Anyone else notice this years been kind of lacklustre in terms of game music?

[Tech614]

True, figured I'd mention it since people were mentioning Persona 5 though, which is also 2017 for us but an earlier year for Japan

Yea the difference being Persona 5 is only like 6 months old, not close to 2 years.

Sega is flat out laughable at localizing the Yakuza series.(funny enough if Atlus didn't have to help them with Yakuza 0, Persona 5 is probably done sooner for the west).

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Xenoblade should be good too, assuming it actually comes out this year.

That's a bad assumption to make.

[Video Games]

Yea the difference being Persona 5 is only like 6 months old, not close to 2 years.

Sega is flat out laughable at localizing the Yakuza series.(funny enough if Atlus didn't have to help them with Yakuza 0, Persona 5 is probably done sooner for the west).

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That's a bad assumption to make.

Probably, but NOE reconfirmed it was last month. Not holding my breath though.

[Tech614]

Probably, but NOE reconfirmed it was last month. Not holding my breath though.

Western branch "reconfirming" the only information given about the game which is painfully obvious referring to fiscal year 2017 in Japan. Yea.

Game has march 2018 Japan launch and holiday 2018 WW launch written all over it.

At this point any western branch confirming anything about the game is laughable and like confirming Zelda for holiday 2015 all over again. They don't know jack shit and are only saying what the Japanese have told them to say.

[May90]

Aside from that, I've also noticed that in most games by default music volume is relatively quiet, compared to sound and dialogue volume. Which makes me think that most players nowadays just don't care about the in-game music much and prefer to listen to their own music. Under these circumstances, it doesn't make sense for the developers to invest heavily into creating complex memorable tracks, when people are okay with simplistic atmospheric music.

Also, there is probably this effect that, as games become more and more complex, they no longer have to try as hard to compensate for the gameplay flaws with other elements. Take Duke Nukem 3D, for example. By modern standards, it is a very basic grade-C shooter. And yet it became one of the most popular FPS games of all times, because of... this, basically:



But such soundtrack is much harder to create than the kind of "atmospheric music", where you just slap a few effects in the loop and put it on the background, trying not to attract too much attention to it. Games of the past had to do it still, but modern games have enough features and polish to make people less demanding to such elements.

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I'm surprised and disappointed in Mass Effect's lack of epic music. I mean, the battle music is alright, but there really only seems to be a few themes, and none of the hard hitting grand scores the trilogy had.

There are some amazing tracks, but overall, I totally agree, the game lacks the musical presence and character the previous ME games had.

[Tech614]

There are some amazing tracks, but overall, I totally agree, the game lacks the musical presence and character the previous ME games had.

I can't think of a single western RPG that ever had a solid soundtrack. A few noteworthy tracks in some games? Yea, but as a whole western composition in games is usually meh as hell. Western platformers are the only western games that typically have solid sountracks IMO.

[DarkAmbient]

I can't think of a single western RPG that ever had a solid soundtrack. A few noteworthy tracks in some games? Yea, but as a whole western composition in games is usually meh as hell. Western platformers are the only western games that typically have solid sountracks IMO.

Mass Effect 2's soundtrack was consistently superb IMO. I'd say the same for Oblivion, Witcher 3, and the entire Souls series.

[dope_danny]

I can't think of a single western RPG that ever had a solid soundtrack. A few noteworthy tracks in some games? Yea, but as a whole western composition in games is usually meh as hell. Western platformers are the only western games that typically have solid sountracks IMO.

Its not for everyone but before it turned into the faux patriotism cingefest it became halo satisfied the buttrock crowd a little.



and speaking of it may not be the most popular game in that franchise but in terms of 'modern' shooters the Halo ODST soundtrack is legitimately fantastic stuff.



Its actually a shame i've never heard a western game pull off that kind of thing since and its been like 10 years. a Deus Ex could really pull off that kind of thing in a rainy detroit.

[Video Games]

Its not for everyone but before it turned into the faux patriotism cingefest it became halo satisfied the buttrock crowd a little.



and speaking of it may not be the most popular game in that franchise but in terms of 'modern' shooters the Halo ODST soundtrack is legitimately fantastic stuff.



Its actually a shame i've never heard a western game pull off that kind of thing since and its been like 10 years. a Deus Ex could really pull off that kind of thing in a rainy detroit.

I think the odst trailer has the best song "in the game".

[Tech614]

Mass Effect 2's soundtrack was consistently superb IMO. I'd say the same for Oblivion, Witcher 3, and the entire Souls series.

Witcher and every ES game Morrowind all is "generic western fantasy: the soundtrack". To the untrained ear no one would notice the difference between it, a LOTR movie or an episode of GoT. Generic as all fuck. I love me some Witcher 3 but the soundtrack is definitely one of the downfalls of it.

[Super Kami Dende]

All I've noticed this year is its been kind of lackluster in terms of games in general.

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Witcher and every ES game Morrowind all is "generic western fantasy: the soundtrack". To the untrained ear no one would notice the difference between it, a LOTR movie or an episode of GoT. Generic as all fuck. I love me some Witcher 3 but the soundtrack is definitely one of the downfalls of it.

So what would you consider "non-generic western fantasy". Since to the untrained ear most music from similar genres sounds generic to that genre. HENCE why the word Generic works.

[Valeron]

I can't think of a single western RPG that ever had a solid soundtrack. A few noteworthy tracks in some games? Yea, but as a whole western composition in games is usually meh as hell. Western platformers are the only western games that typically have solid sountracks IMO.

certainly a matter of taste. I personally can't stand a lot of the music from JRPGs. I'll take most western rpg soundtracks over those any day