I wanna talk about World of Magic for a bit.
Despite all of my bitching about features I don’t like, I’d say that Arcane Odyssey is very much a better game than World of Magic. Ship combat’s pretty simple (that’s a good thing, it’s fun), the Dark Sea is cool, I cannot live without dashes and that faster energy charge rate, and the different stat builds are great for variety, even if they’re unbalanced as hell.
But playing Arcane Odyssey and World of Magic feels completely different. No shit, right? Well, yeah, that’s exactly why Vetex called it a complete game overhaul, but I’m referring to some more subtle things. Like how instead of running at 20 fps, the game runs at 40.
Quick side-tangent, first: The menu noises are burned into my memory from all my time playing both games throughout the past fffoOUur to FIVE years (to be fair, i stopped playing WoM around the end of 2020 in anticipation for AO), but the feeling of those menus just isn’t the same. Nothing actually changed as far as I know, so it’s definitely just nostalgia talking.
So, what do I mean by subtle differences?
…Okay, it’s not actually that subtle. The music. It’s the music. 90% of WoM’s music was killed in AO’s development. And it was 95% before Vetex decided to put the high battle theme back in for rival fights.
In World of Magic, the play area was one big continent. You know this. Because of how vast the world was, it only made sense to give every area of it a corresponding theme.
Arcane Odyssey sacrificed the continent for a better travel system (i know some of you think it’s boring, i don’t care, sink some pirate ships), (probably) better performance, and because Vetex felt like it. But another, more unfortunate sacrifice had to be made.
There was no way in hell Vetex was gonna find/buy themes for EVERY TINY ISLAND IN THE GAME. No one spends over 5 minutes at Limestone Key or Elm Island outside of their quests, why would they? Vetex (probably, i wasn’t there) knew this, and decided it wasn’t worth the effort and only put music for towns and Ravenna, because Ravenna’s massive. On top of this, most of the tracks probably didn’t mix too well with AO, the most similar towns (i’ll talk about silverhold/the GN later) in AO and WoM are probably Rubica and Summer Hold, and they have different themes.
Despite this, I still miss WoM’s music a lot. And I feel like there could’ve been more of it in a select few places.
You know how the music that plays when you fight your rival was the old high-leveled combat theme for WoM?
…why not use the standard WoM combat theme for other wanted criminals? Or the Magic Council combat themes for the Grand Navy? Silverhold and Silent Tower already share a theme, would having them share more themes make them too similar? (i get it if other players wouldnt want to hear it 3 times in the last ten minutes of playtime on a villain slot, though)
Would it be too much of a hassle to make sure music doesn’t overlap with other music? I feel like it’d be cool to listen to the old combat theme when I’m fighting a wanted criminal or hero at the Forest of Cernunno, or Shell Island.
Speaking of those two islands, they’re pretty big, aren’t they? In fact, I think they’re big enough to warrant themes of their own. If you’re in those islands for something like a treasure chart (shell island especially), bounties, or both, you’ll definitely be there for a while longer than most islands. I know Monoah Village already has a theme, but most of what you’re doing at Shell Island is probably outside of it where there’s no music playing.
What do you guys think of my rant? Do you want more music in game, or do you think the ambience is plenty enough?
i swear i’ll actually get suggestion role and stop rambling in game discussion one day, don’t kill me
but actually there’s a good chance that vetex was already planning on putting other WoM tracks in other seas so maybe i won’t
but then again tobi might be the composer for AO’s music now judging by the dark sea tracks so maybe not
