61 Frames Per Second : final fantasy vii

The Final Fantasy Rule: Why the New Final Fantasy XIII Demo Matters, Even if You Hate the Series

John Constantine — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I’ve had to stop myself from doing something stupid many, many times in the past few weeks. Late at night, typically before bed while I’m enjoying that just-brushed-just-flossed feel of my teeth and that last drink of water, I’ve opened my laptop and gone to Play Asia, added an item to my cart, and made it all the way to the check out before stopping myself. What am I, an idiot? What kind of person would do this? I’ve slapped my own wrist, both literally and metaphorically, closed the computer, and waited for morning, when the sobering light of day inevitable reintroduces logic to my shoddy impulse control.

Honestly. Spending eighty dollars on a demo of Final Fantasy XIII, a demo in a language I don’t even understand, is stupid. Very, very stupid. Yes, it comes with a nice new version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, but even that little perk isn’t worth blowing two weeks worth of grocery money on an hour long sampling of a game that will be out before too long.

The impulse is detestable. It is, however, an inevitable impulse, one that isn’t rooted in fanaticism. The allure of a new Final Fantasy, even just a taste of it, has less to do with fetishism and everything to do with wanting to see just what any given game console can do. For almost twenty years at this point, Square’s Final Fantasy games have represented technological and artistic benchmarks for the entire medium. Like the games or not, they are always exquisitely made interactive structures. Final Fantasy IV, VII, and X may have their flaws as games, but they all demonstrated the raw potential of the technology that birthed them.

Thankfully, we don’t need a copy of the demo to get a look at it in action. This playthrough I found over at Siliconera proves a few things about the game. Yes, it looks as good in action as that debut trailer from 2006 promised. Yes, the battle system looks like a fine mixture of new and old ideas. Yes, given the pop soundtrack and Nomura character design, Final Fantasy XIII promises to be the true sequel to X that people have been lusting after for eight years.

Most importantly, though, is that it shows just how much technological juice is still untapped in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Whether or not it’s a good game, I can’t wait to play Final Fantasy XIII. Just to see what it is.

Related links:

GDC News: Final Fantasy to Hit Virtual Console
Every Day is Better With Two Scoops of Final Fantasy XIII
Trailer Review: Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting

The Atari Jaguar and the Bit Wars

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:05:00 GMT

The Angry Video Game Nerd is back, and he's kicking off his resurrection with a two-part series on the Jaguar. Part one offers a brief history of the Jaguar, but doesn't explore its impotent game library at any length. Instead, the Nerd talks about how the Jaguar helped loosen a very powerful advertising ankle trap: the “Bit Wars.”

Putting it simply, if you were a gamer and conscious in between the years of 1985 and 1996, you were led to believe that more “bits” in a console equals a better system. You also fell for it, at least until certain truths started to leak out from pores of the 32/64-bit system race.

The NES was a huge improvement over the Atari 2600. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were a huge improvement over the rinky-dink graphics on the NES. 32-bit systems were capable of orchestrated audio, anime cutscenes and 3D graphics. And that's where the waters started to muddy up.

Before the 32/64-bit race began in earnest, I was going through a small obsessive fit with Capcom arcade games. In particular, Street Fighter Alpha, and (sigh) Dungeons and Dragons: Shadows Over Mystara. I thought for certain I'd see ports on the N64, because, duh, Nintendo's system was going to be the most powerful one in the console race! Why wouldn't it happen?

I posted the question on my high school's BBS and was laughed at by a lot of angry video game nerds who predated the Angry Video Game Nerd.

Storage space, development kits, costs...those meant little to me. It was all about the bits. Even though Squaresoft had thrown up its hands over the N64's cartridges and said, “Nope.” Even though Atari had long since made an ass of itself with the Jaguar.

It took a while, but I came to realise that “bits” were an advertising ruse that was even more effective and long-lived than Sega's infamous Blast Processing. The scope and vision of Super Mario 64 could never be achieved on the Playstation, but all things told, it didn't look much better than a Playstation game, and I had been bred to believe that the evolution of games was marked by its aesthetics.

The Nerd mentions how hard it was to convince his parents that a 16-bit Super Nintendo was actually a whole new experience next to the 8-bit Nintendo. At least the visual jump was evident from the start. My biggest challenge was convincing my parents that a 32-bit Playstation offered a whole new gameplay experience next to the N64. The N64 had Shadows of the Empire and Waverace; the Playstation had sprites, Final Fantasy VII, and Mega Man X4.

Problem was, I had long ago trained them to believe that “up” was the only way to go with bit counts. They weren't about to let me spend hundreds of dollars on a downgrade.

Eventually, I won. And my parents knew for sure they'd been duped when they heard the top-quality voice acting in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Related Links:

Life Without Playstation
The Angry Video Game Nerd's House of Nintendo Horrors
Wasted Rentals, Wasted Youth: Bram Stoker's Dracula

Crono: My First Aeris Gainsborough

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:01:00 GMT

You remember Aeris' death in Final Fantasy VII, right? Sephiroth dropped from the sky, brandishing his very big sword, and he spit Aeris like a piece of sacrificial lamb on a shishkabob. Cloud broke out the pitas, Cid stirred up the hummus and—no, wait, that didn't happen. Aeris died in Cloud's arms and it was very sad. There, that's what happened.

