bang. Don't say we didn't warn you.


You know, between myself and all of the other people who've been DA at one point or another, I think we've just about exhausted every possible way of cleverly disguising our lack of anything worthwhile to say in the intro. So I guess I'll just concede defeat and get this show on the road.

Can't these things go any faster?

Why in the world do the themes to Final Fantasy games have to be so. slow?

I'll admit that Melodies of Life was good, seeing how it was used in the game and you could relate it to the characters, and even yourself.

On the other hand, Eyes on Me was pretty much used in the scene in which What's His Name and Asian girl crashed in the space ship. The game could have lived without it.

Final Fantasy has some sentimental elements, but is mostly fast paced battles, monster summons, government plots, cruel villains, and pretty girls in distress.

They need to make a theme that reflects all this, more exciting, faster, and with more vibrant vocals. Probably some sort of rock or bubble gum pop tune...

And if they really want a slow song, keep it till the ending credits. Use a faster one near the beginning or during the intro FMV.

If not, just keep it all orchestral like Williams and Star Wars.


This seems to be the general concensus on Suteki Da Ne. And, honestly, I'd tend to agree. But I should admit that if a song doesn't have a liberal spattering of power chords, I generally don't like it, so take my viewpoint with a grain of salt.

Still, the idea of a gritty, futuristic RPG with a poundin' rock soundtrack is enough to get me daydreaming. Just thought I'd say that.

Damn this peaceful crap!

The new FF theme, 'Sutdeki Da Ne' doesnt seem to bad. But im getting sick and tired of this peaceful crap. I mean why cant the FF theme be an alternative song or whatever, sung by an american/canadian band? Dont get me wrong, there are alot of great japanese singers. But sometimes I want what I grew up with in my games. Eyes on Me, Melodies of Life, Sutdeki Da Ne, there all just to peaceful. All sung by the main female character (not sure about Sutdeki Da Ne though). Why cant one of the characters be in a band and play some other style of music, or something to that extent. This peaceful stuff is getting a wee-bit annoying. Although this really has nothing to do with Sutdeki Da Ne, the Metal Gear Solid theme kicks ass.! Squaresoft should get together with Konami! ^_^

Sincerely

Jessie Lange


Just trying to add authority to my own opinions by posting letters that back them up. Hope you don't mind.

Damn his ceaseless prattering! #1

Sounds nice. I like it. For all the craptastic 45 seconds and Japanese bastard speaking in the foreground. Go me. Yay.

Damn his ceaseless prattering! #2

I'd love to tell you what I thought of the next Final Fantasy vocal theme, except I couldn't hear it over some damn Japanese guy who WOULDN'T SHUT THE HELL UP.


I thought about saying that was part of the song just to get people going, but considering the tradition with pranks we have around here at the GIA, I realized nobody with more than 4 active brain cells would believe me. You people aren't just jaded gamers, you're jaded GIA readers!

When will you learn to keep your finger off that button?

Yo Drew,

Ya know, all these stories of people happily spending their love lives "cuddling against the other as they smite monsters in Phantasy Star Online" and all that makes me so DAMN AND UTTERLY...sad. What a perfect relationship! I mean, almost nothing can go wrong there..if handle in the right way. Think about it! If you both live in the game world, then you can live your relationship out like a game! You can be that Squall and Rinoa, or that Zidane and Garnet! Yea! Thats the way to be!

~Numaro , who probably shouldn't have pressed the 'write new mail' button.


I had to print this letter to represent all of the others like it in backlash to yesterday's column. I hope all of you with happy gaming relationships are aware of the way your happiness makes others feel. Although I doubt that, since all you obviously care about are yourselves. Bastards.

Ms. Creep?

Apologies for sending this in rather late, but I thought yesterday's topic was quite interesting and wanted to throw my own two cents into the fountain.

