Music, especially memorable music

[Waswat]

We all expect to hear decent music in our games but most of the times, decent music just doesn't cut it.

What we need is music that you really easily remember because it was more in the foreground. I can understand that there is so much music that serves as background music that doesn't distract from the game itself. However, these days there just isn't much music in games that sticks and I think that's a real shame.

 

I'm talking about proper thematic music, not just random orchestral score #32.

 

Everyone knows the intro in BG2 but there are also things like Waukeen's Promenade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcHnqodZoJM

You can see it from the comments yourself, people looked forward to listening to it after a long dungeon. It soothes you

 

I'll give another example where music is more in the foreground:

(starts at around 1 min 10 sec)

 

Here is that same music being used in Hawken and you can see the player just having lots of fun with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCi-U5iiUeU

 

 

(Of course, it's a very different type of music that probably doesn't fit in Project Eternity but it's there as an example.)

 

I am hoping that PE will have the type of music that isn't 'afraid' of being heard.

As for the topic, do you have any memorable music to share? What do you hope to get from PE's BGM?

Edited November 28, 2012 by Waswat

[LadyCrimson]

Don't know if you've read it, but Update #14 featured this topic and has some replies from Justin Bell. Might want to browse through it, if you haven't already.

 

My main hope music wise is as much variety as possible, given the budget, because hearing the same 4 tracks 100 times gets old, or if all the tracks sound too similar, that becomes kind of dull as well. Some calmer, some more bombastic, some wind instrument pieces would be nice. That said, music tends to be a very personal thing ... I really wouldn't want to have to listen to that zombie track for more than 10 seconds, myself, for example ... so I'm not sure I have anything really specific in mind. Either I'll like it or I won't.

 

[jezz555]

I really love good soundtracks in games, and it's really not utilized as much as it should be. I remember in Red Dead Redemption on the consoles occasionally you'd be riding through the plains and randomly the soundtrack would kick in, those moments were pretty magical.

[kabaliero]

loved casual city combat music in bg1

bg2 city combat sucked in comparison :c

also, day\night themes

and basic open countryside tunes were nice, too

 

also, IWD1 (with pretty great ost overall) had awesome dwarven tomb tune

probably one of the best tunes in gaming history

[SophosTheWise]

I think thinking outside the box would help Project Eternity a big deal. Most RPGs I've played use the same orchestral sound with an adventurous/epic feeling. While I mostly like that, there are also a few good examples of "something different" like the Soundtrack of Divine Divinity by Kirill Pokrovsky, Dark Souls by Motoi Sakaruba or Risen by Kai Rosenkranz. They all tried something and created a very "different" and "otherworldly" atmosphere.

[High Octane 881]

If the music featured in the Kickstarter video that was uploaded is any inclination of what we can look forward to I'm very excited. For me one of the most memorable parts of a game is the soundtrack. Years down the road you hear something that hits just the right sequence of notes and sends you right back to an amazing game. In particular with the Kickstarter video's song...the very last bit sends chills up my spine every time I hear it. You're absolutely right though, good soundtracks do not get implimented anywhere near enough now days. The only games that really come to mind as having unique memorable soundtracks are TES...and even most of those are recycled.

[AGX-17]

We all expect to hear decent music in our games but most of the times, decent music just doesn't cut it.

What we need is music that you really easily remember because it was more in the foreground. I can understand that there is so much music that serves as background music that doesn't distract from the game itself. However, these days there just isn't much music in games that sticks and I think that's a real shame.

 

I'm talking about proper thematic music, not just random orchestral score #32.

 

Everyone knows the intro in BG2 but there are also things like Waukeen's Promenade:

 

[videos omitted]

 

(Of course, it's a very different type of music that probably doesn't fit in Project Eternity but it's there as an example.)

 

I am hoping that PE will have the type of music that isn't 'afraid' of being heard.

As for the topic, do you have any memorable music to share? What do you hope to get from PE's BGM?

 

Honestly, I have to admit, very little music in the IE games stood out to me. Waukeen's Promenade always sounds like "generic middle-eastern themed city" to me. Western video game music hasn't stood out to me in general since Warcraft II, Starcraft and Fallout. A few individual tracks usually stand out to me in recent releases, but I wouldn't pay for a soundtrack to most of the games I've bought in the last 6 years. Even a game as action-heavy as Borderlands 2's music is mostly ambient acoustic guitar strumming, more suited to desert rambling than contstant vicious gunfights, second winds and explosions. Honestly, the dubstep trend they make fun of in the "wub wub" trailer feels like it would be a better fit thematically. And I don't even like dubstep.

