Why Do Horror Games Sound So Beautiful?
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- but i have seen
death’s clever enormous voice
which hides in a fragility
Support me: / jacobgeller
Follow me at: / yacobg42
Voice Cast:
Polyphonic as himself: / polyphonic
Visual Media Used: Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, The Making of Silent Hill 2 (documentary), Resident Evil 1, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2 (Remake), Outlast, Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Music Used: What Darkness Awaits You (Scanner Sombre), New Year’s Eve, Recital, Clockwork Soul, The Factory Gates, Mandus, The New Century (Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs), Serenity, Mercenaries- Wesker’s Theme, The Drive (Resident Evil 4), Secure Place (Resident Evil 2), Safe Room (Resident Evil 2 Remake), Save Room (Resident Evil 1), Saferoom (Resident Evil 7), Heaven’s Night, Promise, Theme of Laura (Silent Hill 2), Not Tomorrow (Silent Hill 1), Rain of Brass Petals (Silent Hill 3), Clair De Lune, Carousel Theme (The Evil Within 1), Serenade for Strings in C Major Op. 48, Making Your Way Home (The Evil Within 2)
Thumbnail by: / hotcyder
Description Credit: E. E. Cummings, [the bigness of cannon]
If you want to hear more about horror games, sounds, and any song with strings, I'll be releasing a full-length video commentary for this essay on Patreon: www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
How about layers of fear? both the first game and the sequel Jacob?
Hi Jacob! My mother and I are big fans of your work. The length you're able to go to to cover these subjects are far beyond any other video essayist I've ever watched. This question came up between us while we were watching your video on areas designed for violence. If it's not too personal, what is your educational background that you're able to make stuff this good?
I don’t always agree with your opinions, but I hold a massive respect for you, my man. Your videos are beyond compelling. The depths one still has me reeling, and your pivot into Evil Within’s (under-appreciated) soundtrack was executed with absolute poignancy. Thanks so much for putting in the effort to write, record, and edit these videos. Out of curiosity, have you played SOMA or Bioshock? I would love to hear your thoughts on them, since they (in my opinion) both have beautiful soundtracks and are correlated with the same theme you discussed in your video: the lure of the abyss (more SOMA in this case than Bioshock, but hey, points for ocean stuff?).
Try Darkwood.
Outlast’s soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard and I’ve never heard anything like it. The setting is beautiful too. One of my favourite horror games.
“It can’t be horror all the time. you have to give players a safe spot to rest”
Dead space monsters posing as corpses to jumpscare you front of save stations: allow us to introduce ourselves
In fairness that game weaponizes safety. I had never felt more terrified than when I was 'safe'. I knew things were there that wanted to kill me, but I no longer knew where they were, I could no longer see them, and I could no longer defend myself from them.
Which I suppose is the point. Dead Space weaponized a cramped space, anxiety, and the constant knowing.
And Silent Hill 4
Second half of Silent hill 4: 👁👄👁
Mr X: 🚶♂️
Anyone who dosent shoot every intact corpse in Dead Space deserves what they get
Ever played Darkwood? After surviving a night, time freezes, any enemies who invaded your house vanish, the daily merchant appears and you get time to repair your defenses, and it all lasts until you leave your house so there is no stress or time limit.
All the while this beautiful track plays in the background.
YYEEEEESSSSS
That's what first popped into my head as well.
I literally had to go and listen to "New Dawn" as soon as I finished this video. It hits that exact tone of melancholy calm, never victorious, no matter how narrow your survival was. I especially love how you can hear bits of the forest's general ambient drone fading in and out of the music, like a reminder that - yes, you are safe _for now_ but you can't stay in the hideout forever. Eventually you will have to step outside and when you do, you will be at the forest's mercy again.
Thank you for mentioning that gorgeous game!
fr more ppl need to talk about darkwood
A few years back my girlfriend was killed in a car accident, I was able to walk away from a 70 mph car crash and for a while the survivor's guilt led me to drinking heavily and distancing myself from a lot of people. Out of the blue I decided to stream on RUclips and started a playthrough of silent hill 2. Playing through the game and having anonymous people to talk to really helped me out of a tough time. My first time playing SH2 I didn't realize there were more endings and I thought it was just the in water ending. Being able to play the game as James learning to let go of his wife and allowing himself to move on for the good ending really resonated with me and to this day everytime I here the songs from that game I can't help but get emotional.
I'm sorry for your loss man. I'm glad you were able to move on, I couldn't even imagine. I hope you're doing ok.
I'm really sorry to read about your story,it must have been a really rough and dark time. It is so true though that the escapism games give us and the opportunity to talk with strangers with no judgements is often what we need.
I'm sorry you had to go through that. I hope you're doing okay
That’s great that you were able to sort of relieve yourself of that guilt.
Glad you were strong enough to go through that.
Jacob, you've officially made my list of "can't sleep play a calming video" creators. The highest honor.
Who else is on there?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who has one of those lists
@@quicksandsoftime5384 for me at least, i like to fall asleep to funny things, so I sometimes pull up a john mulaney special, or more often I listen to the most recent drawfee video, it helps with putting me at ease and falling asleep
@@quicksandsoftime5384 for my own contribution I enjoy listening to the "let's drown out" series by Yahtzee and his buddy Gabriel.
Make it public!
"The world is a machine for pigs. We are all pigs"
...
"Special K ceral is bursting with strawberries!"
"Come into Wendy's today and try our all new triple bacon chipotle cheese burger! Only at Wendy's!"
@@LeonClaw88 cannibalism! (Bc bacon is pigs lol)
The protagonist of that game really reminds me of the protagonist of SCP-1461
We're all pigs? What about the Dogs and the Sheep?
@@nyukjustacommenter857 They are Pigs of Sheep's Clothing
Akira Yamaoka is a fucking genius, after so many years still listening to the entire SH soundtrack.
The audio: I lay there and watched the god I had created die.
The screen: Dickslapper666
Too many times I have found fascinating or humorous tidbits in videos, but when searching the comment section of said videos to find the comment/-s about said thing there has been nothing but silence, while the cacophony of numerous replies that might or might not be interesting to me goes on for many rolls on the scrolling wheel. But not in that moment.
You, Hexx, satiated my silly wish this time.
Thank you.
@@nakumavecaan254 dickslap
Ayy Circa
@@nakumavecaan254 The pretension, it drips.
@@TheBlarggle :)
There's no doubt in my mind that you have set a new standard for what a great video essay should be. Props, man.
