RPG Soundtracks

The other day I was sitting at home bored out of my mind and ended up buying the game Tales of Symphonia. This is a cell-shaded RPG that was very highly praised by anyone I've been in contact with who's played the game. It received such high acclaim that I knew I could just go out and buy it without reading any reviews (I don't like reading reviews for RPGs).



The graphics in this game are quite stylish, but I personally think that the cell-shading in Viewtiful Joe was better. Then again, the goal of both games is different. Tales of Symphonia clearly tries to be an interactive Japanese animated movie (going right down to that huge drop of water that appears next to a character's head whenever he feels embarrassed), whereas Viewtiful Joe is presented more in the style of an animated 70's comic book.

The combat system is quite cool, allowing the main character to start attack strings with basic slashes, and then link them to special techniques that you learn as you progress in the game. I'm in no position to judge the story yet, but so far it's quite promising. It's written on the back of the box that two worlds are involved, and right now, there's no indication that there's something beyond the immediate concerns of your party. Those immediate concerns are nothing new, but I've always thought that a good RPG story is made in such a way that, at a certain point, you realize that you had absolutely no idea what was going on, and I seem to be headed towards that point.

There's one issue with this game that became obvious to me rather quickly: the quality of the music is totally inconsistent. There are afew good tunes, but some are forgettable at best, and others can be down right crappy at times. This is rather perplexing, because the music in an RPG is supposed to help set the mood. It's not the kind of thing that you're supposed to TOLERATE as you play the game, and that's what I find myself doing at times. Exploring certain cities in this game can be murder just because of the music that's playing. Yet I still find that the game is quite good so far and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a GameCube. I find this position quite odd for a guy like me to take, because music is pretty important to me in general. This got me thinking about other games and their music.

On the subject of bad music, the first title that comes to mind is Sony's Legend of Dragoon for the PS1. This game was a pretty blatant Final Fantasy rip-off that was actually pretty good... if you consider the fact that it's an FF rip-off. The music in Legend of Dragoon is EASILY the worst music in the history of console RPGs. The fighting music was bad, the background music was bad, and managing your party in the menu let you hear just how low the musical quality in this game could go. So why do I think it was a pretty good game? The characters were likeable, the story was quite decent, and the combat system was simply amazing. Legend of Dragoon is the only RPG I've ever played where I didn't get fed up of fighting, ever. The only fight I escaped from was when I was really in danger of dying.

Now one series that is especially recognized for the quality of its soundtrack is without a doubt the Final Fantasy series. Even then, there are afew drops in soundtrack quality every now and then. I don't remember enough to comment on each game specifically, but I definitely remember my parents telling me to turn the volume down more than once while I was playing FF8.

So if you're still reading this and you own a Gamecube, go and buy Tales of Symphonia right now! The music is kinda crummy at times, and the "initial story" is relatively cheesy, but it's well worth your time.