That's "Journey LIVE," not "Journey, live."
2016-Feb-29, Monday 15:02
Journey is one of those games I've always wanted to play that I knew I would never have a chance to. The main lifespan of the PS3 occurred while ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schoolpsycherd were in Japan, with it only being out for a short time before we learned that we were moving there, at which point buying one was kind of pointless, and when we moved back I had gone away from consoles almost entirely and schoolpsycherd was in grad school. And Journey never came out for any other platform (except PS4 recently), so I knew I'd never get the chance to play it.
Then I saw a Kickstarter for a musical performance to accompany it, the way old orchestras used to perform at silent movies. Unlike Symphony of the Goddesses, though, this would be a musical performance accompanying a longplay also performed live. It was pretty much as close as I'd ever get to playing the game, so I chipped in for two tickets and last night, we went to the performance.
The performance was fantastic! The musicians were a chamber group that usually work together, and you could tell. In addition, the musical score was adaptive--since the game was being played live, the musicians had to change what they were playing, possibly with only a measure's notice, and frequently did. Because of that, they all had iPads hooked up to bluetooth controls so they could switch pages back and forth at the drop of a hat. There was one section where they had to loop for a bit because the player got stuck under a ledge and took a while to get his head out from under it and find his way on top of the tower.
I've owned the Journey OST for years now. Maybe I should listen to it...
The actual game wasn't quite as profound, though. I've listened to several podcasts about it--this Incomparable is the most comprehensive, but it's come up a lot in other episodes here and there--and they all describe it as very moving experience. There was a question period after the concert where some audience members and performances spoke about it in similar terms, but I didn't get much from it other than beautiful visuals and sound. I loved the kind of soft post-apocalypse aesthetic the game had.
Maybe it's that I didn't play through it myself? I was talking withschoolpsycherd afterward about the impact of video games being that you perform the actions yourself, which is something that very few other forms of art can boast. If I were playing the game, then I would be making the journey myself. As it was, I were merely watching it, and while it was lovely I didn't dissolve into a crying fit the way some of the speakers at the Q&A said they did. Or the way I got misty-eyed when Symphony of the Goddesses played the Windwaker opening theme. That's not even my favorite Zelda game!
Still great, though!
schoolpsycherd were in Japan, with it only being out for a short time before we learned that we were moving there, at which point buying one was kind of pointless, and when we moved back I had gone away from consoles almost entirely and schoolpsycherd was in grad school. And Journey never came out for any other platform (except PS4 recently), so I knew I'd never get the chance to play it.Then I saw a Kickstarter for a musical performance to accompany it, the way old orchestras used to perform at silent movies. Unlike Symphony of the Goddesses, though, this would be a musical performance accompanying a longplay also performed live. It was pretty much as close as I'd ever get to playing the game, so I chipped in for two tickets and last night, we went to the performance.
The performance was fantastic! The musicians were a chamber group that usually work together, and you could tell. In addition, the musical score was adaptive--since the game was being played live, the musicians had to change what they were playing, possibly with only a measure's notice, and frequently did. Because of that, they all had iPads hooked up to bluetooth controls so they could switch pages back and forth at the drop of a hat. There was one section where they had to loop for a bit because the player got stuck under a ledge and took a while to get his head out from under it and find his way on top of the tower.
I've owned the Journey OST for years now. Maybe I should listen to it...
The actual game wasn't quite as profound, though. I've listened to several podcasts about it--this Incomparable is the most comprehensive, but it's come up a lot in other episodes here and there--and they all describe it as very moving experience. There was a question period after the concert where some audience members and performances spoke about it in similar terms, but I didn't get much from it other than beautiful visuals and sound. I loved the kind of soft post-apocalypse aesthetic the game had.
Maybe it's that I didn't play through it myself? I was talking with
schoolpsycherd afterward about the impact of video games being that you perform the actions yourself, which is something that very few other forms of art can boast. If I were playing the game, then I would be making the journey myself. As it was, I were merely watching it, and while it was lovely I didn't dissolve into a crying fit the way some of the speakers at the Q&A said they did. Or the way I got misty-eyed when Symphony of the Goddesses played the Windwaker opening theme. That's not even my favorite Zelda game!Still great, though!
