PLAY! A Video Game Symphony

Hey everyone,

I was able to do a writeup of the PLAY! concert in San Jose last week, and also interviewed Jason Michael Paul and found out why there isn't a CD/DVD and why Uematsu won't be working with Koichi Sugiyama any time soon!

http://www.music4games.net/Features_Index.aspx

I'm also waiting for a comprehensive Jeremy Soule interview to be posted, so watch for that!

Overall, it was a good show, but they didn't debut Lost Odyssey as promised and instead there was a 14 minute suite from Lair. That was disappointing.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hey now, I dunno if I'd go that far. Keep in mind that Jason Michael Paul organizes all of this himself, and he works really hard. The single concert cacnellation that ocurred was due to low ticket sales. As JMP is the sole backer of this project, he can't afford to put on a show for 100 people in the audience. That's business, and that's nothing on the scale of what happened with VGL in 2005.

Aside from that, yeah, Lost Odyssey was a problem, but they simply ran out of time with the orchestra. I wish they had cut out Lair and put in Lost Odyssey, Actraiser, and Castelvania, but the Lair suite itself was pretty cool, even if it was too long.

It's a great show, and the unique arrangements of Mario, Zelda, Oblivion, and Chrono Cross/Trigger are worth going to the show to see. While there were some disappointments, I was satisfied, and highly recommend seeing the show.

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I don't know how a business owner could come to that conclusion. Of course VGM is a business, and of course it should be. All the CDs are out there because the company wants to make a profit on their investment. Talented composers are selected to score games based on the value they'll add to the game, not for the sake of art.

The ticket prices are reasonable for such a niche show. I can't see how people complain about a $40 ticket when tickets to go see ANY mainstream artist range between $20 and $100 a pop. Obviously JMP needs to at least break even of these things, and as it's his livelihood, I don't think we can expect him to put on events out of "love" for game music; he has to put food on the table. Even more, the orchestra has to be paid, the venue, promotion, etc., so that's just ridiculous. =)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The bottom line is that PLAY! and VGL are completely different events that are doing two separate things. I don't know enough about Emminence to comment on it, so I won't.

VGL is a show before it's a game concert. It does an amazing job syncing the video and lighting, and I love the interactive segments. However, you can't really call it an orchestral concert as it features as few as 24 musicians on stage for a number of pieces.

PLAY! is a symphonic concert before it's a show. The syncing is actually not that good, and I think they should just remove the screen all together. However, 69 musicians and a 24 member choir definitely provides a rich, full sound that I have not heard at any of the 4 VGL shows I've attended, and that's okay. I like what each show focuses on, and I believe they offer two very different experiences.

And yeah, the PLAY! arrangements are, for the most part, unique, and written specifically for PLAY!. VGL plays the Mario and Zelda suites that were found on the Orchestral Game Concert CDs, while PLAY! has brand new arrangements. I enjoy the MGS piece at both shows, but they are very different. VGL overlays electronic percussion through the speakers, while PLAY! orchestrates the percussion, which I quite enjoyed. The Chrono Cross/Trigger suite was one of my favorites of the night, and ask anyone who has gone to one of these shows: it's the highlight. Mitsuda has been quoted saying that the arrangement was written specifically for PLAY! in interviews.

The fact of the matter is that I speak with JMP frequently, and never has he mentioned any connection with Square-Enix through family. In fact, JMP worked for Squaresoft for a period of time where he did promotion and marketing, and this is where he established his contacts within the company. For more information regarding this, see the interview that was just published last week: http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=143

What I can't figure out is why everyone is so critical of these game concerts when really, they're all we have. I don't know how long I've waited for these concerts to travel outside of Japan, and now that the are, everyone just whines and moans about them. Go see them for yourselves, then be the judge!

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Best songs: Chrono Cross/Trigger Suite and Oblivion Suite! I really love what they did in the "Watchman's Ease" portion (second half) of the Oblivion Suite. During the violin solo, they used a nipple gong to make the arrangement sound more Asian-inspired than the original piece.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Jason and I discussed this at length in this interview that I previously posted:

http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=143

The problem is Nintendo. Nintendo won't allow arrangements for Zelda and Mario to appear on the CD, and the people who would be backing the CD won't allow a CD release without those titles. The fact of the matter is that there is both audio and video recordings of Dear Friends, More Friends, and PLAY!, but they will most likely never see the light of day, unfortunately.

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Haha, yeah. Koji Kondo gave a keynote at GDC this year. There was a Q&A afterwards, and I forgot to ask him about CD releases of soundtracks at Nintendo!

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Stuff is typically $15.00 USD, with the posters being $10.00 USD or so. Not too expensive. Not sure if they're going to change the prices there or what. It's a great show, so I hope you enjoy it! And I don't think there are any scams or scandalous commercialism going on with the shows. =)

Let us know how it goes!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Don't know, but that's not really a scam. Go to a rock show that has VIP tickets to meet the band after the show. Same thing.

Jam it back in, in the dark.