 

I guess what i'd ask for is more strongly melodious music rather than ambient music that tries to stay out of the way. Curse (or blessing) of growing up in the 8 and 16 bit console era, I suppose.

 

This is the sort of music that stands out to me in a video game:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3gEKpGD4D4

 

Edited November 28, 2012 by AGX-17

[JFSOCC]

http://penny-arcade....ideo-game-music

 

especially relevant because it is about how songs get to be memorable.

Edited November 28, 2012 by JFSOCC

[LadyCrimson]

A few individual tracks usually stand out to me in recent releases, but I wouldn't pay for a soundtrack to most of the games I've bought in the last 6 years. Even a game as action-heavy as Borderlands 2's music is mostly ambient acoustic guitar strumming, more suited to desert rambling than contstant vicious gunfights, second winds and explosions. [ ... ]

 

I guess what i'd ask for is more strongly melodious music rather than ambient music that tries to stay out of the way. Curse (or blessing) of growing up in the 8 and 16 bit console era, I suppose.

I loved the Glacial bit of music in BL2 (the first boss on that ship) and some of the other boss-fight music, but yeah, the overall soundtrack was a bit of a snooze. Same thing with BL1 ... loved Krom's valley piece, was ho-hum about most of the rest. Often I'll like a main theme or a piece of combat music these days, but that's about it.

 

This is in sharp contrast to some older games when I'd like almost every single music bit, like in Stronghold/Crusader and Nox (heck in Nox, I even loved the Main Menu music....). I like it when the whole ST feels like it all goes together thematically (even between the slow and fast pieces), rather than being very different/discordant with itself.

 

(BL2-Glacial)

 

(Crusader-Strong Spice)

 

(Nox-Wander1)

 

(Nox-Shell)

 

(..I really don't like the auto-embed of videos, when one wants to post multiples.... )

[JFSOCC]

If we're posting our faves...

[AGX-17]

http://penny-arcade....ideo-game-music

 

especially relevant because it is about how songs get to be memorable.

 

So, yeah. What I already said. Some more strongly melodious music.

Edited November 29, 2012 by AGX-17

[jivex5k]

One word:

Stones

 

 

 

To this day it evokes memories of the greatest MMORPG to ever exist.

 

Man...times were so much simpler back then. What the hell happened to my life?

Edited November 29, 2012 by jivex5k

[Pshaw]

My hope is that they stay away from full sweeping orchestral pieces aside from the title screen and key moments. I feel that in many movies and games all I'm ever hearing is blaring trumpets and latin/made-up chanting and it all starts to lose it's impact after awhile.

 

I'm a huge fan of Matt Uelman who did the sound tracks for Diablo 1 & 2 and Torchlight 1 & 2. D3's score isn't bad but I'd admit to barely noticing it. It's certainly not memorable.

http://youtu.be/dZXleREW38U

 

The entire

is simply perfect.

 

Some songs from Mass Effect such as the

and the galaxy map song, uncharted worlds really stand out and bring up fond memories whenever I hear them.

 

Of course various songs from the Final Fantasy series I always enjoy, I get nostalgic whenever I hear Aeris's theme, the

, or Kefka's Theme which I used as the ring tone for my work phone.

 

Finally though I've got stay that bar-none the best videogame score I've ever head goes to

. It might be because I feel like it goes against what I said at the start of this post and uses high tempo in your face songs for pretty much the whole score, which fits for an action game, but then uses low key acoustic songs for impact. Whatever the reason I constantly find myself muting game music to put this on in the background instead. I firmly believe that borderlands 1/2 sound better with bastions score than their own. I listen to it while I'm reading or working as much as any other video game score I've ever owned.

theme and

theme both are amazing songs in their own right with no nostalgia for the game involved. Edited November 29, 2012 by Pshaw

[Pipyui]

To me, what makes game music memorial is not so much the music in itself as the setting to which the music is applied. I usually prefer to have my soundtrack fairly subtle most of the time, but to really strike at me during intense or emotional moments. I trust Justin Bell can organise some good music choreography to meet this wistfulness.

 

Edit: Also, while we're sharing soundtracks:

http://youtu.be/jTdcJWDNsao

 

Simple, but perfect for its setting.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Pipyui

[JFSOCC]

Beyond Good and Evil probably stands as my favourite game of all time, despite some of it's flaws. Christophe Heral is also doing the music for the sequel

[jivex5k]

Words saying d1/d2 tl1/tl2 have awesome soundtracks

 

**** man I forgot how good these sound tracks are!

Man...these Matt Uelman soundtracks are truly among the best ever created.

 

And they broke convention by using electric guitars.

[Zoma]

Something oriental and different just to for the sake of being a combo breaker.

 

Its from a chinese RPG series.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy1EfNqCq30&feature=related