Music

10 Things That Make Life Worth Living

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Update: I was also tagged in this by Gamers United, so I wanted to include a link to that lovely blog, too 🙂

It’s not a year yet since I was tagged in this by Athena from AmbiGaming, so I…win?  Not that there’s a contest hehe.

Anyway…I believe other bloggers were calling this “10 Things That Make Me Happy” or “10 Happy Thoughts,” but I don’t think that’s appropriate for me.  I’ll try to explain this as best I can, and I hope people won’t see it as something negative or needing pity, but I don’t really do happiness.  Like, I’m not a happy person.   Now granted, if you ever met me (and of course if I never told you this), you wouldn’t suspect it in the least.  I’ve been told I’m very pleasant to be around, which is because I tend to not be social on my bad days. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy things in life, nor does it mean I don’t feel things intensely (oh the feels are strong in this one); it’s more like the things I do, I do because they make me feel fulfilled and accomplished like I’m doing something.  I write because if I don’t, I won’t be able to get the stories, essays, metas, analyses, etc. out of my head.  I blog because I have things to say and the internet allows me to have my own place to say them.  It also gives me a medium to display my writing.  I play video games because they make me feel like I’m accomplishing something, and I can write about them.  I read because I love stories (yes, it really does all come back to stories/writing).  I do things that are enjoyable because I’d be less fulfilled and sadder if I didn’t do them, but I can’t say they make me happy, but that’s okay.  I don’t know if this is a common trait of people with depression or if it’s maybe an INFJ thing, but the binary of happy/unhappy is fallacious and harmful.  Here’s the Oatmeal saying it far better than I ever could.

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Final Fantasy Friday: Over Tunes

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Final Fantasy Friday

No Final Fantasy soundtrack is complete without a rousing overworld song.  With that in mind…

What’s your favorite overworld music?

I’ll answer this question in two parts.  First, my favorite music directly from the game as in unaltered from what you hear while you’re playing, and second, my favorite overworld theme orchestrated.

I have to go with Final Fantasy IV for my favorite theme in game.

FFIV was just ahead of its time and so proficient in numerous areas, not the least of which was music.  It boasts the greatest number of good songs in its soundtrack (based on my opinion of course) that is to say, I like the majority of songs on its OST.  While I might like the music from other games more, I like more of the music from Final Fantasy IV.

And Final Fantasy X takes the gold for my favorite orchestrated theme.  It more than occasionally brings the tears, so I have to declare it the winner.

What’s your favorite overworld theme?  As you can see mine doesn’t align with my favorite game (it actually took a bit for FFVII’s “Main Theme” to grow on me.  I like it now, but wasn’t that fond of it when I first heard it).  Does yours?  Discussion party in the comments!

Final Fantasy Friday – Town Tunes

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Final Fantasy Friday

Once I thought up an alliterative title I just had to go with this question.  I was going to open this post stating it’s been a while since we’ve had a music question, but then I noticed Winter Fantasy was not long ago in the queue, so we’re just going to go with the fact that I love music, especially video game music, especially Final Fantasy music.  With that in mind…

What is your favorite town music?

All of the Final Fantasy town music has such a “homey” sound to it.  I wish I’d done better in music theory to be better able to explain what exactly that entails, but I do support a creator on Patreon 8-bit Music Theory who could.  I believe you’re allowed one request a month if you’re a supporter, so I might utilize that.

After listening to some amazing music, my initial choice remains the same it’s been for over 20 years: Final Fantasy VI’s “Kids Run Through the City.”

The repeat of the first verse when that haunting under-melody comes in almost always brings a tear to my eye and this is in the original as in non-orchestrated version.  There are more gorgeous covers of this song than I can shake a stick at, but RebeccaETripp is the one currently on my editing music playlist, but there’s still something about the the original.

Honorable mentions have to go to the following: FFIV – Baron Castle; FFV – Harvest (Kerwin Town Theme); FFVII – Mining Town; FFVIII – Balamb GARDEN ~ Ami (the orchestrated version of the song); FFIX – Frontier Village Dali & Sleepless City ~ Treno; FFX – The Travel Agency; and finally (heh) FFXII – Nalbina Fortress Town.

Some of these aren’t specifically town themes you say?

Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a human

Here’s a picture of human Twilight Sparkle shrugging, ’cause I don’t know what to tell you.

Image Source: Smug Shrug by semehammer

I might have played a bit fast and loose with the “town theme” rules, but I considered anything that takes place in a populated locale where you weren’t susceptible to enemy attacks fair game.

What’s your favorite town theme?  The games started to have more than one as their numbers went up, which has a 100% approval rating with me, as it provides some variety.  Does your favorite town them coincide with your favorite game or is it different like mine?  Let’s talk town tunes in the comments!

The Christmas Tag

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What’s this?

Had to be done.

