Now, I don't like Lady Gaga, as you may have guessed from said reaction. I think she's an attention-seeking, weird-looking pop tart whose songs are dire and tuneless and who puts more emphasis on her stupid outfits than she does on making music. She claims those outfits have "deep meanings", but seriously, no one cares about that when you look like a Roman candle. I'll let Eminem's expression here say it all:
But regardless, I accept she has fans, and someone out there might actually want this stuff in their game. No problems with that whatsoever. My problem, of course, is that her songs lack anything resembling a guitar.
Normally, a lack of a guitar in a song doesn't bother me. My music collection is full of songs with no guitars. I like plenty of songs that utilise synths and turntables and other weird non-guitar instruments. However, in Rock Band, a game that simulates, well, a rock band, with vocals, guitar, bass and drums all present, I feel including a song for the DLC that lacks guitar is baffling.
I don't have an issue with the fact that Lady Gaga's been included in Rock Band because I dislike her, it's because her songs would be so dull for the "guitarists" playing the game. Seriously, why?
To put this in perspective, there are also songs I like included in the DLC that I also question the inclusion of. I like The Chemical Brothers, for instance. They've released some awesome tracks, one of which has also been included in Rock Band, as I noticed on their website, and as much as I love Let Forever Be, I don't think it should be in Rock Band. Why?
IT HAS NO GUITARS!
I accept diversification in the music of Rock Band. In fact, this is the single reason I class RB better than its cousin Guitar Hero. While Guitar Hero is "oh, more Metallica? How fun...", Rock Band is more "holy shit, Still Alive from Portal's in this!" and "Oh wow, I forgot how awesome this Fleetwood Mac song was!" and "oh, this Main Drag band are pretty good, gotta check them out!" and of course "HOLY SHIT! 10 QUEEN SONGS! BEAT THAT, GH!"
The inclusion of funk and country packs as DLC was unusual, but I could understand their inclusion. They use guitars. They're not necessarily "rock", but hell, if they have all the components for all the players to enjoy, why not? Hell, funk generally gives the bassist more to do, while retaining things for everyone else, so I'm all for that. So that shows you I like the diversification. I may not LIKE everything that's included, but I can understand it.
Including Lady Gaga, however, is like putting up a pack of instrumentals that ignore the vocalist. That's how I feel about it. Or putting in an acoustic pack, with songs without drums. It's why Yesterday wasn't put into The Beatles: Rock Band - the bassist and drummer wouldn't have had anything to do.
So no, Harmonix, don't give us Lady Gaga. It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. Pop songs with guitars? Sure. But synth-heavy pop songs? No.
In other news, FF13 is awesome. I've reached the part where the world opens up for you, allowing much more exploration, and it's so awesome. The game's become more of a challenge, and the party's much more customisable. Plus I can kick Hope out of the team forever, which is a bonus. Not only is he an irritating little shit (although, to be fair, less so than he was before), but his HP is the lowest of all the characters, and quite frankly, I don't want to waste my components on him to upgrade his equipment.
Fun fact: the ladies seem to be the best characters. Fang and Lightning kick ass, and Vanille makes a good White Mage (there's always one). So for the first time in FF history (bar X-2, where you had no choice), I have an all-female team. And no, it's not because I like gawping at female video game characters (although, to be fair, if Lighting was real, I would...), it's because they're the most well-rounded stats-wise. In fact, I'd actually like Sazh in my team, because he's probably my favourite character, but in terms of stats, his Strength and Magic are both fairly low by default, which is disappointing. Chocobro will have to remain sidelined :(
There's been some annoying moments where I've had to spend ages levelling up my abilities because everything was kicking my arse, but hey, that was bound to happen. It's Final Fantasy.
I honestly don't get the negative reaction to this game at all. The linearity and the lack of towns makes sense in terms of the plot (I won't go into it at risk of spoiling something, even though the last part probably did have spoilers in it), and the battle system is X-2 on speed (for those keeping score at home, X-2 is probably my favourite battle system of the whole series). The characters are relatable and interesting, and the story's compelling. It's actually my third favourite Final Fantasy behind IX (which wins on art direction, characters and tone alone) and X-2 (which was just plain fun). So screw you, naysayers, go back to bumming the highly flawed and overrated FF7 and the rest of us will just enjoy the game for what it is. A lot of fun.
This will not be my final word on the game, since I have yet to finish it, but needless to say, I've said enough you need to know if you're contemplating buying it. Buy it. Buy it now, and enjoy it.
And just be glad that this time I had comments to make on a different game for once :p
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