Brandon Erickson writes:
''I finally started playing Devil May Cry 4 this week. Not bad overall. But after several hours of slashing away at unholy monsters I came upon a sudden realization: Devil May Cry 4's music really sucks. It's really, really horrible. In fact, it was actually getting in the way of my enjoyment of the game. Not only are there very few tracks, but the one track that gets played 90 percent of the time is extremely boring and repetitive. So all of this has got me thinking about the role that music plays in videogames.
For the purposes of this discussion, I'm not talking about music-themed games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band and such. Those are obviously all about music and the music ties right into the gameplay. What I'm talking about is games where the music is there purely for atmospheric effect or emotional underscoring. I'm thinking about games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or God of War, or Resident Evil 4, or the Final Fantasy series. Although the music in these games has no influence on gameplay, it's clear (to me at least) that these games wouldn't have been quite as good if they didn't have such great soundtracks.''