everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
God, this post reeks of fanboyism. o_o
Since it didn't fit in the subject, the full title is Baten Kaitos 2: Wings of the Beginning and the Heir to the Gods (you can thank Monolith for their trademark long titles), but it's still a working title in English.
This isn't even the game that I'm looking forward to the very most, but it's actually supposedly coming out in the US in June (!), so it's worth talking about now. Um, to like the 1-2 people that have any clue what I'm talking about. Well, Nintendo itself published in Japan and is localizing this one (explains the quick localization, since they can put their 700lb gorilla-ness into it), so maybe more people will notice it.
For those who don't know, Baten Kaitos 2 takes place just 20 years before Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, a GC RPG "dream team" collaboration. Monolith (Chrono, Xeno) did the graphics, world/locations, story/scenarios, characters, etc, which might be obvious since there are similarities to previous games. (It's a well known "fact" that the best parts of their games involve floating islands, so maybe it's saying something that this game is all on floating islands. ;)) tri-Crescendo (a spinoff of tri-Ace... Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Radiata Stories) did the music, gameplay mechanics, battle system, programming, etc. Personally, based off of just this one stupid picture, I absolutely cannot wait for their first solo project, which is still several years down the line (I mean, they're still hiring).
Anyway, if you've played BK1, you would know why any future games would likely have to take place in the past. (Don't think about that comment too long or you will spoil it for yourself, lol.) BK2's story arc is basically the reverse of BK1's, starting from within the Empire and making its way to the fringes.
The thing is, BK2 sold abysmally in Japan. I'm still looking forward to it though, in part because Holystar really likes it. He has some gameplay footage, although I would strongly recommend against watching the FileFront videos since they will spoil everything, and of course I haven't watched them myself. So, the commercial failure of BK2 is really calling into question the future of the series, which seems to be this disturbing trend among games that I like, VP notwithstanding. Namco chose not to publish BK2 after publishing BK1 (and Xenosaga), and while DS titles of their other two big RPG series (Tales and Xenosaga) are going full blast, any mention of the DS Baten Kaitos on their website is gone, and rumors are that it was cancelled.
I'm not really sure this bothers me all too much, since you can only keep going back into the past so often. The DS game was supposed to be about how the islands were formed in the first place, and while that would be a nice way to finish a series as a trilogy, it's not essential. Since Xenosaga is ending prematurely after 3, if BK is ending, that means that Monolith won't have any existing series to work on. I think that'd be great, as I'd like to see something new (don't care much for Xenosaga), and at any rate, I get the feeling that Namco wants to dump them really bad and just focus on Tales. And as for tri-Crescendo, of course I'd love to see them make games on their own, especially since I like their half of the BK contribution more anyway, and they seem much less stagnant than Monolith. Monolith has its moments of greatness, but I think they're quite inconsistent.
Now that I've rambled on forever, now for some actual media. Since the game's already out in Japan, if you go here you can see some impressions, screenshots, and video. Since I admire Motoi Sakuraba more than anyone else in the video game industry, I'm more interested in the music. Several days ago I "obtained" the OST from a certain "game mp3s" site. In listening to it though, I encountered about the mildest spoiler possible: what the final boss music sounds like. I know what you're thinking: can't you just tell what things like the regular battle theme and the credits song are, without being told?
Perhaps, but trust me, there is no way you would be able to tell what this song is, which is part of the absolute fucking genius. In fact, I haven't played it yet, but it's maybe my favorite final boss song ever. I mean, who would create a relatively short, aria-like waltz (sung by his kindergarten-ish daughter in Italian, heh) for the final battle theme? Oh and the title is "Le Ali del Principio," which means "the wings of principle," although I don't know if "principle" has the same multiple meanings that it does in English, and I always thought "principio" meant "lead," as in first chair, or protagonist. Even modeled like an aria, it might seem pretentious to do this in Italian, but really, Sakuraba's Italian is probably better than his English (everything on his page is translated into both).
To compare and contrast, the other final battle song that I really love is his work from Star Ocean 3. It's just as awesome, but thematically almost the opposite: "intellectual" instead of emotional (which makes sense because of the difference in the themes of the respective games), over 10 minutes long, and in prog rock/jazz form. It has the most sinister jazz bits I've ever heard, if that makes any sense.
If you're wondering why I'm wasting time talking so much about the music, it's tough work trying to get someone to play a game or even watch a run, but hopefully not to listen to a couple songs.