The year : 1999. The Millenium was nearly upon us, Pearl Jam still got played on the radio, and the X-Files was in it's sixth season. Things seemed to be much happier back then - I was but a young lass of 17, fresh from playing FF7 for the first time. Driven by a madness to know more about the game and it's varied characters, I got onto our new, internet-capable computer, and wormed my way to a message board. Little did I know how much this message board was going to change my fate.

This was no ordinarly message board, you see. This was the now-defunct Squaresoft Fan HQ Forum. It was THE Forum to those of us who hung out there, and it consumed my social life from the inside out. I didn't have many friends in the real world anyways, and the tightly-knit community I discovered there drew me like a moth to a flame.

I eventually became one of the group, and while I was there, I met a guy. We flirted a bit on the boards, and after awhile became a couple - even though said guy was in Britain and I was in Texas.

After about six months of courting the guy flew over and we met, and you know what? We hit it off just as much in RL as we did on that message board. And we've been together for two years as of this typing. He's playing my copy of FFT with an obsessive quality at the moment, as we're both very happy.

I think I just need to thank the creators of the Final Fantasy series. Without you guys, I would have never met my soulmate, and I don't know where I might be today. So...um...thanks.

-Negative Creep


I print this letter because I was surprised to find out that the Negative Creep wasn't a guy. Now I'm going to have to invent an entirely new mental voice when reading your letters; the drunken Irish brogue I've been using isn't going to fit anymore, I don't think.

What's with these tunes?

Suteki da ne? I don't have a problem with it at all. Pretty average as songs go.

What I DO have a problem with is all the other music that's going into FFX.

I'm sure all you guys that went to E3 can agree that it's a little bizarre to have a PS2 controller in your hands, look up and see beautiful 128-bit graphics, but hear MIDI tunes and "bu-dink!" sound effects that haven't changed since FF6.

You're workin with DVD here Square, there's no reason why you can't have arranged red-book audio for the soundtrack. Xenosaga has 2 DVDs of Mitsuda and the Philharmonic Orchestra powering the tunes. At least Namco knows what's going on...

-Duncan Burris


I'd tend to agree, although the stuff shown at E3 did show a bit of improvement over past efforts, technically speaking, and it's entirely possible some of it was just placeholder, thrown together for the show. Still, I have a feeling we're going to get stuck with yet another Final Fantasy with amazing graphics, great characters and plot, and music that sounds like somebody really tricked out an SNES sound chip.

Here's your explanation.

Werd

Opinions of Suteki da na from what we have heard of it?? From the precious few seconds we could hear in the clip? One can't really say. It sounds Final Fantasy enough, but I will wait until a better clip is out to make any more judgment on it.

By the way, to anyone who has downloaded a song called "Suteki da ne" from Napster of wherever, be warned, that is not the Final Fantasy song. It is a song of the same title by a Japanese group called Kiroro.

~Left Shoe


I got another letter from someone upset that they'd been tricked into downloading a fake FFX song; for everyone wondering what the deal is, here's your explanation.

The Jabberer

Hi Drew,

http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/oldvsnew.htm

I know this is off-topic, but I found this little opinion interesting.. What do you think?

Just to pretend I'm on topic, I found Sudeki Da Ne pretty good... for the 10 seconds I could actually HEAR it without that guy jabbering.. Who is that anyways? If it's some bigshot Squaresoft guy, feel free to mock me.

-Blarg

P.S. 8-bit Theatre (the comic) r0xx0rs!


This link is pretty opinionated, and I'm lazy; combine these two factors and what do you get? Why, me passing this off as tomorrow's topic so I don't have to think up one! So let Chris know what you think about this essay, a'ight?

Closing comments:

You've seen your topic; now mail Chris, and maybe I'll think about not feeding your goldfish to death everytime you leave the house, like you keep asking.

-Drew Cosner, space cowboy

 
Recent Columns  
06.09.01
06.08.01
06.07.01
Double Agent Archives
I contact the Agent because I'm a badass!