Aeris's death, though curiously dry (not a drop of blood was spilled—what kind of impotent Jesus stand-in was she?), was a stunning event for the gaming world. Until the moment Sephiroth fell on her as neatly as a dart flying to a pub's board, it seemed unfathomable that a game character could die. Forever. No take-backs.

Unfathomable for some. Not so much for others.

I'd been there a couple years prior. Crono from Chrono Trigger was my first Aeris.

“But you can bring Crono back to life! His death's wasn't traumatic, you big attention whore!”

But reviving Crono isn't as easy as sprinkling him with phoenix down. It's actually an emotional investment, and when I played Chrono Trigger on the DS, I was surprised at how powerfully it still hit me.

Aeris got a sword through her gut, and admittedly that's a pretty bad way to go. But at least her body was laid to rest. Crono, on the other hand, throws himself at the deadly light Lavos generates and his body simply...dissolves. One second he's a boy on a quest; the next falls apart in a smear, like a stick of charcoal left in the rain.

After the party bumbles around lost for a while, they're given the opportunity to climb Death Peak and revive Crono using a special item that's also the game's namesake. Death Peak is a pretty unique locale, as far as Chrono Trigger goes. The snow-covered mountain lords over the far-flung future, but it has a sinisterly ancient feel to it; it was thrown up when Lavos erupted from the ground in 1999. Journeying through the future usually means visiting factories and crumbling ruins, but Death Peak feels like it's encased in a bubble that's separate from the rest of time.

It's on Death Peak we get an unsettling glimpse of his Lavos' spawn, a quiet prophesy of what's to come. A perpetual, gentle snowfall makes the mountain eerily peaceful. And at the top of the mountain...well, that's a special experience.

The teamwork Crono's friends use to bring him back to life strengthens their bonds and speaks of their characters. Crono's death would also have been an easy opportunity to give “depth” to the cast through mourning: “A-bloo-bloo-bloo, our hero is gone, Zeal will pay,” and whatnot.

When Crono first dies, Marle is confident he's alive. It's a little saddening to see her so adamant about an impossibility, but her resolve makes it hard to resist the Crono-Jesus sub-quest. You are part of the experience, not just an outsider viewing a cutscene.

Related Links:

The Weakest Link: Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross
WTFriday: The Chrono Trigger Anime
China Trigger

Stupid Hero Names: Nobody Wants to Celebrate a Man Named "Squall."

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:30:00 GMT

One of my other jobs involves keeping an eye on celebrities and writing about their lives. This means I have to find it in me to rejoice in the births of their badly-named babies. Hooray for Lady Sugar Papaya. She might not be as special and unique as the Blue Angels and Pilot Inspektors in her Academy, but surely she won't have to resort to affirming her individuality through the arts or academics.

Video games, especially JRPGs, are pretty big on inoculating characters with a "Special!" booster before the game even begins. Names obviously define a person, but they're not a free pass to depth and wisdom. You have to grow into a name, even earn it in a way. If Cloud Strife is a deep and complex character (he's not) it's because of his trials and journeys, not because his name is more l33t than yours.

I always liked Wild ARMS because the main characters were compelling despite the fact they were stuck with names obviously given to them by their parents and not mental hospital escapees. Jack. Rudy, Cecilia. I remember them well to this day and I have yet to think to myself, "Gee, those were great characters but too bad Rudy wasn't named Sir Puppy Tails the III. That would have added so much."

It's not to say characters can't have interesting or different names. Final Fantasy VI's Terra has a moniker that suits someone who's half Jem doll. "Locke" isn't common, but it's not unheard of, and it suits a ~~thief~~ treasure hunter. Sometimes sanely unique names pop up by accident: I always thought "Celes" was an unusual abbreviation of "Celeste," but apparently it's a mistranslation of "Ceres," as in the harvest goddess who throws a wintry sulk every six months. So, yeah, there y'are.

There is one nice bit of progress going on with the name game lately, and that's the fact localisers are increasingly okay with leaving JRPG characters with their Japanese names. Japanese names sound funny to your mom (not mine, since she worked for a car company for ten years), but Akira Sakamoto is as plain as it gets in J-Land. It is a nice name. It is better than "Sunlight Tempest."

The obvious loophole that name-crazy developers need to exploit here is to keep coming up with alien races. "Oh, stop me from using 'FoSoYa, will you?"

Maybe developers just don't bother because they know if I have the chance, the hero of their painfully-crafted story is going to be renamed Mr Poo.

