itch.io

Great choice of instruments and style. While a lot of submissions were inspired by East Asia because of the theme, this submission was one that committed to the style on a musical front. My favoroutie part of the soundtrack was probably the second portion of "Your not her". One critique: the sustained flute and strings could be more expressive--they felt a bit blocky and unshaped.

 Overall a very creative soundtrack. Nice work.

2. I liked the sparse instrumentation and time stretching effects to give a nostalgic dreamy effect

3. Playful melody. Good percussion choices.

5. Leaning into synths was a nice break after the mallet centered pieces before it. The driving accompaniment creates a sense of urgency without having to go into the darker atonal field of music

6. Great waltz. however, I think the main violin could be more expressive with the cc

7. Leitmotifs!

Great use of variation and instrumentation swaps to keep the piece cohesive but not repetivive

1. Follow the Ghost - Really nice ambience with panning effects. I like the ocean waves sound you used. It feels creepy but also a little lonely.

2 Coral Town - Some cool flute clarinet duo. My favorite part was the piano feature at the end. I think the high piano notes were better at cutting through the mix.

3. Cephalopod Shuffle Jazzy! - I really liked the choice of instruments and style. Very square-dance like

4. The village atop a whale - Nice Whales :)

5. Dolphin Taxi - Cool sax solo. The running arpeggios and driving baseline give a lot of fitting energy to the piece.

6. Nephropus, King of the Lobsters - Super fitting instrument choices with harpsichord (?) and snare drums giving the piece a very "royal" flavor. One critic--I think you could have made the track fit a bit better with the militant theme. The snare drum is there, but it feels a bit too chill and.

7. Sunken Mausoleum - The sound design is on point. The church bells and choir give a somber funeral feeling fitting for the father.

8. Farewell Father - interesting harmonization. Liked your use of leitmotifs.

overall a Fantastic submission. There was a good mix of atmospheric and catchy songs that kept me engaged; however all the tracks felt like they belonged together. Some great sound-design. The length of the soundtrack is impressive too.

excellent work!

Wanderer of the Sea. kind of reminded me of the bonfire theme in Dark Souls.

Dance of the Sea. Great structure with  2 action heavy sections separated by a calmer B part in between. Its one that I like to use a lot. I like how you gave multiple sections the the melody to keep it fresh. My favorite part was the bass line in the last section.

If i had to offer some critiques, I would reccommend you look into the percussion in Dance of the Sea. The cymbal crash at the start sound a little off. The whole piece could have used some louder percussion or some kind of low brass/cello staccato ostinato to add to the energy. Hope that helps a little!

Great work!

01. Great sound design and panning effects. really seems to convey the vast, unknown quality of the sea. The gradual swell of the orchestra gives the piece a nice change in flavor without every really altering the tone. I'll attribute that part of the piece to Marah beginning her journey and not yet having a full grasp of the sea.

02. A return of most of the orchestral instruments from track 1. the bassoon was a very nice addition. You really capture the sea voyage vibe with the 3/4 time signature and flute + string string pittz combo. As the piece progresses, the string section and a some brass take a bigger portion of the stage, but I think my favorite part was near the beginning.

03. Again, super great sound design. One of the best executed "unsettling piece" in the jam in my opinion. I really liked how the music evolves with the percussion and bass addition in 1:20. feels like its going from seeing a monster in the distance approaching you, to running away from it.

Overall, this is a superb entry. Your really good at naturally progressing your music to tell a story and keep it from getting repetitive.

Great work!

Its impressive at how much you were able to get done in just a week. 09 was my favorite track

Very cool concept to add the in and out of water mechanic to your tracks. I really liked overworld from an instrumental, composition, and quality standpoint too! If felt a lot like a the game GRIS. Well done!

1. Going in, I wasn't really sure what to expect out of the soundtrack, but the first piece paints an adventurous tone evoking the sense of some classic space movies.

2. I like the instrumentation. First time seeing a harmonica in one of these entries.

3. Loved this one. It feels a lot cleaner then the first two entries and is super head-bobbable. A like how the melody is passed around the band. I haven't seen a jazz piece in any of the entries yet either, so this was a great breath of fresh air. Well done!

4. I can see why the you selected 4 genres in the submission. This one is also well made and catchy.

5. reminded me of track 1.

6. Some nice call and response between piano and percussion. There's not much i have to say about it, but I can see  a track like this having its place in a real soundtrack.

7. A much darker take compared to the others. Its good on its own, but I really wish there was a last track that would end the whole thing off on a lighter note.

A very creative soundtrack the blends multiple genres; I enjoyed it a lot. The best of this submission came when you leaned into the catchy, fun aspect of your game. The standout track was without a doubt Meal Rush. Also, I didn't know you had descriptions for your game until half way through (you should copy paste them from your project homepage to the submission page, there's an "edit submission button" at the top of the page). 

Nicely done!

I think your pieces were of super high quality. Gris is one of my favorite indie games and also one of the inspirations for my soundtrack!

1. I liked the sparseness of this piece starting only with a few instruments and gradually growing to a climax. The oddly time rhythm and panning effects made the song feel expressive and mysterious but not dark.

2. In contrast to the first piece this one felt very eerie. The use of the high and low registers in the piano made the first portion feel a little like a Ghibli piece. The introduction of the cello is where I guess the old man comes in. It has an air of danger and mystery to it at first but drowns out the eerie drone and leads to an solemn piano solo that feels reliving because of the lack of the drone. I really liked how this piece tells a whole story.

