PixlBit

Oh Japan....

Glad you pointed that one out.  It's quite good!

I think there are exceptions to the rule about older soundtracks.  Some examples that really stick out in my mind are Nier and the recent Elder Scrolls games, which I've already mentioned.  Also, the more I play Xenoblade, the more I love the score of that game.  It's much more melodic than the typical orchestral score, and even tracks that aren't favorites of mine grow on me.  My kids even commented on the music.  When a 9 year old stops to just listen to music, you know you've done something right.

Figured I'd throw a few more of my favorites up there:

Xenogears: Bonds of Sea and Fire

Final Fantasy Tactics: Intro Music (not sure of the title)

Mega Man 4: Cossack Theme 2 I was never sure why nobody loves this one as much as I do

Deus Ex: Intro (again, don't know the name)

Terranigma: Underworld and Overworld

Alundra: The Wind that Shook the Earth

Grandia: Title Music (so many with no name! What's up with that?)

Almost all of the Legend of Mana soundtrack (too bad the game sucks)

Sorry, one more NieR: Ashes of Dreams.  I want this sound track SO BAD.

Ok, this is kind of disjointed, but I wrote it while I was listening to the podcast, so forgive me please.

I also wrote a blog on the topic some time ago (some content stolen for this post): http://www.pixlbit.com/blog/105/my_take_on_the_games_as_art_debate_2_the_chip_tune

I was always very impressed by the music in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  Especially when I discovered it was yellowbook audio, not redbook.  In other words, it was not CD audio played from the disk.  Fantastic stuff.

Amazing opening track from FF X:  You mean this one right?  Return to Zanarkand? Man I could listen to this one all day.  I actually figured out how to play it myself on piano, along with a few other songs, like the Gemini Man theme from Mega Man 3, and Terra's Theme from FF VI (III US.)  I love this stuff way too much.

So if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a little obsessed with game music.  Umatsu was probably the first name related to video games that I knew from memory.  That's before even Miamoto.

You know what game had a fantastic orchestrated sound track?  Star Fox.  This is before you could do real instrumentation, so it's all synth, but it's fantastic.  It did everything right, repeating themes in other songs, dramatic movements.  That game really had a whole lot of effort put into every aspect of it, and the score was no exception. Example:  Space Armada theme.  Epic.

Esteban:  You know who should have done the soundtrack for Prince of Persia: Warrior Within?  Ra.  Their music has that alternative / metal edge they were looking for, but has plenty of Arabic overtones as well. Yes, it would have been possible for the game to have it's cake and eat it too. It's seriously awesome  (example of the far eastern feel I was talking about.) Check it out (this one would have been perfect for the credits.)  

I think someone asked if a soundtrack has ever redeemed an otherwise unworthy game.  I can think of two examples:  First, and oldest, The Silver Surfer. This game is horrible, it straight up sucks and don't let anybody tell you otherwise, but my word how on earth did they make these songs with the NES hardware? Just listen to THIS! and THIS!  If it doesn't excite you, you don't have a pulse! It's so so so SO good!  The game isn't worth playing, but because of the score, people still talk about it.

Second example, Nier. I love this game, but it is loaded with issues.  It's mediocre game-play takes you through an interesting story punctuated by moments of intelligence and shock, wrapped in graphics I can only describe as last gen.  I've walked away from this game several times, but I keep coming back to it because of the music.  I hear it in my sleep it's so good.  Once you hear it and experience it, you can't get it out of your head. It's all so simple, but amazingly captivating and dramatic.

some of my personal favorites not mentioned above or in the podcast:

Skyrim: Streets of Whiterun Tell me you can't taste the cold and see the snow fall when you hear this.

Morrowind: Main Theme To the best of my knowledge, this set the stage for the thematic elements (musically) for the rest of the franchise, and it's perfect.

SNES Donkey Kong Country, which has a perfectly appropriate theme for almost(jungle) every(ocean) environment (cave.)

Mega Man:  Friggin everything from 2 & 3, and some of 4.

Chrono Cross: Dream of the Shore near Another World gorgeous. Emotional. Mournful. Touching. I've sat on the map for 15 min just letting it loop before. I know it got mentioned in the podcast, but I just had to.