Related Links:

On Renaming Charaters
On Renaming Characters: My Own Naughty Experience
Character Case Study: When Good Characters Get Bad Attitude

Japan Scares Me: Final Fantasy VII's Tifa in Tifatan X

John Constantine — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Final Fantasy VII did not become famous because it was a good game. JRPGs did not grow out of their comfortable niche because of that game. No, both game and genre hit big thanks to Tifa Lockhart. They boomed because of bazooms, became massive thanks to mammaries, and were triumphant due to tits. I’ve floated this theory here on 61 Frames Per Second before, but it bears repeating, if for no other reason than most folks, whether they admit it or not, tend to click on any internet link related to breasts. The breasts in question do not need to be too large, too small, or even in a moment of Goldilocks-esque serendipity, just right. They simply need to be breasts. Of course, today I have a perfectly logical reason beyond this truth. Today I discovered Tifatan X.

Were Tifatan X ever going to make the trip to North American shores, an appropriate re-titling would be Kung Boob. The game is an explicit homage to Irem’s side-scrolling classic Spartan-X, better known here as NES launch title Kung Fu. It stars, as you may have already deduced, Final Fantasy VII’s Tifa Lockhart. The actually play is just the same as Spartan-X’s, except you have a slightly expanded selection of moves and the dudes in purple you regularly defeat take more than one hit to dispatch. Tifatan X makes it into the Japan Scares Me category for a familiar reason. Can you guess? Surprise, it’s inappropriate sexual content! Spartan-X’s regular enemies had a peculiar way of killing you back in 1984: they would just sort of stand uncomfortably close to you and your energy would drain. Tifatan’s creator saw a gold opportunity in this combat model, so instead of the enemies just weirdly glomming onto Tifa, they’re *ahem* groping her. The groping is accompanied by some very suggestive drawings of Miss Lockhart. Oh, Japan. You and your busy hands.

Kurt Kalata, forever one of our favorite people on the internet, is responsible for using up the precious part of my brain that’s now being used to acknowledge Tifatan X’s existence. Thank-you, sir. Mr. Kalata has a fresh article up about not just Tifatan X, but also its apparently awesome sequel. Head on over for more scares.

Editor's Note: I'm kidding, of course. Final Fantasy VII does not owe its success purely to Tifa Lockhart's bustline. But it certainly didn't hurt.

Related links:

Japan Scares Me: To Love-Ru - Exciting Outdoor School Version
Japan Scares Me: Tokyo Game Show Rising, Strangeness, and Panty-shot Beat ‘Em Ups
Japan Scares Me: Mario and The Western Show
Sex/Violence: Oneechanbara and the New Localization
NSFW: The Top Five Game-Based Pornos

On Renaming Characters: My Own Naughty Experience

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:40:00 GMT

Mackey's post about re-naming RPG characters took me back to a special place. I admit I'm lazy about re-naming my characters these days, but there was a time when my habits made my parents fear for the monikers of their grandchildren.

Actually, thinking about it, my mother mostly egged me on.

I think there's some kind of karma going on for people who gave game characters swear-names. Recently I needed a video of Cloud in the Mako reactor at the start of Final Fantasy VII for a whimsical, memory-heavy blog post elsewhere. The only appropriate video had Cloud branded as "El Boner."

Secret of Mana was my first Super Nintendo RPG. I named the girl "Bitch" because I'm creative and hilarious. After that, the the fate of each female character in subsequent RPGs was sealed. Nothing against the characters themselves. It was just tradition.

It's wasn't all about bongs and female dogs, though. I've always been one for naming schemes. Each cast member in Final Fantasy VI was named after someone in the first season of Power Rangers--except for Terra. You can probably guess what I named her.

When I played the Playstation and Game Boy Advance remakes of Final Fantasy IV, the world was saved from darkness by the cast of South Park and Glitch Bob from Reboot (as played by Cecil). I like to think that Mr Hat had powers on the level of Tellah the Sage. Curse you Square-Enix for taking away the ability to rename characters in Final Fantasy IV DS. You're lucky Namingway is so cute or else there'd be a brick through your window right now.

I think it's sad our children will grow up renting games on DVD-based mediums instead of cartridges with save batteries. I liked seeing what other people named their characters; it was like peeking into a stranger's brain or bathroom. I like to imagine that these adventures come to life on some other plain of existence, somewhere where a rescued king must thank ASS, PUSSY and TITS for saving his realm from evil.

Related Links:

On Renaming Characters
Character Case Study: When Good Characters Get Bad Attitudes
Many Colors in the Hardcore Rainbow

Cloud's Ghostly Face Says, "More Final Fantasy VII? Only I Know, Suckahs."

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:24:00 GMT

We might be in for more Final Fantasy VII, and I'm kind of, uhhh, excited about the prospect, to be honest.

Final Fantasy Union posted a pale picture of Cloud that has "Coming Soon" printed on it. What does this mean? It means the fangirls are peeing themselves with joy; we can surmise that much without going door-to-door. Less clear is whether or not this is a new Cloud-centric game, and if so, what kind?

