Remember Christina Aguilera? She basically took over for Britney Spears when she went crazy, and has had the dignity to ride out her falling star of fame with far more grace. And while she’s eased into a mentor role on The Voice, there was a time when Christina Aguilera tried to instantly achieve immortality.
Christina Aguilera once made a music video that took place in an anachronistic version of the roaring twenties. It featured Aguilera as a stripper/flapper hybrid with updated sass so that today’s modern woman can properly judge her sexuality as a show of power and independence.
However, my friend Tom’s assessment was much simpler: Aguilera styled herself on an era from nearly a hundred years ago in this music video to achieve a timelessness that will never go out of style, unlike anything else she produces during the 00’s.
Tom wasn’t pointing at me when he said this, but I remember vividly what he said because it made so much sense: Aguilera’s video borrows all the spectacle and solemnity of the twenties without getting bogged down by all the downer filler you watch on Downton Abbey.
A feeling of timelessness is also something you can find in videogames, perhaps best epitomized by Shadow of the Colossus. It’s a masterpiece, sure, but it separates itself from any of its peers by lacking any references to date it: outside of technological requirement, it looks like it could have been made anytime.
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (2000) is another game that achieves this timelessness, and while this game isn’t as successful as Shadows of the Colossus, it’s successful at becoming a videogame free from being dated. It’s fantastic to play now, just as it must have been when it came out fifteen years ago.
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a beautiful game to behold, but it’s not just art direction that gives a game this elusive quality. Rather, it comes down to two main things: older technology and taste.
The state of videogames is always changing. Graphics that were considered “mind-blowing” yesterday will soon become surpassed by tomorrow’s releases in a constant game of keeping up with the Jones’. However, putting your game on the cutting edge of technology is to try out untested technology that may not become the industry standard, vulnerable to the march of time.
On the other hand, what won’t fall out of fashion is that which is not in fashion to begin with. Linear Japanese RPG’s had already worn out their novelty by the year 2000, but Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure embraces the limitations of its system and genre in order to deliver an RPG that updates old elements without discarding them.
Every scene of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure looks like a lush, pastoral oil painting. Playing this game isn’t so much to follow the story as it is to delight in seeing the next scene. And yet, this game uses 2D sprites for its graphics, something that fell out of fashion compared to the 3D graphics of many of the Playstation’s bestsellers.
It’s due to this that Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure remains one of the better looking games of the PS One to this day, an honor it shares with fellow 2D acolyte, the fighter Darkstalkers 3.
However, using outdated technology isn’t enough to achieve timelessless, because you’ll need a phenomenal sense of taste as well. There’s so much to choose from when looking back into the past that a savvy game designer knows what elements to borrow and what to steal outright.
It’s really too bad that this timelessness may be difficult to discern when a game first comes out. We don’t know what the future will be like 15 years from now, but we do know that 15 years after it came out, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure still looks like a dream.
How far did I get in 15 minutes: Got to my first battle. Tactical RPG, eh?
The good: I can’t think of another RPG where you start off as a precocious young girl…
The bad: …an obnoxiously cute, precocious young girl. Also, puppets are involved.
Will I play this game once this year is over: I get the sense that I’ll be saying this to many of the RPGs, but yes
Days so far in the Year of the Play-a-DayStation: 29
Play-a-Daystation 