More Christmas posting?  Well, I wanted to get this in before the big day on Monday (seriously, I have a friend recording her children’s reaction Christmas Morning.  I’ve got an in on a Nintendo Switch opening.  Can. Not.  Wait), and sharing and spreading holiday cheer is one of the many jobs of my alter ego, The Christmas Goth.

Snagged from Ignited Moth, I figured this would be a fun little exercise alongside Creative Christmas hosted by Later Levels 🙂

1.  What is your favorite Christmas film?

Would you believe me if I said it’s been so many years since I’ve seen The Nightmare Before Christmas that I don’t really remember it that much?  I really need to remedy that.

It’s not a film per se, but my absolute favorite Christmas special is Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Look at this devilish mofo

I like at the end how his eyes change from yellow with red irises/pupils to “regular” with blue irises, because he’s no longer TEH EVULZ!

I also like the message that’s not entirely religious, but is a bit subtly religious, but only if you’d like to interpret it that way (if that makes any sense).  Christmas isn’t about the tangible, the things, it’s not something that can be stolen, rendering the title more philosophical and making the story itself demonstrative of such rhetoric.

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Creative Christmas – A Partridge in “Despair” Tree

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Tis the Christmas season (or Advent to be theologically accurate), and in the spirit of the season, the lovely blogger over at Later Levels has decided to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas a few days earlier with 12 gaming related questions for all of us good, little gaming elves out there.  These are my responses.

🎶   22 December 2017:   It’s now Christmas Eve and you’re throwing a lively party for all your friends, family and favourite characters. Which video game soundtracks would be on your playlist?

Can I say Advent Children just for the lulz?  Because…it’s the season of Advent, huh?  Tiny factoid: Final Fantasy VII actually started on December 9.  Yes really!  Look up the timeline.  That means FFVII takes place…during Advent #mindblown

Anyway, I’ve always thought the orchestrated ending theme to Final Fantasy IV had a part that sounded like sleigh bells starting around 3:00.

Then there’s the Voices of the Lifestream version of “Buried in Snow” titled “Frozen Landscape,” which is better than the original (and I wish/hope they’d use it in the Remake).  It just seems like a song best realized in the minor key.  The OST version is kind of dowdy, and doesn’t capture the wilder, fiercer, desperate need to break through the blizzard that Voices does.

Hey look!  There’s a suggestion for 70 minutes of Nintendo winter and holiday music!  I could just put that on ad call it an Eve(ning).  Okay, I don’t really like that one, but the hour of festive holiday video game music is much better.

Oh…well I know why, the first song is from FFXIV, called “Starlight Celebration.”  Wow, this is…amazing.

*star eyes*

What video game soundtracks would you have on your holiday playlist?  Would you just pick one or would you have a mixture?  Sound off in the comments!

Final Fantasy Friday – Winter Fantasy

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Final Fantasy Friday

It’s been snowing a lot around here lately (as in three times in one week).  Now while I’m sure it would be nothing to my Canada friends, we usually don’t see significant snow until January or February, because the seasons have kind of shifted.  Dare I hope for a White Christmas this year??  I don’t recall ever seeing one, though the records say there was indeed a snowy holiday in the area when I was old enough to remember it.  Fun fact about TSN, I used to be terrified of snow.

My vocabulary wasn’t so, ah, colorful when I was under five, but I did used to say, “No snow!” with a childish lisp, and I refused to have anything to do with the white stuff.  And since we’re talking about shit I used to be afraid of, let me not forget to mention cats.  My mother had an old friend who had this tuxedo named Spunky, and they’d have to put him away if she ever brought me over.  I think it’s because cats are very slinky, tend to appear out of nowhere, and I’ve always been easily startled/frightened.

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Final Fantasy Friday: The Key of Creep

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Final Fantasy Friday

In case you haven’t noticed, I am doing a sort of Halloween themed question series for the month of October, and quite a few motifs in Final Fantasy lend themselves to the frightening.  Per that vein we’re going to explicitly talk about musical motifs in asking…

What is the spookiest music?

Let me attempt to find the creepiest song in my most well known games.

Opening with Final Fantasy IV, I think “Golbez Clad in Dark” is a really safe bet.  I mean, it has both the villain’s name and dark in the title!

It goes along with the “Tower of Zot” music, too.  I have to give mention to some of the moon music: “Another Moon” and “The Lunarians.”  Anything (literally) otherworldly is a good bet for insta-eerie

For Final Fantasy VI I think it’s definitely the “Fanatics Tower.”  Discordant harmonies and regimented drumbeats are always good for a scare.

I’ll throw in “Omen” as an honorable mention, though it’s not particularly scary to me, it still follows a “horror” pattern.  Plus it sounds like gothic church music, which is also what I say about parts of “Dancing Mad,” making a nice musical bookend in VI to go along with VII’s visual and musical one.

