RPG: The RPG

Hey YC,

I haven't been around as often as I would have liked to. Finding the balance between school and music has been tricky, but I'm kinda getting the hang of it.

Without further adieu, I present a piece I wrote for a friend's video game. He didn't give me a lot of details, but he did say Final Fantasy Battle music. I spent a day thinking and writing Battle music until I realized I wasn't creating anything original or satisfying. The next day, I stopped listening to FF battle music and just wrote what I felt like. The result is pretty cool. Less tension than battle music, but equivalent energy and more power. My roommate just heard it and he says it has more of a Zelda feel than FF. I would agree! What do you think?

Enjoy!

RPG: The RPG

-John

YC Link

Neat!

I don't know if it's the sounds you're using and it just turned out that way or you meant it to, but I don't care for that percussive rhythm in the background the whole time. It doesn't seem to fit the rest of it, it just sounds too...awkward. It doesn't click in in my opinion. With that out of the way, I like the opening syncopated rhythms in the Horns, very catchy. Also, I like how it doesn't sound like a typical battle theme. Maybe not at home during typical random encounters, but I could definitely see it as, like you said, a tension theme for a story-related fight.

Nice job 8D I like it.

I could do a little extra work to make the drums fit better with the other instruments. It was, however, intentional for them to be present all the time.

You're right about this and random encounters; not perfect matches.

Story-related fight true, or the lead-up to a fight perhaps. Just to clarify, I didn't write this to be tense. I think that there's a little less tension in this than in regular battle music. Light-hearted tension? Semi-tension? Those could work!

Thanks for the comments, Quaser!

-John

hey john,

yes, i like the groove in here indeed, i think the quality of the percussion gives it a more "toy" version from the other samples you were using, giving that "kid" music sound, but it needs to be more subtled in relation, maybe some other instrument with similar attributes(toy!toy!).

you've done a great job in structure from the start(great start btw again) until 2:00 then it felt repetitive, i told you before i think, that some modulation is great for variation if you make it count.

and one last nag, with such a good structure and feel for the piece, there should be some good melody!

so all in all, solid track john, good clear atmosphere with bright ideas.

Hey The J,

Thanks for kindness and advice. Are you suggesting that I have another instrument that sounds more toy-like? 2:00 is my slow-build section. Perhaps I built it too slowly. Maybe the lack of a driving melody overtop made it seem more repetitive =P

What's your line about modulation talking about? Are you talking about the modulation at 1:12?

A good melody would be pretty kickass. I think I blamed it on the lack of time for the project, but that's a pretty lame excuse. Maybe a later version will have a badass melody with it as well =)

Thanks for the insight, The J! Very helpful.

-John

hey john , the percussion sounded weird (not bad) its actually something i like about it piece , it makes a great tension feeling to the piece , the piano line is nice , but after 1:12 it gets repetitive also after 1:12 the texture gets very thin till 1.47 , after that the feeling is really great , and the percussions sounds great and the chord progression is very really really great! great job john!

Thanks, Abdullah!

I'm glad you thought the percussion was weird and not bad simultaneously!

The piano line from 1:12 is a little repetitive, it's true. I just wanted it as a background ostinato, so I'm not sure how much I'd want to vary that piano line. The texture is thin after 1:12. I like to think that it's thin yet still musical. Like The J suggested with the melody, I bet including one would solve both of these problems. You wouldn't be as concerned with the repetitive piano line if there was a cool melody distracting you. It would also thicken the texture a bit.

Thanks for your comments, Abdullah! The more perspectives I get on this, the more I (potentially we) learn.

-John

Such awesome and interesting music. I really dig the groove, my head was bobbing the whole first half.

Some of the parts were predictable at points, but you led us somewhere else, but still somewhat familiar, which is great! If that makes any sense what so ever.

It's really great background music for a game, great job John

Thanks, Jon. I'm glad you could feel the rhythm.

I wasn't being very original or experimental with my chords. There's probably like 3 or 4 :) That might have made things a bit more predictable. Even still, I'm that a few things managed to surprise you =)

Thanks again!

-John

Definitely not FF -- it's not melodramatic at all, it's more...well, the only word that comes to mind it "adorable". This is utterly cute. I feel like a bunch of fluffy, cute animals are beating each other with pillows :blink: It would work perfectly for a tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted adventure, but I don't think this would work in more serious RPGs.

Nice work! This piece is completely charming :D

There's a certain "cuteness" I suppose. Melodramatic is a good way to describe FF, it's true. That's not my personality so I guess I was off with this piece. I think some tongue-in-cheek humor's allowed in a game called RPG: The RPG =P

Thanks for commenting, Zach!

Hey John,

it's a really interesting piece, I think.

I agree with Abdullah about the part from 1:12 on. Personally, I feel like pizzicato celli would fit in great there, maybe staccato flutes, too, or something, all very little of course...

Overall the orchestration feels a bit weird.

If you add a few things here and there, this could be very good :)

I can definitely see this in an RPG.

Reminded me of YuGiOh The FalseBound Kingdom for a second there. I like the drum pattern in the background. Adds an RPG-ish feeling to it I believe.

The piano and bells near the middle sound really awesome together followed by the flute.

The transitions were done very well too.