EPT![[image loading]](http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6677/post1635111153199677az7.jpg)
I finished playing Legend of Heroes VI Sora no Kiseki last month. For those who aren't familiar with it (most, I think, because it's Japanese-only), here is the wikipedia entry for it, and here is the official site (in Japanese). Some may remember hearing about this game, as well as the song in question, from the "Top 100 game music" thread haji posted about two months ago. It's #10.
A little background. Falcom's pretty famous in Japan (not so much outside, I find) because it's a game company that had extremely strong musical roots. Little-known piece of trivia is that Falcom really brought about the musical revolution in games, where instead of your old, boring, repetitive sound tracks, Falcom played full-blown orchestrated music. It's a difference you can feel when comparing Space Invaders to games of now, where this sort of musical score is considered the norm, even if standards aren't always met. But that's not the point. Some people mention Falcom was actually a music-first company, but I don't know if that's true.
Nowadays they're mostly known for the Ys series, which has largely been adapted in English... at least until the most recent three games. But I believe full fan translations have been completed for all three, nonetheless. If you haven't checked them out, I strongly recommend them if you like Secret of Mana/Legend of Zelda-esque action RPGs. You'd have a hard time finding a better recent-gen game that's built upon simple gameplay mechanics.
... not that it means the game's easy.
At least in Japan, they're also famous for the Legend of Heroes series, which actually has been around almost as long as Final Fantasy and carries its own weight. Doesn't touch Dragon Quest, though.
The other thing about Falcom is that, because of their generally incredible musical scores for their games, they get essentially double or triple the income from a game than most other companies. Yes, some people buy Final Fantasy OSTs after the fact, but this is usually borne out of fandome rather than a true desire for the music involved. That's not to say Square's done shabby job at music or anything, but they're not known for it, and aside from a few random hits, their soundtracks often aren't anything to write home about. Not so for Falcom, as they tend to release a soundtrack along with the game, which is just as coveted (and in some cases, some people go for the OST rather than the game itself!), and after a few months' time, they actually release at least one "super arrange" of the "top songs" from the game.
What I wanted to blog about isn't just how much effort Falcom sticks into their music, but how they USE it. In the past four years or so of playing games on-and-off (not much of a gamer, though, heh), I think I've been floored by the usage of just a handful of instances where music is used.
Silver Will is one example. It was so well-received that it hit #10 on 2ch's top 100 list, despite how comparatively little history the game has compared to DQ and FF and CT, which tended to dominate the list. It's also, in a way, considered the game's anthem/theme song.
But I think I only heard it around 4 times through the entire trilogy. That's about 120 hours of playtime and only four times. I actually only remember three, but I'm going to assume I missed hearing it in the first game, because that wouldn't have made sense (it being in the OST and not being played). It wasn't played in the title scenes, not in cinematics, really, you would generally forget about it, despite it being one of the most epic-sounding themes ever.
But then you're playing and, wham, Silver Will starts playing.
It was especially amazing in the second and third games how they never played it. Certainly they knew how well-received this song was. But it was played one, single, measly time in the second game. And it wasn't the last boss.
But the moment you heard it, you knew it was, in a sense, the climax of the game. It's kind of like Sephiroth's theme in FF7, except they played that theme over and over again during the course of FF7, so it became more like Darth Vader's theme. Not so here. You ran into the guy you face multiple times by the point it's played (near the end of the second game, he drifted about really from the start of the first game, so that's a good 70 hours or so), you've even fought him once, but boom, this song plays, and you know it's an important moment.
Another version of Silver Will, one of their three remixes of it, I think.
Another example is Ys Origins, the latest (though a few years old by now) addition to the Ys series. Again being Falcom, music tends to have its own specific role, many pieces being played a whole one time through an entire game. Especially considering that Ys doesn't really offer a whole lot of playtime on each playthrough (they tend to be short games, with the replay value being the increased difficulty, mostly for the bosses). So when you have the opening song, you assume it's just that, the opening song.
As always, Falcom-quality music.
But then this scene happens, all the way at the end of the game (beware spoiler, if you might play this game).
For the first time in at least 5 games, maybe ever, Falcom pulls the opening song out, at the climax scene of a game!
I still find that scene (and the LoH6 battles) more spine-chilling than basically any other sequence in a game. Yes, I am routinely surprised/scared by scenes in games like FEAR or Bioshock, but awed? Ehh. Like, I don't think I've seen anyone actually get AWED by scenes in games like FF, especially the "epic" ones, they tend to be like "oh look Eda just grew big and sprouted wings and she's supposed to be able to blow the world to smithereens!"
... while the BGM during the cutscene is kind of "meh." Not necessarily BAD but more often than not, they don't blow your socks away, either with the symbolism of the music or by the quality of the music itself.
Just goes to show that sometimes, quality music will trump quality graphics in terms of impact.
