Game info: website
Listening: soundtrack album, Bandcamp, Steam
Info
A free content update for Rabbit & Steel just came out a few days ago, adding new stages, characters, and other stuff probably (the patch notes don’t say and I sure don’t play this game). HAGANE actually released the soundtrack in October of last year before mino_dev finished up the DLC… turns out gamedev takes time! It sure does hah haaaaaah, don’t remind me 😔
This is pretty much “more Rabbit & Steel music,” meaning the soundtrack is mainly jazz-flavored electronic orchestra music, coming in pairs of more ambient “calm” themes and more EDM “action” themes. The sound palette, paired area themes, and compositional traits like extended harmonies are a little reminiscent of Phantasy Star Online 2 to me, which I mentioned before for the base game, though the big difference in feeling is that the action themes don’t get as dark or aggressive as PSO2’s battle variations do, instead being more electronic and energetic versions that wouldn’t be out of place in a shmup; this is a pretty bread-and-butter style for him, nothing massively out of the ordinary but always solid to listen to. For the base game I generally preferred the action variations, though this time I liked the calm versions more, which also tends to be the case with PSO2 area themes actually; generally I feel like the calm versions let the textural contrasts breathe a little more in a relaxed atmosphere without four-on-the-floor beats.
The soundtrack also has four themes with similar titles interspersed with the area themes, named in the same “[Musical Form] for the Witch’s [Noun]” pattern like “Fantasia for the Witch’s Hound,” which I would assume are boss themes? Two of these are where the Extra Mode soundtrack stylistically departs most from the base game: one’s a thrashy synthrock track with super fake guitar that still has good chords, and one’s a hyperactive, jazzy classical solo piano piece that sounds like Nikolai Kapustin. Nice to have a little bit of extra variety in there!
Recommended tracks:
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“Crack in the Geode – Action” is overall maybe the most “shmup EDM” of the action tracks
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“Atelier Aurum – Calm” starts off with some real good noises
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“Etude for the Witch’s Familiar” is that Kapustin-sounding track
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“Looping Hallway – Calm” has some nice rhythmic contrasts between different ways to group twelve beats (3/4, 6/8, and 2/4)
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