E is for Egotistical.
One thing I want to make perfectly clear is my dislike of “Ego Gamers.” These are people who only play games they are good at, and only play to boost their own ego. You may have run into these types before. Whenever you’re at a party or a friend’s house and people are playing games, they will often loiter around the area, but don’t ever seem to want to play. However, once “their game” is chosen to be played, they are ready to show everyone in the area just how good they are/how much time they’ve wasted on this game. They are usually pretty good at the game, and can beat the average gamer. That’s where the problem starts. Up until now, they haven’t touched the controller, but once they are on a game they are good at, they make sure you know just how amazing they are and how much you suck. Sure, they may suck at every other game out there, but you’d never know. They never give you the chance to because they are too busy avoiding those games. No, instead of playing games whether they suck at them or not, to them games are about winning and showing up your opponent.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest, I can move on to other things. Like stories. More importantly, video game stories.
I’ve always been a big fan of a good storyline. I feel most games can benefit from a well-thought-out storyline (barring certain genres like sports that don’t really require it). It seems, though, that the tales the current games weave are becoming increasingly unoriginal. Sure, they may use different names or settings, but you can only tell the same story so many times before it becomes old.
One series that has been my beacon for good storytelling has been Final Fantasy. Since I started playing the series many years ago, I had always been enthralled with the complex tales that seemed to go on forever. Unfortunately, even Final Fantasy has been slipping in this regard. With the release of X-2 and XII, the story department has been lacking. Whether it be a completely ridiculous sequel or simply the lack of any real overlying plot, Final Fantasy has been losing ground. Instead, it has been the Indie titles that have impressed me. Games like Pyschonauts and Indigo Prophecy show that original and interesting storytelling is still available, you just have to find them. There are more mainstream titles that feature some quality storytelling, such as Bioshock, but those are becoming rare. I’m just hoping that Final Fantasy XIII will be better.
MUSIC
Kenichiro Fukui - Warning Einhänder Original Soundtrack
Norihiko Hibino - hope and courage Elvandia Story Original Soundtrack
Silicon Knights - Black Rose Eternal Darkness ~ Sanity’s Requiem Sound Track
B is for back, which is what I am.
After a long delay between posts, I’m back behind the wheel again, and ready to start posting some new songs. A couple changes before I begin though. First off, the layout is new, thanks to WPDesigner and their wonderful themes. Obviously I changed the top banner to make it a bit more VG related. Secondly, I’m going to stop posting the short descriptions of each song for now, as it gets harder and harder to try to describe a song that isn’t that much different from many others I post in a new way, so instead I’ll just post the songs and you can be the judge. I will, however, post the genre that it best fits in below the link. Finally, though I won’t be describing the songs anymore, feel free to post your own descriptions/interpretations/feelings about the songs in the comments.
Now that that is over, on to the music.
Yoshino Aoki - Endings and Beginnings Breath of Fire IV Original Soundtrack
Classical
Misao Senbongi, Shusaku Uchiyama - Final Battle biohazard 4 Original Soundtrack
Classical
Noriko Matsueda & Takahito Eguchi - Volt Krueger The Bouncer Original Video Game Soundtrack
Metal/Electronic
You have found the Master Sword!
Since Twilight Princess is to blame for my recent absence, it only seems fitting to dedicate this post to my favorite series of all time, The Legend of Zelda. In fact, I will go one step further, and do what can be arguably the most important song in each game; the title theme.
Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Koji Kondo - Title The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ Original Sound Tracks Titled Windwaker in America, this opening track to the game quickly let you know that this installment in the epic series would be different. Being very celtic in nature, it’s a cheerful little number that you can’t help but smile at when it comes on. It helps to set the mood for the rest of the game quite well.
Koji Kondo, Ryuichi Katsumata - Title Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Hyrule Symphony Though the song has been updated in presentation, the beauty loses nothing. As opposed to the Windwaker’s opening theme, Ocarina of Time’s title track is a more mellow song. With a touch of meloncholy to it, the darker, more serious nature of the game becomes quickly apparent. After having played the game, even, you can even hear the sadness that comes with the story in the title.
Koji Kondo - Title BGM Famicom 20th Anniversary Original Sound Tracks Vol. 1 That’s right. The title to the game that started it all. Though the production is sorely outdated by today’s standards, the epic feeling that it stirred inside each person who powered on their NES that first time to find themselves in the amazing world of Hyrule is still the same. The nostalgia value in this is so high it’s almost unbearable. It makes you want to power that relic up once more and follow link through the original quest once more.