Agreed 100%
Facts
Yourm rigmht.
Danilo Llorca nah where’s my lofi hip hop beats to study and relax to? And monotone voice and video game gameplay as broll and Synthwave aesthetics
You must be new to this channel.
I had a similar experience with Death Stranding. Without spoiling it, there’s a song hinted at throughout the game and the player finally hears it in its entirety in a crucial moment in the plot. Hell, the song was even hinted at in some trailers, before the game was out. Damn Kojima.
"Soon i'll come around.
lost and never found,
waiting for my words,
seen, but never heard,
buried underground.
But i'll keep coming.!
And now. Nobody talks the game.
the entire soundtrack in death stranding is gorgeous. the implementation of Low Roars music is amazing.
@@geoffreygorgonzola248 yes! It’s the reason I know of Low Roar and they’re so good!
See the sunset...
I feel like you're missing the point with Claire de Lune in Evil Within. They didn't just throw in some pleasant-sounding music, they picked a real-world classical piece to play in a creepy asylum. It's not just game music that only the player hears, it's being played IN the asylum, over the speakers.
It's intentional tonal dissonance; the room itself may be safe, but it doesn't _feel_ safe, it feels sinister and morbid. The inclusion of a calm, lilting classical piece puts that feeling in stark relief.
You don't feel calm, you feel like you're _being_ calmed, like a doctor telling you "this won't hurt a bit" before sliding a needle into your vein. That makes it far more unsettling than any deliberately creepy music could accomplish.
Wasn’t that Jacob’s overall point though? That horror games possess a special pathos in those rare moments of peace, solitude, and fill players with a sense of emotional longing. If you’re unsettled in the “safe moments” the music is not doing its job, to decompress you, and allow you to breathe. Clair de lune, while beautiful, doesn’t have that same impact as the other music he referenced.
@@swagpotato720 Perhaps, but going by what he said it doesn't sound like he wishes the EW saferooms weren't unsettling. He doesn't mention anything about it feeling creepy or unnerving, just that it "sounds okay, but doesn't have the same weight," as if he's just mildly disappointed in the choice of music rather than the intended feel.
I could be wrong of course, but I get the feeling that he went in expecting that same sense of calm decompression, but since the game didn't deliver that he missed what it was trying to deliver entirely.
@@ToozdaysChild Thank you for this because this was mostly what I was thinking too about Claire de Lune. To me, Claire de Lune wasn't supposed to feel entirely safe, but with the first Evil Within game I felt like I was on some kind of road to recory ya know? A road to recovery from whatever was going on and yes, Claire de Lune sounds pretty but I knew this was just the eye of the storm. It was a moment's bit of peace until I had to go out into the chaos of the world around me again.
It wasn't thrown in just to sound pretty. Claire de Lune and the way it faintly plays when you are close to the safe areas was like a small nudge of, "Hey! You are so close to this checkpoint! Just move a bit closer!" versus, "Oh this sounds pretty let's throw it in."
You know what, you aren't wrong, but I realized something about the song. Like you said, it's a real world classical piece. the key difference between that and the other pieces here is that they were designed specifically for the game they were played in. they were a part of the in-game world as much as the characters and environments. that's exactly the thing missing in choosing the real world song, and what makes it feel like a puzzle piece that's either a hair too big or too small to fit properly.
@@0The_Farlander0 I just realized that if you put it like that AND tie it in with what Toozday's Child said, this makes the choice for Claire de Lune as a real life piece of classical music from our world perfect, because if it is played in the asylum, it is a piece from an other world when you are inside STEM.
I think choosing a classical piece of music as the save room music is a good choice, because it's a place that seems to exist somewhere between STEM and the real world (because of all the newspaper articles). To me the choice of music highlights the otherness of that place. (I NEVER felt save there, the Nurse creeped me out so badly)
Finally Amnesia: a machine for pigs has gotten the recognition it deserves.
I remember being not that impressed with it, but for some reason hearing him talk about it makes it seem so much cooler
This video alone made me play A Machine For Pigs (And also the original Amnesia), and I do not regret it for a second.
I absolutely ADORED A Machine for Pigs, and this is seriously the first time I've ever heard anyone talk positively about it.
Im still to scared to finish it alone
The pigs really killed it for me, and judging from its reception just about everyone else. It should have been a Chinese Room standalone, without ties to the Amnesia franchise misleading fans or leading to really forced enemy sections full of piggies
I have a feeling Jacob would like the Music, *"Lillium"* from the show _"Elfen Lied"_
That's one of my favourite pieces.. I even named my band after the lyrics lmao. 'Kyrie Eleison'
Loved that anime
@@kleebeez you might already know this but just in case. Kyrie Eleison means Lord have mercy
@@Alcyone_FGC yep! it's such an edgy name ;)
@@kleebeez i mean i dont find it that edgy compared to other band names i have heard but probably because i have heard kyrie eleison so many times that i dont find it edgy anymore
"The Evil Within 2 Deserved Better."
... Welp, guess I'm spending 20 dollars because Jacob Geller told me to.
Same(ish). Got a copy cheap, but how unbelievably disappointed I was by the first one I've been hesitant to start up 2. Looks like it's moving up in the queue.
@@SamuraiMujuru Evil Within II is much better than the first one.
@@Bluecho4 that's been the consensus I've seen, but y'know, once bit twice shy.
Not the best game, maybe not even a great game,
_but_
some of the coolest moments in any game I've seen. Hands down.
...and yeah, a huge improvement over the first - even though I know that's a pretty weak compliment *_: /_*
The Evil Within is an awesome game. It has some annoying parts but is a solid good horror game. Resident Evil is king and almost a reality except for monsters , (Coronaville anyone).
I don’t think horror works without empathy.
This is gonna sound really weird, but I don’t think you realized just how much this comment sticks with me. What you’ve said is something that I always knew but could never put to words, or really even thought about. And then you thrust it to light and now it’s all I can think about.
We can’t be horrified of someone dying if we don’t care about them. We be terrified if we have nothing to lose.
*we can’t be terrified if we have nothing to lose
nicely put
I know you said this two years ago, but man is this the most simple, yet striking sentence I have ever read.
@@tylermilfloverong ong frfr osrs this deep
I'll be honest... every time I hear clair de lune, I remember The Evil Within, a game while not necessarily perfect it still has a special place in my heart.
