• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Should big budget games utilize orchestra more?

  • Yes

    Votes: 132 41.6%
  • No

    Votes: 108 34.1%
  • Doesn't matter to me

    Votes: 77 24.3%

  • Total voters
    317

spman2099

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,891
To be fair, that thread was an attack on both hip-hop and the song.

I know that I was pretty critical of the song choice, but I like hip-hop. That being said, I haven't looked through that thread in a long time (since it was active), so maybe it was more critical of hip-hop than I remember?

*edit*
That thread was definitely a mess. However, while there were quite a few posts saying that they don't care for hip-hop (and some were definitely coming in pretty hot) in one form or another, it seemed like there were twice as many people praising the song choice.
 
Last edited:

NoKisum

Member
Nov 11, 2017
4,913
DMV Area, USA

Neoxon

Spotlighting Black Excellence - Diversity Analyst
Member
Oct 25, 2017
85,299
Houston, TX
Whatever suits the game best. Though I wouldn't say no to more live instruments being used instead of MIDI (not necessarily orchestrated).
 
Aug 30, 2020
2,171
Too many games lean too heavily into trying to be movies, and that leaves a lot of game soundtracks being extremely poor. Movie soundtracks are usually better than games trying to be movie soundtracks. I'm tired of it. Old game music was much better.

Game developers need to go back to stealing popular music and putting the songs in games.
 
Oct 25, 2017
29,446
Doesn't hurt, its also nice when an experienced composer just gets to mess around and experiment even with generic material
In this case Bear McCreary who they liked working with so much he later also got SCEA's God of War which was another level


 

Rutger

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,247
It depends on the game. FFVIIR's suffered imo for a lack of synth and heavier sounding instruments in favor of relying more on the orchestra. The soundtrack is really well made and has a lot of good tracks to listen to outside the game, but the atmosphere of Midgar while playing rarely felt as oppressive and artificial as it should.
 
Oct 27, 2017
39,148
Not everything.

Demon's Souls remake is one such example where it really didn't need it. Everything was so overdone and it overused the choir.
 

Barrel Cannon

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
9,291
Doesn't matter if orchestra is used for me, it's more about how it's used. There are many games that have orchestrated soundtracks but not all at neccasarily memorable
 

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,219
Unless they have a good reason to, no. It's been said, but a lot games' orchestral soundtracks have been bland as hell and/or just don't suit the game like Mario Galaxy. Don't @me 😸
 

Baccus

Banned
Dec 4, 2018
5,307
Don't they already?

And the orchestra format is a bit dated tbh. It's all about sound manipulation. Including orchestra of course, but just as another instrument.
 
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
They should use more live orchestras if they're already going for that sound, so for example I do wish Dark Souls 3 had the same treatment as Bloodborne did for the actual recordings, but I also think we have more than enough "epic music" in the industry already. I don't need it in every game.

I want games to sound different and unique in their music, with their own identity. Sekiro's OST isn't anywhere near my favorite among From games, but I definitely appreciate that it's not just Dark Souls III-2 or Bloodborne 2 in that department like how the Demon's Souls Remake sounds to me. I like the classical japanese sounds and the couple of distinctively Tenchu-like songs.

I'd be thrilled to hear something like this in Elden Ring, given its Scottish influences:



It's part of why I love Meguro so much, he injects so much personality to every game he works on, with extremely memorable and catchy songs that can't really be described as "epic" most of the time. He embraces a different overall musical identity and genre for each game and runs with it. I have more issues with Persona 5 than I can count, but the soundtrack is god tier, as expected, and I still regularly rewatch the Persona concerts. The 2012 one is still my favorite, overall.
 

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
20,680
Yeah, I mean, I might be a bit biased...

I am serious, though. I play in a community orchestra and video game music has been a godsend - it attracts crowds like not much else, and there's lots of variation and genres available to us, most of which have good potential to be arranged nicely.

Now, if only I could convince more publishers to put out sheet music/official arrangements...
Not to knock your hobby; indeed, I admire people who can play instruments, and some of my most favorite pieces from media are ultimately film scores. But I do think there is something to say about how ubiquitous orchestral music is for western media in general, and subsequently how undervalued non-orchestral (ultimately, non-white) music is as the basis for media soundtracks. I think there is lots of room in an ever-diversifying society to allow other music genres to score our media, for people to discover new sounds, instruments, and local folks songs to provide more unique and/or more accurate soundscapes for different works, without tying it back to a typical orchestra.

