LUIISHU535'S PROFILE

This is my very first transcription/arrangement. After finishing the transcription in Musescore, I decided to make a small arrangement of it using some SNES soundfonts (from Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger). Production ain't perfect, but at least I've made something.

This was pretty fun to do and since I also do this to practice my ear, I'll probably end up doing more stuff like this in the future!

Hope y'all like it and let me know what you think!

Greetings, lovely RMNers! I'm here to ask you about your opinions on leitmotifs in video game music and how Undertale used that technique. If you don't know what leitmotifs are, then please, let my boy Google help you out:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=leitmotif
(It's just a let me Google that for you link...)

So, with that out of the way, what do you think about leitmotifs? Are they nostalgic? Do they offer character development to the music? Are they lazy and make the music more repetitive? Do you not like them?

Why do/don't you like leitmotifs? What's your opinion on Undertale's use of the technique?

The reason why I'm asking this is because I'm planning to go kind of crazy with this stuff for a future game of mine. Here are some examples of how I am planning to use leitmotifs in my game:

A safe haven theme: this theme will change and develop depending on location and plot. It will basically be a theme playing in safe areas (my game is going to take place in a huge dungeon where most places aren't safe).

I plan on having one safe haven that won't be as safe as the rest of them. In order to hint at this from a musical perspective, I'm going to add some dissonance to the harmony, add some "wrong" notes to the melody and change the rhythms a bit (the piece is actually very calming usually, so players are definitely going to notice this unless they've muted the audio for some reason). My goal with this is to give the player the impression that something's just not right and that he/she/it should be prepared.

The theme of the safe haven will also appear in the main theme of the game and the ending.

Example and inspiration: the Typewriter/safe rooms in the Resident Evil series.

Character themes: these will basically be themes related to specific characters in the game. The themes may also develop through the course of the game (main character's theme might sound a bit dark/evil if the player has made some "bad" choices).

Examples: most video games, but mainly JRPGs.

Different ending themes: there will be different endings to the game, mainly a good and a bad one. They will share the same theme, but the mood of theme will be changed depending on if the player received the good or bad ending.

Battle themes: for the sake of variety, I'm planning to compose multiple themes for both normal and boss battles. However, I might keep the main battle theme fundamentally the same and just do some different arrangements/versions of it to keep things a bit fresh.

Hints at secrets: there will be lots of secrets in the game and I think it would be cool to give the player some hints at this through the game's music. Examples: I might add in some various background noises/melodies/figures/patterns to certain areas that contain secrets. These effects will fade out and be removed when the player has found out/triggered the secret.

Variations on the main theme: I would like to add some elements of the main theme to a variety of pieces in the game. A more dark and evil variation on the melody might be heard in the Dark Corridors or Dungeon of the Forgotten. My reason for reusing elements of the main theme is because I want to get some unity going for the game. Nostalgia is also another factor.

Example and inspiration: Undertale and its main theme.

I'm sorry if this is a bit long, but I would just like to add in some details and examples to the ground of the discussion. I can show you some musical examples from my game if that's okay (also; do provide some musical examples in your post(s) if you want).

I'm not trying to market my game, but I can understand that this may look like a subtle attempt. In either case, that's not my intention and I'm sorry if it came off that way.

Inspired by an old topic that Craze wrote some eons ago.

I've always been interested on why there are so many people hating this game. The biggest reasons that I can think of myself would be:

-The linearity. Yup, this is one of those games that are shaped rather strictly after the main storyline. I guess one of the biggest flaws would be that it's later in the game impossible to travel back to past areas. I would've loved to see some more stuff in this game, like optional areas, bosses, side quests etc. With such a great battle system and customization, I think it's kind of a shame that the game didn't supplement those areas more. :/