The sequel though - perfection
The evil within 2 is by far my favourite video game exprience ever, and I couldn’t really get why until now. I wish I could play it for the first time again man
@@george-kv7ei I definitely need to give it another shot. I really enjoyed the first and then got bored partway through the second
Chances are tho, it's probs EEAAO now
@@izzym6422 the same happened to me buy I was so immersed in the story I couldn't stop playing
I'm never disappointed by your deep dives. Music is one of the most important things in my life, and the fact that I'm not the only one that cherishes it's presence really makes me feel a little less alone.
Aizvainia 💙
Funny enough, I am disappointed. It was by no means bad. In fact, it's great. Just didn't have quite same effect as some of his best videos. I think the issue was that he was a little too self depricating so which put a damper on his points.
Nope, you are literally the only person in the world that likes music....lol
Fabio Silva I meant in the context of..this...never mind lmao
Aizvainia yesssssss
Finally, someone talks about A Machine for Pigs in a positive way.
What makes this game so special to me though; Is the voice acting.
The protagonist and the antagonist have such stellar performances.
I encourage everyone to look up a compilation of all the voice lines on RUclips.
I had to rewatch the machine’s plea to Oswald several times in this video, it just grabbed me...
the soliloquy of the machine always makes me cry :(
don't worry there are tons of people that love AMFP just like you and I :)
thx
@@waffel9101 It's still pretty bad though.
It's interesting because I grew up surrounded by classical musicians, so Claire de Lune played A LOT through my childhood, which made the safe room in The Evil Within cause a pretty deep-rooted "yearning for that other world" because while I'd be running for my life and scraping by to survive a giant spider lady with long hair and then suddenly hear that song playing, it was like "hey, you remember when you were a kid and you weren't actively being chased around by projections straight out of the mind of a serial killer?"
This channel is like thought-provoking, eye-opening, mind-blowing comfort food.
That's exactly how I feel about it omg
I know right!!
I had multiple breakdowns on his horror videos
I could’ve have said it better
The very few instances he tries delving into politics coincidentally happen to also have aged like milk, but this video is a perfect example that he clearly knows his usual subject.
Remember, bLuE mAn BaD because video games and zombie media popularized headshots, ignoring the victimization of the police and clear statistics showing diminishing police shootings, also the nearly nonexistent police brutalities he also claimed contributed to headshot culture.
The Japanese have a term for this feeling; Mono no aware. It describes the feeling of knowing this moment is not permanent. Nothing is, nor will it ever be. Your happiest moment, your deepest despair. This too, shall pass.
I think these pieces evoke that feeling. The knowing of time, the deep understanding that your best efforts, even your life, is futile in the face of time, in the grand scheme of the entropy of the universe.
But I believe there is also a hope in this, some kind of happy joy to be had to know that none of this really matters, that we are the universe experiencing itself, and what else is there to do but experience it all?
never thought I'd have a reason to use the word uplifting, never have before, but i have no better
way to describe the feels I got from your commentl
bravo
I tip my hat to you
Another Japanese term that's related to this sort of feeling is "Ichigo ichie" which means basically to appreciate each and every moment of life, as it is all fleeting and temporary.
@@amatsu-ryu4067 Memento Mori, almost exactly in implication (this makes even more sense etymologically when you consider it's a Zen statement on the transience of life).
Yeah...actually, no.
Mono no aware basically describes music. No medium like music can evoke feelings like nostalgia as well. It's just embedded in the way music works. Because, also music is ever fading away
Finally someone talks about THAT chapter in The Evil Within 2. The music injected me with so many emotions, it's a memory I'll never forget.
when you said "that's just art" at the end it made me realize what i want to do. i want to make art that makes people feel. provides massive worlds that make people want to explore, and fantasy places that make people wish they were true. and i want to accomplish that through pixel art, and massive canvas's. thanks. you've made me tear up a bit.
You got this man I believe in you
Do it.
You had me until "pixel art"... please leave that crap in 2009 where it belongs.
@@DeadAndAliveCat oooh... honestly that kinda hurt. bet you feel validated for bein an ass. here, let me show you something: www.deviantart.com/sovanjedi/art/Diorama-789746626
www.deviantart.com/sovanjedi/art/Bhumi-744922366
this artist right here is a big inspiration. let me guess, you were thinking things like undertale, when i said pixel art? if so then i'll have to tell you. pixel art is not only reserved to random indie games. also pixel art isn't bad, it actually looks really good when used correctly. for example, the two links i gave up there.
also please, try not to be an asshole. it really can hurt some people. critique is fine, but calling all of pixel art "crap" is just bullshit, if i do say so myself.
DeadAndAliveCat just let him practice his art are you seriously this sad and bitter that a random artist being inspired bothers you this much?
When you end with empathy, I find it revealing that horror games are where we find music that makes us more empathetic towards the characters. The necessity for players to empathize with a character in a horror game is more essential than in other games due to that being were part of the fear comes from. Not only do we not want to die and get a game over, but we also don't want the character to die. We want to see them get through this. It is also revealing that horror games are more often an example while other games are not.
This makes me think of the ending to "the witches house" which i wont spoil for those who dont know but thia deffinitely applies to it.
@@jordanjoestar9096 That was heartbreaking =( and we keep questioning whether we made the right decision despite we already finished all those tasks
@@Nadiaputriangginita i think its because we tend to define horror as something that we never want to experience its all the things we fear and our scared of and one of the most tearifying things is that reality moment in which the illusion of safety and happiness is shattered. Its more destructive than any physical thing but physical suffering can be just as bad if done right.
I just love your way with words, talk about a great inspiration. Your writing elevates any subject!
Much love from Brazil.
Oia só, Ludinho por aqui, ❤
ludoooo
Do nada o ludo aqui consumindo bom conteúdo.
Come to brazil, ludo
Jacob: we are all pigs.
Ad: LET'S PLAY RAID SHADOW LEGENDS!
Ahhhhhh, imaginary internet points, you gotta love 'em
Oh no my castle's under attack!
*AAHHH thAtS oKaY*
After reading this comment, Jacobs quote here proceeded from the video and immediately following was an ad for 50 states of fright on quibi.
@@AmericanLibra awwright my kingdom's lookin' good. My neighbor's lookin like he could use some help
I'm not Important I got a D&D Ad lol
Story: A man is driven to insanity by visions of a horrific future!
Me: Meh, we've been here a hundred times.
Story: The horrific future is literally just what happened in the 20th century.
