Legendary video game music composer Nobuo Uematsu says he doesn’t think some modern video game soundtracks are as interesting as those in older games.
He’s not wrong. Old school Nintendo and super Nintendo and Sega Genesis songs gets stuck in my head all the time. Same can’t be said of modern-day AAA games.
He’s not wrong, but blandness is king in the AAA space.
No offence to Tetsuya Nomura, I love a lot of the titles he worked on, but he doesn’t have a single independent thought in him. Everything he makes feels like a remix of something else, like his entire legacy is loosely copying Hironobu Sakaguchi’s successes.
Cmon, he put lots of belts and zippers on things and gave us the not at all convoluted plot of Kingdom Hearts, that’s gotta count for something
Just kidding, Nomura and his enablers are the worst thing to happen to JRPGs
Lulu was rocking, though. So happy for Wakka.
Modern movie music is overly emotional and uninteresting too.
I think hardware limitations on old hardware is one of the reasons why music in old games was interesting.
Sea of Stars was such a refreshing game. From the music, to the backgrounds, to the combat, it was like a love letter to 90’s RPGs. You only get that level of quality and love from indie games these days. Games from large companies just don’t have any soul anymore.
Part of the reason I enjoy games is for the soundtracks. Modern games that come to mind are Persona 5 and Nier Automata which has do much memorable music. The soundtrack creates an Identity. So many games feel like the sound team doesn’t care if I play my own music instead.
I get what he’s saying. Game music used to have a much bigger “job” in fleshing out the world that the game presented to you. I remember for example songs like Final Fantasy VII’s Gold Saucer, Chrono Cross’ Termina (Another World) that set the tone of the place you’re visiting: busy, active, crowded and festive. If you take the music out, you have a beautiful yet static, almost frozen landscape - it comes alive with the music. Nowadays the visuals can be so detailed, the worlds so big and busy that the music seems to be an afterthought: it’s just ambient music for the already immersive world of the game. And I believe that has lead to a lot of composers settling for just that: ambient music.
I think on Twitter I once messaged Gareth Coker, the composer for Ori and the Blind Forest, about how beautiful the music on that game is and how there’s a big emphasis on melodies. He replied that the studio specifically pushed for melody-heavy songs, rather than just ambient music that only complements the action. That makes a huge difference.
This is a big reason why the new Zelda games just do nothing for me. Without Koji Kondo they’re just so… devoid of life and personality.
Conversely, the goofy coop shooter Helldivers 2 elevates the feeling you get playing the game with its over the top hero music.
Yet another thing I love about Helldivers 2. The sound track is fantastic.
Just the song: A cup of Liber-Tea - Wilbert Roget, II
… I agree it’s great but it’s exactly what is criticized here. It’s the typical bombastic movie epic theme song. It would fit just as well into any Sci-Fi block buster. There is nothing about it that gives away that it’s for a game as opposed to a movie or tv-series.
Really depends. Orchestral pieces can fit certain games, or certain parts of a game. A set soundtrack with a few variations for changes of pace can work if it’s a good fit for the game in general.
If it’s a constant wall of music that’s not really well integrated, sure it can be a bit annoying, even if the music itself would be very good in isolation.
But on the contrary some games have adaptive music, and interestingly it’s a bit more like John Williams’ view on movie soundtracks : it’s made to adapt to what’s happening in real time. When it’s done right it’s everything but boring.
Yeah hard disagree with Nobuo on this one. I remember firing up Halo CE for the first time and being blown away by what I was hearing throughout the game, and to this day I can see a screenshot of that game and my brain immediately starts rocking out to that level’s sound track.
It can be utilized poorly for sure, but a videogame with a cinematic sound track done right goes straight to my favorites.
Halo’s opening theme on the OG Xbox is so iconic I guarantee you if you did the chants in public several random dudes (and even a few women) will join you. Iconic
In my experience lots of games go for this “generic movie-like” style, which sounds high production value, but where the composition is just unmemorable filler that says nothing.
Halo was great in this regard, so I don’t think that’s what he’s going for here. Hell, I’m instantly getting Halo ost playing in my head while writing this.
