Topic: Castlevania & Current Video Game Melodies

[Sindra]

As I sit here, musing in my Friday evening sipping my whiskey and Coke, I decided to tackle a topic that I know has been hot and debated in and out so many times.

Beating a dead horse? Well, where did you think Mr. Hed came from, honestly?

Ok, so I will not beat around the bush. I am disappointed in the current path the music of Castlevania has gone in. It has gone from a a 25-year+ span of music that has been through the gauntlet of 4-bit sound chips all the way through until modern multi-channel extravagant ensembles we're given today. Only a handful of game franchises can make such a boast, let alone have their game's music be so iconic and important to it's fanbase.

The recent separation from the older Japanese style of having grand melodic soundtracks for a game to the grandiose theatrical scores has been both gradual, yet drastic. Óscar Araujo was tasked with making a score that was in-line with what he believed Lords of Shadow required in a score. However, what he ended up with was a score that, while perhaps too intent on not being too intrusive to the player, also ended up largely being bland and relatively forgettable in terms of a melody that sticks with you for days after hearing it. Was he mandated this from on high? Was this all his own doing? We'll never know the full story, given the already evident sliding scale of truth Mercurysteam and Dave Cox present on the topic..

So where did it all change, and more importantly....WHY did it change? Is it simply a difference in regional tastes, or a symptom of something that seems to be taking grasp of the video game industry as of late? To elaborate, I draw your attention to the following article, which broaches the subject in it's current form:

http://therealgamers.net/video-game-music-has-lost-its-melody/

Using this as a reference, it continues to question the elephant in the room: is the video game industry truly evolving? Or is it trying too much to be like the movie industry with which it competes with for entertainment value. (despite never having to really worry about competition with the movie industry from pretty much the conception of video gaming through 2000, and still managing to capture a fair share of the entertainment market)

It does simply come down to melody, and how much emphasis is put on such a seemingly small aspect of video gaming. What do you normally focus on when you listen to any type of music? The drums? the bass? The rhythm, moreso? Chances are, in any song you listen to, the main part you will focus on is the melody. That tune that comes to the forefront and becomes the earwig that burrows into your consciousness. We revel in it. It's why so many Lady Gaga songs are the guilty pleasure of so many of us - goddamn catchy melody that sticks with us.

(try to deny it...you're just lying to yourself)

Does melody have to be sacrificed for the sake of making a video game score sound as huge and dominating as a movie score, though?

HELL. NO.

Let us take a fine example: Super Castlevania 4 was probably one of the (if not, THE) most atmospheric games in the series. The level designs. The enemy interactions. Everything screamed "THIS IS A HAUNTED CASTLE POSSESSED BY THE DEAD!!", and the music drove that home. Some tunes may have been more light-hearted, like any Castlevania game, such as "Treasury Room" and "Pillared Corridor". However, this is simply a break (and honestly, a very loose break) in an otherwise very grim and gritty game. However, is the grim and dire situation impeded at all by even the more upbeat music, I ask you?

I'd like to bring an example to your attention: we have "Forest of Monsters", stage 2 of Super Castlevania 4 as the "control group" of this test. Listen to it's very simple, very low and yet very intricate melody as it plays off the rhythm:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cv4/music/10.mp3

Now, by the standards of a lot of the more modern composers and studios...this would be considered "not fitting" more realistic and modern games. Why? I can only imagine it's because they think real life can only be defined by one type of music at a time, and not a plethora of different types of music that may seem contradictory....yet work in unison with the subject material.

As pointed out by a fellow Dungeonite....how so very untrue:

Deforestation - Super Castlevania IV 'Forest of Monsters' remix by Thunder Thouin

Obviously, melody with a theatrical appeal can be achieved. So why don't more composers and studios implement such things? Movie score themselves can be dramatic, yet are chock-full of melody!

Transformers: The Score - Arrival To Earth
(oh Steve Jablonsky, you salvaged the Transformers live action movie for me....the first one, anyway)

So I can't help but wonder; what is the preconception the gaming industry has with these huge theatrical score WITH. NO. MELODY. If any bothered to take notice of the incredibly growing trend amongst geeks these days (which obviously they haven't, if FOX is any testament), it's that there is a HUGE niche of gamers who focus on gaming music. Lets face it, what got us to love gaming music? It was creative melody and dynamic rhythm.