Me: Oh.
fr tho
@LastName Almaember 2020 isn’t 1/16th as bad as the shit that happened in the 20th century
21st century**
@LastName Almaember No where in your comment implied sarcasm or a joke but go off
@LastName Almaember 2020:
Almost a war
A plague that killed about 1 million
Wildfires
20th century:
2 world wars
Rise of countless dictatorships
Many many large wars
60 years of constant threat of total distribution
Plague that killed 100 million
Much more
This reminds me of when I first found Eurydice when playing Hades. I went from desperately fighting for my life between lava pools and entered an unknown room and was met with the beautiful voice singing of the sweet release of death. I stopped and listened to the entire song before I touched my controls again.
Yep I agree with that I relax completely when I find that room.
Hades is honestly a masterclass on music and sound design. Meeting Eurydice, dying to come back to Orpheus singing good riddance, then later Orpheus' Lament playing for the first time, the silence of rest chambers...
Man that game was good.
@@egg_2705 hades is a masterclass in most things it does
Xxxx
So perfectly well said, I fully resonate with this! The atmosphere was so lovely, no burdens, no further debts to be paid~
What you feel is what Portuguese speakers call "saudade". A longing for something or someone, but also a longing for the feeling you have when you're with that said person/thing. You can have saudade of a town, but it's not only by longing to be in this town, but the feelings and memories you have in this town. Same goes to the person, you long to meet someone, but you long to meet someone because of the experiences and the love and the memories you have for someone. And saudade is something that happens the most when something is outreach, you don't necessarily can have those experiences or memories or love, it can be out of your reach so you have saudades of it
I Am Portuguese and Yes, I was thinking about that, and hearing this themes I felt "Saudade" ,yes I've always believed that horror games where the most beautiful, and this video helped me fixate that opinion better.
@@BascoDubs absolutely, irmão. I always felt saudade, for something I can't really pin what it is, by listening and playing Silent Hill. I think it could be summed as empathy or immersion to the character of Harry having saudade for his daughter, really puts another perspective to his quest and game, and hopefully it was designed to feel like this.
Bonito ver como nossa língua consegue descrever uma experiência tão bem
i never knew there was a word for it so i never really knew how to describe it but this is perfect
So THIS is what we K-pop stans feel towards our biases? awifjadslfj I feel educated
Horror game : we are scary and will ggive you trauma!
everyone : ahh yes the melody is beautiful in my ears like a sunset
That's not quite what is going on.
@@techstuff9198 why you correcting a comment from a year ago...
@@vian7599 Can't say I'm correcting something if I didn't actually correct it. I merely pointed out that it was wrong.
Also, have you forgotten where you are?
This is the internet, time doesn't matter.
Machine of Pigs ending dialog and music is amazing. I never played the game, but in a University core class, "oral expression", every student had to recite in front of the class a poem, or monologue of his choosing as an assignment.
Nearly everyone chooses the typical ones, from political to pop-culture, to social people.
I'm a shy person, an Information and Industrial Civil engineer, and public speaking isn't my thing, but since i had to do it as an obligation for a grade, I decide to search for one in the video game space, which is what I enjoy, and i find this one, and i couldn't look away. Even if I didn't play the game, it was just so impactful, so real. I did need it to translate it to Spanish, as you can see English isn't my first language, and even if I can understand without problem, and I'm somewhat capable to write it, to some extend, my tongue is just stupid when I'm trying to talk it. But the result was close to it, and I did add emotion (i was nearly crying impersonating the machine, in a mix of desperation and anger plying to Mundus), and i receive the higher grade and the following ecstasy when doing something that you are not comfortable do in it.
and yet, nearly 8 years since that presentation, i still remember close to 90% of the monologue, word by word. And the music. fuck, what an amazing sound. Every time i hear it, it make me somber, reminiscence of all the emotion on the monologue, and every part of my skin tingles.
The same goes to silent hill. I've had played all of them, even the awful wii one. and the music, the soundtrack of each one, is just spectacular.
cheers
oh, I forget to say, I found the Machine of pigs one similar to the Leftovers one, same grim tonality, expression, or emotion.
I never would’ve guessed English isn’t your first language
I swear to God when I ascended those stairs in the end of A Machine For Pigs, and that track started playing over the machines monologue. Never before have I experienced so many goosebumps.
I cried. I can't describe why, but I think you kinda know.
I’ve never even played the game, but the first time I saw that ending, I became captivated and I still feel that way about it, even today
The theme’s in Resident Evil games are incredible. In Re2 Remake I’ve spent more time than I even realize just sitting in a safe room, waiting for Tyrant’s theme to dissipate. It always seems to scare me, it’s so strong and when you hear it you know you’re in trouble.
The thing I love about RE7’s Safe Room theme is how even though it’s the safe theme, it’s still haunting and unnerving. You don’t feel safe, per se, but you feel safe-er. It still reminds you where you are, though, and that anything could be behind that door.
The moment you hear that music, you know he's gonna *X* you out.
The “Mandus” piece along with the machine’s pleading made up for all the stupid parts of that game. I get chills listening to it now. Like you said, the inevitability is captured.
That scene made me cry pretty hard. Voice acting, writing, music all on point.
small thing, but when the mandus monologue's text came up i got chills because it was the same font you used in the anatomy video. weird how that through-line affected me
:) love that you picked up on that
probably chosen because it's similar to the font used in the game anatomy itself, but i approve of it becoming the standard Horror Voiceover Subtitle Font
@@Vallam23 and it was a thinking structure
This helped me realize what I needed to understand about my own life. It'll never return to the simplicity my life once held. The future, no matter how awful, is inevitable, and trying to stop it from happening is a fools errand born from desperation. But even as everything descends into a broken hurricane of pain and misery, there will always be a place I can return to that's safe for me. I can always find... serenity.
That hits hard my guy
Goddamn...
That comment hits home.
So far, every time I'm like, "hmm this video might be interesting but it's not really my thing, let's put it on anyways"
And every time, your videos are amazing. Well done
"Saw Future (Very Bad!!!)"
"Created a Machine to End All Humanity (Not Great)"
Your sense of morality is a little bit weird Jacob.
his behaviour is very lovecraftian
a) It's not like he's rejecting the ending!
b) Mood, though??
morality is weird
Not to be an edgelord or like Rust from True Detective or anything but I think we've gotten to the point where somehow ending humanity would be a net positive for most of the other living things on this planet. Not saying I would want to do such a thing - but I mean, c'mon. We're shit. It's like us and wasps and penguins - we're just assholes and none of the other organisms would miss us besides the ones that've gotten by just feeding on our scraps for all these years and years.
