Boy, do I miss being able to see

Pardon me as I lean into my monitor while I type this. I couldn't find my glasses yesterday morning - I always leave them in one of three or so places before I go to bed, and if they're not in one of those spots when I wake up, they're as lost as can be. Going onto my third day without glasses now, and I can tell my eyes are tired of not being able to focus. It doesn't really hamper my ability to get around all that much, but trying to read anything a professor writes on a chalkboard is much tougher work than it should be.

Anyways, to cut to the chase this time, I'm gonna link you all to an AMV. (EDIT: That's "anime music video" for those of you who don't dabble in the same spheres of nerdery that I do) Most of you probably don't know this, but AMVs have been a hobby of mine for about four years now. Over this time, I've noticed that the amount of overlap between this hobby and video game music is pretty rare. Other than the occasional Final Fantasy vocal song (ugh), VGM just doesn't find its way into AMVs too often. Probably because VGM is kind of a niche to begin with, so making a cross-product with another niche hobby isn't gonna get you much, period.

Anyways, you can find the video here.* The music featured is Battle Hymn of the Soul from the Persona 3 soundtrack (or so I'm told, as I don't follow Persona music), and the featured video source is one of the .hack games (which I also don't follow for reasons I alluded to in my previous post). Unless I'm missing something due to not having played the games, it's nothing incredibly deep, just a straightforward action video. It's not legendary material by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a worthwhile watch and might strike home for those of you particularly attached to either source.

Besides, I always feel obligated to educate the audience whose only AMV experience is the trash that so pervasively litters YouTube.

On a slightly related and more personal note, I think I may have an idea for a video involving the Secret of Evermore soundtrack. But I'll keep that one under wraps for now.

* If you have trouble figuring out how to get the video, just scroll down to where it says "DIRECT" in big green letters and click to download.

Castlevania!

I've been bitten buy the Castlevania bug recently... it all started when I picked up a copy of Akumajo Dracula Best last month and has continued into this month with the purchase of Best 2 and a Lament of Innocence Sampler.

The Lament of Innocence Sampler may seem like an odd purchase, especially considering the soundtrack was in my possession early last year but with two discs it seemed heavy with material/tracks I really didn't want - especially the second disc. The sampler contains the majority of the compositions I found enjoyable - if "Statue Enchanted by the Darkness" was there it be prefect but 7 out of 8 isn't bad at all. I don't want the whole soundtrack again but want to have access to certain tracks like "Melancholy Joachim," the main stage themes and "Lament of Innocence (Leon's Theme)." In this case the sampler will do just fine.

This brings us to the other soundtrack with which Lament shares space on the sampler: Symphony of the Night. Now, don't get me wrong - Nocturne has a great score and it really stood out to me when first playing the game years ago but I can't help but feel like some off the allure has dulled over the years. Thinking about it on a deeper level, the vast array of styles presented is often seen as one of the soundtracks strengths' but now seems to be somewhat of a weakness. I don't know... the right mood has to strike to listen to it and that isn't as often as one would expect.

The recently released soundtrack for the Dracula X Chronicles is more or less in the same boat. What is presented is enjoyable but those endless questions of if the appeal meant to last or if it's only a personal fad is a tad irksome. Still, all is well as the score for Super Castlevania IV has me in its dark and moody clutches. Can't. Stop. Listening. A new personal favorite if anything and even the gameboy scores from Best 2 are starting to sink into my subconscious - damn you "New Messiah (Glass Castle BGM)!"

Regardless, the fight against the legions of darkness is one hell of an auditory ride! Definately need to check out some more scores.

A first impression for the ages

So I have this problem with compulsive spending. I'll be browsing the used game rack at the local Gamestop, and I'll see a game with anime art on the cover and something looking vaguely like an RPG in the screenshots on the back. If it's twenty bucks or less, guaranteed I'm walking out of the store with it. This is the story of how I've acquired many games, some of them unpopular gems like Unlimited SaGa. On the other end of the spectrum, though, we have Forever Kingdom.

Now, in my last post here I ragged on some choice music, namely Dancing Mad and the KoF01 OST. Much to my own surprise, I'm going to have to say those compositions sound like masterpieces in comparison to the music for the opening FMV for Forever Kingdom. I mean, the song has several lines of music going on at once, but none of them are in time with each other. My ears have never been so confused where it's felt like it was being yanked by three different chains going in three completely separate directions. It was like the world's laziest mash-up, or something like that. And of course, the in-game music is no better. This is seriously the only game (other than, of course, the dreaded KoF01) where the music has been so bad, it's distracted me from playing the game.

But hey, the bad first impression doesn't end there. Start the game, and we get a boring narration from a voice actor stiff as a statue. Cut to the actual game, and you're greeted by three characters with some of the worst designs I've ever seen. The two males are as generic as can be, with the only remarkable differences being hair color and a scarf. The female isn't much different, only she's wearing a god damn net over her clothes. Like the designers made her and said, "Oh crap, we need to make her more unique. Uh, throw a net over her and we'll call it a day." I know people will rag on designs like FFX's Tidus, calling him outlandish, asymmetrical, and clowny, but at least there's some sense of direction there. In Forever Kingdom, we just have a net thrown on top of the normal clothes. And no, it's not the sexy fishnet that Naruto author Kishimoto seems to like so much, it's just sitting there on top of the clothes.

