Devs should stop using medieval music in wrpgs! Yes, stop it rite now or else!

I love fantasy oriented WRPGs.

Skyrim, Oblivion, Baldur's Gate games, if its fantasy wrpg, I love it.

But there is one thing I really hate about such games, and its the soundtrack.

In 'western' RPGs, the soundtrack is always either medieval chamber music (boring!) or 'epic' compositions copied directly from Lord of the Rings (tm) movies. Yes, always.

And its just boring as heck, as music goes.

So, western devs should stop such practice. They should stop being worried about anachronism lawsuits from fanboys and other such nonsense, when it comes to composing for their games.

Devs should start using modern pop, rock and metal music in WRPGs! Just like JRPGs do!

Imagine how great it would be if we battled dragons in Skyrim to some edgy trash metal from East Coast!

As it is, I just mute the soundtracks in WRPGs so as not to fall asleep...

But hey, what are your thoughts on this? Do you love medieval music in your WRPGs? Or would you rather listen to something bit more modern?

Terrible idea

I think the soundtrack in skyrim is pretty good to be honest, but it could be more versatile , I even tried to add music on the pancake version back in 2011-2012.

Have not touched it with the vr version though, but I can't play 10 hours straight in vr, not yet, maybe if those varifocals come on the market, and if I'm a lot fitter

It's the first time I actually hated the summer because I can't play my vr headset with those temperatures, but it has been cooling off lately, had to play fallout 4 vr first to not strain my muscles too much with that swordfighting in skyrim.

I want to play Skyrim with a Reggae soundtrack. Or the Witcher with Deep House. I mean, why not?

Or else what? What are you going to do? Not buy the game???

hell no

Music is an integral part of the the atmosphere and theme of a game. The music should fit the game rather than appeal to personal preferences. Otherwise it gets jarring.

And Jeremy Soule is a fantastic composer. You just have no taste.

@henrythefifth:

Terrible opinion.

Yeah, sure. Nothing like some modern rock music to emphasize that you're questing in an ancient land with giant beasties. Perhaps that troll you're fighting could pull out an electric guitar and an amp, and just shred till the goblins come home.

@BassMan said:

@henrythefifth:

lol

No thanks.

that weed farm mission in far cry 3 where you torch it with a flamethrower to the backing track of skrillex's make it burn dem or whatever it's called worked surprisingly well. so some completely unexpected musical accompaniment to a mission can work, particularly when it has some contextual relevance

Dubstep? Dmmmm wop wop wop wop wop, wop while fighting a laserdragon?

I could see it work but I think we would get tired of it quickly. You can also play your own music while playing a game. I sometimes do that when I get tired of the ingame music.

I agree that composers could have a bit more imagination. But to hear a pop or rock song in Elder Scrolls? **** that.

yes, because heavy metal music is very normal to hear on a medieval setting game....

Im going to disagree with everything you said, its a terrible idea that takes away the atmosphere of the game.

You want WRPG with heavy metal music? Go play WRPG in a modern settings, don't go playing medieval era games.

you don't like the music, turn it off in the option and play your own music on the background.

Yeah. They should make it more dumber like Science fiction and star trek in medieval games, because 'murican culture or people from UK to some extent (few of them that exists). Lets make something excellent and make it worse. Great idea!

Look you guys have those dumb super heroes in movies, you have that dumb star wars. Do not take video games away from me and turn them into those dumb ideals you have. NO. JUST NO

Better off getting more diverse sounding composers. Folk like Paul Leonard Morgan have done a few high profile games but not much, absolutely adored his History Of Scotland soundtrack.

Are there any WRPGs with a modern theme? I mean, a theme like the current times we live in right now? That would be nice because we all can relate to it.

In the meantime, I think WRPGs should retain the period music of the setting they're in.....not that I care because I disable music in my games.

Ew. Rock and metal sucks.

While adding some metal could work if properly implemented, it is a cliche for a reason. It is safe and hard to botch.

But another easier solution might be to just hire more diverse medieval tracks as opposed to hollywood medieval music.

Not necessarily. I have seen a few cases where non-medieval music worked great for a medieval game.

Does late 80's count? If so, Jagged Alliance 2. If not, how about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

Do you even know what 'medieval' music is, pretty sure most games use full orchestra soundtracks which is not medieval, more like 18th century, definitely not 15th century.

OK I shut up now because this is an obvious troll thread ^^.

Hard pass, that makes me cringe.

If the alternative is that shit music they put in jRPG's, then I'll pass...the "medieval" music is leagues better on its worst day. Also, I can't imagine anything BUT medieval music in a game like The Witcher and so forth.

I'd love to see a dark RPG with a death- and black-metal soundtrack, though. Some Amon Amarth, Bathory, and so on. Would be more suited to an ARPG, not so much a DnD-style RPG.

Trash metal... not a fan

But more games should hire the master of ambient soundtracks.... Inon Zur

I never notice this was a problem in all Medieval musics lol. I don't care either way.

I think maybe some Elvis or MJ music would work well don't you? lol :P

What does soundtracks have to do with system wars ?

