Here's part two of my favorite video game soundtracks!
Okage: Shadow King (2001)
Okage: Shadow King (known in Japan as "Me and Satan") is one of those games that is not only weird, but knows it and embraces it fully. While the gameplay was extremely limited as a barebones turn-based RPG, it's the game's genre-defying story and oddball characters that truly made this game stand out from the crowd. In fact, I think this game has one of most original storylines of any video game to date, though it starts off seeming like yet another generic adventure for a spiky haired misfit. It slowly turns into a parody of Japanese RPGs where plucky young heroes defend the world from a generic evil force, and eventually tosses what you thought was the main story out the window roughly halfway through the game. I don't want to ruin anything, as I'll probably review this game later on in my journal, but I will say that the villains were one of the highlights of the game (I still find the random evil kings that they throw at you hilarious, like the "Chairmen Evil King" and the "Teen Idol Evil King"). Anyway, other than all of that, I have just one more thing to say... All hail the Evil King Stanley! Oh, also, I hope you like bagpipes!
Saints Row 2 (2008)
Saints Row 2 is the perfect example of how a series can reinvent itself. After the first game, which was a fairly serious urban drama, the developers decided to take things in a different direction. They realized that Saints Row was always going to be seen as nothing more than a Grand Theft Auto knock off, so they decided to create their own unique experience that would help them to stand on their own. As a result, Saints Row 2 went down the path of comedy, and never looked back. To date, it's still one of the most clever (and raunchy) pop culture parodies ever put to the screen, with social commentaries and gratuitous violence walking hand in hand. Still, it kept enough of the first game's realism to make things tense and interesting, creating some moments in the game of legitimate maturity and interest, and the odd mix of serious and comedic tones gave it a weird kind of charm.
Every car that you hop into (whether it's yours or someone else's
) has access to a variety of radio stations, with a fun and eclectic amount of songs to listen to. I'm being completely honest when I say that before this game, I virtually never listened to Reggae, Hip-Hop, Techno, and Classical music, but it introduced me to a mess of songs that I ended up loving!
Dark Cloud (2001)
A very fun game that had it's share of originality (especially in that it let you re-build the game world after it was destroyed, rearranging all the pieces as you see fit), but was also indebted to the Adventure games that had come before it (like Zelda). And of course, it has a fair amount of weirdness to it as well (moon rabbits, anyone?). But at it's heart, it's a solid game with an interesting weapons system, and it certainly has it's moments of fun dialogue and charming scenarios. The soundtrack is also well made, and very relaxing.
Well, that concludes part two! Oh wait, there's one more thing I wanted to add...
Fear Effect
I didn't love the whole soundtrack, but I feel that I have to recognize the game's theme. It's... well, creepy. I mean, when you play Fear Effect, you die almost constantly, and you'll find yourself going back to the main menu to reload, only to be greeted by that damn theme song. It's really not that scary, since it quickly turns into a fairly standard song, so it's really just the very beginning of it that sticks with you. If you play the game sometime, you'll see what I mean... it just sort of gets into your head.