When's the last time you pollinated a plant? I never pollinated a damn thing in my entire life. Freeloaders, the lot of us.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 That makes sense, but still by human morality killing all humans would be much worse than just seeing the future.
I completed Everybody's Gone to the Rapture in one sitting, ended up going to bed at around 5AM, and it was an otherworldly, almost religious experience. I don't want to call it ''horror' but that most certainly is what we're seeing - humanity ended 32 minutes ago and we are an etheral "something" listening to the voices of those who have died - but it's more "despair" than horror. I loved each and every game by The Chinese Room (A Machine for Pigs, Dear Esther). So sad they don't exist anymore.
I had a very similar experience with Rapture, truly one of the most beautiful, haunting game experiences. Good news is that the Chinese Room are back! They have just released Little Orpheus on Apple Arcade, not their usual style but it is exceptional, the music in made in collaboration with Jessica Curry once again. Even better news is that they have something else in the works, it's a secret as yet and they are still hiring so I imagine we have a substantial wait
@@runswithpencil WOW that's great news!!! Thank you so much for telling me!!
@@TheMightyPika Absolutely my pleasure, if you are on twitter give them a follow, they're very active at the moment
I had a similar feeling with Dear Esther, and I was not prepared to be hit that hard emotionally. Especially when you're walking through the gorgeous underground caves with these ethereal waterfalls, but it's juxtaposed with the last words of someone who lay dying on the same beach, in the same caves. No, Dear Esther isn't horror, but it is melancholic and lonely, and above all it there is this longing for something or someone you know you won't find on the island.
I don't know too much about Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and tis the season, so I checked and saw that it's currently $6 CAD (originally 26). I know I like this flavor of game, Gone Home was a treat a few weeks ago and the Beginner's Guide is one of my favorites ever. I wasn't expecting this video to net me a recommendation I'd go through with but I'm here for it.
I had the pleasure of seeing Akira Yamaoka perform live in Sweden with a Silent Hill cover band. Hearing him jam out Theme of Laura was SICK
that sounds awesome
damn
duddee amazing
If I could meet people who've worked in games I wish I could see either Akira Yamaoka, Hidetaka Miyazaki or Alyson Court
That Resident Evil 4 tune is just so gentle and comforting.
You should play "The Shattering", a game about.... i won't spoil anything of it, its so good
Spoiler: Its about shatting yourself
@@shetto Wow nice job man its ruined
Okay game dev
Hmm, haven't heard of a game about an ellipsis before
I'm assuming something breaks in such a way that produces many small shards of the original
5:10
"I also find it fascinating that the contrast to horror isn't happy, either, it isn't bright and bouncy. Happy music is just distorted by the scares. Instead, it's just a return, to something like, neutral."
I'm a survivor of a 7 year long trauma before I was old enough to have a childhood. I'm plagued with several mental disorders, illnesses, and neurological conditions. This includes depression, anxiety, PTSD, and several others still. This really speaks to me for some reason. I've had an aversion to happy music and happiness in general since I've been through it all, and come out alive. I've tried to tell myself "you need to be happy" but I don't want to be happy. I want neutrality. I want to be safe. I don't want a smile across my face 24/7, I want peace. Without fear or pain, I want solace. I think that this line is enough to explain why I love good horror audio design. When the contrast is happiness, it's merely distorted and wrong, when the contrast is solace and peace, it's much more effective at putting you in their place. Thank you for allowing me to have some insight into myself as well
You know, I’m glad you approach life that way. People who are focused exclusively on constant happiness will never achieve it, but you have a real shot at living a life that, while obviously it won’t be perfect all the time, will be peaceful and gentle for you. I really hope you feel that you’ve reached that point!
I feel a similar way. I was kinda depressed for a lot of highschool and I coped with that by sleeping through as much of it as possible, I didn't want to do things that were difficult and tedious, and I didn't want to do things that were supposed to be fun, so I'd curl up in bed, or rest my head on my school desk and not do anything, not make any decisions.
This kinda reminds me of the game Omori, where (small spoiler, sorta)...a 'happy' environment is used to portray what you come to learn is a bad coping mechanism. It doesn't mute the horror parts of the game, in fact it often amplifies them.
"Ozzy Mandus"
...I see what you did there, Amnesia. -_-
Look on my porks, ye mighty, and despair.
HA
"I see man dies"?
@@nahometesfay1112 Ozymandias.
I'd be surprised there are people that didn't catch it, but I missed the S Hayden thing in Doom 16, so I have no room to judge. 🤣
The Evil Within is so underrated. It's such a good game.
Well the dude who made the original deadspace and the dude who made the old school resident evil teamed up to make it lol
Jordan Joestar that’s why it didn’t do well, a lot to live up to, I personally enjoyed it but disgruntled white protagonist with stubble and ambiguous past #94045 gets really tiring
@@saloonboone disgruntled isnt bad though. The way i see it most horror games arent happy and cheerful. Theyre not meant to be and thats what makes them unsettling. If horror was meant to be happy more stuff would be looking like Happy tree freinds lol
Jordan Joestar Dissonace can do a lot for effective horror, and I was just pointing out how generic and uninteresting of a character he is
They could've been great, if it wasn't for the awfully boring and generic plot/characters. They almost felt like a parody of old school Japanese survival horror.
the song "not tomorrow" turns into really almost tells you that this wont be a pleasant experience. i've never played silent hill but i can feel the impending fear and weight of everything in it just in the song, and its SO good.
Rarely do I watch a video that feels like it was pulled straight from the deep recesses of my thoughts. The places where I understand the thoughts as feelings or a smell connected to a memory that is just outside my field of view. Thanks for putting words to those parts of me. I know that's all a little fluffy and maybe cringy... but its true. I greatly appreciate your work. Well done.
That Mandus track and monologue in game are extremely haunting. I didn't know the full extent of what deactivating the machine meant in my playthrough. Remarkable.
Searcg up the lore
"They will make pigs of you all." *cries
Thank you, sincerely, for talking about A Machine for Pigs to the extent you do in this video. It's one of my favorite horror games of all time, and almost nobody talks about it because it wasn't a jumpscare monstercloset RUclipsr Reaction Generator like its predecessor. It deserved so much better than it got, so if anyone's even mildly motivated to check it out after watching this, please do so. It'll stick with you.