Everyone, including me, wants to believe that this will be the Final Fantasy VII remake that Square-Enix promised us is never coming, ever. Logic, which has been ruining mankind's fun since the dawn of time, states that this will be another game altogeter. Most likely another entry in the never-ending Final Fantasy VII Compilation.

Final Fantasy Union speculates, Lord forbid, that this might be a sequel related to Dirge of Cerberus.

For those who aren't aware, Dirge of Cerberus introduced the now well recognised Genesis Rhapsodos, but under the name of G. He appeared at the end of the game saying that they still have work to do. Following this, he was then given a starring role in Crisis Core, a role which shed more light on to his character.

Putting these two things together, it seems logical that Square Enix would look to produce another title which takes place after the events of Dirge of Cerberus, where Genesis may even be an ally. Or they could be looking to produce a game similar to Crisis Core, where Cloud is the only playable character.

Dirge of Cerberus continuation? No! Crisis Core sequel? Better!

God, I can't belive I'm anticipating more information from a teaser with Cloud's pouty-boy face on it. It might be time for the doctors to send me to be killed.

Related Links:

Would You Play a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Hmmm?
Games You Keep Coming Back To
TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"

The Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack - An Inside Look

Peter Smith — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:00:00 GMT

In this exclusive follow-up to our interview with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix soundtrack producers David "djpretzel" Lloyd and Larry "Liontamer" Oji, djpretzel himself gives us a breakdown of four tracks from the game:

E. Honda 'Dosu-Koi'
djpretzel

"This was the track that I set my sights on early in the process. McVaffe has had an excellent mix of this track on OCR for a long while, modeled after Madonna's song 'Music,' but Capcom weren't feeling it for in-game usage, so I decided to take a shot. My initial version was way too aggressive, and got the hundred-hand slapdown itself, but I went back to the drawing board and did something mellower, with more of an emphasis on Asian instrumentation. There's shamisen, koto, shakuhachi, AND taiko in there, so it's got the 'big four' of Japanese instruments (more or less) and is more appropriate to the sumo bath house setting."

Guile 'Combat and Service'
Big Giant Circles, Justin R. Coleman

"Jimmy Hinson, alias Big Giant Circles, put together a really kicking take on Guile's theme, which is definitely one of the classics off the soundtrack. Capcom generally dug what he was doing, but were iffy on the lead synthesizer sound, and wanted something different. Jimmy got Justin to lay down an electric guitar lead that added some rock edge to the more electronic backdrop, achieving a good blend that Capcom gave the green light."

Ken / Online Menu 'Clamato Fever'
AE, Prozax

"While Sixto Sounds did the version of Ken's stage that's actually used in the game, Capcom wanted something special just for the online menus and the title screen, since users spend a good amount of time setting up matches, checking rankings, and tweaking options. Alex Esquivel (AE) and Dan Orosz (Prozax) put together an alternate take on the Ken theme that works perfectly for this context. The first time I fired up the beta and heard it, I just smiled — they nailed it! As an interesting side note, AE learned about the game through other channels and contacted Capcom directly, and was a little surprised to be redirected to Shael, Malcos and I to coordinate his involvement. Everything worked out, though, and I'm glad Alex and Dan were included in the long lineup of OC ReMix artists."

Zangief 'Red Cyclone'
The Grammar Club

"Shael Riley's been mixing humor, VGM, rock, and anything else he cares to throw in for a long time now, and his latest project is The Grammar Club, a band that's been making waves with their album Bremelanotide. The fellows put together a rock arrangement of Zangief's theme that's unique on the soundtrack for being a little less refined and more in-your-face, New York garage style. When I think Zangief, I certainly don't think 'refined,' so this ballsier type of production worked really well."

61FPS Q&A: David Lloyd and Larry Oji of OC ReMix on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack (Part 2)

Peter Smith — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

What are some of your favorite game soundtracks? Favorite composers?
djpretzel: Yuzo Koshiro, Dave Wise, Yasunori Mitsuda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, and Koji Kondo are all amazing... Super Castlevania IV, Revenge of Shinobi, Lunar (Sega CD version!!), Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy VI , Mega Man II, and Super Mario Galaxy are my favorite game scores at the moment.

Larry Oji: Favorite soundtracks and composers tend to go hand in hand. I'm a big fan of Koji Kondo's work on the Super Mario series, Masato Nakamura's on the Sonic the Hedgehog series (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, though not his, was excellent too), Alph Lyra for the Street Fighter II series, David Wise for Donkey Kong Country and Battletoads, Kazunaka Yamane for the Double Dragon series, and Yuzo Koshiro for the Streets of Rage series. That covers a lot of the games I played as a kid. Since learning more about the history of game music, I love so much stuff now, I can't even rattle it off. But my second-favorite composer, little known in the States, is Yasuhisa "Yack" Watanabe. His stuff is a lot more known in Japan, including as a member of Taito's Zuntata group, but almost no one tries to arrange his material; it's pretty far out there, so I can understand why. Sometimes his stuff doesn't resonate with me, but he's put out some incredible compositions. Then my personal favorite is British composer Tim Follin, whose nearly two-decade career composing for games was unparalleled, as far as what I've personally enjoyed. Check out his compositions for Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Solstice, Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge and Silver Surfer. He always strove for creative techniques and cool textures with his chiptunes. Plus, his modern soundtracks like Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future and Lemmings for the PSP were equally impressive. I've been slowly plugging away at a small OC ReMix album project paying tribute to his work, so before the end of this year, Dirge for the Follin should finally be out there, lamenting the fact that he retired from the industry.

