Game info: Akupara Games
Listening: The Orchard (Bandcamp, iTunes/Apple Music, etc.)
Info
Here’s surasshu’s beefiest solo work in a hot minute, a monochromatic dungeon crawler that’s sort of like Scribblenauts except you’re dead and playing a cheesy tabletop horror RPG against a dungeon master. There also might be a fishing minigame??? It seems like there’s a lot of goofy random stuff that can happen in the video game.
So the music is largely dark and moody, mixing prog rock, synthy ambience, and spooky chords and scales together into a soundtrack that feels like it fell out of a VHS cassette where a creepy guy in a cloak makes vague but concerning threats on your life (which incidentally was one of the direct inspirations of the game). Getting into the prog rock side of that specifically, there are some nice guitar and bass performances by Stemage, a prolific VGM and VGM-adjacent guitarist who’s collaborated with surasshu before, and Catton Arthur, who did the nice prog metal soundtrack to Impaler a couple of years ago. Most of the prog influence is felt in the more overtly thrashy tracks, but there are some lower-key ones that sound like an interlude or outro track, and a few non-prog tracks have some busted rhythms, because surasshu does love busted rhythms (surasshu i’m callin u out)
Though as there’s goofy random stuff that happens in the video game and it’s not just entirely an oppressive murder dungeon, the soundtrack does occasionally venture into territory that’s pleasant, lighthearted, and downright goofy. It’s important to give you opportunities to breathe, after all.
Recommended tracks:
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“Spell It Out” was my favorite of the guitar shred tracks
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“Tomb Sweepings” has some subtle sound design I enjoyed
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“Pantry” is a cute li’l accordion waltz with some fun chords
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“Klaxo the Lawless” has what may be the most amount of Looney Tunes-esque sound effects I’ve ever heard in a single piece of video game music, which is something I’ve never had a reason to quantify before now
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“Audo the Pure” is one of those pieces that feels like a low-key track on a prog album
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