PHILLIPS HEAD

I have been destroyed by intrigues from within my own house. My own brother, after the capitulation of my French possessions, sensed an opportunity to seize the throne and raised an open rebellion that destroyed the kingdom. Even the Isle of Mann took the opportunity to carve out the remnants of my realm. I have captured the South of Spain off the infidel invasion, only to have the Kingdom of Leon succeed my Northern duchy. I have married off my children to the great houses, and been informed of their deaths. I have married countless women; Grunhilde of England, Princess Isabella of Castille and I have loved them all. I have raised levies for countless armies that I have watched slain on the battlefield.

I have grown tired of the intrigues within my court, I am weary of my traits. Callousness, Piety, Honesty all gained and lost. I have raised taxes and held on for years. I have spent my time watching the days as they pass by, waiting for my savings to save me when the inevitable rebellion sparks up. I have imprisoned Earls, Dukes and Mayors. I have ruled in the High Middle Ages and in the Low. My name has never gained renown.

Mostly I have found Crusader Kings II to be too much. In its verisimilitude, the game designers have created the perfect simulation of being a Medieval Ruler. But it is not enjoyable, it is painful. You feel like Richard II all the time. When I play a game, I play it to win. Not to have my dynasty wiped out by matrilineal succession, not to see my entire life's work destroyed by a feckless and weak son whose ill chosen Regent usurped the throne and whose closest allies abandoned him to his fate. Wanting to feel powerless and swept up by events outside your control. Play Crusader Kings II. I will stick to playing Age of Empire III on Hard.

The world of classical music is a bit sad I guess, back in the day, all the heroes were celebrities, although I guess they were only ever really celebrities among the upper class, and that remains the same.

That being said, there is a weird dimension to classical which has slipped into this era. From your Herrmans to your Williams, the only recognisable modern composers for a good proportion of people are probably those who compose movie soundtracks. Anyway, these are usually more about the movie than anything. Vader and Skywalker's themes are pretty remarkable pieces of composition, I mean, I like them, but its in people's minds because the series is pretty spectacular.

Anyway, so I don't actually know any of this stuff, but I do know Final Fantasy VII is one of the best Playstation games ever. Great story, environmental calamity, brought on by capitalist excess, you are a pawn in a game that is slowly revealed, but have special power, and good friends, but this sense that fate is guiding everything, the joy of a pretty one dimensional storyline, but fairly adaptable gameplay, considered by a few people, at least me, to be the best of the saga (given I've only played 6 to when they sold out into the massively multiplayer universe of averageness). A few horrific puzzling situations to get out of that you spend so many hours before you relent and access the good old dial up internet to find some kind of solution.

The point: the music behind the saga is just about one of the best things about it, sounding like it is composed by a kid on a keyboard at home, which is possibly true, it nevertheless perfectly blends with the odd fantastical, environmental, storyline, traversing massive city through to casino, prison in a desert, through to beach city, and onto wilderness, mountains, and all indelibly imprinted on my consciousness through absurd amounts of hours wasted playing the thing.

So, the composer, Nobuo Uematsu has contributed to this amazing collection of homages to fantasy games, Symphonic Fantasies, first performed in 2009 but more recently, by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and its amazing, and I recently got Spotify and played it a lot. That is all.

Also, this:
https://soundcloud.com/y2k2y/there-are-things-you-cant-forget