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Koichi Suigiyama. Dragon Warrior.
Motoi Sakuraba. Star Ocean.
Hitoshi Sakimoto. Breath of Fire: Dragon's Quarter.
Nubuo Uemetsu. Final Fantasy.
All of these names, quite familiar to us. The games they worked on, legends.
All of them are famous for their music, but today I'd like to go over the importance of a certain portion of the game, and cheer on those musicians who've worked hard to deal with a very difficult part of game music composition: Battle. When we play a game, we tend to spend more time in battle than anything else. In an average RPG there will be a few hundred to a few thousand battles. Each of these struggles will last between ten-twenty seconds to four minutes in length usually. We're talking about listening to the tunes that are composed for these parts of the game for hours of time. These who've created battle tunes that withstand countless playings without becoming annoying deserve a round of applause.
But there's something more, a new trend that Sakimoto is really the most representative of through his excellent work in Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, and Dragon's Quarter. The trend is recognizing the fact that we go through a lot of battles. And until the whole paradigm shifts, making good music that doesn't get overused is going to be a challenge. So let's not skimp here! Let's make a lot of 'em. Let's mix 'em up. Keep the player interested by giving him a variety of battle themes. And not just any old crap, but good battle themes to keep the experience of battle in the game lively and new. In Dragon's Quarter, I counted twelve battle themes; twelve of them. Sheesh, the whole one battle theme per disk plus a boss and final boss theme that we get in the average Final Fantasy seems kind of skimpy in comparison doesn't it? The Saga Frontier series, for all of its problems, can not be accused of forgetting to make plenty of different and interesting themes for the multitude of fights. Wild Arms 3 didn't forget in it's long gameplay to add some variety in, focusing on distinguishing the various boss battles and increasing their drama by having their music be unique to them. Anachronox switched it's beats with each area, changing to fit the experience of the new lands with both new atmosphere and new battle music. It's great to see this kind of stuff and I really have to salute those composers and development crews working this into their games.
Here's a cheer for those composers who are moving to really let battle rock. Let's see this trend continue.
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