What's a Memory That You Will Always Associate With Game Music?
COMMUNITY QUESTION | It's time to get nostalgic.
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We've finished up another week of not going outdoors. It's rough, but we hope you're all doing all right out there!
Inspired by a conversation in our Slack chat, for this week's Community Question, we thought it'd be fun to share some memories that get prompted when we hear certain video game music. Feel free to share your own memories that are tied to video game music in the comments.
Eric Van Allen, News Editor
Definitely the "theme" to Undertale. I had just moved out to Atlanta, GA for an internship basically on a whim, wondering if I'd be able to actually break into digital media. Up to that point, I had precious few bylines and little pay to show for it. Undertale hit me like a truck—it was the game I needed for time in my life where I felt lost, to remind me of the value of my relationships and to keep me determined. It's hard not to listen to it just a handful of years later and not get a little emotional.
Mathew Olson, Reporter
Any track from the first two Ace Attorney games brings me right back to the first summer I played through them. I spent a good chunk of it in Spokane, Washington at my grandfather's place. At first, not at all sure that I'd be into a very anime game about lawyers, I only bought the first one. It then sucked up my every waking moment until I finished it. I remember going to the electronics section of the local department store the next day, knowing that Justice For All had come out earlier that year. I did not hold out hope that it'd actually be in stock there. Thankfully, it was—hearing those Ace Attorney songs doesn't just bring me back to Spokane, but reminds me of the one time actual relief washed over me upon seeing a game in stock.
Nadia Oxford, Staff Writer
"Your Affection" from Persona 4 Golden really does it to me. I started playing Persona 4 Golden around the same time I came home from having abdominal surgery, and when I hear "Your Affection," I'm right back in bed, pleasantly hazy thanks to strong painkillers. I can even taste the chicken soup I subsisted on for a while after the procedure. What's weird is I like "Your Affection," but it's not my favorite Persona song. It's not even my favorite Persona 4 song. It's just the one that turned into a powerful memory trigger. As I've learned by now, the brain is a weird, weird organ.
Caty McCarthy, Senior Editor
"After School" from Shoji Meguro's score for Persona 3 Portable really takes me back to my senior year of high school, playing my PSP in-between classes or on lunch. It's a super upbeat song, and just reminds me of going to school—for better or worse. There's plenty of other game tunes that bring back memories, like my mom and I singing the Final Fantasy victory theme around the house when I was a kid (basically like Barret in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, weirdly enough!), but it's "After School" that really takes me back.