Soul vs Soulless in video games

[Beastro]

This is a good example of what I was talking about above with the RA soundtrack (posting this due to the 4 video limit):





All the pep, intensity, and energy of the original is gone. What's replaced it sounds flat in comparison.

 

[Gerrard]

Jeremy Soule did most of the heavy lifting for that game.

Indeed.

Too bad he himself became Jeremy Soulless.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I know what this thread needs

 

[Azdul]

There's also the role music plays in zeitgeists as Daggerfalls soundtrack is VERY mid 90s PC, and that's something missed by people with a lot of music.

It's why the Command and Conquer Remastered soundtracks suck. They're still done by Frank Klapacki, but he's not the same guy he was 25 years ago and it shows in how he's altered the songs to the point where they feel like Frankenstein's monster - one moment they're their old original selves, then the next something new has been shoved in that's completely discordant with the original music and back again.

I find those periods of music fascinating, especially in video games because of how quickly they developed. Some music aesthetics were in style for very very brief periods and you can date games by them.

It's more about 'what sound hardware can do' - than about any particular stylistic development.

Daggerfall, Red Alert or Tyrian can be played through frequency modulation of OPL - and sound not terrible. If you can rearrange less than 50kB of samples to play over 3 minutes - you'll get soundtrack of Amiga game - that also will sound half decent on GUS.

Anything played through Linear Arithmetic of Roland MT-32 usually sounds great - unless composer added long piano notes.

By the late 90's - XM extension of General MIDI added filters and effects - and hearing it through small, plastic speakers - you could mistake PC for professional keyboard. At this point the creative restrictions were gone.

Limitations breed creativity.

Spoiler

Although setting the limit of 256 bytes for the whole demo is probably going too far

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Spoiler

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VS

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Could've used examples from the same series and it would still get the point across.

Witcher

As for soul, you can't describe it. Unfortunately that leaves it open for consoomers and retards who don't know what soul actually is to think they have validity in claiming any market research slop has soul and care put in it because they think devs actually put an ounce of personality into it.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

If you want to know what soullessness looks like I highly recommend the new Mario movie. It is top to bottom utterly soulless and does everything it possibly can to pretend it has a soul by REMEMBER OLD THING being spammed in every frame of the movie.

When you start rolling out the DK rap to Donkey kong bouncing his pecks and a jew's voice coming out of his mouth you know the soul was never there.

 

[El Presidente]

VS

28 years separate these two games, by the way.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

that's bs5 right

 

[El Presidente]

that's bs5 right

It's "6", to be released next year

 

[Athena]

"soul/soulless is not rea—"

 

[El Presidente]

The original vision for a tone for the Donkey Kong Country games is vastly superior and more soulful than the path the series took afterwards. Compare the renders from the time (or simply the ingame levels for that matter) to the newer titles:

Went from "dark, whimsical universe" to pretty much a generic cartoon world. Tropical Freeze is a very fun game, but this shift to a far more soulless style is a disappointment.

Can you even imagine a modern Nintendo game with a moody sky like the one in this second picture? Everything has to be toddler-tone now for them.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

You see this but you also forget how Nintendo had to prove things to the public because of Sega. They wanted to show off that the SNES/Super Famicom was a powerful machine, especially after Sega was seen as the technical innovator and "edgy kid" of the gaming world. Project Ultra 64 (later rebranded as Nintendo 64) was being delayed time and time again so the major thing about late stage SNES was how great their arcade ports were, with Killer Instinct and all. I came across a japanese forum where they asked what was the point where gaming died, and the unanimous answer was when Sega stepped down as a major player in the game. Sega was Nintendo's rival. They wanted the same audience, and it says a lot that Sony went for the older kids instead. Play Station was just a hair in the mane of the tech giant that Sony was and is. Gaming was Sega's and Nintendo's forte. But once Sega is out, Nintendo has no real competition, and therefore they have to stop trying. They don't need to. Nintendo stopped trying things when Sega wasn't there to provide an attractive counterpoint.

 

[Viata]

Once again, fuck you Sega of America!

 

[Clockwork Knight]

A game gains 1 soul point every year since its release. Games made when the poster was in school automatically gain 50 points.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

You see this but you also forget how Nintendo had to prove things to the public because of Sega. They wanted to show off that the SNES/Super Famicom was a powerful machine, especially after Sega was seen as the technical innovator and "edgy kid" of the gaming world. Project Ultra 64 (later rebranded as Nintendo 64) was being delayed time and time again so the major thing about late stage SNES was how great their arcade ports were, with Killer Instinct and all. I came across a japanese forum where they asked what was the point where gaming died, and the unanimous answer was when Sega stepped down as a major player in the game. Sega was Nintendo's rival. They wanted the same audience, and it says a lot that Sony went for the older kids instead. Play Station was just a hair in the mane of the tech giant that Sony was and is. Gaming was Sega's and Nintendo's forte. But once Sega is out, Nintendo has no real competition, and therefore they have to stop trying. They don't need to. Nintendo stopped trying things when Sega wasn't there to provide an attractive counterpoint.

The slant eyed faggots still gargle the balls of the NES to this day. There's plenty of good games post-Dreamcast and Nintendo fucking off to the kiddy pool doesn't change that. I would love to see a dreamcast style game revival, but by that point neither Sega nor Nintendo were relevant. Nintendo was the handheld company and it's continued to fit that rough mold ever since.

 

[Vic]

sega went away, sony stepped in and thus began the race for 3D graphics which we are still fighting today

 

[KafkaBot]

I came across a japanese forum where they asked what was the point where gaming died, and the unanimous answer was when Sega stepped down as a major player in the game.

