Music, for all role-playing games, occupies a pivotal position. After all, music determines the game's ability to shape the atmosphere of the environment, and it will also obviously affect the player's empathy and substitution.
Therefore, we can also see that most of the more successful role-playing games in recent years have excellent auditory performance.
Among them, "Original God" is a more representative one. It should be said that since the day of launch, the Miha tour team has not stopped polishing and investing in music.
In October last year, the 2021 online concert launched by "Original God" invited many orchestras and groups at home and abroad to participate in online performances. The nearly two-hour show lasts, using music to lead players on a re-journey from Mond to the adventure of the Moon. As of writing, the concert has been viewed nearly 5 million times, which has aroused strong resonance among players about the past game journey.
Recently, "Original God" released its second Inari music album "The Island of Forgetting".
The album contains three sub-discs of "Island of Oblivion and Meditation", "Under the Abyss" and "InariMa Battle 2", and contains 60 soundtracks composed by the HOYO-MiX team for new areas such as Inabafuchi Palace and Tsurukan Island, as well as weekly quest battle music for the new boss battle "Lady" and "Raiden General".
Inagyu's new weekly boss quest "Red Lotus's True Sword Trial"
In the new album, I once again felt the breakthrough in the musical level of "Original God". Overall, proto-god music is a big step forward in the direction of diversification.
In the melody of the music, it is full of stories
Of course, to talk about breakthroughs, we must first talk about differences. The most obvious thing is that the music included in "The Island of Forgetting" is more "fine".
The first is the "fineness" of space. As an island nation, Inari is made up of seven main islands and small island groups, and the map design has a difference in style with the sea as the boundary. Supposedly, HOYO-MiX is covered with up to seven different "Inari-style" musical styles. But in fact, in addition to the difference in musical styles between the islands, "The Island of Forgetting" also focuses on designing its own songs for some small scenes.
For example, the "Asase Shrine" on Kiyolei Island has always been jokingly called "cat sucking holy land" by players, but it is just a side quest point with a small area and a low proportion of plot. However, the Miha tour team matched the two songs of "Ningran Corner" and "Sleeper's Dream", and set off the slightly sad but somewhat warm and quiet (especially with many cats) corner of "Asase Shrine" in kiyolei Island, where the overall atmosphere is depressing and slaughtered.
Asase Shrine, Kiyora Island, Inayama Area
Also reflecting the "fineness" of space is the "Uyu-tei" in the main city of Inari on Naruto Island. This is just a "restaurant" or "teahouse", so far there is almost no intersection with the main plot, and it is not a necessary part of the player's daily experience. However, as long as you walk into the "Wuyou Pavilion", players will hear the songs "Leisurely Travel" and "Worldly Cuisine". As the name suggests, players can feel the fun of "worldly cuisine" enjoyed by the people of Inari here.
Drinking tea in Wuyouting is a beautiful thing!
Secondly, it is the "fineness" of style. After dividing the musical style according to the space, "The Island of Forgetting" also put a lot of effort into the specific treatment.
If you take version 2.1 as the boundary, you should easily feel the difference in style of the Inari map before and after the version, as well as the difference in music - the 2.0 version of "Naruto Island", "Kamigata", "Hachigi Island", respectively, the city where dangers are hidden in tranquility, the wilderness full of bones in war, and the "urban-rural combination" that is tired due to war and historical problems.
However, the main theme of the soundtrack is still related to the name of Inari's "Eternal Country" and the story behind it, the proportion of orchestral music is very large, and the layers of musical instruments are superimposed, which sets off a strong sense of epic and complex emotional feelings.
If the stories that happened on the three main islands released in version 2.0 are mainly focused on the present, version 2.1 tells stories that have been forgotten in the long river of history, or touching or tragic, even in terms of map design, which are significantly different from version 2.0.
In terms of specific treatment, "Kiyolei Island", "Tsurukan Island", "Kaichi Island" and "Fuchishimi Palace" located underground clearly show the characteristics of style refinement.
For example, some of the soundtracks of "Kiyo lai Island" chose to begin with an instrument solo, and only a few instruments were added later. At first glance, it seems that the soundtrack has become monotonous and the layering has decreased. But with the flexible transformation of rhythms, the use of portamento and echo techniques, and even some tunes and treatments that Japanese players consider "not Japanese", the HOYO-MiX team has put a sad, sad, and indulgent musical veil on this island full of mysteries and thunderstorms.
