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Beneath the Ocean, Within the Soul's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #62 | 4.048 | 4.048 |
| Overall | #143 | 3.745 | 3.745 |
| Composition | #158 | 3.774 | 3.774 |
| Impression | #171 | 3.645 | 3.645 |
| Quality | #223 | 3.645 | 3.645 |
| Creativity | #238 | 3.613 | 3.613 |
Ranked from 62 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Sana, a magical girl who lives in a bubble house underwater, has gotten bored of life closer to the surface.
She feels something is missing within herself and wishes to see if rumors of treasure deep below are true. She ventures deeper and deeper, entering "uncharted" territory and fighting against mechanized fish (where did those even come from?)
She reaches the lowest part of a trench, but finds most of the treasure has been taken. Perhaps the depths weren't so uncharted after all. However, the long adventure has made her stronger willed as well as more appreciative of the peaceful nature of the upper waters. Perhaps the real treasure was the (insert cliche line)!
Prologue (Introspection): Prologue, and Sana's theme.
Subaquatic Saunter: This serves as an overworld theme when traversing the ocean. Written in 5/4 to give the idea of swimming rather than a more typical walking rhythm.
Subaquatic Saunter (Action): Dynamic variation of Subaquatic Saunter for when doing puzzles or fighting enemies.
Within a Bubble: Save room theme. Take a break!
Mechacanthine Foreboding: Transitional theme when approaching boss areas (the depths). This track with the tonal shift marks the shift towards the depths of the ocean.
Mechacanthine Chaos: Boss theme that might play when you fight a mechanized coelacanth. Ends with a short boss defeated jingle.
Epilogue (Within the Soul): Epilogue, and variation of Introspection, as Sana realizes what she was missing.
Message from the artist
I had a great time making this one. Thanks for listening!
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
I primarily used synths that I felt had a sort of water sound to them (particularly electric piano/rhodes and Mellotron winds) as well as extensive use of leitmotif throughout the OST.
I took the picture theme for an overall water themed OST, and the text theme (Inside my World) to reflect Sana's discovery within herself.
I primarily used the Dorian mode in the first half of the OST and Phrygian Dominant in the second half. This was a means of further showing a "two worlds" interpretation of the text theme, with the more lighthearted upper ocean and the depths filled with mechanized and heavily armed sealife.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM6jJ1Ve8aIdV1LV3bLW-zumd__hIXnfd
Number of tracks7
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
For game jams only
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Comments
First of all, I like how you are thinking about game soundtracks: different intensities for Subaquatic Saunters and a separate introductory track for Mechacanthine Foreboding. The music itself portrays a very clear story through your varied composition and styles. Love the chord at 0:58 in Epilogue! Great work here!
Thanks! That's my favorite chord in my ost as well, it's a D augmented chord!
Nice jazz harmony dude. Maybe better programation in your synths to make it alive. Nice work at all
Thanks! Yeah, I'll be sure to work on more synth programming
Cool submission! I really liked the use of two different modes to add contrast. It makes your soundtrack as a whole sound really colourful and varied while still sounding cohesive.
Thanks!
Great work! Nice use of time signatures and different modes. Like everyone else I enjoyed Mechacanthine Chaos a lot. My tiny suggestion is to consider connecting more of the guitar melody (more legato). I found the stops mid phrase a little distracting. That's a great riff though, dang. Thanks for making and sharing.
Thanks for the feedback! Guitar is out of my comfort zone so I'm grateful for that tip, I'll make sure to keep it in mind when next I use it. Glad you enjoyed the riffs!
Prologue: Great idea including the main character’s theme in a prologue! I want to use that in the future. Love the dorian vamp with the simple, but memorable and beautiful flute melody.
Subaquatic Saunter: Oh I love your reasoning behind the 5/4, and itt works so well! Rather than even steps like running, swimming sometimes has a long stroke followed by a short stroke. This is peak musical imagery and gets extra points for correlation to theme and creativity from me for this!
Subaquatic Saunter (Action): Good job executing some dynamic soundtrack elements. Electric guitar is a great way to elevate the energy of a track for sure.
Within a Bubble: The jazzy harmony is melt-in-your mouth sweet! I get Pilotwings vibes from this.
Mechacanthine Foreboding: Uh oh, here comes the phrygian dominant. I think it’s always really fun to hear that scale used outside of the context of desert music.
Mechacanthine Chaos: The breakbeat does add to the chaos and makes this feel like a boss theme. A mechanized coelacanth is really fun to imagine as the boss for this tune. I am imagining the scene as being like a chase type of boss fight where the boss is in front of you and you have to swim after it while it knocks boulders onto you and does other things to cause damage. I imagine the sun or some other light source on the opposite side of the giant boss so it looks all shadowy with dust falling from its scales. Fun imagery in your music!
Within the Soul: A nice somber end to this OST. The harmonies took me in a different direction than I expected which helped me understand what the main character was feeling better.
Overall: I appreciate the light-hearted story with the darker mood as you went on, paralleling Sana’s journey deeper into the sea. I love your organization and flow of tracks and your use of leitmotif in particular with Sana’s theme was great! Well done and thank you for sharing!
