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It began when Mario swam through a pipe. The music of "Wet Dry World"
subtly shifted as he entered another part of the level, starting a trend
that could someday transform the way we think of game soundtracks.
The basic concept is simple: rather than writing a song and playing it
on a continuous loop, a game's music can be linked to other parts of the
game to interact with the gameplay. Game designers have been doing this
all along to a limited extent, just by having different songs for
battles, dungeons, and Game Over screens, but a few experiments with
this "dynamic music" suggest that much more can be done with sound.
Following Mario's swim in Super Mario 64, a great example is
another classic platformer, Banjo-Kazooie. In its level "Treasure
Trove Cove" for instance, "you" enter the level to the sound of steel
drums. Dive into the water and the same song plays, but with a different
array of muted instruments. Approach the pirate ship and an accordion
comes in. Attack the giant crab for an intense battle version of the
song. Climb the mountain and everything fades into the wind. The upshot
is that a single song becomes a whole suite of songs that serve two
purposes: setting the mood and conveying information.
This same concept can and should be applied to role-playing games
because those same two goals are as important in that genre as in
platformer games. RPGs have distinct types of events, such as combat,
overland travel, dungeon exploration, and character management. By
modifying the current music to reflect what the player is currently
doing, rather than switching to completely different songs, it's
possible to explore variations on a song while keeping it appropriate to
the situation. Action games with RPG elements such as Metroid
Prime and Deus Ex have done this for years; where is the
feature in a pure RPG?
Rather than the current trend towards hiring the Japan Philharmonic
Orchestra or some other musician to record a static song, designers can
use a MIDI-style music system to smoothly alter pitch, speed, volume,
and instrument selection. But the closest that RPG designers seem to
have come so far is the MMORPG Anarchy Online, in which snippets
of WAV-format music are strung together. In combat the snippet selection
is based on how well the player's side is doing in battle, and outside
it's based on the time of day. This use of recorded rather than
synthesized music gives what sounds like higher sound quality -- at
first hearing -- but is really not very flexible. Synth music, ie. MIDI,
allows for more ways to modify a song rather than to switch between
pre-written pieces. This difference is especially important in RPGs,
because of their relatively complex plot and characters. RPGs have a
wider range of emotions to convey than a shooter or platformer, and this
sort of fine-tuning would help to set the mood. During a contemplative
scene on a castle balcony, is it better to have the only choices be
full-blast music and silence, or a subtle variation on a song based on
the mood and location?
Dynamic music helps the player know not just how to feel, but what's
going on. There's a great deal of overlap between "music" and "sound
effects"; many readers can probably hum the Zelda series' "Aha!"
ditty or the Sonic the Hedgehog series' "Running Out of Air!"
panic song. It would be possible, and interesting, to change a song
based on what characters are in a scene, what weapons they have, how
healthy they are, and what time of day it is. Any of this information
could be useful; when your airship sounds like the theme from
Titanic it's time for repairs. A player could sense that "He's
got a gun!" just by shutting their eyes and listening, or search a
forest for monsters by waiting for an over-eager sound system that
starts the battle theme whenever one is near. A mini-game could grow out
of giving the characters instruments that let them "make beautiful music
together" for room and board at the inn, or from having a bard learn new
chords and tunes from hearing the background music of different places.
There's a whole new dimension of gameplay to explore by fully
implementing dynamic music.
Is this idea going to replace the traditional game soundtrack, though?
Probably not. There are RPGs with outstanding, memorable songs -- and
that's the key, the fact that you'll never forget the themes of Final
Fantasy's Chocobos or of Justin's view from the Edge of the World in
Grandia. There will always be a need for great composers to write
the songs that make us grin years later, but now they'll have a new
challenge in addition to writing static songs. Part of their job in the
future will be to compose pieces of music that can bend and shift and
merge with one another and still be memorable. There's actually very old
precedent to follow: the classical composers like Bach who specialized
in fugues, full of repeating themes that flip and overlap. Building an
old idea into a new wave of RPG music would expand the genre's ability
to tell emotional stories, and players' ability to experience a fantasy
world that captures all the senses.
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