Game Day Burning Strategy

"Game Day" doesn't just mean "Super Bowl."



CURRENT MUSIC:
Frank Klepacki - "Destroy"
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 Original Soundtrack

Strategy games just love giving you music that does one of two things: instills a sense of role-play in that the music heard emulates the feel of your current faction, or just sounds badass and has a musical beat you can build a massive army along with.

For the former, I'll cite the music of StarCraft and StarCraft II.
Depending on what race you're playing as, the music will vary.
The nomadic Terran sports an orchestrated feel that sounds... almost machinated, if you will. (With II, they also added some southern flair to it to highlight their "deep South" feel - nice move, in my opinion).
The ravenous Zerg make use of sounds that creep you out almost as much as they do.
And as for the psionic Protoss? Theirs has a distant, melancholic ambiance to it, highlighting their endangerment and dwindling numbers.

Now for the latter reason, I'll go ahead and cite Red Alert 2.
Both the Allies and the Soviets make use of the same music whenever you play. It doesn't really matter, though - the game's soundtrack does a wonderful job of drilling into you a sense of "Beat those other bastards up!"


Muse - "Feeling Good (Nina Simone Cover)"
Origin of Symmetry

Ever since I first listened to Muse extensively, I've had them on my top artists' list.
Sure, it's only recently that I became a fan, but that's a story for another day.

Anyway, "Feeling Good" has that mellow sound I enjoy when I don't really have to do anything for the day.
I just lie there, relax, have Winamp play me a mellow set of music, and this pops on.
If this doesn't get you in a calm mood, then I don't know what will.



Hitoshi Sakimoto - "Battle"
Valkyria Chronicles Original Soundtrack

This piece from Valkyria Chronicles constitutes one-quarter of the meaning behind today's entry's title.
The orchestra performs the sound of this epic in such an admirable fashion that knowledge of the game* isn't even necessary to enjoy this piece.
Simply close your eyes and picture yourself and some friends in a battlefield. It doesn't even matter what kind - beach landing, trench combat, city rubble - the track just totes out a consistent dramatic tone and instills in you a sense of heroism.

And since Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy game, the soundtrack seemed fitting for today's entry as well.

(* = By the way: "The Game." You're welcome. =P)



"I have something here for you. ... Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age."
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
(Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)

As I finished writing today's entry, this quote came to mind. I think you'll see why as you read.





One of the genres of video games I enjoy are strategy games.
Such games take the primal, gung-ho nature commonly seen in shooters and expand it so that an entire army is at your disposal rather than one simple guy with an AK-74 mindlessly spamming his GP-25 grenade launcher.

Hah. Amateur gamers.

Anyway, after getting off class I ventured over to my storage unit to clean it out some more.
With spring almost around the corner (if you think I'm crazy, I'm not - Punxsutauney Phil didn't see a shadow this year), that means a plethora of new releases and crazy gadgets are as well.
I figured that I'd have a few games I don't touch just lying in boxes that I could use as in-store credit somewhere, and sure enough... I did.

But while I was rifling through my junk, I came across an old favorite of mine: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Nintendo Gamecube.
A tactical role-playing game (I argue that it can also be called a fantasy turn-based strategy), Path of Radiance focuses on the story of a mercenary company commander named Ike and his journey to take back his recently invaded country of Crimea. This was my first foray into the Fire Emblem franchise - and I loved it since.

I thought to myself after finding it and said, "Wow, Josh. You're going to have so much fun with this game tonight, aren't you?"
"Why, yes, I am. Why don't you just find the memory... card..." and then silence as I realize I lost it somewhere months ago.

So I procured a new memory card, hooked up my Wii to my TV, and loaded the game up.
It's just as fun as I remembered it years ago, and despite its age it still has me thinking whenever I play.

That's the beauty of tactical and strategy games - it isn't just some mindless frag-fest (unless your army's slicing and dicing whoever's in their way).
While I'm sure the shooter community can throw out a few legitimate counters, they're just too primal and uncivilized - especially when you consider the primary playing market for shooter games.





I'll just hush up on my opinions and just continue playing Fire Emblem... Ike won't be able to retake Crimea by himself!