Videogames Live

I went to Videogames Live the other night, which is quite simply video game music played live. I let myself go into the show with no expectations, so I could come out with the full experience. The quick breakdown is this: A live orchestra accompanied with a choir and vocal soloists, hosted by Tommy Tallarico. But I'm not here to give you a simple review breakdown of the night, lets talk about it on a gestalt level.

Video Game Music As Art

There is something really special about video game music to the people who have played the games. The songs from your favorite games live as much larger versions of themselves because they are attached to the memories from the games themselves. A simple song can be more than just a melody, it captures the mood of a story and characters that you grow attached to while playing these games. There are also iconic songs from games that serve to summarize an entire franchise, and just hearing the familiar notes calls forth a wave of emotion from our memory banks. It is important to remember that when you are dealing with video game music that there is so much passion that is attached to it. What may seem to be just a silly song can actually be a piece of music that was a backing track to moments that changed a persons life.

We are at a point where enough time has passed that the same people who were playing Nintendo as kids are grown adults who have defined themselves as human beings, and part of what they define themselves as pulls from the experience of video games. You don't just passively listen to video game music, you live it, you experience it. Video games almost serve as a modern day musical in these regards, but a musical where we as gamers had an active part as the author of the story. Even the casual gamer knows a handful of songs from their childhoods, themes to games like Zelda, Mario, or Sonic. Even if you don't know the melody off the top of your head, the second the song starts you realize that you know the tune by heart.

It is in this way that we run into a slight issue with dealing with a concert with such a broad scope in song selection. There were sections of the show that focused on games that didn't hold that level of importance to me, so I found myself fidgeting in my seat just waiting for the band to move onto the next song. This isn't to say I have such a messiah complex that I feel the entire show should be tailored around me, it's just a simple fact that when dealing with such a vast selection of songs, there is no way to please everyone in the audience at all times.

This factor of personal preference was made bearable by the incorporation of large projection screens though. During the show, whenever songs were being played, massive screens were playing footage from the games that were being featured. It made it possible for me to not completely lose my interest while listening to music from God of War (I'm not debating the validity of the game, it just doesn't happen to be my cup of tea). These screens were also used in between songs to play short video clips that dealt with dogma of video game culture, and served to unite us all in our nerdom.

Uniting the audience was the part of the experience that I found most gratifying. Treating video game music as legitimate music is a movement that is gaining speed, but does not have the widespread support that it deserves. It exists as a niche corner of the musical world, often misunderstood. Listing video game music as my favorite musical genre isn't something that I do quite often, even though the more thought I put into it, am realizing to be the truth. I felt really good to be in a room full of people who had a similar level of understand as to how special the night we were all sharing truly was.

There was a moment where the band played one of the songs from the Opera sequence of Final Fantasy VI, and as the song came to a close I was about to shout out (in my usual, slightly belligerent social self) "I wonder is Ultros is going to pop out!" (during the closing of the Opera sequence, the mini boss Ultros pops up, ruining the theater and causing a battle to ensue). Before the words could come out of my mouth, someone a few rows in front of me shouted nearly those exact words. I laughed a true belly laugh, before myself responding "We are such fucking nerds." I felt at home

Video Games Live is a pioneer in the realm of live video game music, and hopefully their work will help pave the way for many other live performances of the same vein. They are the proof of concept that people actually care about this art form, the theater was packed full of people who were excited to see the performance. Unlike a mainstream show, It didn't seem as though anyone in the audience was there just because it was a cool thing to do on a monday night. There was passion filling all the seats. The simple fact that the audience cared so much to be there is reason enough for the performance of live video game music to continue. 

Post-Mortem: Final Fantasy X

A Post-Mortem is a review of sorts where we look at a game that has already gone through it's initial release phase, been reviewed and talked about, and has sunk into it's resting place in history. The point of a Post-Mortem is not to simply review a game, but to look at the impact it had on the future of gaming, and the gaming culture as a whole.


Part 1-Characters
When Final Fantasy X came out in 2001, it was a brave step forward in the Final Fantasy series. Games were moving forward graphically, and this was the first time we would be playing a Final Fantasy game that featured voice acting instead of text boxes for all the of the dialog in the game. Final Fantasy X was looking to take the emotionally driven storyline that is a staple of the series, and breath even more life into them, helping players further connect with the characters. We spent more time seeing these characters on an 'up close and personal' level, using facial expressions to help show the responses of the characters.

One of the issues with this story telling device, was that the technology was still at an early stage. Often times when the game is looking to deliver an emotionally charged moment, you are taken out of the scene by the limitations of the tech at the time. Personally, I always found Tidus' teeth to look very strange, and there are many moments where I find myself staring at them instead of listening to him rallying his troups for the upcoming battles against Seymour or Sin. If it's not his teeth, it's hard to shake the notion that Tidus looks a lot like Meg Ryan.

The problem we run into here, and one that we still deal with today, is that the game is trying it's best to tell us that these characters are real, and we should view them this way. What happens is a jolting disconnect when they suddenly appear to be very robotic. When you play the earlier games, you can allow the characters to work as visual aids for the point of storytelling. It's like when you read a book, you have a description of what the character looks like, but your mind fills in all the blanks for you. In your head you can see the way the characters would react to situations, you can hear their voices in the way that you interpret what is being said. In this more hands off approach, you are actually capable of immersing yourself deeper into the story, because all of the little details you make up for the characters come from you.

