I [Heart] Wild Arms 2nd Ignition

In my last post I talked about the Wild Arms XF soundtrack and how some of that old magic I use to feel about the series was somewhat rekindled. This time I want to talk about the magic that is still there, even after all these years.

After writing about the Wild Arms XF soundtrack I couldn't help but start writing about the Wild Arms 2nd Ignition soundtrack. That in turn made me crack out the game and play it again. At first I was afraid I wasn't going to be as entertained as I was by it in the past considering all its shortcomings and less than bright and shiny presentation that accompanied most Squaresoft games in 2000. Also against me was my waning interest in games having sold most of my games off last year.

All my fears were obliterated as even fifty hours later this game still flippin rocks. All that's left to do is fill out the bestiary, beat the optional/hidden bosses for the best weapons and get two more Necronomicons (an accessory that increases a characters magic by 150).

Anyway, I can't wait to fire up the original Wild Arms after I finish WA2.

Most of the time, YouTube will dump crap on you...

...which is why the one in a million exception is so sweet.

I recently ran into a excellent remix of Beats In My Head (that would be Elena's stage from Street Fighter 3: Third Strike) by a YouTube user named SkullKidd. You can find the remix in question here. Frankly, it's not a particularly bold or daring arrangement, but it's a fine example of how a small alteration in drumwork can tune a song - the playing with vocal samples sure don't hurt either. Granted, this guy is no DJ Shadow or even a Ronald Jenkees, but I can smell some talent rising from his fingertips. My instinct tells me some time to develop will produce an excellent remixer.

SkullKidd has also posted a few more bits of music on his profile. His remixes Jazzy NYC (Smooth Mix) and Psycho Chaos Bison Remix come highly recommended.

Is the magic returning?

As a Wild Arms fan, the Playstation 2 era has been an extremely trying time. I'm not going to sit here and say the four outings on the system (3, ACF, 4 and 5) were bad musically or game wise, yet there is a part of me that just has to admit Media.Vision has yet to top the original Wild Arms or it's first sequel Wild Arms 2.

While I miss Naruke being at the helm of the series music in a certain sense it doesn't really matter: I found WIld Arms 3 soundtrack extremely bloated as she tried to take her style to the next level given the advancement in technology. Some may knock Naruke's earlier works for being somewhat simple yet this is what I feel made them so accessible. ACF more or less struck in the middle of these two extremes thus gave a mixed result; the new tracks dwarfing most of those with a history. After this, as most know, Naruke's appearances have been few and far between as she fell ill. As for Wild Arms 4 and 5, I can literally take ten discs worth of music and fit those I enjoy on one disc or less. Yes, that is pretty cutthroat...

So, as pessimistic as all this seems I didn't have high hopes for Wild Arms XF at all. I figured it would maintain the series sound and nothing else. Boy was I wrong. Don't get the wrong idea, the music for Wild Arms XF isn't the second coming for the series' music, but I'll be damned if it isn't the best soundtrack the series has seen in a good, long time. The most surprising thing was that this was music for a strategy RPG... something I learned after hearing the soundtrack since I hadn't read up on the game - after Wild Arms 5 I decided not to follow the games themselves anymore.

Anyway, as fanboyish as it may sound if you haven't given WIld Arms music a look recently or it fell out of favor with your tastes as it did mine I'd recommend giving the Wild Arms XF soundtrack a shot.

The appeal of never ending.

I can be an indecisive dude sometimes. I can't tell you how many times I've put on an album and then, mid-song, have had the urge to listen to another song or skip around or put on an entirely new disc. It's not because I am not enjoying what I'm hearing; I just want to hear more. I always want to hear more. I wish I had several different sets of ears and just as many brains so I could listen to a bunch of stuff at the same time and take it all in simultaneously. That set-up would suit me better than these clunky ol' pierced musician ears and the tiny little dusty clump of gray matter I have in my thick skull.

There is one type of album that I do not have the urge to skip around, and that is the type of CD where tracks bleed and blend into one another, those listening journeys where scenes and sounds merge into one long experience that can only be summed up as such. You hop aboard at 0:00:01 and hang on for a non-stop ride through the disc, not knowing where one track ends and the next begins. Those albums are truly a gift, and I have a deep respect for those types of discs.