Rock Band:  Well, I'm a drummer, and Rock Band taught me a few things.  It's NOT going to teach you how to play the drums since the hi-hat is missing, and the timing is off, but it will teach you rhythm and how the drummer is doing what he's doing. It also taught me that Danny Carry and Mike Portnoy (of Tool and Dream Theater respectively) are as brain breaking as they sound.  

Sega should do one of these.  They've got a crazy history of mascots, and some of the throwbacks could be fun, like Alex Kidd and his giant fist.

This looks pretty fun

Rob is wrong about Felicia Day, especially when comparing her to that (FAKE!) redhead Kate from Titanic.  Felicia actually comes off as real, honest, and cute, while Kate seems fake and skanky to me.  Do not want.  My wife is hotter than both of them anyway, so I don't have any real need to belabor the point.

Julian, dude, have you ever listened to Lacuna Coil?  Awesome Italian Goth Metal band fronted by a crazy hot woman who is so into games they used a sample from Descent in one of their songs?

They also did covers of Depeche mode and REM.  

Here's the Descent Reference song Aeon/Tight Rope.  Friggin awesome.  They also occasionally do songs in Italian (Senzafine.  It's missing the intro from the album though.  Sad.)

Actually, I'm very glad to see this feedback.  If you see things that need an explanation, it's reasonable to assume plenty of others do, and it gives me an opportunity to respond.

My modernization comment is not at all referring to action over turn based combat.  I feel there is a place for both.  I recently played probably 80 hours of Etrian Odyssey III and was completely in love with the game.  I feel this is an evolution of the action / cool-down style action RPG games that are starting to appear this generation, although they have yet to receive a designation.  I'm sure you know what I'm talking about though, it's a reason that people compare games like this to MMOs.  Korea actually has a lot more of them than Japan, probably because of their love of MMORPGs, and it's the reason I compared it to Magnacarta 2 in the closing paragraph.  

I too, would have loved this game to be in a higher fidelity, but that just isn't in the cards for a Wii game made in 2010.  To be honest, I was never as distracted by the cutscenes as you were, and was focusing more on the English voice acting than the characters.  As far as the rest of the game goes, I would perhaps commit atrocities to get this game in HD, but platform aside, I don't know if this was ever something that could have happened to Xenoblade. I think the cost to develop a game of this magnitude in HD would have been too much for the game to handle, and the product would have suffered for it in the end.  I'm happy getting the great game I got, even with the technical limitations.

I do think the game knows this weeknesses though, and compensates admirably. While a lot of the textures do look pretty poor up close, they look great at a distance, and the viewable area and amazing scenery aren't hurt by that.  In fact, I think the designers did a great job of drawing your eye to the landscapes and vistas that make the game shine. Arriving at the end of an early quest that left you on a cliff side overlooking Colony 9 forces you to stop and stare.   Seeing the swamp turn into an ethereal light show at night was another high point of the experience, and appearing on the Bionis knee and seeing that expanse spread out in front of you was breathtaking.  I couldn't help but compare that last moment to arriving on Pulse in FF XIII, only it occurred so much earlier in the game.  I do think the game is gorgeous, although limited, and I think it knows it's limitations and distracts you from them well.

It's interesting.  At first, I thought maybe Kat was a little harsh.  In fact, while I understood why she would be offended, I questioned her objectivity and felt it insulting that she would mock some content I found funny, but the further the game went, the more I understood where she was coming from.

The issue with the game is it never lets up.  Ever.  An occasional T&A joke would get me laughing, but this was overbearing, and I ended up feeling sorry for the female characters in the game instead of finding humor in their catty banter.  Were I to review the game personally, while I wouldn't be as offended as Kat, I would most certainly not treat it as lightly as the IGN reviewer did.  At times, he almost seems to dig on people who were offended by the game's content, instead of understanding their perspective.

There's also one more thing that kind of bugs me, and it's subtle.  Kat's review at 1up was posted 4/29/09, where the IGN review went up in September of that year. That's a full 5 months after Kat's was available on the internet.  So when I read her review, then read a line like "Unless, like I said, male chauvinist humor and near-constant strings of slang terms for women's anatomy gets you seething with pent-up rage. In which case you might want to make a sign and start picketing in the parking lot of Atlus's localization team." I have to wonder if he's not responding how she treated the game's content.  Also consider that 2 years later, IGN purchased 1up, so while I have nothing concrete, it's not unreasonable to assume they were checking the place out at that point.