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Comparing two similar songs in order to determine how they can convey different emotions and feelings.
A friend of mine recently asked me if I considered writing about music more often. I told him that doing such a thing was too difficult, as I lacked the vocabulary and literacy to critique and analyze the more technical aspects of music. Simultaneously, music is perhaps the most subjective artistic medium there is. To me, a good song evokes emotions in a way that words cannot. How do you convey a response to emotions that are too complex for words? A fool’s task, for certain.
Yet here I am, writing up a post purely due to some errant thoughts I had comparing two songs. If I were to evaluate them on a technical level, I would regard them as both following the same template. That Demons & Wizards – a band formed by Iced Earth’s guitarist and songwriter Jon Schaffer and Blind Guardian’s vocalist and lyricist Hansi Kursch – had such songs on each album would cause me to be skeptical of their creativity. It’s not a mere matter of the “token” acoustic song, as I felt became so popular following Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”. Even the progression of the song is the same.
To use an example, DragonForce’s debut album Valley of the Damned provided a bit of an “intermission” with the slower-paced “Starfire”. A welcome break from the constant, high speed wailing of bloody battlefields and gleaming steel. When they released their following album, Sonic Firestorm, they placed a very similar song in almost the exact same midpoint of the album. “Dawn Over a New World” not only follows the same progression, it also has the same tempo. If you were to remove the introductory sound of rainfall from “Starfire” and played the tunes side-by-side, not only would the first verse end at nearly the same time, but that’s precisely when the electric guitars and percussion would kick in.
By time Inhuman Rampage landed I was unimpressed by the speed at which they played. Of course, by then they dropped the pretense of “variety” in their songwriting and counted on relentless pace of their songs to amaze those unfamiliar with the two-plus decade-old genre of power metal.
We’re not here to discuss that unimaginative group of shredders, though. We’re instead here to discuss the difference between “Fiddler on the Green” and “Down Where I Am”, two very similar songs on Demons & Wizards’ self-titled debut album and its follow-up Touched By the Crimson King.
Chris and Steve reflect on their time with the cross-over catch-em-all World of Final Fantasy and its shortcomings
A critical dig into Final Fantasy VI to uncover what made it a classic and determine how well it has aged.
I haven’t had so much fun working on a video in a long time. I still had moments of doubt and frustration while fitting the script together, and there are still plenty of flaws that stand out strongly to me. However, if I wanted to start 2019 with a video saying “this is what RamblePak64 ought to be”, then my analysis of Final Fantasy VI is it.
I’m considering an additional video to follow up this one, taking a closer examination at some of the mechanics and narrative elements that just didn’t fit with the flow of this video. If it’s a success, then it should make it easier going forward to put together a strong primary video, the core of the analysis, which can then be followed up with deeper examinations as a bonus to my followers. Plus, if there’s any weakness in this video, it’s in the discussion of the game’s narrative themes. I was so focused on taking as little time as possible that I feel I make the weakest case for myself there. Nevertheless, it’s not enough that I’m crying about it.
Steve gets to discuss his first experience watching a Nintendo Direct as a current system owner. Meanwhile, Chris bores everyone with his Fire Emblem predictions.
Death is perhaps the most interesting horseman of the Darksiders series, and yet even he is not given as good a narrative as he deserves.
Snow soars past the panning camera towards frost-tipped mountains. Galloping through the ravines and climbing the pathways, the pale rider storms forth. Known to some as the Reaper, to others as Death, it is the name of Kinslayer that haunts him most. Death rides to not only save his horseman brother, but to perhaps assuage his soul. Maybe War’s salvation can make up for the murderous atrocity he had once committed against his nephilim brethren.
If you want to understand the basics of what makes a good character, look no further than the conflict Death must face versus that of War in Darksiders. That hulking, overly armored bladewielder battles enemies from without, but tussles none with demons within. Framed and betrayed, War’s entire journey is simply in learning who to aim his vengeance towards. Thoroughly epic and filled with the bloodlust that can only be quenched by tossing dice or mashing buttons on a controller, but hardly a resonant story.
Death rides in the guise of altruism, but it is the ghosts of his brothers long vanquished that haunt his soul. His journey is not to free his brother, but to instead free himself.
Unfortunately, the game has some trouble getting these ideas across.
A design choice I first found frustrating has ultimately helped me understand my feelings towards survival-horror.
[This essay will contain gameplay spoilers for the 2019 Resident Evil 2 remake.]
I haven’t entirely clicked with the survival horror genre. I have a great fondness for the Resident Evil and Dead Space franchises, but both games have always had an action-oriented element to them. The closer you step towards actual horror and strip away the empowering capabilities of the player, the more shaken up my heart becomes.
Alien: Isolation is a perfect example. I’ve always blamed my inability to complete it on the first-person perspective, but in truth I might simply find great discomfort in being so obviously outmatched. Options and resources are few and if the Xenomorph so much as spots you it’s game over. I still recall setting the game down each night after having reached a suitable stopping point. The excitement and adrenaline continued to flow through my very veins, providing a sense of ceaseless vibration as I sat in my chair. I could not go to sleep in such a manner. I needed to swap out to Destiny so that I could “calm my nerves”, relaxing into the empowerment of a constantly resurrecting guardian.