VGM-wise, think of the Silent Hill OST. For 36 tracks, this disc is a living, breathing, angry ambient beast that deserves a full, complete listen. You can't put the disc on and hop around back and forth from "Claw Finger" to "Moonchild" to "Children Kill" and be like, "Yeah, that has some good tunes". No, no, no, dammit! See, Hiroki Kikuta had it all down proper when he arranged Secret of Mana+. That album is one track that's upwards of 50 minutes long because that's how he wanted the disc to be. It would lose some of its effectiveness and impact if it was broken down into a bunch of tracks that you could simply skip through. SOM+ is an excellent disc that can only be taken in as it was meant to be taken in - one, big, deep listen that identifies the album as an album, not a collection of songs. You could ask me when song A turns into song B into song C on that disc, and I would have no friggin' idea. I don't care to; I just take it all in and I don't even touch the volume, let alone any other button, while I listen. When the disc stops spinning and the little mechanical arms and lenses and whatever the hell else in that radio makes my CDs stop moving, that's when I stop listening. It's not just a CD or a VGM arrange album - it's an experience.

Lately, I've been listening to some DJ mix albums that have that same type of appeal; one song becomes another becomes another becomes another until the disc ends and I'm just sitting there thinking, what the hell just happened? Lately, I can't sit there and enjoy a full song. I skip. I'll go to the next song after the loop. I'll get bored. But, I'll be damned; if I put on one of Dave Seaman's new Therapy Sessions discs or Nick Warren's GH #024 or Adam Freeland's essential mix, I will listen to the whole album and I will not have an urge to stop for any reason. The exact opposite will happen - I will stop doing other things so I can continue to listen. I will pull into my driveway and will turn the car off and will sit in that driver's seat until the album stops. The appeal of having an album mixed together as one long track is huge, and as such I can respect it more than a disc that just has a bunch of tracks in sequence. Instead of short, little rides, these albums are one huge trip. No stops. No layovers. No skipping around.

Never, ever trust popular opinion, seriously.

In my time as a fan of video game music, I have to say that one of the most universally maligned soundtracks I've ever come across is the one belonging to Marvel vs Capcom 2. I mean, the fact that the soundtrack is frequently modded by its players should say enough by itself, nevermind the fact that people put stuff like The Sound Of Music in there.

Either way, MvC2 is one of my favorite Capcom soundtracks, but everyone I run into says it just doesn't "fit the feel of the game". For now, I'll choose to ignore the fact that most people who say that don't even know how to play the game, but I also have to mention that they always go and cite the Marvel vs Capcom soundtrack in contrast as being much better. Now that I've actually played that god-forsaken game (I don't even want to HEAR Wolverine's infinite ever again), my only reaction is...

"People pass up MvC2's music for this?"

I have no clue what it is. Maybe people get way too hung up on MvC2's admittedly annoying character select music. Maybe people are just too attuned to melody-driven music to give anything else a shot. Whatever it is, I don't get it.

I Love But Hate

Sorry if I haven't written anything in a long time, I recently started a new job and I'm still getting into the groove of things. Anyway, the other night I saw a commerical for FFVII Crisis Core on TV and I though I'd talk about FFVII - the game and music.

It's no secret that FFVII was one of the first games I got for the PS1 (the other was Tomb Raider II) and was one of the reasons I decided to forgo getting an N64. From Jr. High/Middle School to High School I sunk uncountable hours into the game on multiple walk throughs. My friends and I would have competitions to see who could have the most powerful party at the earliest point in the game - if you think having Bolt 2 and all your characters limit breaks (exc. lvl.4) before leaving Midgar on disc one is crazy (and stupid) or being a lvl 60 at Mt. Nibel look no futher.

However, I haven't touched the game since then (2004) and to be prefectly honest there is a part of me that wouldn't be upset if I never played the game again. Why? The game is still so engraved in my head to this day I wouls still know where everything is and what to do. Another part of it is I'm a little annoyed by the massive following (and pricetag) the game garners, and while I admit it was and is an important game there is a point where you need to let bygones be bygones and not defend things like your life depends on it like some feel the need to do. Let's face it, even some of the best games are flawed.

The same goes for the soundtrack, which I put off buying for two and a half years. Yes, next to every VGM should have this soundtrack in their collection and I've been enjoying this greatly as of late - I personally never tire of "Anxious Heart" - but there's a point like the game where if it was of other name it you just know it wouldn't be as revered. One-Winged Angel's popularity also bugs me; don't get me wrong, I like the track but have to scratch my head as to how/why it's reached the lofty heights it's reached.

Anyway, Final Fantasy VII (game and music) are great in their own right and have secured there place in history - which I respect - but one has to wonder if looking at things objectively is for the birds.

Also, a gold star for whoever can name where the title of this post is from.

RPG's and RPG Soundtracks

Excuse the bluntness that follows but regardless of how I write the following it's going to come off as a rant.

It just may be me, but when it comes to the music in RPGs today it seems so much harder to dig in, especially when you're presented with huge 4+ disc set. In the past I use to believe in the idea that more =s better but this is ideology is deeply flawed if anything and I come to acknowledge it. If anything, more usually =s more filler. Anyway, sry for repeating what everybody probably already knows.