I'm surprised. I would have guessed that music would be one field that the suits wouldn't pay too much attention as long as it didn't sound like garbage at the end of the day.

And yet there Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

There's always a choice here.

See: Mick Gordon.

Maybe stop working on AAA games. Plenty of creative freedom (and amazing games) in the indie space

Imagine having this legend in your employ, and not giving him absolute freedom to create.

Nobuo is one of the greats. The first song I learned to play was one of his, more than 15 years ago. Music direction is incredibly important and I do very much lament it being given the backseat in so many modern games.

I'd almost like for more of the control to go the other way. A director could negotiate with a composer about what mood is being asked for a particular moment in a game, leading to the composer making ideas for leitmotifs and buildup. Then, the game gets some number of adjustments or early planning to account for it.

It sounds insane to reconfigure everything to match the music, but honestly, from some of my favorite moments in gaming, it can make a lot of sense. Some of the crescendo periods of Final Fantasy XIV felt incredibly well-earned from the way they had used the expansion's whole soundtrack as a sort of ballad, repeating a few certain themes both story-wise and in the music.

One example of a game that I think developed this dissonance is Ace Attorney. The main confrontational "gameplay" of those games is when you're cross-examining a witness. The "Cross Examination" themes are some of the fan favorites - and since the beginning, they've had a second theme, Allegro, for when things are getting more intense. The Investigations games decided to put in a third theme, Presto, which goes loony for the sake of a culminating showdown of wits with the murderer, who has one last excuse as to why accusing them is impossible. It feels EPIC.

Only one trouble; Ace Attorney is often a comedic series, and side characters are still acting stupid and making flat-falling jokes during that last cross examination, often breaking the mood of that great track. In my view, a "musically-directed" Ace Attorney would be fine with keeping up its signature silliness at all other points in the game, but keep the tone completely serious when that "Presto" theme is playing, to make it feel like a really personal boss fight.

Recent game music almost sounds too cookie cutter. It’s like movie music. It’s just… there. It used to be you could remember not just main themes but ancillary ones too and you can thank John Williams and Nobou Uematsu for that, but seriously how many recent games or movies have iconic standout soundtracks?

seems like a common theme in most creative industries: the more money that flows in the less congenial to experimentation and deviation the industry becomes.

To quote a giant piece of shit, "Don't Fuck With The Formula"

I still wait for a new OST to catch me like the original Spyro trilogy did