-The difficulty. Like I just said, it's a shame that the game doesn't offer much challenge when it's filled with so many interesting and fun mechanics. The game is just way too easy overall IMO. Most bosses are a joke (from a gameplay perspective, they're rad as hell otherwise); they simply don't pose a threat. It's so easy to keep on cancelling their "super moves" all of the time. If the boss does manage to hit the party somewhat hard, then it's no problem, since you can just heal everyone back to full health. I think it's kind of ironic that the remastered version has added a "Hard Mode" to the game. All it does is increasing the enemies' DEF & MDEF. WHY? Out of all of the stats, why chose to increase those? Increasing DEF/MDEF does not make the game harder in any way, it just makes the battle longer and adds unnecessary padding. Enemies needed to be more AGGRESSIVE AND HIT HARDER. Come on, game designers, get it together. :'(

Despite all of this however, I still enjoy this game quite a lot, mainly due to various things, like the music, characters, story, graphics, voice acting and rad animations (these deserve their own mention!). From what I've heard, most people hate the game because of these things (except for the music, everyone loves some Noriyuki Iwadare).

I'm interested to hear others' thoughts on the game and why they hate it. Thanks for reading and as always, I apologize for the poor grammar.

I've been developing games for a few years now and I've been thinking about expanding on my medias in order to gain some following outside of the usual RM community. I've seen a lot of people turning to Tumblr for some time now and I've been thinking about jumping on that bandwagon as well. Do you think it would be a wise idea to do this? Have you done this yourself before, and if so, how did it go?

I already have a YT channel with 400+ subs that I should probably use as well. I have a blog, which I mainly use as my site, but I've come to notice that most people prefer other social medias today instead of the ol' blogs.

Making a game takes a lot of hard work and dedication. I sometimes think it's a shame that the games/creations that we put thousands upon thousands of hours into don't reach out to more people. I'm not unhappy with my current situation, in fact, I'm more like the opposite of that. I still want to get my name out there more, mainly since making games and music, among other things, is something that I really want to do.

Also, I don't care if you see this as "selling out", since it basically is, in a way, at least. I'm not going to argue against that.

I deeply apologize if this is a dumb question. Master can feel free to remove this if he desires.

Overwhelming Aspects In RPGs

This is not about certain things that you simply don't like in RPGs. It's more about aspects that are potentially enjoyable, but suffer from being overwhelming.



I thought it would be interesting to discuss what aspects in RPGs that we may find overwhelming as players. I guess I'll start.

The Wall of Text:
Most of you have probably experienced this one. It usually happens a few seconds after pressing "New Game". I think there's usually WAY too much information to take in from these. Spare those details for a later time! I also don't like how most of them are scrolling down automatically. If it isn't scrolling too fast it's scrolling too slow and vice versa. Why game designers don't give the player control of the scrolling baffles me.

I think Ocarina of Time did the Wall justice. It appears after beating the game's first dungeon, serving as an extra reward for players who want to know more about the world's history/creation (yes, watching this Wall is optional). The placement for this Wall is great, since it's highly possible that players actually give a damn about it, because they have already started playing the game.

The NPC Overflow:
Have you ever walked into a huge city in an RPG? Feels pretty awesome at first glance, until you notice that there are about 6738001194 NPCs to talk to. I may be biased by this, since a lot of people see RPGs as Visual Novels. I don't. An RPG is a Role Playing Game...GAME. I think that there simply is a fine limit where the amount of NPCs provide useful information/lore/theme/atmosphere/comedy etc. and where NPCs simply becomes overwhelming. Perhaps this may be because a lot of NPCs seem to serve no more purpose than simply saying "Good day.".

One of the problems with this may be its placement. Like the wall of text, let your player sink into the game for a little while before you start cumming lore and one-liners all over the player's face.

The same could be said (IMO of course!) for:
Skill Overflow, Overwhelming Systems/Mechanics, Dialogue, Tutorials, Pauses etc.

Now I'd like to hear from you. What aspects in RPGs do you find overwhelming and why? If you have a suggestion that would solve the overwhelming aspects, then feel free to enlighten me us!

Before I end this post, I'd like to apologize if I am starting boring/stupid/overwhelming or just uninteresting topics to discuss. I'll try to better myself. Also, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I don't have time to proofread the topic. I'm sorry if my English may confuse you! :3