Play soundtrack
HARUKA's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #13 | 4.389 | 4.389 |
| Overall | #38 | 4.056 | 4.056 |
| Impression | #46 | 4.028 | 4.028 |
| Creativity | #82 | 3.944 | 3.944 |
| Quality | #86 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Correlation to theme | #109 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
The Game:
Imagine the worlds from Hayao Miyazaki's anime, but in the form of a game. The main character, a girl named Haruka, finds herself in such a world.
The game will take her through several main locations (spirit forest, sea, mountains, cloud kingdom). In each location, she will have to complete several quests in order to pass on.
The gameplay and graphics are similar to games like Genshin Impact and Sky: Children of the Light.
The game is mostly linear.
_____________________________
Music:
I was mostly inspired by anime`s and some game`s (Genshin Impact and Sky: Children of the Light) music. To make it sound more "japaneese", I used some traditional instruments, such as koto, taiko and flute.
Most of the soundtracks are orchestral. During this project I used Abletone Live 12.
1. "Haruka`s Waltz"
The game has just begun. Haruka finds herself in a large flower meadow and explores the place. One of the main themes of the game sounds.
2. "Dark Ceremony"
Night. Haruka enters the Forest of Spirits and witnesses a mysterious ceremony. The girl has to free a dragon that has become a prisoner of the spirits, without being seen by anyone.
Inspired by traditional japaneese music.
3. "Catching Rabbits"
At the edge of the forest, Haruka meets a rabbit mother whose rabbit children have run away. Haruka decides to help her catch and bring them back home. In a limited time the player has to collect all the rabbits :)
The track was made in the last 4 hours of the Jam... Really wanted to include it.
4. "Playful Waves"
After the forest, Haruka comes to the sea, where she has to learn how to swim and catch a big magical but harmful carp to go further.
With the music, I tried to capture the waves of the sea as best as I could, playing with the rhythm patterns. Here I was inspired by the picture theme of the Jam.
5. "Temple"
The girl's path lies through the mountains. She stumbles upon an abandoned temple where she needs to solve puzzles to find her way further.
6. "Up To The Clouds"
Haruka climbs higher and higher and as the fog clears, the girl sees the Cloud Kingdom.
The theme of clouds plays (second part of the track)
7. "First Fly"
The girl's goal in the Cloud Kingdom is to learn to fly. I tried to write music that sounds like flying.
As in the "Playful Waves", I experimented with a rhythm, which reminds me a wind`s blowing.
8. "Escape To Reality"
Haruka realizes that she is being sucked into this world and needs to get out of it as soon as possible. The player needs to control the girl's flight to get back. This track accompanies this process.
Here you can notice that the main themes of the different locations are played in reverse order, as we move towards the beginning of our journey. First the clouds theme is played, then, the sea. Here (planned cutscene) Haruka starts to fall, but at the last moment she is picked up by the dragon she saved in the forest and carried forward (the triumphant theme from the waltz sounds).
9. "Kakusei" ( eng. "Awakening" )
Haruka wakes up in a school classroom. Her teacher comes up to her and says (in Japanese):
- Haruka! Are you sleeping in class again? Wake up!
The girl realizes that it was all a dream, in which she was traveling through worlds from her fantasies.
This is the end of the game.
Message from the artist
Many thanks for opportunity to participate, it was really fun and I have good experience. I wish you good luck and thanks to everyone who listens to my work! Would appreciate any feedback from you, guys!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
At the end of the game, Haruka wakes up at school. It turned out that it was all a dream, and the world she was in was her own, inner fantasy world.
The picture theme is not the main theme of the whole game, but it inspired me to create the track "Playful Waves".
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/tommy_max_brian/sets/haruka?si=aeae6dc3da4f4c87ba134ef556879ec7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Number of tracks9
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Loved the Japanese influences in this. You cited Genshin Impact as inspiration and I could've seen your OST in the game, it's great work. There's texture in Temple, it was a very pleasant listen. Enjoyed Escape To Reality's feeling of floating in the sky. Goes hard at 1:25. Appreciated the school bell and the teacher's voice on Kakusei, it's the sort of nice flavor to have and adds up to the personality of the work. Great job!
really glad that you liked it and that you feel what i wanted to show!! thank you
From start to finish I love it. Excellent music!!
"Dark Ceremony" catch my ears from the first note. Reminds music that I enjoyed a lot, like Samurai Shodown main theme or even Nioh menu screen.
"Escape To Reality" it's very expressive and the orchestra with the piano drawing fast background lines reach the Ghensin Impact mood and atmosphere really, really well.
hi!
was very happy to read your comment. thank you!
Absolutely nailed the anime vibe, the composition is exceptionnal, very very well written if only you could record with real strings instrument this would sound gorgeous. I was scared the piano playing would sound too "MIDI" at first but no i'm just too picky on those, the whole arrangement made me forget everything, well paced, coherent. Beautiful work.
arigato!!!
ooh…. if only I could access real orchestra….. it would be really cool
Exceptional work. My only "gripe" as a pianist is that the piano had that midi sound. But my ear is really sensitive to that because I play the piano.
This is very well composed, and it all fits together very nicely. It's a very, very strong entry. Good work! :)
i really appreciate your words and can`t stop to listen to your entry, which touched my soul sooo much.
agree with you piano comment. unfortunatelly, didnt have good piano libaries and my comp was dying, so i had to work just with what i have.
by the way, if not a secret, what libraries/vsts did you use in your project? im really interested in both good piano and theese nordic strings.
Addictive Keys by XLN Audio. I then postprocessed through Ozone 9 Elements for a nice stereo enhancement, then the reverb I use, which is my favorite, is Neoverb. I actually have two reverbs set to different sizes, to emulate the effect of a natural space a bit more, one smaller reverb to emulate local acoustics, and a longer one to capture that longer sound.
I appreciate your lovely comment. Reaching another's soul with my own is my main goal as an artist, and the fact that it sounds like I did has really made my day.
Dark Ceremony was by far my favorite track I have listened to in the submissions so far!!
Dark Ceremony was by far my favorite track I have listened to in the submissions so far!!
Dark Ceremony was by far my favorite track I have listened to in the submissions so far!!
thank you! tried to make this dark japaneese vibe :)
This is a really nice submission, loved your instrumentation choices! Each track feels like they could fit to where you described they would go. Track 9's build up and release is great too, probably my favourite in the whole soundtrack, and 10 using that alarm sound to show it was a dream was a nice touch too.
Not super related but if you weren't planning on keeping strictly to Japanese instruments I'd recommend replacing some of the tracks strings/ woodwinds with either and erhu or dizi, really expressive instruments that'd fit perfectly in this kind of soundtrack
heeey thank you very much for nice words!
I was planning to download some more national instruments, but my old laptop was already dying from everything :( well, and not all the tracks can fit them in, of course. if I finish it, I'll definitely check out some libraries