Sega's games are actually better nowadays.

I honestly never liked their old arcadey style; their good games were essentially Sonic, Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue, with the first two being just "good enough" while the third one aged horribly.

Nowadays they make Yakuza and own Creative Assembly and Atlus, which is a massive improvement, even if Atlus and CA are both not as great as they used to be.

The DreamCast was definitely a great console, though.

 

[Viata]

Sega's games are actually better nowadays.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

I came across a japanese forum where they asked what was the point where gaming died, and the unanimous answer was when Sega stepped down as a major player in the game.

Sega's games are actually better nowadays.

I honestly never liked their old arcadey style; their good games were essentially Sonic, Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue, with the first two being just "good enough" while the third one aged horribly.

Nowadays they make Yakuza and own Creative Assembly and Atlus, which is a massive improvement, even if Atlus and CA are both not as great as they used to be.

The DreamCast was definitely a great console, though.

Shenmue and Yakuza are the same shitty korean drama sim games. They're all awful.

I would argue Sonic adventure is vastly superior to Sonic Frontiers. Frontiers is one of the worst designed games I've ever played and I don't know how it ever got greenlit the way it is.

 

[KafkaBot]

I came across a japanese forum where they asked what was the point where gaming died, and the unanimous answer was when Sega stepped down as a major player in the game.

Sega's games are actually better nowadays.

I honestly never liked their old arcadey style; their good games were essentially Sonic, Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue, with the first two being just "good enough" while the third one aged horribly.

Nowadays they make Yakuza and own Creative Assembly and Atlus, which is a massive improvement, even if Atlus and CA are both not as great as they used to be.

The DreamCast was definitely a great console, though.

Shenmue and Yakuza are the same shitty korean drama sim games. They're all awful.

I would argue Sonic adventure is vastly superior to Sonic Frontiers. Frontiers is one of the worst designed games I've ever played and I don't know how it ever got greenlit the way it is.

Shenmue is awful nowadays, I agree. The first two titles were impressive on release because of the novelty factor, but both have aged horribly, and I'm convinced that the third title is just a practical joke.

Definitely do not agree on Yakuza, though. They aren't particularly deep, but can be wildly entertaining if you're in the mood for their brand of comedy or chaotic combat. It's essentially the gaming equivalent of genuinely tasty fast food.

Sonic games are shit today, yes. I meant that their games are better in general, not that all their franchises have improved. In fact, as far as I am concerned, Sonic Adventure 2 was the last passable Sonic game made by Sega, and it was already quite a downgrade from the classic 2D titles.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Definitely do not agree on Yakuza, though. They aren't particularly deep, but can be wildly entertaining if you're in the mood for their brand of comedy or chaotic combat. It's essentially the gaming equivalent of genuinely tasty fast food.

Yakuza 6 starts with a 45 minute cut scene. It is absolutely a korean drama for autistic men. It's the gaming equivalent of watching Love actually on netflix and playing snake on your phone occasionally.

 

[Vic]

Definitely do not agree on Yakuza, though. They aren't particularly deep, but can be wildly entertaining if you're in the mood for their brand of comedy or chaotic combat. It's essentially the gaming equivalent of genuinely tasty fast food.

Yakuza 6 starts with a 45 minute cut scene. It is absolutely a korean drama for autistic men. It's the gaming equivalent of watching Love actually on netflix and playing snake on your phone occasionally.

I never played a yakuza game but people usally say they are excellent JRPGs.

 

[KafkaBot]

Definitely do not agree on Yakuza, though. They aren't particularly deep, but can be wildly entertaining if you're in the mood for their brand of comedy or chaotic combat. It's essentially the gaming equivalent of genuinely tasty fast food.

Yakuza 6 starts with a 45 minute cut scene. It is absolutely a korean drama for autistic men. It's the gaming equivalent of watching Love actually on netflix and playing snake on your phone occasionally.

Yakuza 6 is meant to end Kiryu's story and it had been... 5? years since the last title, so the team was particularly self-indulgent. If you don't care about the story, just skip the cutscenes, but honestly, if you don't like cutscenes, I do agree that you should never play Yakuza. The franchise isn't as bad as MGS in that regard, but gets hilariously close sometimes.

Have never watched any K-dramas, but I'm acquainted with enough people that enjoy them to doubt that they have anything in common with Yakuza.

I never played a yakuza game but people usally say they are excellent JRPGs.

Like a Dragon is a good JRPG. Yakuza 0-6 are action adventure games.

 

[Viata]

Definitely do not agree on Yakuza, though. They aren't particularly deep, but can be wildly entertaining if you're in the mood for their brand of comedy or chaotic combat. It's essentially the gaming equivalent of genuinely tasty fast food.

Yakuza 6 starts with a 45 minute cut scene. It is absolutely a korean drama for autistic men. It's the gaming equivalent of watching Love actually on netflix and playing snake on your phone occasionally.

I never played a yakuza game but people usally say they are excellent JRPGs.

I think the JRPG Yakuza has another name. The first Yakuza game, the only one I played, had nothing to do with JRPG, for example.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Yakuza 6 is meant to end Kiryu's story and it had been... 5? years since the last title, so the team was particularly self-indulgent. If you don't care about the story, just skip the cutscenes, but honestly, if you don't like cutscenes, I do agree that you should never play Yakuza. The franchise isn't as bad as MGS in that regard, but gets hilariously close sometimes.

I don't care who's story is starting or ending. I care when a game is 80% cut scenes full of movie actors. Yakuza is as bad, if not worse than Kojima's bullshit. It annoys me they're being promoted as some new great franchise when they're FMV games with roms built in.