Nitpick: Repetitive Music

By itself the song is a powerful tune. However, combo this in with the atmospheric cutscene featuring the sound of waves, the desperation of characters as they huddle next to a campfire, and our young protagonist looking at a ruinous world that lies ahead. Immediately this song is engrained in the player’s head and I’m sure you would agree with me that when you listen to “To Zanarkand” you often remember this scene. If not perhaps you’ll remember that climactic moment when Tidus has to bid his friends farewell. This song is rarely used in the game at all, if any other time other than its intro or ending. Because it is such a powerful tune, used so little throughout the game, and in powerful moments the game breathes life into the music. 

I find “To Zanarkand” a perfect antithetical example to what I want to exemplify. A music is that is not repetitive at all since it was used so minimally and as a result its impact, brilliance, and emotion is much stronger. I don’t want to nag Halo too much so I’ll use Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 as an example. There’s a tune in Final Fantasy XIII-2 called “Noel’s Theme” and it’s an exceptionally moving tune. If it had been used only twice or thrice throughout the entire game with little to no variations then I wouldn’t have a problem. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. I found that there were at least two versions of the song and throughout many points of XIII-2 featuring sad moments with Noel, unsurprisingly, they would play this song or some alternate version. 

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While the player now associates the song to Noel – and why wouldn’t you, after all it’s his theme song – it loses that strong emotional punch that is felt when you first hear it. Sure the song will grip your heart every time you hear it but the effect is slowly lost over time. Eventually you’ll be numb and possibly apathetic to the song. For me, it got to the point where I could guess when “Noel’s Theme” would pop up. When a player can come to expect what songs will be played and at what times then the audio has become too familiar with him or her. Personally speaking, this is bad since I want my game to constantly affect me in surprising ways. In other words, normalcy can be particularly bad and repetitive music is a contributor to the phenomenon. 

The same is said about “Serah’s Theme” in XIII and the “Main Theme” in XIII-2. There are numerous variations whether it be orchestral, vocals, or alternate remixes. While I don’t want to discredit the composer’s hard work and effort for the game’s soundtrack, I can’t help but feel this is laziness. Why not create a soundtrack that has little to no remixes or what not, which would end up creating two very strong products: the video game and its purchasable CD soundtrack. It just doesn’t make sense unless the composer wants the player to be desensitized to the game’s tracks. Perhaps, in reality, that is their goal. To become too familiar with it and as a result, get attached, and buy the soundtrack. 

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Writing this Nitpick has been both a blast and somewhat of a disappointment. I thought it would best to write this as I listen to the pieces that I mentioned previously, or listen to the game’s entire soundtrack, since it would portray my thoughts and emotions more clearly. Music is an integral piece to making a game great. I cannot emphasize that enough. If something is so important then isn’t it assumed that we should treasure it? I would like to think so. As such, I feel it’s my duty to make it known my own personal thoughts on repetitive music, and others that might possibly agree with me. Whether you realize it or not, I believe all people are lovers of music, perhaps specific genres, so you should care about how music is both illustrated, implemented, and executed in video games. 

I know I’m not the only who believes video game music is absolutely fantastic. Whether you own an official soundtrack from a game or not, you can’t deny the power that comes from the thrilling tunes that pop up when you’re engaged in combat or the somber tunes that resonate with you when witnessing a sad moment. Music is an important aspect of a video game and without it, many facets of the game would feel somewhat empty and devoid of personality. Simply put, music tends to heighten a player’s emotional response of a given situation, like the ones I mentioned above. So what exactly about music do I want to discuss on Nitpick this week? It’s the tunes that pop up again and again and again.

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Many games have themes. If you’ve played games like Halo 3 or Kingdom Hearts, you’ll often notice that many tunes sound eerily similar. It’s a tactic that’s employed to create various pieces for various situations. For instance we have multiple types of the Halo theme song. One is slow perhaps for a death scene and then another we have the loud, blasting anthem version. Of course these two aren’t the only two types of the Halo theme that exists in Halo 3. The soundtrack is actually littered with more than five different types of the main theme, and more of other types of tunes. 

Normally I’m all for alternate renditions of the same same melody. If the song is good then why create something entirely new. This is especially true if the song that is remade into multiple versions is the game’s main theme. It’s understandable that the composer and the developers want to emphasize the musical theme for the game numerous times. Having said that, there’s a point where it’s absolute overkill. This point varies from person to person, however, the fact remains the point does exist. So what exactly is so bad about overused melodies? It loses its personality, emotion, and consequently, life. 

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I don’t want to bombard you with rhetorical questions all day so I’ll get straight to the point: each piece of music has its own distinguished trait. Take for example “To Zanarkand” from Final Fantasy X. You can easily tell what type of instrument is the focus for this tune. In addition, it’s not hard to also tell why this song was created. The mellow melody and the slow pace of the tune automatically tells its listeners that there is something dramatic set in motion. As the song quickly speeds up into various successive pacing of the keys on the Piano you can almost hear that there is something that it’s desperately trying to do. It wants to tell a story. Coincidentally so, if you’re familiar with this piece then you might remember the two-line monologue of Tidus in FFX: “Listen to our story. This may be our last chance.”