Since it didn't fit in the subject, the full title is Baten Kaitos 2: Wings of the Beginning and the Heir to the Gods (you can thank Monolith for their trademark long titles), but it's still a working title in English.
This isn't even the game that I'm looking forward to the very most, but it's actually supposedly coming out in the US in June (!), so it's worth talking about now. Um, to like the 1-2 people that have any clue what I'm talking about. Well, Nintendo itself published in Japan and is localizing this one (explains the quick localization, since they can put their 700lb gorilla-ness into it), so maybe more people will notice it.
For those who don't know, Baten Kaitos 2 takes place just 20 years before Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, a GC RPG "dream team" collaboration. Monolith (Chrono, Xeno) did the graphics, world/locations, story/scenarios, characters, etc, which might be obvious since there are similarities to previous games. (It's a well known "fact" that the best parts of their games involve floating islands, so maybe it's saying something that this game is all on floating islands. ;)) tri-Crescendo (a spinoff of tri-Ace... Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Radiata Stories) did the music, gameplay mechanics, battle system, programming, etc. Personally, based off of just this one stupid picture, I absolutely cannot wait for their first solo project, which is still several years down the line (I mean, they're still hiring).
Anyway, if you've played BK1, you would know why any future games would likely have to take place in the past. (Don't think about that comment too long or you will spoil it for yourself, lol.) BK2's story arc is basically the reverse of BK1's, starting from within the Empire and making its way to the fringes.
The thing is, BK2 sold abysmally in Japan. I'm still looking forward to it though, in part because Holystar really likes it. He has some gameplay footage, although I would strongly recommend against watching the FileFront videos since they will spoil everything, and of course I haven't watched them myself. So, the commercial failure of BK2 is really calling into question the future of the series, which seems to be this disturbing trend among games that I like, VP notwithstanding. Namco chose not to publish BK2 after publishing BK1 (and Xenosaga), and while DS titles of their other two big RPG series (Tales and Xenosaga) are going full blast, any mention of the DS Baten Kaitos on their website is gone, and rumors are that it was cancelled.
I'm not really sure this bothers me all too much, since you can only keep going back into the past so often. The DS game was supposed to be about how the islands were formed in the first place, and while that would be a nice way to finish a series as a trilogy, it's not essential. Since Xenosaga is ending prematurely after 3, if BK is ending, that means that Monolith won't have any existing series to work on. I think that'd be great, as I'd like to see something new (don't care much for Xenosaga), and at any rate, I get the feeling that Namco wants to dump them really bad and just focus on Tales. And as for tri-Crescendo, of course I'd love to see them make games on their own, especially since I like their half of the BK contribution more anyway, and they seem much less stagnant than Monolith. Monolith has its moments of greatness, but I think they're quite inconsistent.
Now that I've rambled on forever, now for some actual media. Since the game's already out in Japan, if you go here you can see some impressions, screenshots, and video. Since I admire Motoi Sakuraba more than anyone else in the video game industry, I'm more interested in the music. Several days ago I "obtained" the OST from a certain "game mp3s" site. In listening to it though, I encountered about the mildest spoiler possible: what the final boss music sounds like. I know what you're thinking: can't you just tell what things like the regular battle theme and the credits song are, without being told?
Perhaps, but trust me, there is no way you would be able to tell what this song is, which is part of the absolute fucking genius. In fact, I haven't played it yet, but it's maybe my favorite final boss song ever. I mean, who would create a relatively short, aria-like waltz (sung by his kindergarten-ish daughter in Italian, heh) for the final battle theme? Oh and the title is "Le Ali del Principio," which means "the wings of principle," although I don't know if "principle" has the same multiple meanings that it does in English, and I always thought "principio" meant "lead," as in first chair, or protagonist. Even modeled like an aria, it might seem pretentious to do this in Italian, but really, Sakuraba's Italian is probably better than his English (everything on his page is translated into both).
To compare and contrast, the other final battle song that I really love is his work from Star Ocean 3. It's just as awesome, but thematically almost the opposite: "intellectual" instead of emotional (which makes sense because of the difference in the themes of the respective games), over 10 minutes long, and in prog rock/jazz form. It has the most sinister jazz bits I've ever heard, if that makes any sense.
If you're wondering why I'm wasting time talking so much about the music, it's tough work trying to get someone to play a game or even watch a run, but hopefully not to listen to a couple songs.
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