It is worth mentioning that HOYO-MiX, a special music design method, has been highly praised by the Japanese player community, and many players have said that they have "refreshed their imagination of the possibilities of Japanese music." ”
The in-game recording of the Kiyolei Island soundtrack
For another example, the visual impression of "Kaigashima" is "dreamy", and the main style of the main branch plot is also biased towards depicting a quiet and peaceful island in a corner.
The soundtrack of "Kaigoshima" has a large number of pianos and small percussion instruments, using lighter instrument sounds, soothing musical rhythms, and the overall warm tone of "Kaigashima" and the floating bubbles in the air to create an adventure experience of "Inahi's Paradise".
Fantastic audiovisual experience in front of the Coral Palace on Kaigashima Island
Finally, it is the "fineness" of the time level that was first introduced by "Original God".
In the entire Inari version, "Fuchishita Palace" is the last and most worth discussing map, because this is the first time that HaraJin has enhanced the time change of the game at the map design level.
When exploring the "Deep Lower Palace", players also need to gradually advance the unlocking of maps and missions in the form of puzzle solving. But many times, players have to switch between day and night through traps to find the missing puzzle elements.
As a result, the change of day and night has also become the highlight of the soundtrack of "Funashita Palace". For example, in the center of the "Yuanxia Palace", the melody of the day and night soundtrack is very similar, and the rhythm is very slow.
However, the soundtrack during the day is still ethereal and gentle female chanting, while the night soundtrack becomes a violin as the protagonist, and even seems to join the low chant of the male voice. The final presentation is the same tone, but the obviously different auditory sensations.
The flow of time, corresponding to the flow of music, will make the day and night changes of the "Yuanxia Palace" clearer. In addition, HOYO-MiX created as many as 23 soundtracks for "Funashita Palace", covering every corner of the map, and also allowing players to move the area when playing, always corresponding to the change of soundtrack.
Under the interweaving of time and space, the player's play experience is more vivid, and it is easier to integrate into the atmosphere of the "Yuanxia Palace" under the three-dimensional infection of audio-visual.
Therefore, in general, on the basis of the rendering of indari's customs and cultural stories on Inari's first music album "The Land of Loneliness and Innocence", from the two levels of time and space, according to the subsequent map style and background setting, "The Island of Forgetting" further refines the soundtrack style, improves the overall soundtrack richness and diversification of Inari, and also avoids the aesthetic fatigue of the musical style.
As a friend of mine who loves Protoshin put it: "You can hear the story from the music of Proto-God alone. ”
In addition to being happy, how to use music to shape the character?
As a single-player open-world game, the plot and combat of "Original God" are the most important content for players in their adventures. How to meet the different game behavior needs of players in a variety of game scenarios is also the core direction of the music design of "Original God".
In the subsequent iteration of Thea's version, the two brand new quest boss battles were hotly discussed by players. In addition to the thrill of the battle, the dungeon soundtrack is equally stunning.
For example, in the "Red Lotus's True Sword Trial" quest, the player will have a duel with the villain Fool's Executive Officer, Lady.
In the plot story, "Lady" was once a Mond maiden. After his lover died in a calamity, he resolved to use a spell to ignite the fire of life and vowed to burn all demons. Later, when she learned that the cause and effect of the death of her lover and the wreaking of calamities came from the god "Tenri", she resolved to take revenge.
Overall, "Lady" is a character with a tragic past, overwhelmed by revenge, cold heart, and cruel and ruthless for the purpose, but as the years go by, "Lady" seems to gradually deviate from her original goal and become arrogant and arrogant.
It is not easy to present the complexity of this character and setting as perfectly as possible.
But in addition to being described through the plot text, "Original God" can even be described through music:
The "Red Lotus's True Sword Trial" battle stage 1 soundtrack "Cocoon of Sorrow", wind instruments blow the "battle horn", followed by the addition of the celestian, with a cold tone to present the lady's proud and luxurious temperament. Then, the Latin female vocal chant suddenly changed the atmosphere of the battle - under the classical opera-like soundtrack, the chant was used to represent the "lady's" self-description of her own backstory and the inner activity of the moment.
The sudden addition of female chants adds a strong sense of story to the battle.