Do you prefer the old-school chiptune style, or are you more into the CD-audio present?
djpretzel: I prefer the melodies and compositional approach of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras coupled with more modern production aesthetics; in other words, I like slick production, but only when it's paired up with a great melody. Which is not to say that game composers of today aren't writing great melodies, just that the limitations of earlier consoles meant that almost every piece needed to survive on compositional strength as opposed to production values.

Larry Oji: I've got no major preference. The only bias I have is that I grew up with chiptunes, so there's going to be some nostalgia pushing me to those. But modern stuff holds up a lot better to active listening. Either way. [pauses] Was that a cop out? ... All right, let's go with modern stuff. I actually prefer the melodies that were written in the chiptune days. But modern music has the potential for great writing as well, combined with higher quality sounds. Some fans feel there's an inherent compositional quality trade-off in newer videogame music compared to the older stuff, but I believe the best of the modern stuff is simply more elusive. Besides, people tend to gloss over the fact that not every chiptune was amazing back then either.

What do you think of the recent trend towards contextual music? In old Zelda, you'd just have a melody looping for the whole time you were in a dungeon. Now, you often just have ambient effects and then an "action" motif when you approach an enemy.
djpretzel: Well, I think most good game music, even very old stuff, is still contextual on some level — it still makes sense for the environment. But more recently the focus/buzz has been on making that contextuality of a more real-time, responsive nature, as opposed to the loops you mention. In essence, this makes the experience more cinematic, with the score reacting to players' actions just like a well-cued Hollywood soundtrack would. For FMV sequences in games, obviously, this is nothing new and has been the standard for years. The challenge is in maintaining that very polished interactivity once a user's actions become unpredictable. There are different ways of accomplishing this, including triggered motifs like you mention. I think it's all very interesting and exciting, but I also think we need to take a step back once in awhile and remember that games are a different medium from movies, and that emulating them is an option, but not the only option. Who's to say that looped melodies a la Zelda and older 8-bit titles don't make complete sense for certain games or genres? Game creators are creating interactive worlds... those worlds can resemble a film experience, and if that's the goal, then responsive, interactive scores are perfect. But the true art of game creation, to me, is remembering that there aren't any limits, that conventions of all other mediums can and should be bent or broken, and thus I think too much emphasis on targeting a cinematic experience could be dangerous. In essence, I think this trend is very positive, so long as it expands the arsenal of approaches to music in games, rather than narrows it.

How about the shift from short melodies to more expanded or moodier compositions? The difference between, y'know, Zelda II's Palace theme and Ocarina of Time's Forest Temple theme?
djpretzel: This is totally natural; audio and music have progressed alongside graphics and other technical aspects of console hardware and gaming, and more ornate and varied compositions flow from those progressions. With Ocarina, you've no longer got a limited palette of bright colors on screen, you've got a fully 3D world, and it'd be odd if the music didn't match. This sometimes means the number of "hummable" tracks on a game soundtrack is reduced in favor of more ambient, atmospheric fare, but it's usually right for the game, and composers like Koji Kondo in particular can almost always hit a balance between "song" or theme tracks and more environmental, BGM stuff.

How did you meet up with Capcom on Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix?
djpretzel: OCR is mostly about individual mixes, but every once in awhile we release album projects, where artists get together and focus on a specific game, composer, etc. We've released albums for Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country and most notably Final Fantasy VII with our Voices of the Lifestream album in 2007. Shael Riley and Stephen Malcom-Howell (a.k.a. Malcos), two veteran OC ReMixers, put together an album of Super Street Fighter II Turbo mixes called Blood on the Asphalt back in 2006. Capcom found the album online and contacted Shael, who in turn referred them to me. At first we were actually suspicious of being Punk'd or something, since it was such an amazing opportunity, but once we confirmed it was legit, we obviously jumped at the chance.

The HD Remix soundtrack is based on Blood on the Asphalt, but it's not exactly the same. What are some of the changes?
Larry Oji: Firstly, I definitely need to stress that the remixers didn't do any mere drag-and-drop jobs on these. A lot of the pre-existing arrangements selected for inclusion on HD Remix were full-on, four-to-five-minute arrangements with original sections, solos and so forth, which doesn't fly in Street Fighter II. So everything's been edited down to a more standard sixty-to-ninety seconds and looped, focusing on the core of each theme to work like the old-school themes did. Dave had to handle relaying all of the desired modifications handed down by Capcom to the artists and got a variety of requests. This is where he gets music-nerdy!

djpretzel: In addition to length and formatting requirements, Capcom had some very specific feedback, and some comments that were more general in nature. In certain instances they wanted individual instruments changed out, tempo increased by a few beats per minute, or other modifications to production that were very easy for artists to implement. Other times, they were looking more for a different feel, or more subjective changes to texture, which were more challenging. We were blessed with a pretty long development cycle, so we had a lot of time to present different versions/permutations of each track and go through an iterative process.

