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The Tiara Club

where laughter, sarcasm, and gaming meet

A Musical Experiment: Wanna Help?

12/14/2017

3 Comments

 
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Music is a powerful emotional tool. Instrumental pieces, with no words to tell you how to feel, resonate with something deep inside and can bring genuine joy or sadness that comes from somewhere I can't quite place. The right music laid in the background of a situation (movie, game, performance, etc) can completely make or break the immersiveness of the experience and heighten or ruin the emotional stakes. My favorite phenomenon is listening to music that was created for that express purpose, without having seen or heard the medium with which it is supposed to pair.

I listened to the soundtrack for the Mass Effect trilogy well before I played the games (at the time I didn't expect to play them, but had heard the music was dope). I had no context for any of the tracks, but I could feel what they were telling me. "The Normandy Reborn" swells to a reveal. "The End Run" fills you with determination on a thin foundation of apprehension. "Leaving Earth" tells of sadness and destruction. "An End Once and for All" brings a somber relief and sense of pained relief. You can know and feel all of that without having played the corresponding scenes in the games. I will often avoid soundtracks for media I intend to experience for that reason, as the musical accompaniments can be emotional spoilers as it were.

Recently I've been listening to a podcast called The Adventure Zone. While it's technically a D&D podcast, I'd almost argue it's more like an audiobook...if the characters had total autonomy and the author only kind of knew what was happening because said characters are unpredictable at best. The storytelling has been impeccable to say the least, and somewhere along the way the DM started including music in the background to underscore certain parts of the story. I've started listening to the albums on Bandcamp and immediately zeroed in on some tracks as my "favorites", as it was so easy to see the scene play out in my head again when I heard them.

Here's the experiment I want to try:

It's safe to say that a good many members of my social circle have not listened to The Adventure Zone. I certainly hadn't heard of it until a few weeks ago, and even then I had to be coerced into giving it a shot ("A D&D podcast? Really? Why in god's name would you think I want to listen to that?"). I would love to hear how some of these tracks make people feel or what it makes them imagine, people who don't already have an emotional investment in the characters of this show. If you would at all be interested in sharing, please shoot me an email! I have a short list of particular tracks picked out, but am certainly not going to discourage anyone from listening to more of the albums! The idea would be that I would compile the feedback, remove the names, and share it here for us all to see how different people hear the same song.

Of course I highly recommend the show itself, regardless of whether you're into D&D or not. I would experience this show all over again as a book if it was ever compiled into one, it's that good. And if you're just curious about the music but don't want to share your thoughts, that's okay too! You should still check it out, especially the Suffering Game album <3

PS. Thanks Ben for forcing me to listen to this show. Because we all know I needed something else to get emotionally invested in. Jerk.

PPS. The target of this experiment is TAZ because I'm super into it at the moment and have been diving deep into the music, but if this is a successful experiment I will probably do it more in the future with other works. The hard part is, of course, finding something that enough people haven't experienced to be able to give untainted feedback. But that's a problem for future Jenn!


3 Comments

Persona 5: What Have I Started? (Part 2)

12/11/2017

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The Persona 5 saga continues! Did you miss my first post about my reactions to the game so far? If yes, go check it out! If not, you're in luck: here are my next few in-game days of what is turning out to be an...interesting adventure. As a reminder, there are light spoilers.

