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Unfortunately, that has resulted in a lot of bland scores in both mediums. Gone are the days when John Williams (and his imitators) created one memorable theme after another. To return to my former comment, this seems to have been the approach with the Prime games.
Also, in a time when cart sizes were limited, so too was the space alloted to music, as were even the number of channels; remember how some games had to spontaneously strip an instrument out of the BGM to accomodate an effect? The tunes also had to loop regularly, so they had better have been enjoyable and catchy. Not only that, but most games of the 8- and 16-bit era were based on dying and do-overs, meaning the themes of certain levels were often drilled into our subconscious minds. Finally, it stands to reason that music had to be more of focal point to hook the player at a time with the graphics of games were far from photorealistic.
This is definitely a topic worth exploring further. I don't think the nostalgia many of us have for chiptunes will be replicated for youngsters weened on today's games. The factors that gave us those classic soundtracks simply no longer exist."
With the Prime trilogy, as enjoyable as it is, I found the music couldn't match up to its predecessors, and that the overall experience subsequently fell short of those early masterpieces. Would Retro have done themselves a favor to have composed a chiptune-y soundtrack? How bizarre would it be to have a modern 3D game that strives for realism set against an 8- or 16-bit soundscape? "
Still, rather than provoking such deviations via the temptations of acheivements, I wish BioWare would have integrated some story-based impetus for playing the field. For instance, why not correlate the swagger of sexual triumph with increased loyalty from certain male crew members, at the risk of the same from female teammates?
As is stands, for a game that advertises itself as offering choices with real weight, Shepard's sexual antics, or lack there-of, seem to have no real impact on the narrative. I also haven't had a chance to play 3, yet, so maybe this changes."
Is it just a conicidence that the genres you mentioned -- action and horror -- are ones more likely to employ computer graphics? If part of the problem is the need to conceal the artificiality of computer generated imagery, then we should see these limited hues replaced with wider palettes once sufficient advances in horsepower arrive.
Then again, if these monochromatic visuals become part and parcel of the above genres, then it may mean their cementing for some time. Not only that, but as I alluded to in the article, if it means more money and a longer production schedule, then, from the perspective of a media company, why not go the cheaper route, since it's established as not only acceptable, but bankable?"
Fortunately, NA sales doubled Japan's, which hopefully means it won't take such a groundswell effort next time Nintendo's faced with such a decision.
Too bad the community wasn't able to prevail upon the big N to bring over Mother 3, eh?"
Very true. In fact, I intend on touching upon the Japan issue in part two. Whether or not you agree with those who are ready to sign Japanese developers' death certificate (I'm not just yet), it's hard to deny that the influence of Japan on our industry as a whole is no where near what is was just 5-10 years ago. I'd argue that the dearth of this creative presence in our current visual vocabulary is a hefty share of the problem.
And, as you mentioned, we're fortunate enough to still see a number of colorful JRPGs every year, thanks to the efforts of Atlus, Xseed, and a few other niche publishers. Too bad companies like Square-Enix and Nintendo (who have the budgetary and marketing muscle to help these type of games find a wider audience) more and more often either stick to uninteresting retreads or fail to localize their more innovative titles.
As I said, I'll dig a little deeper in part 2. Thanks for you thoughts."
