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Legend of the First Starlight's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #3 | 4.571 | 4.571 |
| Impression | #6 | 4.286 | 4.286 |
| Overall | #10 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Quality | #16 | 4.190 | 4.190 |
| Creativity | #30 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Correlation to theme | #30 | 4.095 | 4.095 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
I imagined Legend of the First Starlight as a turn based jrpg, similar to Final Fantasy series(which was also a huge inspiration of the soundtrack).
The story: In a world wishing upon the stars is a very common practice, starlights started to disappear progressively.
The protagonist is called to investigate the situation with his ability to leap through the time, reaching the origin of each starlight.
Eventually, he finds out that a transcendental being, the creator of the universe, was rewinding the time of the space back to it's beginning, the big bang, which would leave every life form of the current time stranded in the void.
01 TITLE SCREEN does not reveal the story yet, so I imagined a calm and peaceful title screen, with the sky filled with the stars.
Piano centered piece with textures and effects
02 FINAL BOSS FIGHT represents the moment when the protagonist faces the creator of the universe, something transcendent(like some Final boss in Final Fantasy series, Radient Silvergun and etc...).
I wanted to emphasize this epic and grandiose aspect with a classical music style, using orchestra.
Especially, the solo piano in the beginning is directly inspired from Rachmaninoff's piano etudes.
I imagined this final boss sequence starting with ~1 minute long cut scene/dialogue before the actual battle, which is accompanied by the solo piano in the music(like a mise en scène).
Then the gameplay would resume(with command menu appearing) with
the introduction of the orchestra.
3 different sub-section illustrates different aspect of the final battle: determination of the protagonist, colossal and chaotic nature of the final boss, and the battle itself like a dialogue and interaction between 2 beings(&2 instruments).
Composed on logic pro, a bit of scribbling on the paper for the piano solo in the 2nd track
Message from the artist:
Thank you for checking out my submission, I hope you enjoy!
Theme:
How does it fit the theme?
Besides the story itself laying on the theme,
these 2 tracks illustrates 2 different approach of wishing upon a star:
01 Title screen is wishing and hoping while contemplating the stars in the sky, relaxed.
02 Final boss fight is actively and desperately fighting for the first&only starlight.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://on.soundcloud.com/dkvtm
Soundtrack use permission
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Comments
Loved when the horns came in for the final fight during the first section, gave me chills haha
Both of these songs were awesome, great job!
Thank you so much!! I'm glad you liked it XD
This is so cool, I love the piano work that you did, super cool entry!!!!
Thank you so much!!!
Incredible piano writing and in addition absolutely fantastic orchestration and harmonisation on your second track! I think you just did a masterclass in tension and release, I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through the piece! That harmonisation between the trumpet and violin around 1:20 was gorgeous. Stellar entry, this was an incredible experience!
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm humbled that you felt the tension management, which I wasn't necessarily expecting! Glad you noticed that chord with the violin as well XD tbh on that chord the violin VST really helped by hitting the note with an expressive portato(which kinda happens randomly). Thank you for listening and for your feedback!!
Title Screen: This is such a serene track- I love it. The piano chords sit very nicely over the ethereal swells and bass pedal. The colors in the chord extensions are gorgeous and I’m glad you add space between each chord to allow us to enjoy and appreciate each one.
Final Boss: The three tiers to this boss battle are very well-crafted. The low pounding of the piano in the first phase has energy, but does still feel like a first phase with the single instrument and the accelerations and decelerations make it feel like you are just warming up. The second phase with the brass and flute over the strings sounds so epic! The piano now sounds more frantic which lends itself to the second tier of the battle. The third phase has a drive to it and seems the most chaotic even though it isn’t the loudest. This makes me imagine a final boss whose true form isn’t revealed until now but he has been critically weakened. This is a cool submission, thank you for sharing!
Thank you for your detailed feedback! Indeed I wanted to give some space between each chords to avoid any saturation, and trying different timing to make it sound natural eventually took me to the unplanned 7/4 signature and 9/4 at the looping point.
For the piano solo part by it's nature, it was most important to make it sound natural like an actual human playing instead of all notes sounding the same in terms of timing and velocity. So instead of fiddling with bunch of automations(as it would take a horrible amount of time and frustration) I just played it freely without click, and then did small tweaks. but then, with the orchestra It had to be quantized which I think made it sound more dynamic rather than expressive.
For the 3rd section, I decided to step back in dynamics trying to render the act of battling into a something more choreographic like a dance. Anecdotally, i was also thinking in an actual gameplay, having the music blasting full on for the whole battle would cumulate fatigue and end up irritating the player ˆˆ;
I love final fantasy, and I enjoy that you took some inspiration from there. The Title Screen music feels very suitable and sets the stage for the journey ahead. In the second track, the solo piano at the beginning is great, and how it builds into the second part i can envision the dialogue ending and the boss fight beginning. I understand others comments that the boss fight is not "creepy or scary" however, given your approach and inspiration on this OST, I think it fits it perfectly. the final boss is the climax to the whole story and a cinematic grand finale with orchestra is just fitting, especially in the JRPG genre. Very nice composition and an enjoyable listen :) Thank you!
Thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoyed and we agree to this approach of the final boss music. Although I would defend my choice on the epic character of the boss fight track, it is still interesting to have diverse opinions to remind myself how something which seemed evident for me would not be convincing to others.
I'm looking forward to discover how the music will be in FF16!(although tbh i was kinda underwhelmed by 15's music..)
Good soundtracks, but the soundtrack of "Final Boss" seemed to me not at all scary, not dangerous, not creepy. Still, a meeting with the creator of the universe should be frightening, like a meeting with the unknown, with something that happens after death.
Thank you for your feedback!
Indeed I didn't intended anything scary or creepy for boss fight music, as it's designed for a JRPG genre with a heavy emphasis on the fantasy side which for me is represented to the audience under a theatrical interpretation(with a certain distance) rather than a 'simulational' sound design.
I would however totally do, in this same soundtrack, another boss fight music with those scary musics for a boss or area mainly focused on the horror genre as a sub chapter.
But I have decided that, for the final boss of the whole game, epic style music would suit better to culminate the drama after a journey of long hours of gameplay. Hope this makes sense!
That first track is very contemplative and set hopes and expectations, fits the theme perfectly.
Amazing job on the solo piano on the second track!! Loved it! And the way it goes slowly epic is really well made.
Amazing composition in my opinion! I like that kind of stuff a lot :) Plus the audio quality is very good, bravo and thank you for sharing!
Ps : I just re-listened to Legend of the first starlight, it is my gem of the jam, I was bitten by it <3
OMG thank you so much for your kind feedback !! I'm humbled and it really motivates me to continue making music! I'm so glad you liked the style, as i had a feeling like this could be seen as somewhat less popular in 2022(references being mostly situated between 90s and early 2010s). Thank you again!!
Beautiful! Love the buildup with horns on the boss battle. It sounded so calm... even with the crescendo a very chill intensity. It makes it sound even more epic. Well done!
Thank you! I'm glad the epic track went convincing to you :)
Amazing work all around. I enjoyed the melodies and harmonies, you built a lovely atmosphere and the boss music was intense and ominous. The production quality was there too, great job!
Thank you! I'm glad the boss music went well, it wasn't my usual style of compositionˆˆ; Also releaved that the mixing was ok!
This would totally fit a Final Fantasy-like game, it's just perfect. I also like how you planned out the entire sequence and how you narrate it all through the music. Great entry!
Thank you! Glad you could feel the same reference XD
They are just EPIC! *_* Well done :D
Thank you so much! XD
I love the first track’s tranquility, also the chord switch at 51 seconds is really nice! The way the chords go back and forth almost feels like rowing a boat.
The fade-in of the other instruments in boss fight was really well done, but I really love the piano chords section around 1:33, and the fast arpeggios later on I also thought fit really well! And the wavering strings that join around two minutes in sound really nice. I love how you have the instruments interacting with each other in the song, it’s very creative!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked those chord progression and the orchestration as well! I wish I could spend more time on it to refine the orchestration and mixing further though. Thank you for listening!!
Such a magical soundscape in both pieces! I love the piano and orchestra combo. Great choice. The Boss fight is fantastic. What an epic buildup. That section around 1:50 made my skin crawl. Excellent job!
Thank you so much!! I'm so glad the epic character convinced you, as it really is not my usual style of composing(this one should be the 2nd or 3rd one ever ˆˆ;).
I love the piano in the first track, it creates a great almost noir atmosphere and sets up the second track really well. The boss fight theme is also really well written, great work!
Thank you! I'm glad the 1st track convinced you. I'm quite familiar with that particular atmosphere, but i wasn't always sure if it would be something as appealing to others. Boss fight is the 1st dynamic piece i've ever made for the jam xD
Thank you so much! I had to rush on the orchestration and mixing due to the very short timing, but I'm so relieved it didn't sound weird or empthy :)
The title theme is so pretty. Second track is very grand sounding like you said, amazing composition! The use of very differing sections remind me of Dancing Mad from FF6. Really does create an image of a universal level final boss. Brilliant!
Thank you! I don't remember any of the music from FF6 tbh, but i'll definitely give a listen(I had rather 12/13 in mind).
I kinda miss this kind of cosmic horror-ish final bosses, unless I'm missing out on recent games. I feel like you could find thoses bosses more in the games in the 2000s or so. Hopefully the trend will come back!
This is great! I'm a fan of those dissonant chords towards the end of the boss fight (2:30-3:00 ish). The diversity of instruments in your orchestral arrangement is great, and the primary focus on piano that then gives way from time to time to other instruments works well as a center stage that still allows for good pacing. I'd be interested to hear how you might take this further with some of the intermediate tracks!
Thank you so much! I didn't planned to do the whole orchestra thing in the beginning, but i kinda saw it coming and couldn't allow myself to think about other options as it was already the day before the deadline lol. Glad it worked out still!
Loved it !
Thank you !