The Dark Descent was not a "jumpscare monstercloset RUclipsr Reaction Generator like its predecessor". You don't know or remember the game correctly, just like you don't know or remember A Machine for Pigs properly either. The nuance that Dark Descent had is squashed in A Machine for Pigs. You're rather confused.
Well, you know, I happen to very attached to Claire de Lune. So to me it sounds exactly like a wish for things to be different.
I think that a lot of what people feel toward music comes from associations we form either from listening to similar music or from our own emotional state the first time we hear that particular piece of music. I think that is why Claire de Lune didn't click with Jacob in the same way as the original music did. He has a different association with the song, one that doesn't match with the association that he has made with the other save room music in other titles.
@@Bastit3hman Well yeah, music is one of the most subjective forms of art.
That's interesting. To me, Clair de Lune sounds like Twilight, so it doesn't make me feel much. I think that's the advantage of having an original soundtrack: you have a better chance that the players will feel what you want them to feel when a song comes on.
The Evil Within version is also the best version because of the violins.
I love it myself, but the distorted speaker and scratched record graininess is what music sounded like in older sanitariums. They were trying to evoke the feeling that you were in a technically "safe" place but the nurse and the electroshock chair for leveling were supposed to maintain a level of discomfort. At the end of the first game you eventually get attacked in that space. They still play loud music like that in some mental hospitals so a lot of former tenants develop a hatred for certain symphonies.
That ending music for "A machine for pigs" always gets me, so beautiful, that and the narrator's voice it's so immersive, so cinematic, when it makes you feel things you know it's well done
Two songs that has that "the eye in the storm" feeling (for me): Majula in Dark Souls 2 and Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls 3
I couldn't agree more!
Yes!!
Basically every from software hub (well maybe not sekiro)
i hate darp soles
@@clark985 never heard of darp soles
Hi, Jacob. You'll probably never read this but in the off chance that you do, I want to say thank you. RUclips has become such a deluge of things I don't care about and things that actively make me upset that it's always nice to just come back to one of your videos. It's like a safe place. A palette cleanse. Beautifully written, emotionally striking. Though I love the big three, I watched Mr. Beast and Pewdiepie, I love Yahtzee's reviews, and though I think Dunkey and Jakey can be surprisingly clever, - fact is, you're my favorite youtuber out all of them.
Lmao
I love how resident evil 7 used music and sounds to incite fear. Everything from insect noise to hearing ur own footsteps as u move into debris wondering if something else moved around you. Truly felt alone and desperate through most of the game.
Between the months when I first started to suffer from depression to my first therapy sessions, the Silent Hill soundtracks - especially Silent Hill 2 - got me through. It was some of the only music that I felt understood and sympathized with the hopelessness, despair, bitterness, nostalgic addiction, and complete surrender to fate that I was feeling.
I love how easily you put all the subconscious thoughts in my head into THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORDS
That's why I love this channel so much.
I feel so many similar things, but I can never properly (and seemingly that easily) to put out what I feel subconsciously into words like he does.
eurothug4000 yes!!!
Brilliant video as always, and I'm particularly happy to see more appreciation for The Evil Within 2. Up there in the pantheon of art that suffered for the shortcomings of others, in this case its direct predecessor. Small note: Mikami didn't direct it, it was helmed by John Johanas, a designer from the first game. It was his first time directing a game and as a debut effort that's pretty impressive.
how is jacob this good at the whole youtube thing?
Never expected to see you here
Why do you have so few likes?
@@charlieniven6558 the comment has 120 likes, but who cares? Do you really think it even matters how many likes anyone gets? It's completely inconsequential.
@@ninja_tony usually RUclipsr comments get thousands because of RUclips's crap
I hope I’m not the only adult man who cried like a baby when Lisa turned
You summed up exactly how I felt about Resident Evil 7; I literally almost cried I was so relieved to hear the save theme. Just sitting in the dimly lit room, knowing you MUST go on sometime, but now you can rest. Its so good. Also, I love your thoughts on the Silent Hill games. Great video
"13-year-old... man" lmao
When I need to make myself cry I play the Silent Hill soundtrack.
Fair
I feel like the same applies to A Moments Peace from Dark Souls. The track is so tranquil and ethereal and it is only the menu theme. It really lulls you into a false sense of security and almost acts as respite from the rest of the game as you know what horrors you'll be expected to face going in. The title really speaks for itself and while Dark Souls isn't a horror game I still feel like it works really well at capturing that longing feeling and a mysterious atmosphere that's carried throughout the rest of the game.
I discovered Jessica Curry's work through A Machine For Pigs. First time I entered Mandus's factory and the factory gates played, first time I went into this elevator and Christ have mercy played as this enormous pipe construct was revealed, first time I heard the machine beg and plead it's case and the music is already mourning it as Mandus is climbing the stairs of the temple with determination.
This is where I fell in love with this game. With the Chinese Room. With her.
Then I played Dear Esther : I fell in love
Then I played Everybody's gone to the Rapture : I fell in Love
I (like many) haven't had the chance to experience So let us melt, but I bought the soundtrack nonetheless.
It's beautiful of course.
I know that whatever they'll do next, I shall fall in love again ...
Silent Hill is by far my favorite horror series, and my 2nd favorite series ever. And the music is a LARGE portion of it. Laura's Theme kills me when I hear it. Akira Yamaoka is a god with music.
I don't know why I have always imagined you as a "recently bar mitzva'd boy"
The Machine's speech at the end of A Machine For Pigs gets me every... damn... time. The combination of the swelling music and the EMOTION that the Machine's voice carries is just... yeah.
That voice actor is perfect. You can hear genuine fear and anxiety in their voice and you believe every word they are saying.
You know a game's soundtrack is amazing when it instantly brings you back to the game and reminds you of the moments you had with it. Everytime I hear the opening mandolin from Silent Hill, I see everything. Angela and her knife, bloody Lisa, Dahlia running away, Maria sitting in the chair, everything.
For anyone interested in more of this kind of music, the genre is generally called 'dark ambient'
I went and listened to a random track off of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture when you mentioned it. The song The Seventh Whistler. Thought it was nice at first, wistful sounding solo wind. Then when the ensemble joined in half way, I mean, god. It’s like my heart burst. I’ve been having a stressful time lately during a move, and I didn’t know I needed that cry. So thanks for that.