Skyrim compton edition, where Dragonborn shouts like Lil Jon.

To each his own but personally I love that style of music. I like when there is a good variety though, like I remember in Skyrim you had the low key town music which was great, and I also loved some of the more dramatic tunes during fights.

With a name like Henry the Fifth I would have thought you'd be all over it.

When I think castle sieges, I think Maroon 5.

Go watch "A knights Tale" and think about what you just posted.

This reminds me of when that Heath Ledger movie "A Knight's Tale" came out, and critics/fans were aghast that it used modern classic rock/pop hits as part of the soundtrack despite being set in the 14th century. They said those songs didn't exist and the soundtrack should've used just standard orchestral arrangements, to which director Brian Helgeland pointed out that the instruments of a modern orchestra didn't exist then, either.

@zmanbarzel: Hah! I beat your Knights Tale ref by 4 seconds. Victory is mine!

@Maroxad: To maybe throw some power metal into a few set pieces would be cool. But I couldn't imagine the whole game like that.

I legitimately loved TW3 soundtrack though. So I guess I don't think it's as bad as others.

I don’t mind what type of music developers put in their games as long as the music goes with the tone of what’s happening in the game at the time. I feel FFXIII-2 did a really good job of this and final fantasy in general. Music can also influence how you feel about what is actually happening in the game. FFVII nailed this at the end of disc 1 where the theme played during a boss fight. Here you are fighting some ghastly looking monstrosity and the feels are hitting you even harder now.

moving thread to proper forum section

So you're the kind of person who preferred the original theme to Dragon's Dogma (Into Free: Danganin) over (Eternal Return). Despite it fitting the game far better?

Music relevance for a games atmosphere is very important, it sets the tone. Especially if you enjoy immersion.

With that stated Oblivion has better music than Skyrim in my opinion.

This is what I thought about at the suggestion. I enjoyed Knight's Tale - it was clearly just having fun and never pretended to be anything other than a total seat-of-the-pants fantasy for teens.

I think it would just depend on the game. Skyrim and Witcher take themselves rather seriously and so maybe should just stay in their current lanes on this, but you could imagine games that focus on being a necromancer or high octane spell casting throwing in some guitar riffs. It'd work just fine. I mean, have you seen old school metal album covers? They absolutely are western fantasy, which was the point of movies like Heavy Metal and games like Brutal Legend.

It's used quite badly in the game though. Without mods installed attacked every 2 minutes the same dramatic combat music playing over and over, regardless of it's Daedra lord or a mudcrab.

Skyrim's music is clearly an evolution of TES music that predates LOTR movies, so...

It's distinctive, and they adapt the theme of their music to the regional setting of the specific TES title... I'd actually say it's hand's down one of the best parts about Skyrim. Music and setting = aces. The rest of it... well I've done my bitching about that on here.

@uninspiredcup: Coded use of music in-game, and quality of the tracks themselves is completely different.

However, yes I recall Death Knell getting played far too much in the vanilla game. And with a total of 26 tracks it's pretty crazy how Bethesda didn't manage it better.

@henrythefifth: Well, I see where you're coming from. Maybe I've been there too,
But I have to say, medieval or not games have swords, sandals, shields, helmets etc. Which also reminds us medieval era, should we remove all those things too? I personally love the music in Skyrim, it's so iconic and transformative. I don't think the modern music will do any good to games in general especially genre such as these.
Just my opinion, though I think devs should think outside the box! Thanks for the topic! Shall return to it after some time.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree with you there, OP. Medieval music in a medieval game sets the tone and adds an extra layer of immersion besides just visuals. When I'm playing Skyrim or The Witcher 3(both soundtracks were great btw)the music makes me want to see what's over that next mountaintop or in that forest. I would've never made it all the way to that far a** College of Winterhold listening to metal or anything modern. And when I walk into a tavern or inn I want to hear something I want to hear something somewhat historically accurate so it feels like I was there

If a game is based on real medieval europe, then I understand the use of actual medieval music.

But games like witcher and Skyrim are not based on real history, so why should they use our medieval instruments or compositions as a basis for the music?

Seriously, people!

Look at Sacred 2. The designers of that wrpg put magic guitars and stuff into the game world, which allowed them to use electic guitars! Why have other devs used that idea? In Skyrim we could have magic instruments that sound the same as our electic instruments, giving them the ability to use electric sound.

But I guess Bethesda just lacks the imagination..

Sacred 2 actually had rock concert in it! You had to find all the magic instrument for this rock band, and then you got to see this awesome rock concert by Blind Guardian. Brill.

Hmmm...

Not sure if heavy metal music is best to hear on a medieval game although saying that a bit of electric guitar and i mean a bit would be o.k...

When playing Skyrim and especially The Witcher 3 I was a huge fan of the music. I felt it added a huge component to the game. I can't imagine Geralt of Rivia battling Wraiths to the sound of some heavy metal band. Actually I can but no ta..!!!!

This may work for modern games but not historical/medieval.

As someone pointed out you could always turn off the music option and maybe play your own stuff in the background.