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Final Fantasy Friday: The Key of “F”

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Final Fantasy Friday

Sometimes I pick what I’m going to post for the week based on if I can come up with a clever post title.  Once I climb over that hurdle, it’s all smooth sailing.  So I’d meant to post another Final Fantasy Character Assessment, because I’m on vacation this week and next, but *loading excuse* I ran some errands that got me home by six, and I have a loooooong list of items still on my to-do list, so this is what you get.  Also consider I spent eight hours yesterday working on an essay for the FFVII 20th anniversary so shaddup will ya :p

What’s your favorite Final Fantasy album?

The Advent Children OST.

Years ago, AOL Radio used to have a Final Fantasy channel that I’d list to all day long, and nearly every day they’d play a song entitled “End Credits,” which claimed to be from Final Fantasy VII.  Now I know what the end credits to FFVII sound like, and I have the FFVII OST, so I was quite confused to hear this beautiful, ethereal song claiming that title.  Not to say the original end credit music isn’t par excellence, but the song in question would bring tears to my eyes (especially starting around 3:38 until the end).  Eventually, I discovered it was the end credits to Advent, and I immediately bought the album.

This is probably one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.  The way the music flows is like a leaf or (more likely) a feather on the wind.

I also love “Aerith’s (grumble…hate having to use that spelling, but that’s what the title of the song is) Theme,” “Tifa’s Theme,” and of course Advent’s version of “One Winged Angel,” which I’ll end up speeding to if I’m driving.  “Across the Wasteland” is so desolate and dark; “Water” is bittersweet and haunting, “Black Water” shows off a heavy metal aesthetic that fits perfectly with the cyberpunk dystopian nature of the game/film; “Sign” is so eerie; “The Promised Land” is one of those songs I learned the words to immediately so I could sing along in Latin; and “Tenrai~Divinity I” is a song I attempted to learn the words to, but could never find a proper source.  The only song I really don’t like is the album’s version of “J-E-N-O-V-A,,” though I do love other versions of that wildly complicated melody such as the original OST’s and The Black Mages’ rendition.

What’s your favorite Final Fantasy album, or, if not FF, what’s your favorite video game album?  What makes it your favorite?  Is it one or two particular songs or the whole package?  Let’s talk more VG music in the comments!

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Final Fantasy Friday: Light Motifs

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Final Fantasy Friday

We’ve been without a music question for far too long, and since it’s a bit too late for me to do another character assessment (alas!).  Those take a momentous amount of time.  I think I did the last (and first) one in around three hours.  I’ll probably do quite a few in the weeks to come since I’ll be on vacation, so you should leave your suggestions for whom I should do next in the comments!  I was planning on going through every character one game at at time starting with IV, but you all should know by now, my position can be swayed, and I try to keep my minions followers happy 😉

What’s your favorite character theme?

Now, I could say Sephiroth, since “One Winged Angel” could be considered his leitmotif, but he technically has another song associated with him, “Those Chosen By the Planet,” which is the one you first hear in the basement of the mansion with the bells and the drums that sound like a beating heart (a common feature in VII’s music for an eerie but obvious reason).  Then the bass drops, and what’s been appropriately dubbed “the music of evil” comes through on an organ with strings in the background.  Give a listen to this version here.  The organ is replaced by sepulchral voices, but this in no way diminishes the effect (in fact it’s possible the organ in the original game is supposed to represent such voices).

OWA became his leitmotif as the song most associated with him, but since I can use Sephiroth and his song as an answer for favorite final boss music, I can give another answer here (I just couldn’t resist talking about him for a little bit :p)

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30 Day Video Game Challenge: Day 9

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Day 1

<–Day 8                                                                                                                  Day 10–>

Day 9: Saddest game scene.

You know what I have to mention first…the first game scene to ever completely shock me, that was not only sad as fuck, but also became sadder when you found out more information about the creator.  But like most instances of death, it’s not really the act itself that’s sad, it’s the burial when you’re forced to reflect upon and deal with the reality of it.

This is universally considered one of the most if not the most iconic scene in video game history, which either grants it laud or earns it the derision that some give to what’s popular.  Knowing some of the background of what more than likely inspired them to go in this direction, I unequivocally would tell those deriding it to fuck off.  Ironically, I did not cry when I first saw this.  I was in too much shock; however, there are other scenes from other games that did bring me to tears.

In Child of Light when Aurora delivers some devastating news to a little girl, she plays the most beautifully plaintive song on her flute.  The child understand what truth is being conveyed, and she begins to weep.

Finally and surprisingly, Super Paper Mario’s ending, which I wrote a brief post about, made me cry my eyes out.  I did not expect that from a Mario game.  Even the end of Chapter 8 made me a bit misty.

By Deviant Artist Triple-Q

What game scenes have brought the tears for you?  Let’s discuss and don’t be shy.

<–Day 8                                                                                                                  Day 10–>

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