But hey, it's just not an RPG of the current generation if I can't play until I've been bored out of my mind first, right? The opening cut-scene (which looks absolutely atrocious, might I add) takes another good two or three minutes, rife with voice acting ranging from bored to flat. To give credit where it's due, it's not quite as bad as Magna Carta, but I definitely wish I could turn it off. When I finally get the play the game, I realize that the developers couldn't even make walking a non-painful experience. For those of you who ever played Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy online and remembered what it was like to watch yourself lag while running, it's just like that. The characters don't take steps, they teleport two inches in front of them while kind of moving their legs.

And combat? I never thought I'd run into a system inherently worse than the .hack system (seriously, I have to go into a menu to do anything other than a basic attack?), but here we go. Mash X until you build meter to do your special move. Switch characters, repeat. Once all three character have their moves, you can chain them together, except for the fact that the two characters you aren't controlling are guaranteed to get stuck behind fences, doghouses, or you. Almost a novel idea, but Valkyrie Profile beat them to the punch, and they actually made it good.

Forever Kingdom is seriously the first game I've ever played where I shut off my system after just ten minutes of playing it. I tried again for another half hour, but I realized I was just banging my head against a brick wall. I'm really bad with years, so I'm not sure what other RPGs came out in the same time, but a quick run to GameFAQs tells me this game was the same year as Final Fantasy X. I'm not saying FFX is a masterpiece or anything, but using it as a bar to be measured against, it's like Forever Kingdom intentionally dug a pit for itself and jumped right in.

But this is a weblog about video game music right? I tried to see if there was a soundtrack for this game, and unsurprisingly enough, there isn't one that either Chudah's Corner or GMR has listed. Unfortunately, this probably means I'll never figure out who the composer is, so I can never personally fly to his place of residence and slap him into next week.

Not every cloud has a silver lining, it seems.

Soundtracks I'd like to see (but probably won't)

The start of a new year brings about new possibilities. This also goes for VGM as well, but what about those games with great music that don't have official soundtrack releases or those that do but are half-baked? Well, one can dream can't they? Anyway, here are some efforts I'd like to see get an official release even though in most cases they aren't going to happen:

Ninja Gaiden & Ninja Gaiden Part II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES)
While part one did receive a soundtrack release in 1989 with Tecmo's G.S.M. series the lack of reasonable looping structure for the smaller tracks – of which there are many – somewhat robs some of the enjoyment that can be found in this music - even with the various sound enhancements. Really, 40 seconds of a song like "Reflection" and 10 seconds of something like "Like a Hurricane" is hardly what I'd call giving this wonderful score justice. As powerful as part one's music was - tracks like "Tagic Fate" and "Dilemma - The Battle of Ordeals" being so poignant its scary - part II's music was great as well. Playing both games for the first time years ago on the NES it amazed me how well Tecmo and the composers were able to drive the story in these classic side scrollers with the combination of music and story scenes; I still get goosebumps from the opening intro piece to this day when Asthar receives word of Jaquio's defeat from one of his henchmen and declares his evil intentions. I could really care less about part III though.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles (Genesis)
Seriously, this is long overdue considering Rockman has done much since his last two anniversaries to bring fans up to speed. Coupled this with Sega's track record releasing more recent Sonic music and there is little excuse. Sure, the 10th Anniversary/Sonic 3 soundtracks are out there - if you can find them - but nothing says "sorry for the wait" like a nice big box set.

Tomb Raider (PSX, Saturn)
Okay, there "technically" is a "soundtrack" for Tomb Raider since the game uses redbook audio (outside the music for the FMV's and the ending) but I would seriously shell out for a separate soundtrack release. Last year's Tomb Raider Anniversary revisits many of Nathan McCree's original compositions while adding a lot of new material but for the most part it's that overdone orchestral stuff that's a bit too dramatic and commonplace today - I'd take the simplistic in comparison touch the original had any day of the week despite its short length and reserved in-game usage. My advice: make a soundtrack containing both scores - it would be really nice to have official names for the tracks in the original score even though there is already a nice fan concocted tracklisting out there for it. Unfortunately, PC users missed out in 1996 as most of the music was absent due to CD-ROM access issues that would have caused the game to freeze while loading the music.

Goldeneye (N64)
I'm not a big first person shooter fan, probably because I'm terrible at them (me in multiplayer always ='s being pwned) but along with the soundtrack for Doom (especially the music from the SNES version) this is one of the soundtracks from the genre I'd love to have/see. A track like "Severnaya Installation (Day)" is so beautiful it just beyond words... it's just that freakin’ great. No offense against Perfect Dark but it gets a soundtrack and Goldeneye doesn't? That's a raw deal if anything.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, XBox)
Take Rockman: The Power Battle, Rockman 2: The Power Fighters and the remainder of the remixed music for Rockman 4 through 6 and make a box out of it. Yeah, this isn't going to happen but the music from Complete Works is definitely worthy of being pressed on disc - I only wish Capcom would have taken the time to remix the remaining music from Rockman 1~3 to make the music in those games flush in the collection – having regular and remixed music within the same game took the presentation down a notch.

Those are my "big five" - or at least the ones I can think of off hand. The most likely of any of those happening is the Sonic one which most would definately welcome. Anyway, what scores would you like to see if the bodies of the cosmos amazingly lined up in your favor?