God, I absolutely love this kind of music. It puts me to sleep every night. My favorite is from a game called The Long Dark. It’s not a horror game, but there’s the constant stress of starvation, dehydration, hypothermia, the failures of your hunts, and the constant threats of wolves and bears. There’s those moments when you’re walking through the snow, looking for rosehips, rabbits, or wolf prints, and an OST begins playing. You just feel calm, maybe even a little sad. The game is beautiful both in its gameplay and music.
TLD is a masterpiece, and the music is some of the best I’ve heard in games. From the Wintermute theme to Lion’s Roar, it’s all amazing.
the first amnesia has the track "back hall" that has that same sort of comfort and rest. i distinctly remember it playing in the hall with the unusual fountain. its a nice reprise, especially considering the madness that the player goes through immediately before reaching that point.
Dude, I found your channel two days ago - best thing that ever happened to me. I love your videos. They are so considered, well thought out and researched. They expose me to ideas and concepts that I've never heard of but that I always find interesting and that resonates with me. I'm a filmmaker in University, and your videos fill me with inspiration for scripts, themes and stories to tell. Thanks so much, dude, you're the best.
Also, to anyone reading this, if you like Jacob's videos, you might also like 'hbomberguy.' Have a great day :)
Matthew Reese yo dude me too not even kidding
First video I found of his is "Artificial Loneliness", it really hits the thought spot, and makes you replay some games that once you've beaten the story, each level has it's own story to it. Like games that have free roaming but there is no point to it once the story is complete, but yet you can still do it, and then even though it feels like minutes have gone by, you go through those levels thinking about the history you just made.
MisterCh13f117 mine was fear of depths but I quickly fell in love with his content
@@Deltaz11 Dude we are food for words, and he just delivers
Matthew Reese this comment melts my heart and gives me faith in the RUclips community again ✌️
“Oh man, my children must be in the depths of my home! Wait a minute, what’s this about a machine for pigs?”
Around this time last year, I played through Amnesia: The Dark Descent, immediately followed by Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. While I felt the gameplay was significantly stripped down in comparison to the first game (having no inventory was less than ideal, in my opinion), I do feel it had a much stronger theme and more hopeless tone. Its narrative was also pretty powerful. At the final culmination, I was just so overwhelmed with emotion from not only the score, but the sheer devastation involved in Mandus' fear. Excellently crafted as a piece of horror media, and pretty decent as a game.
I just want to say. I use RUclips to escape. To forget my life and to feel, numb almost. I caught myself tearing up through out this video. Closing my eyes and being lost in your commentary and the soundtracks. You simultaneously calmed and ripped me open effortlessly through a video game analysis video.... Thank you.
The Limbo chapter of Evil Within really reminds me of the ending of Journey. The slow climb up a snow-covered mountain while the sad strings play in the background. I wonder if they were inspired by Journey.
Probably I mean they have an evangelion reference in an achivement for gods sake
@@yourbrainonegg159 what?!
I think its supposed to be sand
I've spent so many hours in the Hunter's Dream in Bloodborne, just sitting there, next to the doll. Just hearing a few bars of the Hunter's Dream Theme or the Moonlight Melody is enough to take me back.
I've done the same thing, the hunters dream theme is so good
My god, The New Century immediately brought tears to my eyes. I've never played a machine for pigs (hell, I never finished the dark descent), but something about the music just drew out this deep sadness. It almost sounds like somebody is breathing slow, staggering, yet sharp, breaths in the background; the kind of breaths one makes as they are faced with fear and grief. It's the same breaths I use to take during panic attacks in the middle of the night. It's the same breaths I took after crying over the loss of a loved one.
It is the breath of despair, and it has been rendered in such awe inspiring beauty.
Everytime I listen to Mandus... that composition.. the piano.. it makes me tear up. It keeps on bringing out that voice in my head.. to stop being depressed.. stop being lazy before it is too late.
I absolutely love A Machine For Pigs and the Mandus monologue/song. I still get chills listening to it. Such a beautiful work of art. Thank you for talking about it. It's a criminally underrated horror game.
I love "Theme of Laura". I had it as my ringtone for a long time.
The song "Mandas" in Machine for Pigs is something special. I've never played the game. This video essay is my only exposure. But just the clip played her brought me to tears the first time I watched. Every time I've listened since stirs an uneasy sadness in me, like I want to deny the hope that is intrinsically woven into the notes. Incredible.
this video is my introduction to this channel, and now i've watched it through maybe five times just listening to the music and the commentary in the background, feeling nostalgic and melancholy in turns. truly exceptional work, my dude.
I remember reaching Heaven’s Night strip club in Silent Hill 2. I stayed there for at least an hour because a part of me knew that the moment I left that I couldn’t come back and despite the short amount of time it is still one of if not my absolute favorite place in all of Silent Hill. In hindsight I could have just started a new save so I could go back whenever I liked. XD
Great job man. The most memorable parts for me tend to be the sound design, music, and amazing dialogue or monologues from fantastic voice actors. That's why Transistor and SOMA are among my favorite games. And I think you captured that well here with the effective uses of beautiful music in horror games. God bless.
I've never heard any one else describe music like this. Thank you.💜
My god man you have an amazing abilty to explain things in the most beautiful of ways it continues to amaze me how great and thoughtful your videos are. Congratulations for being one of the best youtubers on the platform
You absolutely understand the Silent Hill soundtracks and I'm all about it. I own the soundtracks for all four games, and especially love "Waiting For You (Live At Heaven's Night)" from the SH4 soundtrack
The Soulsborne series has some of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. Equally haunting, beautiful, grand, majestic and subtle.
Inside, Playdead's second game, also has some hauntingly beautiful music. It's much more subtle than Soulsborne music, which matches the game. And it was recorded by putting the microphone into a human skull and playing sounds at it - which really gives it a feeling of submersion and descent, muffled as it is.
I legit have to rewatch this video every few months or so. As soon as it pops back in my mind I'm here again. Also, The Evil Within 2 is an absolutely brilliant game and I'm glad you gave it its time to shine. Sadly a lot of people slept on one of the best survival horror games of this generation. Thank you for that!
Just to clear one thing up: The Evil Within 2 wasn't directed by Shinji Mikami but John Johanas (who previously directed the Kidman DLC chapters). Mikami took a producer role instead (kinda like RE2). Saying it feels like the game Mikami wanted to make also doesn't work when it misses a lot of Mikami-isms (Enemy hit reactions, enemy variety, gameplay set pieces, level design, etc.).