The biggest issue I see with the voice acting, is that it can actually work to sever your connection with a character. Tidus and Rikku are the main offenders to this point. Tidus comes off as such a little brat, and I am left to wonder if I would have read his character differently. At a core level he is a brave leader who is frustrated by the situation but never gives up hope, but the voice acting paints a picture that if it wasn't for Auron, Tidus would just go hide until Sin destroys Spira. Rikku's positive attitude suffers the same injustice as Vanille from FFXIII, where instead of coming off as upbeat she at times sounds painfully vapid. It's a shame, because the voice acting makes decisions for you on how these characters are portrayed, and a less than stellar performance can really damage the reception of a character.

The problems that Final Fantasy X endures when it comes to creating characters that feel alive is something that has spread deep into the roots of the gaming world. People expect detailed characters with robust voice acting, but it brings up the question as to if this expectation is hurting the ability to tell a story that fully immerses you.

Part 2-Music

The Final Fantasy series has always been known for it's music, created by the incredible Nobuo Uematsu. All Final Fantasy players have songs from the enormous library that will forever haunt their ears, even bring tears to their eyes. When we look at the music in Final Fantasy X, it's easy to say that very little of the music is truly memorable. One factor in this is that the music actually falls victim to the voice acting. In previous games, it was up to the musical score to drive the emotional response that the player would have. Character themes would be reprised numerous times throughout the game, and their melodies would sing the soul of the characters. A great example of this is how Aerith's Theme is used in Final Fantasy VII to remind the player of why the heroes were keeping up their fight, to remind us of how much we had already lost, and how much was at stake. It was more than just background music, the songs themselves had a soul.

If you go to a website like OverClocked ReMix, you will find hundreds of tracks inspired by the music of the earlier Final Fantasy games, but so very few from the more recent titles. The reason is that the music from the more recent games simply doesn't hold the same power. Where we are given the emotional responses of the characters through voice over and 'acting' by the characters, we lose the impact that the music had on telling the story. Again we have to ask the question of what we really want from our games, and if what we have learned to expect is truly the best way.

Part 3-Gameplay

If you are to have a conversation with a fellow gamer about Final Fantasy X, there are a few complaints about the actual gameplay that you are bound to hear. The first is people will say the game is too linear, they miss the overworld map that was present in the previous titles, they want to explore a large world instead of bouncing from zone to zone and following strait forward paths. The second is mixed bag response to the sphere grid system, and the total lack of traditional levels in the game. A third is a feeling that the characters are not defined enough in their combat roles, that characters like Yuna and Auron steal the spotlight as must have party members, and people like Khimari seem to just fall to the wayside.

Let's start by talking about the more linear approach. I feel as though this complaint falls into the category of people not knowing what they really want from a 'sequel'. While the main Final Fantasy games are never direct sequels to each other, they all embody the same core elements that make up the Final Fantasy universe. The problem we run into here is that instead of embracing the new innovations in gameplay, people will quickly compare the newest game to previous titles. After playing through V, VI, VII, and IX before playing X, the linear approach was like a gift to me. Where it is fun to explore a world and discover all of it's hidden secrets, I was able to really enjoy the story of Final Fantasy X without having to deal with the frustration of not knowing where to go next. Just because something was done the same way for such a long time, doesn't mean it is the only way to do it, and the other games didn't go away. The innovations that Final Fantasy X attempted allowed me to enjoy the game in a different way than I enjoyed previous games, and worked as a stepping stone into what the series is becoming today. I am not going to argue if the new direction is a good or a bad choice, but I will say that the Final Fantasy franchise is taking steps forward, and those steps forward allow us the opportunity of seeing the franchise grow into a more modern style. The fact is we simply don't know what the last 3 Final Fantasies would be like if they stuck closer to their roots, meaning we don't know if they would have been better or worse than what we have.

When a discussion comes up about the Sphere Grid system, it seems like it is always in comparison to the materia system of Final Fantasy VII. We all loved materia, it was an incredibly fun and ingenious game play element that defined Final Fantasy VII, but we need to be able to move forward. If you bog yourself down with the fact that the Sphere grid is not materia, you will never allow yourself to the opportunity to even start to appreciate it. The ability to swap out characters mid fight, along with how combat was put into a much more rigid turn based system allowed for an extremely tactical approach to combat. When you win a tough fight, it isn't simply because you smashed the bad guys harder than they smashed you, it was because you were allowed to plan out an approach on how to tackle each fight. (until later in the game, where you are powerful enough to just smash things and completely ignore their resistances and weaknesses.) On top of this ability to be a strategist in combat, you also were given completely free reign on how your characters could develop. By putting in the time, you could break the traditional class roles that Final Fantasy lays out for you and create hybrid characters that best fit your play style. This made the combat fun, kept it fresh, as well as giving you a great sense of accomplishment when your movements along the sphere grid truly come together and you are able to wipe out any threat that comes your way with ease. This step forward in decision making is something that is needed in modern RPG's, where a characters power isn't simply decided by their stat numbers, but is augmented by way that a player approaches a situation.

Part 4-In Closing

Final Fantasy X took brave steps in breaking the tradition of the series, and was judged heavily because of this. Often being compared harshly to previous titles, X was never given a chance to truly shine amongst hardcore fans of the series. What we have in Final Fantasy X though, is exactly what we need to be seeing more of in the gaming world, new innovations attempting to push games forward. We as a gaming community need to be able to put aside our fear of change when it comes to new games in an established series, and to enjoy them as their own entity instead of finding ways to be upset by them. If we can't find a way to figure out what we enjoy in the new changes, we are forcing future games to simply be clones of what has been played to death, and are robbing ourselves of the chance at catching lightning in a bottle again in the future.