Das jus me doe.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
Absolutely fuckin' not, there's plenty of that already. How about a game with an original country soundtrack? Or a reggae soundtrack? Or afrobeat(s)? Imagine how sick it would be if a developer got to use Fela Kuti's entire discography. Or Bhangra, that'd be awesome
 

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,722
no, theres so many other styles of music that get ignored in games. im bored of seeing people get off on orchestral and classical music in games.
 

Dolce

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,236
It depends on the game. FFVIIR's suffered imo for a lack of synth and heavier sounding instruments in favor of relying more on the orchestra. The soundtrack is really well made and has a lot of good tracks to listen to outside the game, but the atmosphere of Midgar while playing rarely felt as oppressive and artificial as it should.

One thing I did like with FFVII remake is that the further you got into the game, the more adventurous the soundtrack felt. I guess once you're so far in they can move away from the "safety" and go "well, we got you know, try out all of THIS!"

I was worried after the demo but was a bit happier with the final result.
 

Ariesfirebomb

Member
Jul 3, 2018
541
Minneapolis
Hybrid scores do it for me like what's in Miles Morales.
I think instead of orchestral stuff, which is amazing, games need to do a better job of creating epic scores again. A lot of stuff is just so generic and lackluster or licensed.
 

Chumunga64

Member
Jun 22, 2018
14,238
if they make it work

lots of big AAA games get a full orchestra so to emulate big blockbuster movies cause they want to be seen as films and up with awful soundtracks

then you have games like pokemon outsell them all with funky beats

 

Moebius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,387
No. Bluepoint ruined the Demon's Souls music. All of the character was stripped away.
 

TheBiInBilingual

THE STORE ENSURED ME THERE WOULDN'T BE FILM
Member
Feb 22, 2018
2,793
I believe Hollow Knight: Silksong has been confirmed to use an orchestra/real band instead of digital audio in the original game right? The two tracks that were released months ago are really good but it'll take some time getting used to.
 

SammyJ9

Member
Dec 22, 2019
3,956
I'd definitely love some more jazz, funk, and synth, that's for sure. One thing I've hated is that as games were able to be orchestrated, a lot of the old RPG music went away from using synth as much, and it really hurt. But soundtracks like Persona 5 show how much jazz and funk (and some rock, too) is missing from games, it was such a breath of fresh air.

That said I love orchestra and classical music too. We just need less of the "cinematic" style that we're getting a lot these days.
 
Nov 2, 2017
2,090
Eh if anything I say it should use orchestral instruments less. More synth and rock influence.

I love orchestral music, but there's too much "wannabe hollywood" sound in games.
 

Adventureracing

The Fallen
Nov 7, 2017
8,028
I think more games could benefit from placing a higher focus on soundtracks in games. Music can take an otherwise average or good game and make it great. I'm honestly of the opinion that's a huge part of the continued success of Nintendo as a company.
 

JangleLuke

Member
Oct 4, 2018
1,604
Honestly, while I do really like the work that goes behind (classic) orchestral arrangements, I want more Big Band ensembles, love them to death.

And if your OST is brass-heavy, hooo boy, that's the good stuff.

Also I don't mind MIDI, for example: ALBW is one of my favourite OSTs, and it's (nearly) all synthetized, but it's so expertly crafted to replicate live instruments that it goes unnoticed to most.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,390
Melbourne, Australia
Whatever fits, I feel like there are plenty of big budget games with orchestral scores, I don't really know why we'd call for more unless you're some kind of orchestral score junkie.

Honestly, while I do really like the work that goes behind (classic) orchestral arrangements, I want more Big Band ensembles, love them to death.

For real, I'd like to see more of that over yet-another-orchestra.
 

Deleted member 51789

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 9, 2019
3,705
Variety is good and we already have a ton of western orchestral music in games at the moment, some of it very good and some of it rather bland.

What I'd like to see more of is orchestral manipulation akin to Olivier Deriviere's soundtrack to Remember Me, and music that helps fit a game's world rather than just sounding 'epic', 'sweeping' or sitting in the background doing nothing.