Post Video Game Music

[Dangevin]

Returnal is one of my favorite games to play at the moment. A real high note (lol) of the game was the

Spoiler

Hyperion

 boss fight and the entire level pretty much. The music in the entire level is based around a specific melody based on a song that the main character would play on the piano. There's more to it than that, but the music plays a critical role in progressing the story forward. As you get closer to the boss fight the music becomes more intense; the synths get more distorted, the main melody raises in volume, there's less ambience and more intense swelling instruments that support the melody.

That's when you finally get to the boss fight.

Spoiler

The boss is the one playing the melody the entire time.

 The song picks up, becoming more intense than previously throughout the level. A beat becomes introduced during the boss fight. When you finish a phase of the boss fight,

Spoiler

the boss messes up the notes

which messes the song up by adding in dissonance and (potentially) ruining the tempo of the song, like a piano player who makes a fatal mistake on a piece they're practicing. When you finally beat the boss, the music becomes more subtle, adding in more ambient sounds.

The segments of the music added together make up a fantastic, evolving, and impactful overall theme of the boss and level. You'd get more out of the music if you played the game obviously, but if you want to listen to what I'm talking about, the link to it is below:

Spoiler