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DELTARUNE: Samba de Kris - A Bossa Nova DELTARUNE Song - ElevenWAV

[kris_piano_sevenfour, NORTHERNLIGHT, Undertale (Undertale), Don't Forget, Lost Girl]

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Shin Megami Tensei IV has my favorite videogame soundtrack of all time

Heavy Spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV ahead, proceed only if you have beat the game.

"hi! this essay was in my draft for almost an year left unfinished so......I decided to post it without finishing it completely because I think it's pretty good and I want people to see it already lol. I may write a continuation for this analysis in the future bc I still want to conclude my thoughts but for now I hope u like it!" -elise realizing she left this in her drafts

It was long overdue that I wanted to talk about the music in this game.

Shin Megami Tensei IV’s soundtrack was a huge surprise to me – such as the game itself. It is initially presented as a more medieval-like world, set in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, which it didn’t bother me initially, just didn’t surprised me at first glance – but when its true colors started to show up – I realized it was something special. It borrows from my particular impressions, I didn’t pay attention to the music initially, such as the ‘Main Theme’, and ‘Premonition’, only noticing about the more fitting tracks for the medieval world, such as ‘Aquila Statue Plaza’ and ‘K’s Tavern’. Although ‘Self’ was able to make me immersed on the intro sequence, but not exactly foreshadowing the iconic and unique mixture of futuristic technology with the occult aesthetic that the series is known for – and what I would find out about just later. My experience with the MegaTen series until that point was Persona 3, Persona 4, and a little bit of Devil Survivor – and as much as these games has some of its dark moments – Shin Megami Tensei IV surprised me, because I honestly didn’t knew anything about that game and mainline SMT in general, I wasn’t that much aware about the setting and aesthetic – I only knew about the Order and Chaos philosophical conflict. I was initially playing the game as just one more regular medieval RPG – that unawareness really helped me to being immersed on what would come after.

The musical tension of facing a Boss

The end of the first chapter with Issachar and the Minotaur shown me the first impression of one of its unique aspects; the Boss Themes. Both Battle B1, the Mid-Boss Theme, and Battle B2, the Major-Boss Theme, just caught me completely off-guard, feeling dangerous, futuristic sounding-like, and at first glance; uncomfortable. Most things until that point presented the game with a specific aesthetic, and then had a tonal shift for me. As much as the game foreshadowed its more futuristic tech-based stuff, such as the AI Burroughs, I didn’t actually realized it, the game still didn’t caught my attention that much yet. When I listened to Battle B1 – I was, no joke – SUPER scared, as much as this sounds funny. The tone of the story at this point was already making me realize its true colors, I was completely set on the mood, so when the revelation of Issachar happened, I was feeling so, SO uncomfortable, and I loved it. At the time, I was playing the game on my Nintendo 3DS at a bus trip, at 3AM with everyone sleeping, everything but my 3DS’ screen was pitch black, and my headphones on a fairly good volume.

As much as I liked the regular battle themes, Battle B1 had a lot of elements that were able to perfectly fit the atmosphere of facing a demonic entity, and, in that specifically on that moment, someone that was once your best friend. The song is composed on a minor key, associated with melancholy, sorrow, but in that case, danger and urgency. The instrument that composes the melody on the intro is a Chime, in a fairly low octave, which is something not expected when using this instrument, making it sound eerie and uncanny. Right after followed by a saw-wave synthesizer on the main melody, the synth itself isn’t uncanny, but yet fierce, the melody itself ends up takes the role on making it sound imposing and eerie. Then a 303 sounding-like Synth steals the show on the main melody, people often call it ‘boing-boing’, which is quite fitting for how it sounds, that sound makes the song feel otherworldly, and again, really uncanny. The very last section takes everything back to the saw-wave synth, but now on a very slow, but imposing chord. Then the loop ends.

It has lots of things that I love about music, such as heavily Synth-based instruments, evoking both a retro style and a really amazing ambience to the streets of that post-apocalyptic Tokyo. With that said, what I loved the most about that soundtrack is that it had such a consistent identity of its own, with at the same time being so diverse, it manages to be both catchy, and musically complex in a way that I really admire, with simple compositions, but really creative and unique arrangements, made with a very wide range of different Synths and electronic instruments in general.

CONTINUES IN PART 2.......SOMEDAY........I GUESS...........SORRY