JA needs to be dark and moody...

[Pedro The Hutt]

It was all..... midi-ish... on the N64 I could understand that but for the PC version they could've switched to more.. orchestrated music, with some actual instruments @@ heck they could have ripped it straight from the soundtracks for all I care lol.(actually that might be a great thing )

[Solbe M'ko]

Yeah, I played the PC version and it was considerably worse than the N64 version, considering the limitations on the 64.

 

But ANYWAY, the mood should build itself like it does in the movies. In ESB, the begining was very different from the end; it developed. In JO, the mood started out pretty weak and didn't change.

[Prime]

Originally posted by Solbe M'ko

In ESB, the begining was very different from the end...

Was it really though. It starts out on a down note when Luke get's hurt and the Rebels are defeated at the Battle of Hoth, and ends on a down note with the capture of Han and the Vader defeating Luke. The mood seems pretty dark the whole way through to me.

[Blamer]

Actually, the old DOS versions of TIE Fighter had, by far the best music of any Star Wars game, simply because they had to use MIDI instrumentation. They coudn't rip John Williams' recordings and call it good, they got a couple guys to write a MIDI score for the game that expanded on the basic Star Wars themes and also provided room for their own creativity. The result was actual game music that you could groove to while you blasting rebels into oblivion. Heck, I converted the inflight music GMID files to MIDI and it still sounds good, it's a lot better than listening to John Williams for the eight thousandth time. Movie soundtracks are for movies, and they are written late into the movie's production so that the mood of the music coincides with the mood and events in the movie. Movie music is not game music.

 

Jedi Knight had the second best score of all Star Wars games, because they heavily modified and spliced around the original Star Wars soundtrack recordings. They also used selections that were actually appropriate as mood music for the game. Then, they selected specific CD tracks for each level that actually enhanced the mood and feel for that specific level. Remember the dark, yet grandiose themes that played when you fought on Nar Shaddaa? On Sulon you get more of an "adventous" theme that went great with the levels. When you infiltrated an Imperial base, you got low-key, dark, moody music that amplified the tension. When I fought Maw, the music sent chills up my spine, they selected exactly the right part of the Star Wars music for that fight. Same thing for the other duels.

 

Dark Forces comes in third, the soundtrack had a few moments of genius but they emulated Williams too closely for MIDI.

 

I would say that they need to start with the music when it comes to making Jedi Academy more moody. They didn't do a bad job in Jedi Outcast, but they should put more effort into it...considering that Raven's competitors hire people to write and record new music. I feel like they said "this is a slow level, so let's stick a slow song in...here's an imperial base, find some song with the imperial theme...this is a combat heavy level, get a fast song." Spend a while trying to figure out what song works best with each level. I don't want to hear a zillion trumpets when I'm trying to play a game. For God's sake, wipe that multiplayer main menu theme from every hard drive in Raven and incinerate whatever CD they ripped it from. On your typical "base" levels, Jedi Knight used music that was predominantly rhythm and strings...brass gave the music a punch every so often to keep it moving and dramatic. Hey, guess what, that's what good game music sounds like. Jedi Knight's exception to this rule was during boss sequences, which brings me to my next point:

 

Good characterization will work wonders in JK3. JK1 worked hard to make you care about the heroes and villians...when I killed Fyyar in JK2 I had more of a feeling of "What the hell was that?" Tavion was halfway there, but since the encounter was used is a device to make Kyle look for Jan, it ended up being pretty bland. They did their best (I guess) in developing Desann, but I coudn't bring myself to care whether or not Barney killed Jan or not, especially since I knew this was a LucasArts game and there was no way in hell they would kill off Jan. Reelo...eh, I say they did a pretty good job of developing him as a minor boss. Again, the way you killed him didn't help..."Oh whoops, here's a lot of guys...*blam blam blam*...I guess that one guy was supposed to be reelo." Eh, I don't even remember whether I killed him or if he escaped somehow.

 

Now, of course, we knew that the dark jedi couldn't succeed in JK1 for the storyline to progress...but there was still an element of risk and suspense, because you were the one responsible for stopping them...and THEN there was the factor that you could always fall to the dark side.

 

I'll stop writing now, since no one will read this post...the moral of the story is that they need to go back to the old school, Jedi Knight style of moodiness, plot development, and soundtrack composition. Jedi Outcast just felt too freakin' happy.

[Solbe M'ko]

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