Where are you getting the themes that aren't originally from the album? Are these all new remixes?
Larry Oji: Along with eight edits of mixes from Blood on the Asphalt, three of the seventeen character themes are modified versions of other OC ReMixes. That left six themes with all-new takes, as well as nearly all new material for the fast versions of all the character themes, character endings and other assorted themes, with everything provided by our crew of remixers. Gotta give props to José E. Felix (a.k.a. José the Bronx Rican) for coming through in a big way with nearly every ending theme besides providing both the Dee Jay and Vega themes!

What've your production duties been like on the soundtrack?
Larry Oji: I'm a detail-oriented person, more behind the scenes. Dave functioned as the lead producer and director for the soundtrack, serving as the point of contact with game producer Rey Jimenez and Capcom to keep things streamlined on the communications side. He handled the legal stuff, as well as ensuring Capcom had all of the remixers' latest work as things progressed. I handled contacting remixers that were difficult to get a hold of in order to secure some pre-existing tracks, recruited and provided critique for some of the new music, and helped keep track of smaller details with all of our personnel. Even stuff like preparing our credits list for the game and getting new track titles for all of the remixed themes, I enjoy making sure the finer things are in place at the ground level, while Dave works with the big picture. If you had told me back when I played Street Fighter II in my friend's basement that I'd be in the credits of a game in the series nearly two decades later, I wouldn't believe it. It's an honor to help coordinate something that will always be a part of a historic franchise, especially Street Fighter, the one that truly pulled me into game music beyond being a casual fan.

djpretzel: Working with Capcom was truly awesome. We brought our fandom — the way we express ourselves through mixing/arrangement — full circle, right back to a commercial product that is itself a remix of an absolutely classic game... it's very meta, when you think about it. I think it's something that could only have happened in a post-internet environment, with a company that was groovy enough to realize their fans could play a meaningful role. Mods, user-generated content, etc. have been around awhile, but I think there's often an artificial wall — "this is the official content, this is the fan stuff" — that segregates things. This project tears down that wall, at least for game music, and integrates the two, without emphasizing the distinction. I think that's a fantastic precedent to be setting, and I'm proud OverClocked ReMix was involved!

Click here for Part 1! And check back tomorrow for a detailed look at the four all-new themes on the SSF2THD soundtrack!

61FPS Q&A: David Lloyd and Larry Oji of OC ReMix on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack (Part 1)

Peter Smith — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Here at 61FPS, we couldn't be more excited about the upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. So it's with great pleasure that we present our in-depth Q&A with David "djpretzel" Lloyd and Larry "Liontamer" Oji, of the definitive game-music remix site, OC ReMix. In a deliciously fan-friendly turn of events, OC ReMix was tapped to produce the music for SSF2THD — and we've got the inside scoop on this glorious reimagining of one of the greatest game soundtracks ever. We also took the opportunity to chat with these gurus on a wide range of game-music-related topics. Enjoy!

David, can you tell us about founding OC ReMix?
David W. Lloyd (djpretzel): Way back in 1999, I was making a 3D comic strip dedicated to the emulation scene called "OverClocked" — a few episodes were actually pretty funny, and it played a part in popularizing the whole "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" craze, but it was also a way for me to get better at Photoshop and 3D Studio MAX. I wanted something I could work on for music as well, to get better at composing, arranging and producing; I had this idea to do videogame arrangements of my own, but also to open it up to others. At the time, there were sites which were specific to Commodore 64 games, and which focused on techno mixes, but nothing that was more open-ended. I wanted a website that encouraged jazz, classical, rap, rock and anything else, in addition to electronica genres, and which allowed arrangements from computer games, console games, handheld games and arcade games alike. There was nothing like that in existence, so I figured I'd start something myself. "OverClocked ReMix" started as a side-project to "OverClocked" the comic strip, but eventually became a hundred times bigger. In the early days, I was like a door-to-door salesman, emailing people asking for their permission to post their mixes on the site, but once it grew large enough, people started sending us stuff. Eventually there were so many submissions that we needed to create a judges panel and more official guidelines/standards, which really helped clarify what we're all about — interpretive arrangements, not just the original with drum loops on top. The rest, as they say, is history!