4/12:
  • Okay, yes, awesome, normal day at school. This seems like a weird time to introduce stats but okay I guess. It fits here, but I'm 4 "days" in and this is literally the first mention of it? And now I know I have 5 stats but also no way of knowing how to increase any of them because nothing I've done to this point has indicated they were a thing.
  • Kamoshida is openly hitting on this high school chick and no one gives a shit what is wrong with this school.
  • I still want an actual explanation as to how this whole app thing started. Like, why me? And why is it a freaking phone app. Atlus just trying to relate to the kids or something?
  • Also let's talk about the fact that I just happened to say the right words to trigger the castle to show up. Does literally every person have a palace and I just choose who I'm going to spawn one for?
  • My fake gun...acts like a real gun...because nobody but us knows any better? Also this whole "if they think it's real, it is real" thing leaves a looooot of doors open.
  • After the Love Suite of V3 I am not going into a "Training Hall of Love." Nope. Not gonna do it.
  • Okay I did it and it's...not what it sounds like and considering what I thought it was it really isn't that bad. I mean, it's still not great though.
  • Ryuji get with the program you cannot actually be this dumb.
  • Jesus Christ, we finally get some Ryuji backstory and now I really want awful things to happen to Kamoshida. This guy is the pits.
  • Seriously can this guy put some pants on please.
  • WHAT IS WITH THE RIPPING OFF OF THE VERY SECURE FACE MASKS?!
  • Running away from that situation seemed waaaaay too easy.
  • I'm not convinced the actions within a palace won't have real life impacts on the ruler of it.
  • Takamaki you know shit is up with Shiho and you have to have a pretty good idea of what it is stop dancing around it with your denial and do something.
4/13:
  • I hate this teacher.
  • Of course none of the team is going to talk. Why would they talk now? To us? There is literally no point in this excursion. Why is the game making me do this obviously futile exercise?
  • I really don't know how to feel about Ann.
  • "I'm not feeling well today." Probably because your coach beats the snot out of you. Just going out on a limb here.
  • I go back to "what is wrong with this school" because everyone knows the coach is a physically abusive d-bag and they're fine with it? What am I even doing then? Even if I get proof who the hell am I going to tell?
4/14:
  • Okay wait. I get in and out of the Metaverse with my phone app thing. How in the hell does the cat do it?
  • What is this magical fairytale BS? "Make him have a change of heart and he'll confess to his crimes"? You're losing me here.
  • Ann cannot be mad that I overheard her yelling in a public space. Not my fault you can't keep your private conversations private.
  • Pro tip: if someone says "it's nothing" while actively crying and runs away from you immediately, it is not nothing.
4/15:
  • WHOA THIS TOOK A TURN JESUS CHRIST. Japan does not fuck around with their games.
  • Screw it let's kill this guy.
  • Let's talk about how lucky we are that despite being in totally populated areas that we have not previously accidentally taken someone into the Metaverse.
  • This negotiation tactic is simultaneously cool and concerning.
  • This game still hasn't actually really explained personas but now I have multiple ones which sounds like a cool thing just waiting to become a problem.
  • "Fusing Personas will now grant you EXP!" Thanks dialogue box what the hell does that mean?
  • The way Ann is tied up here is giving me Another Episode flashbacks.
  • AGAIN WITH THE FACE RIPPING
Through the end of the first palace arc:
  • So, what, Igor summons me and I just abandon my crew without a word and we all go on like it's not that big a deal?
  • FUSION IS STRAIGHT UP MURDER HOLY SHIT. Also how did it take 7 days beyond the first mention of fusing for you to freaking tell me what that is?
  • How has no one noticed a cat in my desk? I mean, he talks to me during the day, surely they hear it meowing.
  • This boss is...more disturbing looking than I expected.
  • "I will make this better and kill myself." The principal is having literally zero reaction to this exchange.
  • "This morning's assembly is over." You bet your ass it is.
  • This music sounds like "Say Something (I'm Giving Up On You)".
  • "Return to your classrooms at once." No fuck you we gotta talk about this.
  • You guys should really not constantly be talking about your Metaverse business out loud in public spaces.
  • "So we can get them to confess with no bad stuff?" Yeah no I've got a feeling that won't work all the time and there's going to be bad stuff somewhere along the line.

Between the shadows, the "treasure", and this "change of heart" goal, I feel like I'm simply playing a dark version of Kingdom Hearts, like the creators sat down to make KH but did a bunch of coke first and ended up having to confront their inner demons. For me, that leaves me wanting in this game. I was never much in the Kingdom Hearts camp, though I can appreciate what it brings to the table. The same goes for Persona 5 - I can appreciate that other people find it riveting, but it feels too choppy and non-committal for me to get hooked onto it. I'm playing along for the moment to get to at least the reveal of the second palace, but I'm not thinking I'm going to be going past that. Just not my thing, I guess.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these snippets of my journey through the first part of the game! Even if I couldn't really get into it I had fun writing these up for you guys <3
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