One of the things I think that can really enhance a game’s experience is a quality soundtrack. As I mentioned in last week’s post my favorite game was Final Fantasy VI (US III). The genius behind this and other Final Fantasy games was Nobuo Uematsu.  For those of you who don’t know Uematsu was the composer for the vast majority of the Final Fantasy series up until Final Fantasy XII where he worked on only a single song for that soundtrack, but is rumored to be working on the sound track for the upcoming MMO Final Fantasy XIV.  Why so much attention to music or for that matter sound effects? Let me take you on a journey…

The average human range for hearing frequencies ranges from 20Hz to 20kHz with diminishing returns on these values as you get older.  Back in the day with the NES sound was generated by modulating pulse signals and triangle waves with different pitch bending.  Surprisingly enough this allowed for some great sounds.

What these sounds did was more than provide some random sensitization to your ear drums, if done properly these sounds created drama or suspense.  The provided the player with gratification for defeating an enemy.

Over the years these bits of music have sometimes fallen to the wayside. Instead of using the complete dynamic range available to any given system they are shoved with explosions and canned laughter or horror screams.  Worse yet crappy pop music is entering in many big titles urging many players to turn it off or tune it out.

However there is hope.  If you haven’t take a look yet try one my most recent play through, Heavy Rain.  If you have a good sound system or a nice pair of headphones take the time to hear what a good game soundtrack can bring to your playing experience.

Regardless of your game of choice, next time take a moment and listen to what is going on and hopefully hear some subtle details that you may have tuned out long ago.