Friday, June 19, 2015

Musings: Final Fantasy VII remake.

One of the announcements that sprang out of E3 last week (and sent my Facebook feed into a near overwhelming flutter) was the Final Fantasy VII remake for the PS4.  To say that I'm excited about this is an understatement.  Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games of all time.  In fact, when I was younger, I played it through in a very completionist manner, killing the Weapons, breeding Gold Chocobos, and even maxing out the Knights of the Round materia until I had multiple copies.  (Where did I find time for all that?!)  As I've already posted, the music to the game is incredible and was really one of the main inspirations for my teaching and studying video game music.



I don't have a whole lot to add about the remake other than to speculate about the audio content of it, which I haven't really seen receive much attention yet.  First of all, I don't really care for the music in the trailer much at all, other than the use of the Uematsu theme right at the end.  Otherwise, it's too much a cross between Phillip Glass minimalism and Jaws for my taste.  If I listen with my eyes closed, it might as well be a trailer for yet another Transformer movie.  Regardless, the music in trailers for games often have little to no connection with the actual game music, and are often made by different people than those who make the game audio.

What does really make me apprehensive about the remake from an audio standpoint is going from a text based game to a game with voice acting.  I think it's pretty safe to suppose that the game with use voice acting, especially considering the trailer contains dialogue.  One of the issues this brings up is the game audio hierarchy: Dialogue > Sound effects > Music.  Perhaps there could be a fourth category of ambient sounds that might even be below music in import.  By this I mean to say that in terms of audio, when you're playing a game, you must hear the dialogue first and foremost.  If you can't, then the designers really haven't done their job well-- it's just frustrating not to be able to hear and understand plot based dialogue.  After that, usually sound effects are of primary importance-- can you hear that you're under attack?  Do you realize that you're being injured, or supposed to be drawn toward a noisy apparatus, etc.  Some instances of dialogue fall into this category too, "Ow!" or "Over here!" or some short lines that aren't critical to the plot, but rather call your attention to a game state, situation, or event.  Finally after that comes music.  Music has to duck below all these other sounds and it really takes a back seat to them.  (This is also why I'm nervous for the day that Zelda games get spoken dialogue, though some probably would consider my opinion "old school.")

The fact of the matter is that in the original FF7, the music caries such poignancy and emotional weight.  Now, that primary role will be replaced by the dialogue, for better or worse.  Yes, the music will still be there, but instead of it carrying the moment, the spoken words will be most prominent with the music beneath it.  Now, as you rush up the pillar to save Sector 7, instead of music and Barrett's arm gun, you'll be hearing dialogue, his arm gun, sounds of attack, and then the music.  When you steal the Tiny Bronco?  You better believe Rufus will be shouting and there will be plenty of commotion from the Shinra soldiers.  And when Aeris dies?  You can bet there will be more sound effects over the music, and quite likely vocals as well.  These are simply expected today.  (Prove me wrong, design team!  Let the music carry these scenes!)

Now, I don't mean to be a Negative Nancy.  The audio remake may be very well done.  However, it's going to be a massive change from the original where the music really carried the day since there was little to no spoken dialogue.  Think how insane it was to hear "Sephiroth!" in the final battle-- and the Latin from the choir?  That was life changing.  Now that won't seem unusual-- we'll have heard words all throughout the game.  I'll be playing the game regardless, and likely will spend time here comparing the two versions.  But with such an iconic game where the music is so well constructed, paced through the game, and tied into the gameplay, I wonder how this remake will be sensitive to such a huge audio change and simultaneously true to the excellence of the original?

What are your thoughts about the remake and the potential audio changes, particularly considering the voice acting?  Some of my friends have already mentioned that they may not enjoy the choices in voice actors, but I'll reserve judgment on that until I hear it!

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