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https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/dec/20/video-games-and-musical-theatre-2023s-most-unlikely-crossover>
"Toward the end of
Baldur’s Gate 3, widely considered the most outstanding
video game released this year, you can literally go to hell. If you do, you’ll
have a showdown with the game’s equivalent of the devil, a charismatic yet
demonic trickster who calls himself Raphael.
It’s one of the toughest, most dramatic encounters in the game, the culmination
of 150 hours of play. Naturally, developer Larian Studios wanted it to feel
monumental. So they decided that the battle should be accompanied by a song,
and that Raphael should be the one singing it. “The idea for a song to be
performed by Raphael himself came from our director Swen Vincke about six
months before the release of the game,” says Borislav Slavov,
Baldur’s Gate
3’s music director. “The team instantly loved it.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a big orchestral score, as you’d expect to accompany an
epic fantasy tale. But Raphael is more than just a powerful adversary. He’s
wry, cunning, narcissistic, and has a taste for the theatrical. Slavov, a lover
of West End theatre, began to wonder if there was another way to approach this
particular part of the soundtrack. “The moment the lyrics landed on my desk, I
realised that there was one thrilling way to go – a full blown musical number.”
The result was
Raphael’s Final Act, a two-minute ode to Raphael’s power and
the player’s impending doom, one that blends a creeping pipe-organ melody with
grand orchestral swells, and imperious, mocking lyrics sung in part by
Raphael’s voice actor. (Amusingly, if you cast the spell
Silence on Raphael
during the fight, his lyrics are removed from the music.)
In a game designed to generate memorable moments,
Raphael’s Final Act stands
out. And curiously, Larian isn’t the only developer to take inspiration from
musicals this year. Numerous big games have used musical numbers to punctuate
key moments. It is a fascinating trend, one that highlights developers’
confidence – because of all narrative modes, musical theatre leaves the least
room for its creators to hide."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