3. A nice floaty piano interlude. Always love it.

4. I liked the layering of bells and pittz, and the their little "tumbling" motion in 0:32. The strings sound really expressive and emotional. The first half seems to convey the excitement of reaching the end of a journey, while changing to an introspective mood for the 2nd half of the piece gives the soundtrack a fitting end.

Incredibly done!

I really enjoyed the texture created by the piano, celeste, and harp passing the accompaniment around.  While most of the track uses string, woodwind, and tuned percussion, I think the horn features bring a very fitting sense of the mountain's grandness. In the second track, I liked the use of the low strings as a contrast to the mostly high instrumentation. It makes me wonder if pitching the strings lower in the first track would have made the piece a little cleaner. (Or maybe it wouldn't, I'm not much of a mixer!). Overall, your soundtrack was great at conveying a sense of whimsy and fantasy. Well done!

Lovely pieces. I liked the recurring usage of woodblocks (i think) in the second and third piece. Felt kinda Hisaishi like. A super relaxing album. Nicely done!

I really liked how you leaned into the percussion.

I liked the move to a more electric sound in tracks 3 and 5. The weird panning and rhythm  makes the piece sound abstract and weird. but the standout to me was the quality of the cello in Down the dream hole. All the tracks feel like they came out of a dream. Great job!

The tracks were able to differentiate themselves even though they were all moody piano pieces. I liked Acceptance the best, and your use of the low register in Persistence and Confusion was very in theme.

Very upbeat and catchy melody + instrumentation. Nice work!

Definitely feel the Ghibli inspiration in Maya's theme, especially from 0:55-ish. Friendly fishes felt a lot like a track from Minecraft. Super nostalgic piano piece. Great Job!

Super cool sound design, especially track 4 and the end of 3. I enjoyed the darker approach you took to the theme.

Great orchestration. The ostinatos in the bass part and woodwind features give it a great fantasy feel. I caught the callback to the the first piece in 0:37 of spiritual confrontation on a second listen which was really cool. My favorite piece has to be the 1. Theme where the chord choices made it feel both exciting and nostalgic. Overall a super great entry.

Nice spacey vibes (I've never played metroid sorry). In the lack of too much melody, I latched onto the 3 note descending motif.

Feels kinda Yume Nikki like in its unsettling calmness (except Worry). I liked it

I loved how prominently the woodwinds were featured; the arrangement feels impressionistic and ethereal. Additionally the storyline went well beyond the "depressed child and imaginary world" concept a lot of people including me opted for, with a fresh and unique concept. An amazing entry!

I liked the retro feel, and the one recurring bass part ties everything together nicely. well made! 

What a really well made soundtrack! I felt like I could really hear the inspiration from Nier and the works of Austen Wintory in your pieces. I especially liked the impressionist feel of Missing Pieces and the intimate feel of Mother's Memory.

Lots of cool different tracks and unique techniques. I really liked "love garden" especially.

The quality of this album is superb. I really liked the atmosphere and instrument choices.

I really enjoyed listening to this while reading your descriptions. I loved how each track has a story and gameplay purpose to it making it feel like it could actually be in a game while telling a cohesive story on its own.

very well polished and satisfying to play. The ball physics was superb.

The polish on this one is insane. The game mechanic was also really interesting and fun to play with. One of the best in the jam for sure.

Hammer mechanic was really well implemented. I did end up spamming it to fly around the level tho so maybe some kind of cooldown is needed. A very interesting concept that could be expanded upon. Great Game!

Much more variety than i i expected. I liked the drifting mechanic 

I really loved the graphics. The shooting animation felt especially good.

I really loved the aesthetic of the intro scene. Also its pretty rare to see a game use multiple pieces of music in these jams. I would suggest you make the actual gameplay faster paced.

Feels great to play. Thoroughly enjoyed!

The core gameplay is very simple, but the beautiful graphics and good audio made it feel fun to just run around and shoot.

Super satisfying to dig  plow through the dirt when you get a couple of drills attached. Good game

Hey ecaroh, thanks for putting in the time for all the feedback.

I completely agree with most of your critiques. For example, I wish I could have prevented the same cards from spawning in the 3-card spread, but i just didn't have the time. Also, I'd really have loved to make some kind of card that let you influence the card drawing rng make the game a little less luck reliant, but my spaghetti code would probably not have allowed that. On top of that, theres a couple of bugs that annoy me.

Though completing the game definitely requires a lot of rng, I've gotten some consistency through one strategy: Kindling Spam

This strategy relies on you getting kindling early on, burning all of your cards except for one attack rune, one call of wrath, and one call of fire. Then you pair your obscenely powerful +23 heat bonfires with call of fire to heal all your health, and use sweep + call of wrath to area damage nuke the enemies. By Kindling everything except 4-5 cards, you don't have to rely on card drawing rng.

As for targeting specific enemies, the rune to the left will target the left enemy when applicable (chop, execute, and sacrifice). Because of this, Call of Wrath has a use (when there are 2 enemies present) as it allows you to deal 18 damage to one enemy instead of 9 to each.

Despite some of these shortcomings, I'm really happy you enjoyed the game. Thanks for playing

Cheers

Great use of limitation to create interesting puzzles. I didn't expect the game to have so much content but every time i thought it was over, it gave me a new ability and more puzzles. Great game

loved the animations