(and this was during a time when we were exposed completely to movies with iconic scores like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Batman. QUIZ, who remembers their music because of it's generous use of melody?)

So, in wrapping this up: I think the mass majority of gaming priducers and composers really need to take a look at their roots to see what really resonates with people, not just gamers. What music really captures a person? And why does it capture them? I can't help but think the team in charge of Lords of Shadow are sticking their heads in the sand regarding the issue, since a chief concern brought up after LoS1 was it's blander music. Is this a matter of sheer ignorance, arrogance, or simply not connecting with what gamers really want and what connects with them the most?

I can guarantee you, just because a game in our 80's/90's generation may have been limited by hardware constraits doesn't mean we didn't love it's music because it's composers knew what little they had to work with and ran with it. We didn't seem to mind, did we? Does the industry really think it's going to be that music different for the current generation of gamers?

Just my peace.

This whiskey tastes great, FYI.

[Pfil]

Throughout my stay on this forums, since the day I registered, I largely exposed my thoughts about Oscar Araujo's style of composition in general and in LoS games specifically. They aren't positive opinions.
I too loathed Castlevania music for being my personal all-time favourite, not only from VG's.
I think there's nothing I can add without repeating myself.
But I find this topic very, very interesting.

Steve Jablonsky's 1st Transformers movie is one of the examples I always think of when thinking of modern movie soundtracks with good melodies (I didn't like the 2nd movie soundtrack and I disliked the 3rd one).
The beginning of "Soccent Attack" is just awesome!
There's plenty of examples that come to my mind right now for movies with great and dramatic melodies. The Man in the Iron Mask, The Rock, The Other Boleyn Girl, Batman Begins, The Brotherhood of War, OldBoy...
That's why I always stated that Araujo is missing the point, not only about Castlevania, but about what makes a good movie soundtrack, also.
I don't like Castlevania having music that is not Castlevania-like, but I wouldn't have been so dissapointed if it had a "good movie soundtrack", which wasn't the case in my opinion.

About music in VG's nowadays in general, I generally don't like it. From time to time, I find something good. I remember now "Russian Deliberations" from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example. Many tracks from both RosenkreuzStilette games, the whole La Mulana soundtrack, many tracks from Megaman 9 and 10, some tracks from Sonic 4: Episode 2...
But in general, I find 2D modern games' music very dissapointing because they try to be retro and catchy but they just are amateurish, and 3D modern games' music very generic and in the background, like trying so hard not to be intrusive that it's almost not even there.

[uzo]

Very well put. I feel exactly the same on this whole issue.

The only other thing I may add, admittedly tangential, is the perhaps overuse of 'battle music' cutting into the gameplay when any enemies show up. I understand the reason it's used, but some part of me also misses an area having a theme that comprises the action of terrain navigation along with the action of combat without having to transition. Even with slow paced and ambient tracks, I believe a solid setting piece for me is more appreciated. Take the Abandoned Mine from Symphony of the Night. It was slow, ambient, creepy, and yet combat didn't feel wrong or awkward even though the music never changed as I stood up to the enemies of the area. This is of course, in full admission, a very subjective complaint based in my own tastes.

*raises a glass of whiskey*

[Abnormal Freak]

What's amazing to me is the "chiptune" music done nowadays that's lacking melody. The artists try to recreate the 8-bit sound (though many without using the actual hardware which is bogus), but there's no strong melody or smart use of instruments.

Mutant Mudds is an example of great chiptunes, though. Really catchy melodies, cool sounds. Love that game.

Anyway, while I agree on the current state of video game and movie scores being largely melody-free and boring, I don't think that all games need melody. One of my absolute favorite composers is Aubrey Hodges, and while he does stuff with great melody, his dark ambient scores are wonderful pieces of drifting mood. Although in that example, there is melody, it just isn't in the form of an easily-recognizable or hummable tune; so the basics for music are still there, just in a different format to evoke mood and atmosphere.

[Pfil]

I find generic battle music to be noisy and annoying. Mirror of Fate took that noisy and annoying sound to an extreme within its battles.
It's my personal taste too, of course, but I had to mention it.

[Pfil]

About what Abnormal Freak mentioned, I totally agree.
There's PLENTY of examples of retro titles that want to sound retro, but they just use similar sounds, but in composition and musical richness they are almost null, they sound totally amateur.
The truth is that many of that games are made by amateurs, and when it comes to the music, it shows.