Larry, how did you get involved with the OC ReMix community?
Larry Oji (Liontamer): I love hearing stories on how people have found the site, and I share mine when I can in order to encourage people to check out everything OCR has. I did college radio at Emory University 's WMRE in Atlanta, where I loved playing video game music on my shows alongside mainstream music, mostly Britpop stuff. A friend of mind as well as a casual gamer and fellow DJ, Matt Kertz, saw that I played videogame music and recommended that I check out what was then remix.overclocked.org in early 2002. That was my first exposure to the site. The site was only two years old at the time and had more than 500 mixes by that point; I downloaded about thirty, sticking only with the few games I grew up with, and was extremely happy. But I didn't follow the site closely or try anything from games I had no history with, which was a huge mistake.

Luckily for me, I told my best friend Joe Mauri about the site and he downloaded everything OC ReMix had. If he hadn't done that, I wouldn't be where I am today. That summer, I sat down at his computer, listened to all the free remixes one by one over three days, and was simply amazed at how creative everything was. Even the games I wasn't familiar with had some amazing themes that were being remixed, and I ended up doing the research and downloading chiptunes of the original tracks to better understand what inspired the remixes. So it was a great crash course in the history of videogame music, and from that point on I was hooked. I shifted my radio show's format to videogame music exclusively, and volunteered for the site by filling in the database with info on remixers, composers and songs. I also grew as a music critic to the point where I was invited to join the site's judges panel in July 2004, where I help evaluate submitted material. Listening to music and spreading the word on OCR is one of the most enjoyable jobs I can think of.

Let's talk about game music in general. What got you into game music?
djpretzel: My earliest VGM memory would be the happy little tunes in Smurfs for the Colecovision and Dream House for the C64. The use of the Peter Gunn theme in Spy Hunter, also for the C64, was pretty classic as well. But it was really the Sega Master System that got me hooked — I loved the music from Alex Kidd, Shinobi and Space Harrier so much that I recorded the output of the console to tape and, sadly, did my own lame seven-year-old's version of DJing between tracks. To the best of my knowledge, those tapes are long gone, which I'm more than okay with from a human-dignity perspective, but they nevertheless represented my first steps into actually interacting with VGM.

Larry Oji: My earliest days of gaming were with the NES with a tiny bit of Master System. The SNES and Sega Genesis came a little later, so all of those systems planted the seeds. I didn't own too many titles, but I loved a lot of the soundtracks I heard. Super Mario Bros. 3 was the epitome of an excellent game and Koji Kondo's music from it was no exception. The first Donkey Kong Country on the SNES was amazing to me as well, and I loved the Streets of Rage and Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Genesis side. I can't forget Street Fighter II either. That was first in a long line of Street Fighter games that stuck with me, even when I didn't realize how immersed in game music I'd be down the line. It goes without saying, but the best games truly have a synergy going on between the gameplay and soundtrack that provides the total package.

What do you love about game music?
Larry Oji: The music from the games I grew up with had some of the best melodies and hooks imaginable. And the tunes had such range in terms of genres. As a kid, I obviously didn't think about it on a scholarly level, but I subconsciously latched onto the depth that videogame music possessed. Think about the range when you compare the soundtracks of Super Mario Bros. to Double Dragon to Road Rash. The 16-bit era, especially the SNES, was a big step up in realizing game music's potential, thanks to the wider array of sounds and more complex textures. The best composers really didn't put those extra resources to waste. The thing I love most is that game music is a medium and not a genre; game music can, and often does, involve any and all genres, so you get a flavor for all sorts of styles if you keep your ears and mind open. The fact that many game themes are malleable and can be reinterpreted makes me love game music that much more. Every time I hear an OC ReMixer take a theme and transform it into something fresh that I wouldn't expect, it validates being a fan of the medium.

djpretzel: ...what he said. It's worth mentioning that I'm a big fan of soundtracks in general — film, television, anime, etc. — and that contextual music that's part of a larger work always has a certain appeal for me. With almost all other mediums, though, it's a linear, non-interactive experience, so you only hear certain themes once or twice. With game music, because it's interactive, and because you can end up hearing the same piece ad infinitum, I think there's a much stronger mental association between the music and what it represents. A classic example for me would be the first town theme from Lunar for the Sega CD — every time I hear it, I can envision the town layout in great detail and feel like I'm there. You can get that type of strong association with film scores and even non-soundtrack material, sure, but I find it happens more often with VGM. This of course requires that you've actually played the game the music is from, though, which isn't necessary at all just to enjoy the music at face value!

Click here for Part 2!

The End Has No End

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:30:00 GMT

I recently played through Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and, while I had a long list of problems with the game, the conclusion cinema was certainly a troublesome concern. More than anything else, the massively disappointing finale made me realize how intensely narrative-driven the game was, even more than the New York Times' claim that the game was an interactive Pixar movie (which, for the record, it totally is not). Ever since games first became produced on discs rather than cartridges the focus on cinema-centric storytelling has been undeniable, most notably with early Playstation games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid.

The resolution (or lack thereof) of R&C:ToD did, however, bring me back to a simpler time – a time when games just sort of... ended. You beat the game, congratulations, now try it again. Here now, a sample of some of the worst endings in the history of the NES:

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Would You Play a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Hmmm?