Thank you thank you thank you. It's missing SO MUCH. I could go on for hours.
Both The Evil Within 1 and Evil Within 2 are great games. Johanas said that Mikami was involved in TEW2 and was very impressed with what he had come up, to the point that he had dubbed this game a new genre of horror called "Crying Horror", which is exactly what this essay is showing in its musical resonance. Not only that but Japanese players were much more receptive of TEW2 than they were of TEW1.
Last but not least, Johanas wasn't just involved in the DLC, he was involved in Chapter 9 and 10 (respectively the mansion chapter and the super hard boss gauntlet with all the traps), which were two of the very best chapters the first game had to offer.
Mikami didn't direct this game, but trying to remove his involvement and try to pit both games against each other when TEW2 does have hit reactions, enemy variety, set pieces and great level designs is just misguided and needlessly antagonistic of TEW2.
@@Dreamboum No, it's a horrific game and the hit response is a major part of why. Almost everything about the game is terrible and feels super rushed. The only thing I find when I google any of what you said is you saying it on another site. You underestimate the effects a bad publisher can have on a development team and even what they say about the product for years to come. Everything interesting about the first game was watered down or removed inTEW2 and the story is unbelievably generic in conceit and amateur in execution. Not to mention almost nothing about the first game that was left to be dealt with in a sequel was dealt with, apart from a half-baked reference to Joseph. If you like it, whatever, go ahead and like it, but my and OP's antagonism towards it is extremely warranted.
Great premise, though I disagree entirely about Clair de Lune. It's absolutely tragic. It sounds like the end of the world longing for innocence and peace again. It's terrifying.
I know this is a comment late to the party but we've got to give Toby Longworth credit for his vocal performance in that ending monologue. Coupled with that rising song it's an brilliantly constructed scene.
i love how jacob will make a masterpiece like this and then the patreon donors page is like ‘this video was made possible because of dickslapper666’
I have a feeling Jacob would like the Music, *"Lillium"* from the show _"Elfen Lied"_
That song always stuck with me
I am unsure if he would for the same reason I didn't like it, largely because I understand where he's coming from in this video, though of course, that doesn't mean he would automatically share my view. But anyway, don't get me wrong, Lilium by itself is a great piece, but when you place it within the context of the overall narrative, it becomes crap, because honestly, Elfen Lied itself is crap.
When Lilium plays, my entire brain goes into a "oh so now they want me to feel *something*", and that's not a good experience to have. The entire show starts with an overdramatic piece of music without any other context than the background art, and while it certainly sets the tone right, what it tells you is a "this is a story that's all about gratuitous cinema", which is absolutely what it is. Yes, it goes into themes like rape, bullying and so on, but it does with the same subtlety the Saw movies do. In other words, they're there because they're meant to shock and evoke reactions, not because they want to, as Jacob said towards the end, "make you connect with what's essentially human". Because Elfen Lied does not try such a thing. It would be like comparing Outcast with Silent Hill and say they're even remotely similar to one another.
Because if we compare a story like Elfen Lied to Silent Hill, it's really night and day in terms of narrative experience, and it's like saying the abomination that's Silent Hill Revelations actually gets what Silent Hill 3 is about. Silent Hill 2 works because it never actually tries to be up in your face about the trauma it depicts. We know that James is there because he's done something horrible and the story keeps creating tension up to its finale that there's just something terribly messed up with James, but we actually don't know what that is. Even when it comes to its other themes like eating disorders, depression, suicide and sexual abuse, again it never states these things outright. It never shows you a rape scene for example, except the infamous Pyramid Head one of course, but even that is fairly tame and is more to convey an idea rather than to shock you for its own sake.
And the reason why Silent Hill 2 never shows you this is because the events themselves are actually irrelevant; it's much more important to communicate how the characters in the story feel and experience themselves in the world as communicated through the Otherworld, than it is to actually show what happened to them. Even when the truth about James is revealed, we actually barely see the game lingering on showing us that. Instead a major portion of the finale is spent on fleshing out James' relationship with his wife.
And the way I understood Jacob here is that this is why all these pieces of music resonate with him, because it makes him reflect on what it means to be human. A lot of horror stories, especially when psychological, are about the loss of something: loss of innocence, loss of loved ones, the fear of death and so on. That's why he kept citing that there's a longing to the pieces he resonated with, because that's certainly the case. I really loved how he described Theme of Laura because I never thought of it like that before, but he's right, and it gave James' entire character so much more meaning and impact.
In comparison, wtf do you describe Lilium as? What sort of human experience is that song trying to convey? I genuinely can't think of anything outside of it trying to sound overdramatic.
Music that fails to deliver an emotional experience just won't stick with you, because we remember and connect through our emotions. Theme of Laura is universal not just because it's a masterfully written piece of music, but because it accompanies with it a story that itself is also masterfully told, and the story and the music strengthen each other, which creates an incredibly powerful emotional experience that will make people come back even when they forgot everything else about the game. Lilium doesn't do that, imo. If you want a direct comparison to a song that's similar to Lilium but actually works to enhance its medium, there's the main theme of Le Portrait de Petit [sic] Cosette by Yuki Kajiura. It plays during the action sequences of the story, and it just works, even when you actually have no idea wtf is going on.
@@entropicplays162 "Now they want me to feel something" Is what all media does, if you don't notice you'll call it 'good' if you do you'll call it 'forced'. That's what i gather from what you are saying. It's a bit absolutist when you consider all media do this within a spectrum of well, to poorly executed.
rewatching now this i cant help but think of signalis. both its original tracks and use of other recognisable tracks injects so much feeling into an already incredibly dense game (in a good way). even though im still undecided about some of the game purely on a personal basis it absolutely stays in my mind and probably will for a long time - especially its use of music
Yes!!!
I started playing Silent Hill 2 the other day and I was 9 when it was first released and my brother and I played it and I’ve always loved the music in it. It’s beautiful. I’m gonna be 29 in a few days and I’m still afraid of the dark because of all the horror games and movies I played back in the day lol.
The best genre. Horror games and movies can just be the best things. Lol.
This is exactly how I feel about Reflection in Hollow Knight, the theme that plays when you're sitting on a bench. Healing, saving, sorting things out... the whole time you've been fighting for your life, being surprised-attacked or almost trapped. But on that bench you're safe and you can finally breath.
Whenever I hear that theme it brings me instant peace, but also this strange, deep sorrow. Like you said, longing.