We talk a lot about music. And games. And music in games. And today will be no different. Well, it will be… a little. You’ll see.
I think many of us would agree that music can make or break a game. There’s just something about what good, quality, well-composed music can do to enhance characters, environments and storylines that’s hard to describe. You know when it’s good, and you know when it isn’t. Right? Sure.
PS — I just YouTube’d “MotoGP PS3 crappy music” to try and find an amazing example because honestly, those games have horrible music. Horrible as in “Damn I can’t play this game anymore because my ears are bleeding from the blunt force trauma of these abominations of sound” horrible. And this is coming from a huge MotoGP fan. But alas… I wasn’t so lucky.
Anyway. What I’m getting at is – have you ever thought about the effect an absence of music can have on a game?
Case in point: Dark Souls. I’ve been playing a lot of this game whenever I get the chance lately. For whatever reason I was never able to get into Demon’s Souls, its spiritual predecessor, but Dark Souls has me hooked. It’s been a long time since a game has been able to keep me utterly engrossed each time I play it, and to be quite honest it’s been very refreshing. And frustrating, and depressing.
That’s truly what Dark Souls does to me, and it achieves this by making me feel completely alone in the world it presents. I firmly believe that a huge part of this has to do with the lack of background music throughout the game. Aside from the cinematics and some very intimidating boss fights, there’s almost no music at all in the game. You’re left to wander the halls of gigantic cathedrals, cursed forests and god-forsaken caves all by yourself, with nothing but the clink of your armor accompanying you. Every little water drop, footstep, and rustling around the corner can be heard. The environments in the game are astonishingly well-designed, gorgeous, and expansive, but every other character and creature in the world is bigger, badder, stronger, and uglier than you, and wants you dead. It’s a unique thing, reveling in beauty and depression at the same time…
Oh, how beautiful. I'll probably die out there, but that's cool.
All of this is hard to describe properly, but this game just messes with my head. There’s this ever-present and horrible sense of hopelessness and loneliness that you simply have to experience yourself. Play this game in surround sound and you will pee your pants. I’m not kidding! Ok maybe I am. But still, never have I been so hesitant and wary of everything I do, every step I take, every sound I hear in a game as I have with Dark Souls.
It’s really something else, and I love the fact that the developers made the choice to keep the music to a minimum. One of those times where “less is more” is a gross understatement.
Check out the (ironically music-and-dialogue heavy) trailer below for a sneak peek at some of the crazy stuff in this game. Spoiler alert for those who don’t want to see some of the bosses and environments, obviously.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to play some Dark Souls and then cry myself to sleep. You should do the same.
Imho, “less is more” can hardly be attributed to Dark Souls’ overbearing and obnoxious boss themes. They might blend well into the heat of the battle, but they horribly miss what Demon’s Souls’ glorious score once strove for, first and foremost: Characterising the bosses themselves. Not underscoring the fierce clashing of steel and flesh, nor simply capturing the mood of the surrounding environments, but helping forge the personalities of the very monsters you were fighting, with memorable tunes conveyed through minimal orchestration, reminiscent of early 20s century expressionist chamber music.