Nadia Oxford — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:53:00 GMT

The Internet has been rumbling about a mysterious sign that's been popping up in Best Buys around the US of A. It looks like a simple "Coming Soon" release list, but look closer and you'll see the mystery: it lists Final Fantasy VII as an August Playstation 3 release.

Needless to say, this is an error, unless Square's been purposefully silent about a Final Fantasy VII re-release. It would be the merciful route; Sephiroth fangirls would gnaw on themselves and each other while writhing in anticipation of another crack at the silver-haired bishounen. Corporations aren't known for mercy towards their fans, however, and any planned Final Fantasy VII remakes would surely be announced with french horns and dancing poodles.

But would you play a Final Fantasy VII remake? No game is as beloved and reviled as Final Fantasy VII. It was the game that brought the slow and "nerdy" RPG genre to the attention of the mainstream gamer. It's also a very clumsy and awkward game; you'll be hard-pressed to find another big-name title that aged so badly. But a huge chunk of the Internet remembers it as their first RPG and you never do forget your first.

*Cough.*

I would personally play a Final Fantasy VII remake in three seconds. Final Fantasy VII is archaic, it looks awful and Christ only knows what Square was trying to do with the story...but I enjoyed playing it. It's like reading a book by Maeve Binchy: I know her books are always about some shy Irish small-town rose who's smitten by some English swashbuckler who will reveal his true colours, for better or worse, by the end of the novel. Still, I get a certain comfort out of reading those books same as I draw a certain comfort from Final Fantasy VII.

And to be honest, I wouldn't mind conducting some next-gen Mako Reactor espionage, preferably with upgraded tolling bells. Welcome to Shinra, now 50% more ominous.

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Games to Movies: Why Is It So Gad-Danged Hard?

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:10:00 GMT

Pardon me, but might I bother you to turn your head while I spew vulgarities? The live-action Castlevania movie by Paul W.S. Anderson is going to be as stinking and putrid as a zombie's testicles. Yeah, as rotten as zombie testicles stewing like dumplings in a pool of sweat collected in the crotch of a pair of leather pants. And...the testicles are dangling. By, like, one scrap of skin.

One scrap of maggot-chewed skin.

We're used to this, right? It's the curse of video game-based movies to be absolutely no good. A friend of mine who's a huge Silent Hill fan convinced a non-gaming friend of mine to see the Silent Hill movie. Second friend saw the movie and still insists that first friend owes her eight bucks for making her see the stupidest film in the world.

But it's not as if the Silent Hill series is incapable of keeping even hardcore horror fans up all night. Why do games translate so badly into movies? Is it because directors (we're not even counting Uwe Boll) have no qualms about taking creative liberties with the source material--the lack of a whip for Simon Belmont's film being a perfect example?

That certainly can't be helping the problem. On the other hand, there are game-to-movie adaptations, mostly of Japanese origin, that are easily recognisable as their inspirations...but they still suck.

When Final Fantasy: Spirits Within soiled itself and died at the box office, Final Fantasy fans were so sure the reason lay in the butchering of the source material. Final Fantasy is about swords and monsters and chocobos; here was something with the name Final Fantasy that was little more than a generic science fiction flick.

Flash forward a handful of years to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It has Cloud! It has Tifa and Red XIII and Midgar! It's essentially a Final Fantasy VII movie!

Is it any good? Not really.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is the whipped and delicious fanservice every Final Fantasy fan craved, but it's an awkward piece of work with a jumbled plotline and boring battles. Final Fantasy VII ended mysteriously: we're not supposed to know if humankind survived Lifestream's onslaught or not. Looks like we did. Boy oh boy. Let's kung-fu fight.

Moreover (and admittedly through no fault of its own), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children suffers from a terrible case of Know-It-All Fandom. That is to say, Final Fantasy VII has such a huge and significant fanbase that literally tens of thousands of fanfics exist for the game; fanfics written by authors who are convinced that they know what's best for the characters and get furiously angry if anything counters their "fanon" (canon+fandom). Cloud isn't supposed to be a loner emo who remains distant from Tifa. They're supposed to be married. They're supposed to have a million spiky-haired babies.

(Or Cloud is supposed to be up on Vincent, one or the other.)

Interestingly, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children came with a shorter animated film called Last Order. It was a little bit like Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core for the PSP in that it followed the life of Zack, Cloud's "shadow." It was also far better than Advent Children, possibly because it didn't go to strange and fabulous new places; it took an already-interesting part of Final Fantasy VII's story and expanded upon it.

In the same vein, I hold hope for Warren Ellis' animated Castlevania III: Dracual's Curse adaptation because it's a further telling of events from an established game. Nobody's going to make up their own continuity. Ellis is merely working with material that's already there and expanding upon it.

Further hope: The Dark Knight, a movie based on a comic book, is being taken very seriously and recieving excellent critiques. Not that long ago, a big budget movie based on nah-nah-nah-nah BAT-MAN or any comic book character would have been laughed at. If we stop farming out video game properties to directors who suck, we might see the same treatment for our digital favourites.