I find the description of games being a power fantasy – a specifically masculine one at that – tiresome and reflecting a misunderstanding of the medium’s appeal. A game is not truly satisfying if it is not challenging. If the enemy A.I. and behavior demands I better understand the tools at my disposal or pay the consequences, then it is encouraging me to think and learn. The game only rewards those that adapt. The adaptation is what provides the satisfaction. In my mind, a “power fantasy” provides no challenge. It simply lets the player wade through the game, standing proud atop a hill although they did little more than show up.
So theoretically I should be absolutely on board with the disempowering demands of the survival horror genre.
Part two of our clairvoyance into 2019 continues with the games we're looking forward to playing in 2019.
Predictions and speculation on what will happen to the major game publishers in 2019 and beyond.
Chris and Steve look back on the games they played in 2018.
How I'm trying to overcome my own baggage and enjoy creating again in 2019.
2018 was a weird year for me. I had started it at MAGFest with a declaration that I’d give up YouTube completely if I did not produce at least four videos that year. By time I was working on my fourth video I was beginning to question whether I wanted to keep going with the channel or not anyway. Each essay, each script, each product I worked on carried with it an anxiety that I’d say one stupid thing to warrant everyone’s rejection. A deeper connection to my religion had created a desire to speak about it publicly, yet simultaneously assaulted me with a hostile anxiety regarding people’s response to such open faith. Throughout the year I’ve worked to reinvent and rebrand all of my works to remain consistent, yet I’ve always struggled between being myself and wanting acceptance.
It was a pretty good year to start going to therapy.
I know it’s the hip trend to bid 2018 farewell as a truly awful year, but I actually look back on it with a strange fondness. Despite the suffering caused by my sciatic nerve, anxiety over my faith, and continued lack of growth in my YouTube channel, writing, or even career, I’ve managed to sort through a lot of my personal baggage. “No pain, no gain” as they say, and as a result I’ve entered 2019 with an even more optimistic perspective.
It sounds silly to say, but I’m comfortable doing the things I like doing again.
Just in time for you to have no free podcasting time available, Chris and Steve come together to discuss why A Christmas Story is the only good holiday movie.
After many delays my Rise of the Tomb Raider analysis is finally complete, but not without plenty of struggle, self-doubt, and lessons learned.
I was beginning to feel like this video was cursed. I first suffered a herniated disc that took over a month of non-Switch gaming out of the free timing equation. Holidays and other factors slowed the recording and editing process. The first day I began editing the video I ran into numerous crashes and even a blue screen of death. However, nothing was as great a struggle as simply writing the script.
My first hurdle was simply realizing I didn’t have to discuss gameplay. It has sort of become my template to discuss mechanics before narrative, and one of the reasons I love playing these Tomb Raider games is because of the appeal of exploration involved. The problem is nearly every element of Tomb Raider’s gameplay is done better elsewhere. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say is more preferably designed elsewhere? I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to illustrate my love of the game’s design while recognizing its various flaws, but every draft was not only a chore to type, but a chore to reread. There was nothing informative or entertaining. Just pure rationalization.
So I took a brief break and decided to return to one of my first sources of inspiration on YouTube: MrBtongue.
From the latest PR disasters of Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Fallout 76 to the journalist reception to Darksiders 3, Chris and Steve just talk about a whole horde of things.
Looking back into why I started RamblePak in the first place in order to figure out where to go from here
Despite the absence of the new video within November, it is within days of release. I had originally hoped to have it published on the morning of December 1st, but I find myself forced to catch up on everything else that fell by the wayside the past two weeks. After finally finishing the script I began devoting what time I could to audio and video work, but sadly there are other obligations I must tend to in that time.
I’ll have more particular thoughts about the video itself when I post it, but rest assured that I have not grown to hate it during the editing process. While a part of me is just glad to be getting it out of the door, I think in hindsight it might be a video I can enjoy returning to. Which, fortunately, I can say about the majority of the videos I’ve made, even though I often contemplate where I could have improved upon them.
Nevertheless, it was also a video created under much concern and worry over how others would respond. To that end I already feel regret at many of the things I could have done, which creates apprehension regarding its success.
What a drag it is getting old.
I wonder if becoming a curmudgeon is an inevitability for the opinionated and pretentious. The true meaning of the word pretentious in particular. I feel that the word’s usage has transformed into “snobbish” or “stuck up” rather than one who pretends to be substantial.
While I do not particularly loathe all things new, I must confess a confusion with what becomes favored among younger audiences. In some cases this is a clear generational gap, such as that between my niece and me. It can also be as short a span as five-to-ten years difference with my… younger peers, I suppose they’d be? A question of whether I’ve grown out of touch simply by being born a few years earlier.
While I’m not afraid the things I love will vanish, there is an apprehension towards what the future may bring. I’d like to think I’m open to change, but at the end of the day I imagine all creatures fear the complete loss of their comfort zone.