Ladies copy of the actual combat experience
Later, as the battle entered the second stage, the "Lady" also changed from the ice attribute form to the fire form. If the female chorus in the first stage is still like the muttering of a desperate person, then the female solo of the second stage of "The Dance of Burning" is gradually excited, becoming an indictment of her own fate by the "lady". Based on classical music, HOYO-MiX also incorporates the electric guitar whip metal playing style, bringing a very aggressive aural feeling, but also hinting that the player's real battle has just begun.
In the "Guardians of Eternity" quest, the original plot is that The Lord God of Inari, "General Raiden", duels with his own puppet. In essence, it is the "General Raiden" who corrects his misconceptions and engages in a "sword and gun debate" with his past self about the understanding of "eternity".
On the soundtrack, the one-stage "Elimination of Miscellaneous Delusions" surprised me. Because at first I heard it, I always thought it was "cyberpunk".
In the Thor quest battle music, there is also a special timbre similar to the sound of firecrackers, which I dare to guess is the sound produced by the drum stick hitting the drum body
And this, in fact, comes from the soundtrack's faulty art style mixing processing, that is, deliberately adding noise. The Guardians of Eternity quest is fought in the inner space created by General Raiden, and this inner virtual space has a commonality with the cyberpunk-themed virtual digital space, which is why it has the feeling of "this is cyber music".
It is precisely because of the heavy use of electronic music, while enhancing the "Eternal Guardian" copy of the alien time and space feeling, HOYO-MiX through the murmur to express the instability of the virtual space, enhance the sense of danger of combat. In addition, the drum beat's imitation of the beat of the heart is also very able to set off the tense atmosphere on the eve of the fierce battle.
In the second stage, when the battle was at its most intense, the soundtrack "Thunder's Mighty Light" was an electronic variation of the first album Inaya City soundtrack "Inari", which significantly accelerated the music beat and the drums were also more intense. The second stage of the electric sound shamisen, but also in the third stage gradually turned into an electric guitar, to a certain extent, showing the "Raiden General" personality of the two sides and the sense of contradiction. At the climax, the sudden pause of the music when the boss's final skill "Thoughtless Knife" is swung down, as if cutting off time.
The ultimate martial arts of "General Raiden", the contradictory personality, and the obsession with "Eternity" and Inato's future are perfectly presented through the electronic variations of Ina's theme song and the combination of battle pictures.
epilogue
In general, the current situation of the musical performance of "Original God" has two major characteristics.
The first is to subdivide the game soundtrack from the three levels of space, time and play needs, and diversify the music. For example, in the instrumentation, Mond music has a European style of rut piano sound, Irish whistle sound, Ryukyu music often uses erhu to pry your DNA, Inari music will have taiko, Japanese koto, and tamaru shamisen. The change of time is also accompanied by the change of some orchestrations, as well as the adjustment of rhythm. On this basis, the player's game behavior and the switching of small scenes will also have a musical expression that is consistent and full of details.
The second is the implementation of the worldview by the music of "Original God". In fact, in the documentary behind the production of the officially released Inato's first album "The Land of Loneliness and Innocence", music supervisor Sachiko Miyano once mentioned that the music she felt about "HaraJin" Inato "has a Japanese-style melody, but it is not all like Japan, and there is a sense of beauty through time and space." ”
And this kind of "seemingly right and wrong" beauty runs through the two Inari albums, which is also the embodiment of the music design concept of "Original God".
All along, "Original God" has adopted the concept of "transformation", absorbing and borrowing, but not copying musical elements from all over the world, and organically combining it with the fantasy world of the Tivat continent. In the end, it gives a unique sensory experience and plenty of imagination to the unique areas and small scenes with different styles in the game.
No matter where the player goes, they will have the feeling of being in the middle of the story, in the fantasy world.
Of course, behind the success of music also comes from the improvement of the quality of game content and the mutual support of content and music. An excellent open world map brings not only a huge amount of content to explore, but also a content framework with a high enough ceiling.
Brilliant maps and matching music allow hearing and vision to connect and complement each other, resulting in a great sense of gaming immersion.
It is no exaggeration to say that according to the current development trend of "Original God", the more "thin" and more diversified "Original God" music may really have the ability to "tell a fantasy story alone", and also become a solid foothold in the game world.