Thanks! I always enjoy your detailed feedback. I really like that image you got from Mechacanthine Chaos! Looking forward to listening to your entry!
oh my goad this ones so good! i loved the first song, it actually caught me off guard with the second chord lol, i though it would be something else. and i likes that the last one quoted the first too! and cant forget the amen breaks in Mechacanthine Chaos!
Thank you! Yeah I love the Dorian mode a lot lol. Mechacanthine Chaos seems to be the most popular one, I need to make more like that in the future
Soundtrack feels like it morph into a full RPG at any moment! The soundtrack has a lot of good genre variations, all of great quality too. I especially loved the contrast between everything else and the Mechacanthines Tracks. Really fond of of the amen break used in Chaos, adds another layer of danger to the mix.
Good job!
Thank you!
Really cool, mechacanthine chaos really is a mood ! You nailed the vibe, the sounds are sooo pleasing, especially the guitar !
Thank you!
Really nice and cohesive work! Your motific ideas were really catchy and i found myself humming along to some of them even if i hadn't had the most time to sit with them, which is a really good sign! I like the consistent instrumentation helping to keep everything together through the sound, as it really helped you feel like everything was the same body of work. As a word of advice, dont be afraid of doing more with your chords rhythm wise! Add in some simple piano arpeggios, or maybe some synth swells to give it movement while staying in your style, it helps keep the song pressing forward and lets the empty space feel more used, and then when you leave room for actual pause it feels even more impactful. Great work overall though! Really like the energy in Mechacanthine Chaos!
Thank you for the detailed feedback! Yeah that's one thing I really need to work on, have a bad habit of just using long chords most of the time
Completely get it, and its not like its entirely a bad thing its just another place where you can help being out even more of your ideas, cause they are really cool!
This soundtrack is incredibly present. The sounds you curated definitely portray a vibrant world underneath the waves. While the production feels fairly simple, I think that works to your benefit as the tracks are just super easy to listen to, and can fit in the background of a video game effortlessly! Great job! :D
Thank you!
Wonderful soundtrack! I love what you’ve done with the two versions of Subaquatic Saunter (lovely name btw)! The guitar part is very well composted! Can’t get enough of the breakbeat in Mechacanthine Chaos, super groovy! Well done!!
Thank you! It's my favorite name from my ost too
Very nice soundtrack, lots of variety !
The whole album flows quite well with very interesting musical ideas and motifs on each track (especially on the last two tracks which I liked a lot) and the instrumentation works greatly for this kind of music.
Great job !
Thank you!
had to relisten to Mechacanthine Chaos, it's just too good! I was vibing all the way through.
Thank you!
Odd time signatures, jazz harmony, unusual scales - there's a lots of complicated musical ideas. There isn't a dull moment when you're tinkering with so much, there's always an unexpected turn around the corner or at the next track. The F# major to A dominant 7 was pretty spicy in Subaquatic Saunter (Action).
The soundtrack starts of oozing with 90's vibes with some modern polish. By the time I reached the end, Mechacanthine Foreboding and Epilogue (Within the Soul) stick out a bit to me; the samples are a bit too good and the performances are a little too realistic when compared to the more proudly digital start of the soundtrack.
Nevertheless, it's a very eclectic combination of sounds and musical ideas. Even if it doesn't always sound cohesive it's never boring. Kudos.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked that chord movement, wanted to add some spice over the IV-bVI movement that the regular variant had. Yeah I wanted to have the big tonal shift going into Mechacanthine Foreboding (along with the switch to Phrygian Dominant) to differentiate the depths of the ocean from the higher zones. I probably could have used a digital lead on that track to smoothen the transition between the two halves of the OST.
Thanks for the detailed feedback!
Maybe this is a personal bias, but I find changing the fidelity / realism of the instruments a little jarring for descending the depths of the ocean. Which is strange when I think about it, because the bottom of the ocean could resemble a different planet or dimension with the lack of sunlight, strange lifeforms and ridiculous amounts of pressure. I don't find a change in time signature, key signature or instrumentation that weird for some reason. I'll need to think about this a little more to figure out why I feel this way.
Good solution anyway, using a track to transition between the two sections would make it feel more natural.
Awesome atmospheric tracks! I really loved the stark contrast between the mechacanthine BGMs and the rest of the music, it's so cool. Great job!
Thank you!
Oh I love this vibe, very interesting colors and oldish vibe. It's also rare to hear Jazz in this kind of fashion so very cool! Nice submission :)
Thank you!
I really like the jazz fusion-esque vibes you got going with this submission especially in Within a Bubble. I found myself sometimes wishing the songs were a bit longer, but they are short and sweet. Great work with this! My favorite track was Mechacanthine Chaos
Thanks! Yeah honestly Within a Bubble in particular was supposed to be longer but time constraints got to me lol.
I want to admit ...
I danced to Mechacanthine Chaos)
You can feel the atmosphere of the game taking place underwater... And that's cool! It fits the theme perfectly
Thanks! I'm glad the atmosphere carried across.
Really liked the action feel of Mechacanthine chaos. And all the other tracks really set the chill aquatic mood. Very nice!
Thank you!
Mechacanthine Foreboding has that cool voice in there that sounds half like a vox tone and half like a flute or something. Really enjoyed this submission overall. Nice work!
Thanks! Thats probably the duduk.